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Influenza 1918

Aired January 2, 2018 | 60 min

It was the worst epidemic in American history, killing over 600,000 — until it disappeared as mysteriously as it had begun.

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Mr. Miami Beach

Aired February 2, 1998 | 53 min

A master promoter, Carl Fisher created Miami Beach on a narrow spit of Florida swamp land, a tropical paradise of sand and palm trees, then masterminded a dazzling sales campaign.

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An innovative dramatic film based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning story of Martha Ballard, a midwife and mother living in the wilds of Maine during the chaotic decades following the American Revolution. In a sparsely written diary, Ballard recorded her daily struggle against poverty, disease, domestic abuse and social turmoil. Two hundred years later, her world is painstakingly recreated by a historian seeking to understand eighteenth century America through a woman's eyes.

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Truman

Aired October 5, 1997 | 4 hrs 11 min

An unknown politician from Missouri who suddenly found himself president, Harry Truman was the least prepared of all the men who had held the highest office, but he would prove to be a surprise — the unlikely rise of a gritty American original.

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Vietnam: A Television History

Aired May 26, 1997

A six-year project from conception to completion, Vietnam: A Television History carefully analyzes the costs and consequences of a controversial but intriguing war. From the first hour through the last, the series provides a detailed visual and oral account of the war that changed a generation and continues to color American thinking on many military and foreign policy issues.

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Gold Fever

Aired May 12, 1997 | 53 min

In July 1897, reporters from around the world gathered at Seattle's port as a steamship carrying passengers from Canada's frozen wasteland arrived. Word was out that many aboard had struck it rich and were carrying home sacks — even crates — of gold.

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Around the World in 72 Days

Aired April 28, 1997

At the age of nineteen, Nellie Bly talked her way into an improbable job on a newspaper, then went on to become known as "the best reporter in America." The daring Bly continually risked her life to grab headlines. To expose abuse of the mentally ill, she had herself committed. When she traveled around the world in just 72 days, beating Jules Verne's fictional escapade, she turned herself into a world celebrity.

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Troublesome Creek: A Midwestern

Aired April 14, 1997

By the late 1980s, Iowa farmers Russ and Mary Jane Jordan had accumulated a large debt. Faced with losing their farm, The Jordans came up with a dramatic solution to hold onto their family farm as massive foreclosures swept the nation.

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New York Underground

Aired February 17, 1997

In March 1888, a ferocious blizzard ground the city to a halt. Mountains of snow twenty feet high filled the streets, horse-drawn streetcars and omnibuses lay abandoned, the entire city was paralyzed. The snow left no doubt that New York needed an underground rail system and in 1894, after years of political obstacles, a plan was approved. Construction began in 1900.

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Big Dream Small Screen

Aired February 10, 1997

In 1921, a 14-year-old boy working in a potato field in Idaho had a vision of sending pictures in waves over the air, like sound waves for radio.

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The Telephone

Aired February 3, 1997

The telephone was first introduced at the Centennial Exposition in 1876 and was an instant success. Although first rented only to "persons of good breeding" and seen as an expensive luxury for doctors and businessmen, the telephone soon transformed American life. Trees gave way to telephone poles as operators known as "hello girls" began to connect a sprawling continent.

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Andrew Carnegie: The Richest Man in the World

Aired January 20, 1997

Andrew Carnegie built a fortune in telegraphy, railroads, and steel. And then began, systematically, to give it all away.

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