All language subtitles for america in color s3e1

the story of America

seen in color for the very first time

many immigrants

first side of America is Lady Liberty in 1936

President Roosevelt celebrates her 50th birthday

out of the melting pot

the rich promise which the New World held out

to those who came to it from many lands

is finding fulfillment

she's a symbol of America land of opportunity

the idea attracts millions

some seek freedom

others look for opportunity

at first many enter easily

but America's arms are not always open

and immigrant's loyalty will be tested

you all have heard of me as a creature with horns

but making it in America remains a powerful dream

and here's where I do all my cooking

and make the spaghetti and the sauce

this is the story of coming to America

as you've never seen it before

you put me on board or something

I want us to be captain

at the turn of the century

Thomas Edison's film crew shoots the earliest footage

of immigrants arriving

after up to eight days crossing the Atlantic

America's open door policy

means almost all Europeans are welcome

this is Ellis Island Immigration Station

in New York harbour

in 19 0 7 the facility processes

over a million migrants

its busiest year ever

the greatest numbers come from Italy

Austria Hungary and Russia

new arrivals await examination by immigration officials

who check they have enough money to support themselves

in less than five hours

almost all are through

The Salvation Army offers one lucky group

celebratory doughnuts

they're making a fresh start

and they'll go on

to settle in every corner of the country

Sarah Onovsky a Russian Jew comes to America in 19:05

her family's home movies aired here for the first time

show them picnicking in summer 1929

the enobskis are among

2 million Russian and Eastern European Jews

who arrived between 1880 and 1914

fleeing persecution and poverty

that cowpoke is Sarah's grandson Joe

the family throw themselves into American life

in 1911 the enobskies moved to Calas

a small town in Maine

on Main Street they open Anobski store selling clothes

they're Orthodox Jews

but they have to adapt to the new land

they break the Jewish Sabbath

and open the store on Saturdays

the move pays off over 30 years Banobskies grows

becoming one of the town's biggest businesses

their films

are proof that home movies of American grandkids

are almost as old as movie cameras themselves

Sarah's sons Arthur the cameraman

Charles and Bill carry on the family trade

living their version of the American dream

in the 19 the message to many newcomers

is that the key to their success

is to be like the enobskies and become more American

meet Pete fictional hero of a federal government film

aimed at new immigrants

Pete only speaks his native Italian

with no English

the best he can do is unskilled labour

he can't read a warning sign and hurts himself badly

but when he gets with the program

and studies English at night school

he turns his life around

he gets a better job

falls in love and now he's a perfect citizen

the Ford Motor Company employs 13,000

almost three quarters of whom are immigrants

the company

uses its Americanization program to control them

from 1914 Ford workers born overseas

have to attend English lessons

teachers drill them on basic grammar

at a special graduation ceremony

workers are made to march through an enormous

model melting pot

symbolically

it boils away their old immigrant identity

indoctrinates them with company values

and transforms them into model Americans

still so far from home

many immigrants decide it's better to stick together

San Francisco 1921

Little Italy in North Beach

is bustling with familiar shops and businesses

on Montgomery Street

Amadeo Giannini runs his new bank of Italy

in time it becomes the bank of America

that November

the Italian community turns out to welcome

a visiting Italian warship the Libya

recording the occasion is young filmmaker Frank Capra

seen here wearing boots and chomping a cigar

Capra who came to America at the age of 5

becomes a renowned Hollywood director

thanks to classics like it's a wonderful life

at the fueled Italia

one of the oldest Italian restaurants in

the United States

he films the Libya's crew enjoying a grand dinner

but these are the only recent arrivals

building something like home in this new world

alongside Little Italy is America's oldest Chinatown

the Chinese style architecture and exotic shops

make it a magnet for tourists

Captain HJ Lewis is a popular Chinatown guy

in 1912 he produces this filmed version of his tour

promising to reveal the real Chinatown

a lady with bound feet

strange Chinese vegetables

and a butcher

with a contraption for flattening live geese

Louis's film presents Chinatown as an exotic spectacle

for American movie goers to marvel at

the people are real

but Louis's camera mostly sees stereotypes

films like this only deepen concerns about immigrants

influence on established white values

and when dramatic events shake the country

America's immigrants will come under attack

