PRODOS Screen & Study Salon

Free market principles. The history of ideas. The life & work of Creative Heroes.

Author: prodos (page 8 of 12)

July 23, 2010

Empire of the Air: The Men Who Made Radio

Guglielmo Marconi (1874-1937), Italian physicist and radio pioneer

Guglielmo Marconi (1874-1937), Italian physicist and radio pioneer

Presented with the kind permission of Ken Burns.

From the PBS website:

Why I Decided to Make Empire of the Air: The Men Who Made Radio

By Ken Burns

I decided to make Empire of the Air, which aired in 1991, after listening to my friend Tom Lewis talk passionately about the topic.

We were intrigued by the notion that, in an era absolutely saturated by the mass medium of television, we have so quickly and completely forgotten how a different mass medium – radio – had dominated American consciousness and culture for nearly half a century.

This is the complicated backstage drama of the early days of radio – an era more often than not smothered in sentimentality and nostalgia.

Pursuing the story of radio illuminated for me larger American themes about the vitality of our inventiveness and our unapologetic commercialism.

It also introduced me to three extraordinary men whose genius, friendship, and rivalry ultimately interacted in tragic ways.

============

For 50 years radio dominated the airwaves and the American consciousness as the first “mass medium.” In Empire of the Air: The Men Who Made Radio, Ken Burns examines the lives of three extraordinary men who shared the primary responsibility for this invention and its early success, and whose genius, friendship, rivalry and enmity interacted in tragic ways.

This is the story of Lee de Forest, a clergyman’s flamboyant son, who invented the audion tube; Edwin Howard Armstrong, a brilliant, withdrawn inventor who pioneered FM technology; and David Sarnoff, a hard-driving Russian immigrant who created the most powerful communications company on earth.

Against the backdrop of radio’s “Golden Age,” Empire of the Air relates the history of radio through archival photographs, newsreels of the period and interviews with such well-known radio personalities as Garrison Keillor, the late sports commentator Red Barber, radio dramatist Norman Corwin and the late broadcast historian Erik Barnouw.

DIRECTOR
Ken Burns

PRODUCERS
Ken Burns, Morgan Wesson and Tom Lewis

WRITER
Geoffrey C. Ward

EDITOR
Paul Barnes

NARRATOR
Jason Robards

Empire of the Air: The Men Who Made Radio is a production of Florentine Films and WETA Washington, D.C. KEN BURNS AMERICAN STORIES is a production of Florentine Films in association with WETA Washington, D.C.

KEN BURNS AMERICAN STORIES SERIES UNDERWRITERS
General Motors Corporation, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and PBS

PBS EMPIRE OF THE AIR ORIGINAL PRODUCTION UNDERWRITERS
General Motors, the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting

ORIGINAL BROADCAST DATE
January 29, 1992

Lee de Forest

Lee de Forest

July 23, 2010

Mark Twain

Mark Twain

Mark Twain

Presented with the kind permission of Ken Burns.

From PBS International website:

A film by Ken Burns, profiling of the remarkable life and times of America’s greatest writer, Samuel Clemens, known and beloved to the world as Mark Twain.

It follows his rise from a hardscrabble youth in Missouri, his wanderings as a Mississippi riverboat pilot, Nevada prospector, California journalist, and as humorist on the lecture circuit.

Due to his tours of Europe, Australia, and other parts of the globe, he became by the time of his death, one of the first truly worldwide celebrities.

Mark Twain will reintroduce millions to this compelling yet contradictory genius, perhaps the only man who could say with some justification, “I am not an American, I am the American.”

Nearly three years in the making; the film draws from more than 63 hours worth of material; stunning cinematography from the places important to Twain’s story; thousands of archival photographs of the man who called himself “the most conspicuous person on the planet;” and fascinating insights culled from nearly 20 interviews with some of the nation’s leading writers and top Twain scholars, including Arthur Miller, William Styron, Russell Banks, Ron Powers, Hal Holbrook, Shelley Fisher Fishkin, Laura Skandera-Trombley and Jocelyn Chadwick. Actor Keith David, who was the voice of JAZZ, is the narrator. The skilled character actor Kevin Conway breathes a fresh life into Twain’s own words.

