Jazz Age, The

Presented in its entirety as originally broadcast.

The NBC News Project Twenty productions of the 1950s and 1960s created the world of the historical documentary for prime time TV. The series derived its title from the century in which we live, and put together these programs add up to the composite drama of our age. This is the series that first perfected techniques of combining archival film and scanned still photos with a rich musical score and compelling narration. Winner of almost every major broadcasting award, including the Emmy, the Peabody and the Robert J. Flaherty Awards. Projected Twenty set the standards against which all subsequent documentaries are measured.

The Jazz Age

The Jazz Age captures America as it went through a profound and exhilarating change in morals and manners from the end of World War I to the Great Crash of 1929. Narrated by Fred Allen, the decade opens with images of Klan rallies, returning doughboys quelling labor riots, and police immigrants as the mood of the country was to "make America safe for Americans." With Prohibition, the automobile became a portable saloon for young people as a new generation came of age, but much of the striking footage drawn from newsreels and period motion pictures goes beyond the stereotypes of flappers and gangsters to create a captivating portrait of life on Main Street. The brilliant orchestral scoring of popular tunes by Robert Russell Bennett captures the mood of the images, from the relaxed pace of small town commerce to the frantic energy of nightclubs, jazz bands, and chorus lines. As the decade was drawing to a close, the drama of Lucky Lindy's flight and the celebration that followed its success reinforced the blind optimism of the period, epitomized by President Hoover seen here predicting the abolition of poverty as the nation was reeling toward the Great Depression.