HISTORY BROUGHT TO LIFE
Okay, cut. Gaffer? - All right here sir.
- Sound? - OK sir. Alright, print it.
Print it. And another page from the past takes form on the film.
To live before your eyes on the motion picture screen.
A doorway to history, past and present.
Opening at your command on eras and events
which form the cultural and social heritage of all of us.
Here in this theater we live once more with those who built the pyramids of Giza,
gave cause to Cleopatra at the zenith of her beauty and power.
Reigned overseas, still dark with superstitious fear.
And stand before the cataclysmic end of empires, long in power.
Here too we fought with those who fixed momenteous dates,
still carried in our textbooks.
And fight the battles chronicled on classroom pages.
And here as well we celebrate great turning points in world affairs,
which fill the chapters of whole shelves of books,
among them, this, the greatest of them all.
In motion pictures the whole recorded span of history is ours in action,
presented as dramatically as life itself, and as authentically,
since every subject, time, and place is carefully researched by expert staff,
long before the cameras roll,
with all the world's great information centers to drawn upon,
with access to accumulated knowledge in all fields of human life,
with agents in all corners of the world to furnish specialized detail.
Studio research departments lay the historical foundations
upon which all else is built.
Foundations upon which scripts and texs are based, to show you,
how the court of Kublai Khan appeared to Marco Polo on his visit there.
Humble yourself, Marco Polo, before the majesty of the Emperor Kublai Khan.
Your Majesty, I humble myself.
Or complete information can be obtained on
how a present-day physicists' laboratory is equipped.
Studio researchers supply the decorative detail on the palace of Pontius Pilate,
as well as harvesting techniques in a Kansas wheat field.
And from the progression of incidents in the storming of the Bastille,
to approved procedures in baby sitting.
Or lack of them.
I've taught him an object lesson and as you will observe, he doesn't like it.
I guarantee that he will never throw stew at me or anyone else again, ever.
Since history is not all pageantry and spectacle,
you who sit here also follow it in terms of individuals,
strong and vivid personalities,
whose actions, thoughts, and feelings colored life in their own day.
Individuals who shape the course of human destiny,
including ours, in many varied realms of life.
The ideals you believe are not dead
just because a few obstructive men now in the saddle say they are.
A dream of a world united against the awful wastes of war,
too deeply embedded in the hearts of men everywhere.
Thanks to our libraries we can bring you Strauss, conducting his own work.
In literature, we bring you the words of Emile Zola,
concerning freedom of expression.
You will do what is best for yourself, monsieur,
by leaving me strictly alone to write what I please, as I please.
In science, we show you the continuous battle being waged to help humanity.
According to Semmlweiss, there has never been a case of child bed fever
unless the doctor or midwife had been in recent contact
with a victim of the disease. - What luck?
Nothing definite. Try again.
In art, we show you interesting details in the course of famous painters' lives,
as well as examples of their work.
It was indescribably wonderful and mysterious.
It was a sort of Garden of Eden,
a hymn to the beauty of the human form, and the praise of nature.
Records of man's achievement in the field of invention are also drawn upon.
So that they can be presented to you on the screen vividly and accurately.
He would have been a great man even if he had never invented anything.
Ladies and gentlemen, Thomas Alva Edison.
Here two other words of our statesmen.
There can be no distinction in that definition of liberty,
as between one section and another, one class and another, one race and another.
A house divided against itself cannot stand.
On other occasions, the personalities whose historical fortunes we follow,
are those created by the genius of man's mind,
so well conceived and human, that they live as strongly,
as their real-life counterparts.
You're lying, both of you. Sergeant, put these men in irons.
- Irons? What for? - Mutiny.
But we're not mutineers, sir.
When Christian took my ship you remained with him.
and you'll have to answer for it with him. Sergeant, get them below.
And just as accurately mirror for us
the customs and the flavor of their time and place.
To be, or not to be, that is the question.
Whether it is nobler in the mind
to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,
or to take arms against a sea of trouble,
and by opposing them, end them.
In many forms and many guises then,
the intricate mosaic of world history is brought to light here on the screen,
crystallized with realism and with force,
presented with intimacy, color, and significance.
Who was at the door, Peggy?
Peggy! Ron, who was...
And constantly expanding, keeping pace with man's drive forward,
from his past, through his present,
with all of his remarkable achievements towards his future.
The end.