June 2nd, 1919

Italian anarchists bomb Attorney General A

Mitchell Palmer's Washington home

it's one of eight anarchist bombs

to explode in cities across the country

Palmer and his family are badly shaken but escape harm

the bombs add fuel to anti immigrant feeling

and give the government an excuse to take action

Palmer's Justice Department launches raids in 30 cities

including this one in Chicago

police arrest around 5,000 suspected Italian

and Eastern European radicals

and seize communist literature

many of those targeted are innocent

those found who are not yet US citizens can be deported

in December 1919

249 alleged communist sympathizers

are sent back to Russia on a ship dubbed the Soviet Ark

the government is delighted to see them go

January 1st, 1920

the census records that 14 million new immigrants since

the turn of the century

have taken the US population

past the hundred million Mark

critics of uncontrolled immigration

alleged this flood of new arrivals is overwhelming

what they claim is the country's original stock

of northern European immigrants

nativists demand that America pulls in the welcome mat

Washington May 1924

President Calvin Coolidge and his government

back a new immigration reform Bill

the 1924 Immigration Act

ends an era of uncontrolled entry to America

it introduces the first permanent quotas

on most migrants in America's history

and reinforces earlier bands

on almost all Asian migrants

Representative Albert Johnson sponsor of the act

declares it will put a stop to a stream of alien blood

one year old Japanese American

Akira Kawasaki and his family

now find themselves in an increasingly hostile country

his father Yasujiro

moved to Little Tokyo in downtown Los Angeles

long before the clamp down

in Yasujiro's rarely seen home movies

Japanese American life in the 30s comes alive

at the dock

seeing all friends and family visiting from Japan

passengers throw streamers

loved ones hold on tight until the ship pulls away

in 1934 he films the country's first ever mise week

a festival of Japanese culture in Los Angeles

movie star Charlie Chaplin

a grade admirer of Japan stops by

the Kawasakis are doing well

Yasujiro puts up this commercial building

in Little Tokyo

in the shadow of LA City Hall

but California law bars Japanese born Yasujiro

from owning property

he has to title the building in his daughter's name

the Kawasakis know that many Americans

don't want them here

they accept discrimination

as the price they pay for life in the US

others aren't so willing

Panama 1911

on a strip of American territory

the United States is building a modern marvel

a canal linking the Atlantic and the Pacific

doing the back breaking work

are 30,000 black migrant laborers from the Caribbean

Marcus Garvey a visiting Jamaican journalist

is appalled by the conditions they endure

white workers make more

black Caribbean workers live in segregated housing

and their children go to segregated schools

when they finish the Panama Canal

thousands migrate to America seeking a better life

Harlem hub of black New York

becomes home to many Caribbean immigrants

including Marcus Garvey

this is the only known footage of Garvey

it's from a 1920 march

for his new back to Africa movement

many garveites helped build the Panama Canal

Garvey denounces racism against these recently arrived

black migrants and African Americans

and tells them their future lies in Africa

he sports the military uniform of a national leader

we are raising the pride of Africa

for the Africa those that go and those abroad

to carry followers there

he launches the Black Star shipping line

but the business goes bust

Garvey is imprisoned for fraud

he and his followers call the charges bogus

in 1927 he's deported to Jamaica

a reminder that assimilation in America

is more complicated than the myth of the melting pot

most newcomers arrived through America's ports

but Mexicans have been moving back and forth

across the almost 2,000 mile long land border

for decades

the 1924 Immigration Act

imposes no quota on Mexicans entering the US

and in the 1920s

nearly half a million moved to America

in the early 20th century

Texas Rangers carry out sporadic border patrols

Ranger captain Charles Stevens

a former sheriff

is as eager as his men

to demonstrate ranger grade riding and sharpshooting

The US Border Patrol is established in 1924

it's the first force

devoted to guarding America's borders

The Border Patrol Academy in El Paso

Texas opens 10 years later

here new recruits demonstrate impressive horsemanship

they're given a badge and a gun

but they provide their own horse and saddle

with only 250 officers to monitor the entire border

it's clear that security here isn't a top priority

although Mexicans find it easy to cross over

Americans often treat them as second class citizens

many like Antonio Fuentes

work hard to establish themselves as real Americans

Antonio emigrates to Corpus Christi

Texas as a young man where he opens a local store

his rare home movies show Family Life with wife

