Sioux Falls Free Thinkers endorse The Panic Is On for showing
us exactly what happens with unregulated capitalism. The
super rich get richer and the rest of us get SCREWED!
The Panic Is On
The Great American Depression
As Seen By the Common Man
The Panic Is On (2009) - 80 minutes
The Panic Is On at Amazon.com
As captured in newsreel film documentaries, popular music, eyewitness accounts & photographs.
Work Pays America: Prosperity, Works, Progress, Administration!
This multifaceted project eloquently communicates both the painful hard times of the Great Depression and the grace and strong will of the common man in confronting it. Period newsreel and documentary film footage intimately convey the feel of the times, and classic musical recordings reflect the popular mood of the day. First hand recollections and period photographs tie it all together in the 32 page booklet.
DVD (2 hours)
A fascinating array of intimate newsreel footage that captures a wide panorama of everyday American life - a soup kitchen in lower Manhattan, striking workers in North Carolina, the Boswell Sisters cheering up congressmen in Washington D.C., Zuni Indians in New Mexico offering their advice on how the white man should deal with the Depression, etc., etc. Excerpts from government made films and classic documentaries offer stunning portraits of the poverty and distress of the times and of the resourcefulness and courage American workers and their government employed to overcome it.
20 DVD Chapters
| 1. Introduction |
| 2. Give A Man A Job with Jimmy Durante: Jimmy Durante sings for the NRA |
| 3. Life In The Thirties: People struggle with the Depression's impact |
| 4. Mr. Zero gives to the needy: New York soup kitchen tends to the needy |
| 5. The Boswell Sisters perform for congressmen |
| 6. The unemployed march for relief |
| 7. A Zuni Indian offers perspective on the white man's Depression |
| 8. Millions of Us: Unemployed and down and out on the streets of Los Angeles |
| 9. Dance Marathons |
| 10. The Jazz Age: The Wall Street crash |
| 11. A debutante sells her chinchilla coat |
| 12. Fanny Brice and showgirls knit sweaters for the unemployed |
| 13. Union textile workers strike |
| 14. The Plow That Broke the Plains: Dust storms on the Great Plains |
| 15. The River: Mississippi River floods of the mid-1930s |
| 16. Mr. Zero evicted: Storefront soup kitchen closed |
| 17. Work Pays America: Government programs in action |
| 18. We Work Again: African Americans put to work by the WPA EXTRAS |
| 19. Our Daily Bread: Excerpt from King Vidor's classic feature |
| 20. The Power and the Land: Electricity changes life in rural America |
CD (1 hour, 10 minutes)
A captivating mixture of musical performances from the period that comment on the distressful times, both in vivid reporting and comical satire.
23 CD Performances
| 1. ART KASSEL and his Kassels in the Air |
(Everything's Gonna Be) O.K. America |
| 2. HEZEKIAH JENKINS |
The Panic Is On |
| 3. DICK ROBERTSON and his Orchestra |
If I Ever Get A Job Again |
| 4. BILL COX |
NRA Blues |
| 5. EDDY DUCHIN and his Orchestra |
The Clouds Will Soon Roll By |
| 6. BESSIE SMITH |
Nobody Knows You (When You're Down and Out) |
| 7. CHARLIE PALLOY |
We're In The Money (The Gold Digger's Song) |
| 8. WOODY GUTHRIE |
The Great Dust Storm |
| 9. TED LEWIS and his Band |
Headin' For Better Times |
| 10. BARBECUE BOB |
Bad Times Blues |
| 11. CHARLIE PALLOY and his Orchestra |
Brother Can You Spare A Dime? |
| 12. "SLIM" SMITH |
Bread Line Blues |
| 13. SONNY BOY WILLIAMSON |
Welfare Store Blues |
| 14. BILL COX |
Franklin Roosevelt's Back Again |
| 15. DICK ROBERTSON |
I Can't Go To The Poor House |
| 16. ROY ACUFF and his Crazy Tennesseans |
Old Age Pension Check |
| 17. FIELDS and HALL |
When My Stocks Come Tumbling Down |
| 18. THE BENTLEY BOYS |
Down On Penny's Farm |
| 19. FRANK CRUMIT |
A Tale Of The Ticker |
| 20. W.LEE O'DANIEL and his Light Crust Doughboys |
In The Fall Of '29 |
| 21. CHARLIE JORDAN |
Starvation Blues |
| 22. EDDIE CANTOR |
Cheer Up! Smile! Nertz! |
| 23. DICK ROBERTSON |
Good Old Times (Are Coming Back Again) |
The Panic Is On
The Great American Depression
As Seen By the Common Man
Sioux Falls Free Thinkers endorse The Panic Is On for showing
us exactly what happens with unregulated capitalism. The
super rich get richer and the rest of us get SCREWED!