“Burns doesn’t just recount the colorful artist’s life story – he makes it come alive.” – Entertainment Weekly

“MARK TWAIN does justice to an American treasure.” – People Magazine

“By the end you feel as if you know and both both Sam Clemens and Mark Twain.” – The Boston Globe

Tom Sawyer tricks some kids into painting the fence for him

Official portrait of Mark Twain in his DLitt (Doctor of Letters) academic dress, awarded by Oxford University.

Official portrait of Mark Twain in his DLitt (Doctor of Letters) academic dress, awarded by Oxford University.

July 23, 2010

Conference: Terrorism & The Courts (2010)

Captured Enemy Combatant at Guantanamo Bay Detention Camp

Captured Enemy Combatant at Gitmo

Presented with the kind permission of David Horowitz TV

3 experts share their views on dealing legally and militarily with captured terrorists and enemy combatants. (April 24, 2010)

  • John Yoo: Obama’s reversal of traditional and constitutional presidential role
  • Marc Thiessen: Dangers of another attack. Research on waterboarding
  • Andrew C. McCarthy III: Problems with civilian trials for enemy combatants
July 23, 2010

Andrew C McCarthy: Willful Blindness – Memoir of the Jihad

Andrew C McCarthy III

Andrew C McCarthy III

Presented with the kind permission of Hoover Institution

June 30 2008: Andrew McCarthy is a former assistant U.S. attorney for the southern district of New York. He led the 1995 terrorism prosecution of “The Blind Sheikh”, Sheikh Omar Abdel Rahman and 11 others, all of whom are now serving long sentences for the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center.

Now a senior fellow for the Foundation of the Defense of Democracies and a contributing editor to National Review Online, McCarthy is the author of Willful Blindness: A Memoir of the Jihad.

“It is crucial to grasp…[the] Islamic notion of freedom, for it is the inverse of the Western conception.” From this central idea, McCarthy discusses the “chasm between the Islam of Western fantasy and the Islam that actually exists,” underscoring the fact that “jihadists are very adept at exploiting the freedoms that are available to them in Western democracies.”

Confronting Islamic extremism, how do we make our strategic behavior — the rules of war — conform to the “rule of law” that is essential in maintaining a free society?

Andrew C. McCarthy – For 18 years, Mr. McCarthy was an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the Southern District of New York where he led the terrorism prosecution against Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman and eleven others in connection with the 1993 World Trade Center bombing and a plot to bomb New York City landmarks. He served as the Chief Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Southern District’s satellite office and also supervised the Office’s Command Post near Ground Zero in New York City following the 9/11 attacks. Mr. McCarthy is the recipient of numerous awards including the Justice Department’s highest honors: the Attorney General’s Exceptional Service Award and the Distinguished Service Award. In 2004, he served as a Special Assistant to Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz.

July 21, 2010

Jimmy Wales (Wikipedia founder) – Free Speech, Free Minds, Understanding Ayn Rand

Jimmy Wales, Wikipedia founder, Objectivist

Jimmy Wales, Wikipedia founder, Objectivist

Presented with the kind permission of Ford Hall Forum

September 11 2008: Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales joins journalist Christopher Lydon to address the direction of web 2.0 and how Objectivist philosophy guides his vision.

Across the globe we are building, editing, and contributing to a growing body of knowledge and tools at everyone’s fingertips. Volunteers in leaderless organizations contribute to online initiatives and articles. Software developers spend their free time collaborating with complete strangers.

Amazingly, these efforts are creating products of extraordinary quality, sometimes better than that of large for-profit organizations.

Why do we do it? Why does it work?

July 17, 2010

Turmoil & Triumph: The George Shultz Years

George Shultz and Ronald Reagan

George Shultz and Ronald Reagan

Presented with permission from Free to Choose Media

A 3 part documentary produced, written and directed by David deVries.