Josephina and their five children

these are some of the earliest films made by a Mexican

American in Texas

here Antonio junior discovers the thrills

and spills of three wheels

the Fuentes raise their children

to be patriotic Americans

in 1929 Antonio films

Corpus Christi's growing Mexican population

as it turns out

for the city's Independence Day parade

he supports the order of the sons of America

one of Texas's first Mexican American

civil rights organizations

the order emphasizes that assimilation

is the best route to acceptance for its members

Ellis Island 1932

in the depths of the Great Depression

America no longer looks like a land of opportunity

this isn't a stream of new arrivals this year

300,000 immigrants say goodbye to the American dream

well I just wanna say that I would like to go home

because I hope my husband will get work back home

he didn't get here

in an American first

more people leave this year than arrive

and some who stay will struggle to survive

1930 Brooklyn's Ocean Parkway

as the Great Depression bites

young Italian immigrants spend their weeks

looking for work

but plenty devote their weekends to races

organized by the Uniona Sportiva Italiana cycling club

founded in 19 0 8

the city's Italian community are passionate cyclists

the thrill of the open road

friendly competition and the little flirting

the club is still going strong today

it's part of the glue

that binds this community together

in 1930 the world's most famous physicist

Albert Einstein

is met by adoring crowds in New York

he's just visiting

but before long

he and many other German Jews

will be hoping to make a permanent home here

he's asked his opinion on prohibition

he doesn't drink so he doesn't care

in California he's greeted by excited cheerleaders

the next summer

he's back home in Germany at his cottage outside Berlin

Einstein seen here in pajamas with wife Elsa

fears his days in his beloved homeland are numbered

the Nazis rise to power means Jews like Einstein

are openly persecuted

German students burn his books

along with others

by authors the Nazis consider subversive

and he along with all other Jews

is banned from teaching at universities

in 1933 Einstein renounces his German citizenship

he seek sanctuary in America

his status means that unlike most Jewish refugees

he's welcomed with open arms

Long Island 1937

Einstein's good friend and accountant

Leo Mattersdorf catches him off duty in his home movies

chatting with Leo's wife Jan

and playing with their daughter Stephanie

safe in America

Einstein knows he's one of the lucky few

I am almost ashamed to be living in such peace

while all the rest struggle he writes

he campaigns on behalf of refugees

and rails against fascism

but he'll never call Germany home again

as political tensions in Europe mount

many German immigrants will feel

that they have to take sides

Marlena Dietrich is one of

Germany's most celebrated movie stars

she arrives in Hollywood in 1930

in search of international fame and fortune

she achieves both

her home movie show her enjoying the good life

in Beverly Hills

in the early 30s

her icy beauty is legendary

in private she's just as glamorous

but far more mischievous

in 1937 Dietrich vacations in Austria

she's proud of her German roots

and enjoys posing in traditional dress

as does her fellow Hollywood star and lover

Douglas Fairbanks junior

when she stops in London

Nazi agents ask Dietrich to come home to Germany

to make propaganda films for the Third Reich

but she's a staunch opponent of the Nazis and refuses

back in America

Dietrich leaves no doubt about where her loyalties lie

in 1939 she renounces Germany and becomes a US citizen

but a few German Americans

will follow a very different path

New York 1937

a group of boys set off for summer camp upstate

in the Catskill Mountains

this looks like a typical American ride of passage

a bugle wakes them

they cook around a campfire

and get back to nature

with plenty of outdoor activities

but these are no Boy Scouts

and this is no ordinary summer camp

it's one of a dozen or so

run by the German American Boom

a new grassroots organization

that's the American arm of Hitler's third right

it aims to indoctrinate young

German Americans in Nazi ideology

the buns leader

Fritz Kun is a German immigrant with US citizenship

dubbed the American Furer

moon members meet at rallies

like this one in Hindenburg Park

Los Angeles in 1936

the organization claims it has a membership of 100,000

though the true figure is far lower

they say they're patriotic citizens

but they fly the Nazi flag

and give the high Hitler salute

but 6,000 miles away in Germany

ordinary Jews still see America

as a safe haven from the Nazis

Ben O'torsh

owns a successful camera business in Dresden

his remarkable home movies

record the Nazis unstoppable march to war

as Nazis filled Dresden streets

torch realizes that as a Jew

he's no longer safe here

he knows that he and his children

Ermgard and bernvard must get out

in an extraordinary twist of fate

he swaps his Dresden camera factory

