The NAACP and Its Architects

American Experience

History Series / 15 Seasons

American Experience, TV's most-watched history series, brings to life the compelling stories from our past that inform our understanding of the world today.

Watch Latest: S37 E1

1h 52m / TV-14

There Was No Stopping Orson Welles

26s

At one point during Orson Welles' "War of the Worlds" broadcast, CBS network executives ordered an identifying station break to tell listeners that it was only a play. By that time, however, there was no stopping Orson Welles.

Orson Welles' Best Performance

32s

After the "War of the Worlds" radio broadcast, CBS execs hastily convened a press conference for Orson Welles. It "was one of Welles great performances as an actor. And he knew that his whole career was on the line here," said Media Historian Paul Heyer. Welles had to sound sincere in his apology, which he may not necessarily have been, according to co-producer John Houseman.

War of the Worlds Chapter 1

7m 16s

On October 30, 1938, Orson Welles gave the nation a Halloween scare with his radio broadcast of an adaptation of H.G. Wells' 1898 novel, "The War of the Worlds." Watch chapter 1 of War of the Worlds, premiering on PBS October 29, 2013 at 9/8c.

The Mic Went Dead

1m 5s

The War of the Worlds has become the one most legendary radio broadcasts in history. Twenty-three year old Orson Welles directed the famous radio drama on October 30, 1938, the night before Halloween referred to as "Mischief Night." Throughout the program, which would come to be known as "The Panic Broadcast," ten actors and a 27 piece orchestra eagerly awaited his direction.

War of the Worlds: Outtakes

1m 18s

To bring freshness to the story behind Orson Welles' famous broadcast, producers used letters written by listeners right after hearing War of the Worlds. Actors delivered monologues of parts of these letters as if they were archival interviews - you can see it in the film. Here, actors have some fun at the end of the day describing what it's like to play a character from the 1930s.

Fear and the Great Depression

18s

By the time of the "War of the Worlds" broadcast in 1938, U.S. citizens had been suffering through the Great Depression for nearly ten years. In his 1933 inaugural address, FDR recognized that the dominant mood of the country in the 1930s was not anger or resentment at the capitalist system but in fact was shame and fear.

AMERICAN EXPERIENCE's 25th Anniversary

2m 59s

On October 4, 1988, PBS broadcast The American Experience’s first documentary, "The Great San Francisco Earthquake." Twenty-five years and nearly 300 films later, AMERICAN EXPERIENCE has grown to become the country’s most-watched history series, setting the standard for intelligent, critical, and compelling, and critical view of America's history.

Coming this Fall

3m

Watch a short video about what is coming to American Experience during our 25th anniversary season this October and November, with a message from Executive Producer Mark Samels. The season kicks off with "War of the Worlds" on October 29, followed by "JFK" on November 11 & 12.

Silicon Valley Chapter 1

16m 45s

Led by physicist Robert Noyce, Fairchild Semiconductor began as a start-up company whose radical innovations would help make the United States a leader in both space exploration and the personal computer revolution, changing the way the world works, plays, and communicates. Noyce's invention of the microchip ultimately re-shaped the future. Premiering February 5, 2013 at 9pm ET.

Silicon Valley in the 60s

3m 15s

Throughout the early 1960s thousands of young men and women poured into the Santa Clara valley every month, lured by the booming electronics and defense industries. "There was just too much talent stuffed into one place."

Silicon Valley Preview

30s

Led by physicist Robert Noyce, Fairchild Semiconductor began as a start-up company whose radical innovations would help make the United States a leader in both space exploration and the personal computer revolution, changing the way the world works, plays, and communicates. Noyce's invention of the microchip ultimately re-shaped the future, launching the world into the Information Age.

Silicon Valley and the Digital Revolution

1m 23s

Introduced in 1971, the microprocessor is basically the fundamental driving force and brain of all of the digital equipment we use today -- from iPhones and computers to notebooks and tablets.

Robert Noyce Goes to Silicon Valley

3m 3s

As an undergraduate student, Robert Noyce sees the technical reports on the brand new transistor and knew he was looking at the future. "The concept hit me like the atom bomb," he later recalled. But he does not like the structure of the large East Coast tech companies.

The Wild West in Silicon Valley

2m 57s

During the early days of Silicon Valley, physicists and engineers from various companies in the valley would meet at "The Wagon Wheel," a hangout for Fairchild employees and for people who worked at Fairchild spin-off companies. As one Fairchild employee put it, the Wagon Wheel was a hub of networking.

Henry Ford and Thomas Edison

36s

Thomas Edison was Henry Ford's hero. In 1896, shortly after building his quadricycle, Henry Ford had the chance to meet the famous inventor at a convention in New York. Edison, who was convinced the future lay in electric powered cars, encouraged Ford to "keep at it." In 1907, Ford was on the brink of releasing the Model T. The inventors forged a friendship that lasted their whole lives.

Henry Ford Gives Dance Lessons

1m 21s

In the 1920s, many Americans were listening to Jazz and learning the Charleston. Henry Ford preferred the country dances he learned as a boy - quadrilles, gavottes, the schottische, the polka and the chorus jig were his favorites. Later in life he hosted dance lessons in Dearborn twice a week to teach what he believed was the correct, old way of dancing.

A Titan of American Industry Gives a Piggy Back Ride

1m 42s

Despite being hard on his only son Edsel, Henry Ford doted upon his grandchildren. Edsel's first son, Henry II, who would later become president of Ford Motor Company, is seen here at age two, playing with his grandfather in the garden at Fair Lane estate on June 9, 1920.

Henry Ford Chapter 1

12m 40s

The biography of a farm boy who rose from obscurity to become the most influential American innovator of the 20th century, this documentary of Henry Ford offers an incisive look at the birth of the American auto industry with its long history of struggles between labor and management. Premiering January 29, 2012 at 9/8c on PBS.

Henry Ford Preview

30s

The biography of a farm boy who rose from obscurity to become the most influential American innovator of the 20th century, this documentary of Henry Ford offers an incisive look at the birth of the American auto industry with its long history of struggles between labor and management.

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