Part 1: A Call to Service

Part 2: To Start the World Again

Part 3: Swords to Ploughshares

This three-hour documentary series on the life of former Secretary of State George Shultz will present viewers with a rare close-up look at this remarkable man who served his country at the highest level during an unforgettable time.

Each of the three programs will offer a never-before-seen look at the inner workings of the Reagan White House. It will capture the intrigue and in-fighting as advisors vie for the ear of the President over historic issues such as Arms for Hostages and the Star Wars space defense initiative.

Through the memories of George Shultz, other cabinet members, journalists and historians, viewers will relive the gripping tensions of these times; the fear of war in the Middle East, the shock of the barracks bombing that killed 220 Marines in Lebanon, the fall of Philippine president Ferdinand Marcos and the presidency of Corazon Aquino and the delicate manipulations of summitry that helped determine the future of peace on the planet.

For the first time these programs will reveal Shultz’ dedicated efforts to protect his President and expose those in the White House who plotted the illegal Iran/Contra scheme.

Throughout, George Shultz’ relentless determination combined with his use of national strength made him one of the most effective Secretaries of State in the nation’s history. The series will offer George Shultz’ remarkably vivid portraits of the major players on the national and world stage in the latter years of the twentieth century.

But Shultz’ most remarkable and revealing portrait will be of Ronald Reagan himself …

Excerpts from review by David Wiedgand at sfgate.com

Writer-director-producer David deVries has pulled off a rather neat trick in his prosaically assembled film: Usually, when a documentary includes only those with nice things to say about the subject, we stop believing somewhere along the line, and the subject himself ends up diminished in the process.

In this case, Shultz is so smart, so credible and offers such a valuable perspective on world and American political history over the past several decades that even the use of rather hokey re-enactments of some events and hiring comic Rich Little to replicate the voice of Ronald Reagan can be overlooked.

Only once in “Turmoil’s” three hours will you hear someone disagree with Shultz, and that comes in the final part during a discussion of whether Reagan knew that Lt. Col. Oliver North and others were arranging arms sales to Iran and using the profits to support the Contra cause in Nicaragua. Shultz believes Reagan didn’t know; University of Southern California historian Richard Reeves contends that Reagan did know but that Shultz was left out of the loop because “he was too smart” and would have vehemently opposed the scheme.

Otherwise, everyone from Condoleezza Rice to Mikhail Gorbachev, Henry Kissinger and Colin Powell sings the praises of the Princeton graduate who took to heart the school’s motto, “In the nation’s service,” during a career that began with membership in the Council of Economic Advisers under President Dwight D. Eisenhower.

And for all that unchallenged praise, you will come away from this compelling film believing former Assistant Secretary of State Charles Hill when he says that Shultz was “among the greatest, if not the greatest, secretaries of state in history.”

You will also understand that, whether you agree with him on issues such as free trade (which is covered in the film) and the merits of the Iraq war (which isn’t), George Shultz is an honorable and thoughtful man, a master strategist and, above all, a government servant who had a vision beyond self-aggrandizement.

The late Sen. Edward M. Kennedy speaks of Shultz as standing out from the crowd in Washington because he seemed “beyond ambition.”

Shultz himself says, twice in the film, “You always start with ideas. And if you don’t start with ideas, you’ll get lost.”

George Shultz and Nancy Reagan

George Shultz and Nancy Reagan

July 16, 2010

Is Wal-Mart Good or Bad for America? A Debate

anti Wal-mart protest

anti Wal-mart protest

Presented with the kind permission of The Independent Institute

Ken Jacobs, Chair, U.C. Berkeley Labor Center – versus – Richard Vedder, Professor of Economics, Ohio University

Excerpt of introduction to this debate given by David Theroux, President of The Independent Institute …

As everyone here knows, the entry and operations of big-box retailers has become a major controversy in various communities. But in the history of economic development, many of the issues being debated are really not new ones. Instead, the same questions were raised when people first began to specialize from what were considered changes that were different from the norm many years ago.

