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African Americans Social life and customs Depressions 1929 United States Music 20th century History and criticism Musical form Political activists United States History 20th century Style, Musical United States History 1901-1953 United States History 1961-1969 United States History Study and teaching United States Politics and government 1901-1953Summary: With farms and factories falling victim to the Great Depression, jazz was one of the few American industries poised for explosive growth. This program explores the art form during the first half of the decade, a period in which New York City usurped Chicago as America's jazz capital, Louis Armstrong revolutionized Broadway song craft, and Chick Webb forged his big-band sound at the Savoy...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2011
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Summary: Amid the rise of suburbia, television, rock 'n' roll, and the baby boom generation, jazz lost a beloved and burned-out star: Billie Holiday. But the music still had its two guiding lights. In 1956, the first year Elvis topped the charts, Duke Ellington recaptured the nation's ear with a performance at the Newport Jazz Festival. The next year, Louis Armstrong made headlines when he condemned...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2011
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Summary: The stock market surged through the 1920s and jazz was everywhere in America. Now, for the first time, soloists and singers took center stage, transforming the music with distinctive voices and unique stories. This program introduces Bessie Smith, Empress of the Blues, whose songs eased the pain of life for millions of black Americans; Bix Beiderbecke, the first great white jazz star, inspired...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2011
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Summary: The social tensions underlying America's postwar prosperity were reflected in the broken rhythms and dissonant melodies of bebop-and in the troubled life of Charlie Parker. Nicknamed "Bird," Parker demonstrated ideas and techniques as overwhelming for musicians of his generation as Louis Armstrong's had been a quarter-century before. But Parker wasn't the only bebop innovator. Dizzy Gillespie...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2011
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Summary: Dixieland, swing, bebop, modal, free, avant-garde, these were some of the terms critics used during the 1960s to categorize the diverse manifestations of jazz music. As for the artists themselves, many were desperate for work and headed for Europe, including bebop saxophone master Dexter Gordon. At home, jazz sought relevance. During the Civil Rights struggle it became a voice of protest, while...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2011
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Summary: As the Depression dragged on, jazz came as close as it ever would to being America's popular music. Now it was often called swing, and, as this program illustrates, it became the defining music of a generation. Suddenly, jazz bandleaders were the new matinee idols, with Benny Goodman hailed as the "King of Swing," while teenagers jitterbugged just as hard to the music of his rivals: Tommy...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2011
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Summary: The flowering of the Jazz Age is a tale of two great cities, Chicago and New York, and two extraordinary artists whose achievements spanned nearly three-quarters of a century. Louis Armstrong was a fatherless waif who grew up on the rough streets of New Orleans, developing his extraordinary gifts before moving to Chicago, where his transcendent sound inspired a new generation of musicians. Duke...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2000
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Summary: When America entered World War II, jazz became part of the arsenal, with bandleaders like Glenn Miller and Artie Shaw taking their swing to troops overseas. For many black Americans, however, that sound had a hollow ring. Segregated at home and in uniform, they found themselves fighting for liberties their own country denied them-as when authorities padlocked the integrated Savoy Ballroom....
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2011
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Summary: The story of jazz begins in New Orleans, 19th-century America's most cosmopolitan city. Here, in the 1890s, African-American artists created a new music out of ragtime syncopations, Caribbean rhythms, marching band instrumentation, and the soulful feeling of the blues. This program introduces the pioneers of this revolutionary art form: half-mad cornet player Buddy Bolden, pianist Jelly Roll...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2000
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Summary: As the 1930s drew to a close, swing-mania was still going strong, but some fans were saying success had made the music too predictable. Their ears were tuned to a new sound, suffused with the blues-the Kansas City sound of Count Basie's band, which ignited new musical adventures. By 1938, Basie and his men were helping Benny Goodman bring jazz to Carnegie Hall. Soon Basie's lead saxophonist,...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2011
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Summary: Compiled by author, teacher, and curriculum advisor Ben Walsh, this program features 11 extracts on the Cuban missile crisis from various film archive sources. Clip selections and Walsh's commentary are organized around the following three topics: the build-up to the crisis, the actions and decisions of President John F. Kennedy in confronting the threat, and the outcome of the conflict in...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
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Summary: This program examines the Imperial Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor through the eyes of veterans from both sides.
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2011
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Summary: America's efforts invigorated the struggle against the Nazi stranglehold in Europe. In the Pacific, the ultimate piece of technology ended the war, and a new superpower took the global stage. In this program, many of America's most prominent leaders and personalities reflect on defining moments in the evolution of post-war America-including the Cold War, the space race, the Civil Rights...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2011
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Summary: This program from the series Rockets! is the story of the Space Race. This episode focuses on the quest to build gigantic rockets that would power men to the moon. The Russian aerospace engineer Sergei Korolev took the early lead, building the first rockets that took satellites into space and men into orbit. President Kennedy found it unthinkable that America would fall behind and committed...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2011
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Summary: America continues to make tremendous strides through the prosperity of the 1980s, 1990s, and into the new millennium. The nation's mettle is severely tested by the tragedy of September 11, 2001, but the people of the United States rally together. New York City comes to stand as a symbol of American diversity.
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2002
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Summary: The Cold War turns hot in Viet Nam... a burglary at the Watergate Hotel becomes a national crisis... a space shuttle ascent erupts in tragedy... these are a few of the momentous events examined in this program. The 9/11 attacks and the election of President Barack Obama are discussed, along with the technological forces that drove America toward the 21st century: television, the credit card,...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2010
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Summary: The 1960s bring new progress in the quest for freedom, but this is also an explosive decade that threatens to tear apart the fabric of society. President Kennedy is assassinated, and Lyndon B. Johnson pursues the war in Vietnam. Martin Luther King, Jr. is assassinated, leaving behind an impressive and growing legacy of non-violent civil rights resistance.
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2002
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Summary: This program from the Famous Composers series offers an overview of the life and work of composer and pianist Johannes Brahms beginning with an introduction to Brahms' family and hometown, the nineteenth century seaport city of Hamburg. The film follows Brahms' musical education with teachers Otto Cossel and Eduard Marxsen, his days of playing in bars and teaching to earn money, and his...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
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Summary: The Battle of Saratoga in 1777 conclusively decided the fate of British General John Burgoyne's army in the American Revolutionary War and is generally regarded as a turning point in the war. During this program viewers face the questions that could win or lose the battle from the viewpoint of the general himself.
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2011
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Summary: Examines a major 1931 earthquake in Nicaragua.
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2011
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Summary: Looks at the kidnapping and murder of Charles Lindbergh's baby son. Bruno Hauptmann was subsequently arrested and his sensational trial in 1935 captivated the nation.
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2011
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Summary: Explores the events and trends of 1930, including the Great Depression and Mt. Rushmore. Charles Lindbergh and wife Anne Morrow Lindbergh's record-setting, coast-to-coast flight is also covered.
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2011
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Summary: Observes Franklin Delano Roosevelt's reassuring fireside chats and the death of gangster John Dillinger.
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2011
View online at AVOD
Summary: Examines World War II in Europe in 1940.
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2011