Created in 1945 by the Warner Bros. Studio to sell U.S. Savings Bonds, “America the Beautiful” opens to the patriotic strains of the song of the same name. The film paints a picture of the United States as an industrious society on the move. Shot in Technicolor and directed by six-time Academy Award-winner Gordon Hollingshead, the film begins at mark 00:35 “on your front door, on the street where you live” and spans the American continent through the ranches and farms of the West and the National Parks, to the bustling cities of the East including the metropolis of New York. Wherever the view calls home, the narrator explains at mark 01:25, they arrived there via “paths enchanted that lead to the wonderful pages of a storybook, filled with a glorious living picture that tell the story of America the beautiful.”

With a view of the sprawling landscape of North Dakota (at mark 01:38), the narrator wonders if a farmer fantasizes about watching the ocean (even though his already in the middle of an ocean “of amber grain”). The same is wondered of the fishermen on the coasts of Maine (shown at mark 02:18), and whether they would want to change their surroundings, or of the lumberjacks in the Pacific Northwest (shown at mark 02:36). Following the philosophizing, the film visits Pike’s Peak, Mount Hood, Mount Whitney, all starting at mark 03:11, before traveling a mere 80 miles to Death Valley at mark 03:45. Scenic views of rivers (Wabash, Tennessee, Columbia, Ohio, Mississippi) follow, as does views of the Great Lakes starting at mark 05:40, “inland oceans” that serve as passageways for the transport of wheat, iron, copper, lumber, and other materials. From views of the Pacific Ocean from San Francisco (shown at mark 06:25) to scenic national parks such as Yellowstone and Old Faithful Geyser (mark 08:27), the film continues to take its viewer to places such as Niagara Falls, Bryce Canyon, Carlsbad Caverns, and the Rocky Mountains. “America the beautiful goes on and on and on being beautiful,” says the narrator at mark 11:56.

America is filled with other wonders, the viewer is told, such as magnificent skyscrapers (“steel and stone rising high in the sky”), as well as mills, factories, ranches, and orchards. “In every part of America you’ll find ‘beautiful’ defined differently,” it is said at mark 14:44. That includes sun-worshippers and entertainment-seekers at Coney Island, shown at mark 15:23, as throngs of people crowd the beach and ride the ride. No matter where you may call home, the narrator reminds us that we are all Americans, as the Statue of Liberty is shown at mark 15:47.

To keep America great, the narrator explains in conclusion, all Americans must continue to produce as well as conserve, “and share our blessings with those who need and deserve them.” And citizens must save regularly … including the purchase of United States Savings Bonds … “the safest investment on Earth.”