Once upon a time, most communities were based on a subsistence, self-reliant kind of existence. That essentially changed into economies based on division of labor, where skills were divided up as far as production and trade, in both farming and manufacturing. The previous self-sufficient “starvation” of subsistence, essentially, was replaced by markets of craftspeople, who would sell their products directly to consumers.

Craftspeople then found that specialized vendors could expand their markets, their sales reach, and would enable them to cut costs and specialize further. Specialty vendors in turn reduced their cost and risk by becoming middlemen and women for dry goods and other general stores, which was a significant innovation in the history of retailing. Which then, in turn, reduced the time and cost of shopping for consumers.

General stores eventually faced the economies of scale from dime stores and department stores, like Sears and Macys. And supermarkets, like Safeway and Lucky’s. The shopping center arose after World War II, and with new technologies and techniques, the discount department store, or big-box stores, came into being via Costco, Wal-Mart, Target, K-Mart and others.

The most successful of these big-box retailers is, of course, Wal-Mart stores, which was founded in 1962 by Sam Walton, who incidentally, started his career in retailing by working as a clerk in a penny store in Des Moines, Iowa. So to set the stage of this night’s debate, here are some numbers that I drew from Wikipedia this afternoon, and PBS’ program Frontline.

Today Wal-Mart is the world’s largest retailer, as well as the largest corporation, with 6,700 stores, 3,400 of which are in the United States. Annual revenues of $356 billion, and 1.5 million employees worldwide, 1.2 million of whom are in the United States. As such, it is the largest private employer in the United States and Mexico, and hires 600,000 new employees each year, reflecting a company turnover of about 44 percent, which is pretty much close to the industry average, I should mention. Wal-Mart is also the largest grocery retailer in the United States, with an estimated 20 percent of retail grocery and consumable business, and the largest toy seller in the United States, with an estimated 45 percent of the retail toy business.

Some people of course argue that Wal-Mart reduces living standards, hurts retail trade, disrupts communities, and relies on government programs to provide healthcare for many of its workers. Others argue that Wal-Mart has improved America’s standards of living, with lower cost for consumers, greater employment opportunities, and healthier communities, especially for the least affluent.

So, we’re here tonight to try and sort this all out. And, as I said, we’re delighted to have two experts who have looked at many of these questions.

July 16, 2010

The Secret to Making Poor Nations Rich

19th Century woodcut depicting Adam Smith and the Industrial Revolution

19th Century woodcut depicting Adam Smith and the Industrial Revolution

Presented with the kind permission of The Independent Institute

February 21 2008 panel discussion with:
Benjamin Powell, Alvaro Vargas Llosa, George B. N. Ayittey

Excerpt from synopsis of the book on which this discussion is based:

Why do some nations become rich while others remain poor?

Traditional mainstream economic growth theory has done little to answer this question — during most of the twentieth century the theory focused on models that assumed growth was a simple function of labor, capital, and technology.

Through a collection of case studies from Asia and Africa to Latin America and Europe, Making Poor Nations Rich: Entrepreneurship and the Process of Economic Development emphasizes the critical role that entrepreneurs, private-property rights, and economic freedom play in economic development.

Making Poor Nations Rich begins by explaining how entrepreneurs create economic growth and why some institutional environments encourage more productive entrepreneurship than others.

The volume then addresses countries and regions which have failed to develop because of barriers to entrepreneurship. Finally, the authors turn to countries that have developed by reforming their institutional environment to protect private-property rights and grant greater levels of economic freedom.

“The overall message of this book is simple, yet is vitally important for the millions who reside in underdeveloped regions of the world,” writes Benjamin Powell in the introduction.

“Economic freedom and private-property rights are essential for promoting the productive entrepreneurship that leads to economic growth. In countries where this institutional environment is lacking, sustained economic development remains elusive. When countries make pro-market reforms that enhance their institutional environment, growth improves—sometimes dramatically.”

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