The Saga of Western Man 1964 Part One

Duration: 12:00

Year Published: 1964

Creator: ABC News

Complete Record: This film is an overview of people’s lives in 1964. Begins with a voice over discussing the new age of man and the achievements made by humanity by 1964. Contains footage of the following: fighter planes flying in unison, cars driving on a highway in the daytime, car headlights at night, lit up signs in Las Vegas, white people gambling (slots, craps, dice), stacks of money, chips. Cuts to agricultural footage, wheat, cotton, farming equipment, potatoes. The voice over then reflects on those less privileged and shows a poverty stricken town with damaged apartment buildings and slums. A young black woman enters her apartment with her decaying walls where water has leaked through. Her light bulbs are naked next to hanging laundry. She places wood into her King-O-Heat stove. Shots of an old coal town that no longer mines coal. Many of the windows are boarded up. It is a ghost town with a long unemployment line. This is followed by wealthy elite on a boat, possibly a cruise. An elderly man receives a massage. There are sailboats, people vacationing on a beach; they all look very carefree. This is followed by plane footage: Air Force planes, planes spraying pesticide. Work force footage: industrial manufacturing companies, then more office work with typewriters and secretaries. Cuts to a car junkyard. A claw moves cars onto a conveyer belt that breaks them down. United States Air Force planes are also demolished and melted down to make other items. Back to another ghost town with empty store fronts. Old men sit on a porch and smoke cigarettes. Footage of elderly people walking, writing, sewing, dancing in partners, gardening, playing shuffle board, and receiving medical care.