Videos

They Made America

Four one hour programs, produced in 2004

The four-part PBS series, THEY MADE AMERICA, presents a sampling of the stories included in a book of the same name by Sir Harold Evans. The book presents two centuries of innovators, from the steam engine to the search engine. It tells the stories of dozens of American innovators -- some well known, some unknown, and all fascinating -- who made America great. Evans reveals the surprising truths behind many of the creations that made our modern world, as well as the lessons to be learned by studying the great entrepreneurs and innovators of the past two centuries. Publisher: Little, Brown and Company.

THEY MADE AMERICA series description:

a. REVOLUTIONARIES "The most important thing for an innovator isn't necessarily being first," notes author Harold Evans. "It's being able to put together a combination that works."

Lewis Tappan certainly did just that, using the profits of a successful store that he and his brother ran in New York City to further the anti-slavery cause. Then, after the business went bankrupt, he used his network of abolitionist lawyers to systematically report on the credit worthiness of out-of-town retailers who wanted to buy goods in New York -- an enterprise that later became Dun & Bradstreet. Innovators profiled in "Revolutionaries":
Robert Fulton's passion was to blow up warships, but his enduring triumph was in the creation of the world's first successful steamboat services.

John Fitch, a frontiersman whose life was often at risk, escaped with an idea that became the Delaware River's first steamboat.

Lewis Tappan, an evangelist crusader, pioneered the credit rating and reporting system.
Samuel Colt, a reckless spendthrift, created his own myth,a legendary weapon -- and a mass market.

b. NEWCOMERS focuses on recent immigrants to America, their diligence and desires and the often harsh reality of their lives. The success stories among them imbued whole communities with pride in the face of rampant prejudice. When Amadeo Giannini's idea -- a bank that gave working people a chance to secure and earn from their savings -- blossomed into Bank of America, the largest private bank in the world, many shared the wealth. "Giannini's great thing is to start saying we're going to open our doors to everybody; we're going to judge loans, not on what they've got in the bank, but what they've got in their soul," says author Harold Evans.

Also uplifting is the story of a Russian seamstress who became a lingerie tycoon. With the creation of Maidenform, Ida Rosenthal mass-produced a bra that was the perfect fit for the new, corsetless American woman.

Innovators profiled in "Newcomers":
Samuel Insull, Thomas Edison's apprentice, realized the dream of serving all America with cheap electricity. Amadeo Giannini, a big man on the side of the little people, became the people's banker.

Ida Rosenthal liberated women from centuries of constriction with her Maidenform bra.

c. GAMBLERS details the people whose iconic products connected the world in the second half of the 20th century, popularizing the act of flying in an airplane or using a computer.
Every passenger whisked across countries or continents today can thank Juan Trippe, the founder of Pan Am who in the 1950s pushed Boeing and Pratt & Whitney to come up with a jet that would carry 200 people across the Atlantic Ocean in less than seven hours. By making international travel accessible, he allowed ordinary people to do the extraordinary -- like the woman who boarded the first 707 on October 4, 1958, and traveled to Paris, just to have lunch.

Innovators profiled in "Gamblers":
Juan Trippe, an air taxi pilot with a single-engine seaplane, flew the whole world into the jet age. Ruth Handler created Barbie, the most successful doll of the twentieth century.
Thomas Watson, Jr., turned a tiny company into the great icon of the information age.

d. REBELS profiles two 21st-century magnates who have built bridges to different communities and countries through today's dominant American exports: information and entertainment.

Russell Simmons has created a multimillion-dollar empire and an international following through rap music and hip hop culture, once the sole province of inner-city America. And Ted Turner turned a lens on the world with CNN, a 24- hour news station launched in 1982 -- and destined for failure, predicted most news executives. But like all innovators, he didn't listen to the naysayers.

"If you've got an innovative idea," Turner says in THEY MADE AMERICA, "and the majority does not pooh-pooh your idea, then you must not have a very good idea."

Innovators profiled in "Rebels":
Ted Turner introduced the world to the world with 24-hour electronic news.
Russell Simmons created a cultural movement in fashion, movies, comedy, poetry, television -- and social action. He's the marketing maestro of hip-hop.

Resources: An excellent website that accompanies this series: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/theymadeamerica/

Rights: We have educational rights only, permitting the use of this video series in front of groups providing no admission is charged for viewing. This video cannot be broadcast or duplicated.