for a Detroit photo business

owned by a German looking to return home

after emigrating in March 1938

the family makes a fresh start in a Motor City suburb

messing around in their new backyard

in 1944 they moved to Los Angeles

where torch opens another camera shop

his second wife Edith and son Bernard work in the store

torch is a big fan of pranks

when he's not working

he enjoys the fruits of his success

his Porsche is a prized possession

Torsche's shop becomes a Studio City institution

one of its future customers

will be a young Steven Spielberg

but not all Jewish refugees are as lucky as the torches

in May 1939

the Saint Louis ocean liner dachshund Havana Cuba

over 900 German Jews are on board

they're fleeing Europe

just a few months before the outbreak of the war

but the strongly anti immigrant Cuban government

turns them away

so the Saint Louis sails towards America

the ship's captain asks President Roosevelt

to accept the refugees

but the 1924 Immigration Act

means the annual quota for German migrants

is already full

and he refuses to grant them asylum

the ship is forced to turn back

when Belgium the Netherlands

Britain and France offer the refugee shelter

they believe they've at last been saved

for these few who have escaped penniless but undaunted

life still looks sweet

but 254 of these refugees will not survive the war

they will die in Nazi concentration camps

it's not just in Nazi

Germany that Jews are under attack

February 20th, 1939

in the heart of New York

20,000 members of the pro Nazi

German American boom gather at Madison Square Garden

on stage is a 30 foot poster

of President George Washington

who celebrated as the first fascist

born leader Fritz Coom addresses his loyal followers

American patriots

you all have heard of me to the Jewish Control press

as a creature of its horns across my home

and a long tail

coon a vehem

an anti Semite labels President Roosevelt's New Deal

the Jew Deal

the boon represents a tiny proportion of America

and this rally horrifies the vast majority

outside anti Nazi demonstrators clash with police

with war in Europe just months away

the government faces the terrifying prospect

that some immigrants will side with the enemy

in 1940 with Europe at war

some three and a half million foreigners

without US citizenship

are required to register with the government

and have their fingerprints taken

government propaganda makes clear that foreigners must

now prove their allegiance to America

America has admitted you with open arms

you owe to America to register now

today at once

and thus show your loyalty to the United States

Crystal City Texas

at first glance

this looks like a typical slice of American suburbia

but it's actually the country's largest internment camp

after the US enters the war in December 1941

Germans Japanese

and Italians are now considered America's enemies

they rounded up

and interned at camps across the country

over 4,000 people of Japanese

German or Italian ancestry are held here

including 1,600 children

Crystal City is run by the Immigration Authority

who produced this rose tinted look at life there

each housing unit was furnished with running water

an icebox beds and linen chairs

some with toilet facilities

the film completely

ignores the harsh reality of camp life

most camps were far more primitive

it's upbeat simulation of normality

jars against the truth

this is a prison swimming pool

help greatly relieve the monotonies of detention

and as you see

it was particularly beneficial to the children

the trauma of incarceration will long outlast the war

Audrey Neugabauer is here because her father is German

this photo shows her in front of the camp school

even at age 8 she knows the score

I knew we were incarcerated

we were behind barbed wire fences

and there were guard stations with guns

with America at war

most immigrants are keen to prove their patriotism

in the 30s Italian American director Frank Capra

is on a winning streak

he collects three Academy Awards

the first four it happened one night

but four days after Pearl Harbor

he quits Hollywood

he joins the army to make war information films that

he says will explain to soldiers

why the hell they're in uniform

the chips are down

two worlds stand against each other

Capra's film prelude to war

with graphics by Walt Disney

makes such a powerful case for going to war

that it plays in movie theaters nationwide

remember these faces

if you ever meet them

don't hesitate

Capra considers the films his most important works

at US Army Camp Hale

9,000 feet up in Colorado's Rocky Mountains

Norwegian immigrants are training hard

this is Norwegian American Bjarn Anning

in 1943 he's drafted into the 99th Battalion

a special unit made up of Norwegian Americans

nicknamed the Vikings

Anning carries his Kodak camera everywhere

he films the Vikings taking to the slopes

and mastering mountain warfare

as they prepare to liberate Norway from the Nazis

conditions are harsh

those backpacks weigh around 90 pounds

but the men have the weasel

