This black and white early-1950’s installment of the syndicated television series, “The Greatest Drama” offers a biography of American financier and statesman Bernard Mannes Baruch (1870-1965), best remembered as chairman of the War Industries Board during World War I, adviser to President Roosevelt during World War II, and post-war advocate for nuclear disarmament.
The New York City Victory Parade of 1946. Title overlay: “The Greatest Drama” (0:08). Bernard Baruch, wearing a hearing aid in closeup. Title overlay: “The Trouble Shooter” (0:28). The mushroom-shaped explosion and condensation cloud or Wilson cloud of an atomic bomb explosion, during the Operation Crossroads Baker nuclear weapon test conducted by the United States at Bikini Atoll in the Pacific, 1946 (0:34). The United Nations Atomic Energy Commission. Baruch serves as a delegate (1:04). Pages of a calendar flip by (1:25). Baruch as a young child. New York City circa the late 1800’s. Horse drawn carriages, cable cars (1:31). The City College of the City University of New York (CUNY). Hudson Gate. Shepherd Hall. Baruch as a young, muscular, mustachioed boxer (1:46). The New York Stock Exchange building in the financial district of Manhattan. Turn of the century stockbrokers crowd the floor (2:02). Baruch as a broker circa A.A. Housman & Company and the founding of his own brokerage firm, when he earned the title, “The Lone Wolf of Wall Street” (2:32). President Woodrow Wilson signs a declaration of war on April 6,1917, entering World War I. A blindfolded man draws draftees from a goldfish bowl. Draftees on the march, enlisting (2:40). Headline: “Baruch Named Chairman of War Industries Board” and “Wall Street Man Receives Dictatorial Powers” over newspaper printing. Industrial smokestacks (3:07). Men at work in a foundry, pouring molten metal into a hopper car (3:18). A victory parade and scenes of the Paris Peace Conference aka the Versailles Conference. Baruch, Herbert Hoover, and then-President Wilson. Wilson returns to the U.S., doffing a top hat (3:30). The 1920 Republican National Convention at the Chicago Coliseum. Men climb trees in front of the U.S. Capitol at the inauguration of President Warren Harding (4:07). The inauguration of Calvin Coolidge. The inauguration of Herbert Hoover (4:24). Urban crowds during the Great Depression. An adult photo portrait of Baruch (4:50). The 1932 Democratic National Convention. Baruch with actor Will Rogers. Franklin Delano Roosevelt waves from the convention podium (5:00). FDR’s inauguration speech: “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.” A parade celebrates the National Recovery Administration with flags, floats, armbands, and N.R.A. banners (5:15). Roosevelt’s first cabinet (5:52). FDR signs the Emergency Banking Act on March 6, 1933, declaring a four-day national bank holiday. Headlines: “Roosevelt Takes Reins in Crisis,” etc. (6:09). Baruch exits a cab with James B. Conant, President of Harvard University and Karl Taylor Compton of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). The team reports to the White House to address the rubber shortage (6:28). Baruch calls for nationwide gasoline rationing in order to conserve tires (7:05). A stockpile of fresh tires and a yard of used salvaged tires (7:29). Factory workers in smoky silhouettes. Punching time clocks. Rifle, machine gun, and ammunition manufacturing (8:08). Baruch with General George S. Patton circa 1944 (8:42). Headlines: “Roosevelt Dies Suddenly.” A flag at half-mast. FDR’s funeral. His casket lies in state 9:05). Harry S. Truman speaks. A Boeing B-29 Superfortress bomber, similar to the Enola Gay, but stenciled “05.” The atomic blast of “Little Boy” over Hiroshima. A tower of flames. Scenes of Japanese devastation (9:34). Headlines: “Peace.” Baruch speaks as a delegate to the United Nations Atomic Energy Commission, presenting the unsuccessful Baruch Plan for atomic disarmament. Objecting Russian delegate Andrei Gromyko (10:17). Baruch meets with Dwight Eisenhower and Winston Churchill. Baruch, dressed in white, poses with children before press photographers (11:16). End credits (11:57).
This episode of “The Greatest Drama” was written and produced by Michael Sklar and narrated by Raymond Edward Johnson for Movietone General Telecasting.