and early snowmobile to help take the strain

as it turns out most Vikings don't see action in Norway

instead they serve in France and Belgium

just some of the millions of immigrants

on the frontline and the homefront

doing their duty by their adopted country

since I've been here in the United States

I have received many letters from my friends in Sweden

asking one thing

tell us about the Swedes in America

in 1943 Swedish film star Ingrid Bergman

presents this government film

Swedes in America

in the midst of war

the film reminds Americans

that it's immigrants who built the nation

Bergman travels to Minnesota

to meet some of her fellow 2 million Swedish Americans

she lends a hand on the farm

and visits Lindstrom

known as America's Little Sweden

there's something special about Lindstrom

every Thursday

the town turns out

all of them

to broom and scrub the sweets

immigrants Bergman says

infuse America with this community spirit

as a pioneer country

America has always been a place

where neighbor helps neighbor

it was the Swedes who helped to organize that spirit

when the war ends

a new wave of immigrants will arrive hoping that they

too will find a corner of the country to call home

after the war

around 35,000 GIS bring home Japanese war brides

from the 1940s

America begins to lift restrictions on Asian immigrants

The US Army believes these women need a crash course on

American life

they get tutorials on the latest technology

from vacuum cleaners to toasters

they learn to bake the perfect American pie

and makeup classes help them achieve that American look

but this patronizing US Army film

about Mirako and her GI husband Walter

suggests the American dream won't come easy

Walter's mother was friendly

but I wonder if she was wishing

that Walter had married an American girl

plenty of Americans still regard

the Japanese as enemies

we did get a look of real resentment for one moment

she had lost her son at Iwajima

but like generations of immigrants

before her Miwako wins over her new American relations

while some assimilate

many immigrants

who've been in America half a century or more

at last see their culture go from the margins

to the mainstream

the Bobby soxers sport their trademark ankle socks

even in the depths of winter

they're the devoted

teenage fans of singer and movie star Frank Sinatra

he's one of a new generation of entertainers

bringing immigrant culture to the masses

Sinatra is the child of Italian immigrants

with a classic rags to Rich's story

from a tenement in Hoboken New Jersey

he makes it all the way to Hollywood

Mister Swoon himself

the old collapse singer Frank Sinatra

I sing a song that I sang for the memories I use

with his seductive singing style

based on the Italian Bel canto tradition

Sinatra rules the airwaves

Saturday night is the loneliest night of the week

in 1956 he gives newsman Ed Murrow

a tour of his new Beverly Hills home

tell me Frank uh

what room are we in now

isn't this lovely

that's the kitchen

and here's where I do all my cooking

and make the spaghetti and the sauce uh huh

and the meatballs and all that great food

Sinatra knows Americans now have an appetite

for Italian food as well as Italian singing

and I have a surprise for you

we have two pizzas here

you see that

wonderful isn't that beautiful

I wish you could join me in a bite so do I

sometime when you come out

we'll come out and have dinner

Salisbury beach Massachusetts the late 1950s

these home movies capture a new summertime tradition

lining up for a 10 cent slice

of Christie's Sicilian pizza

as the nation's tastes become more adventurous

Americans embrace foods once considered foreign

before the war

pizza is seen as poor man's food

it's mainly found in Italian neighborhoods

but when Italian American

Sam and Caroline Cristaldi opened Christie's in 1955

pizza is well on its way to becoming an American staple

before long every town will boast a pizza parlor

from pizzas to tacos to Chinese food

immigrant imports will soon challenge the hamburger

for a place on American tables

in the early 60s

a new wave of immigrants will face that same journey

as those who arrived at the beginning of the century

this is the Dellacova family

who come to America in 1961

two years after the Cuban Revolution

their home movies

show them building a new life in America

with their five kids

they settle in Louisville Kentucky

where Father Renee films all the family's milestones

here daughters Lourdes and Anna Maria

celebrate their first Holy Communion

although their new arrivals

their hopes and dreams

are the same as those of millions of other immigrants

who've gone before

on a trip to Miami Beach

the family are in good company

in the 15 years after the revolution

more than half a million of their fellow Cubans

also make America their home

bringing their distinct culture

to this corner of the country

and joining the ranks of proud Americans

by 1960 almost 23 million immigrants

have come to America

since the turn of the century

they've struggled to find their feet