The Titans That Built America (2021) s01e02 Episode Script

1
Previously on
the Titans That Built America,
as World War I comes to
a close, a new generation
of titans are on the rise.
We're in the age of the machine.
Three car
makers fight for dominance.
‐ This is my father Henry Ford.
To Pierre du Pont.
‐ The Chrysler 70.
As a battle
rages to take down Ford,
he and his son Edsel
have their sights set on
a new industry.
‐ We should get into this.
They go head to head
with a young upstart who
wants to make his name
in aviation, William Boeing.
‐ Very excited to tell you
about Boeing's new plane.
‐ Pull.
Hahaha, nothing like it.
With the warring
twenties and full swing,
a skyscraper war
begins as Chrysler
looks to own the skyline.
‐ So why you building the
tallest building in the world?
‐ So I can look down on GM.
Ha ha.
But du Pont
won't be out done and plans
a building of his own.
‐ Same height as Chrysler's,
a bit taller than.
‐ The Empire State building.
Mr. Morgan?
Mr. Morgan, what are
the best investments
and what is your
opinion on US steel?
I'll say this, General Motors
stock is very undervalued.
Mr. Morgan,
one more question.
Thank you.
‐ Mr. Morgan, one more please
one more question, please.
‐ Thank you gentlemen.
By 1929, Wall Street has become
the most famous
street in America.
And JP Morgan Jr. is its King.
‐ There's a saying
about JP Morgan Jr.
And his partners in the
late 1920s, they're called
Jesus Christ and his 12 apostles
and so that gives you
some sense of the stature
of JP Morgan Jr. on Wall Street.
He says in effect, I think
GM's future looks bright
and GM stock surges in price
and then the stock
market follows.
Thanks to Morgan
and his fellow bankers,
the stock market has climbed
nearly 40% in just one year.
To investors and even
ordinary Americans,
there's a sense
that you can't lose.
‐ The thing about the roaring
twenties, it was the go go.
Everybody was optimistic,
markets were soaring,
when it's so easy
for anybody to go get out a
loan and then go speculate.
‐ And not just speculation
from professional investors.
But this was the first time that
Joe on the street saw the
stock market going up
and decided I'm going to go
get myself a loan to buy stock.
And by the way,
I'm going to make
a handsome profit doing it.
‐ It was like a boom
like we've never had.
There was a belief that we
were in the Emerald City.
Day by day
we were nearer to the final
triumph over poverty ever before
in the history of any land.
One industry in
particular reaps the rewards
from the soaring
economy, automobiles.
In 1929, American spend a half
billion dollars on new cars.
‐ The American automobile
industry had a larger economy
than every country on
earth, with the exception
of Germany, France, Britain,
maybe the Soviet Union.
80% of the entire
us car market is controlled
by just three companies.
Du Pont's General Motors
has the top spot.
While Ford is second.
And then there's Chrysler.
‐ Okay, fellas,
let's take a look.
In the eight
years since he left GM,
he's grown his company
into the number three
automaker in America but he's
determined to be number one.
‐ Let me show you this.
And in order to do that,
he's going to take
things to another level
by raising the competition
to new heights.
‐ You see here, this stretches
up to the third floor.
I want it to feel like
you're stepping through
the doorway into a city.
He's recently
started construction on a tower,
that he plans to make
the tallest in the world.
He calls it the
Chrysler building.
‐ Business entrepreneurs
at the top of game.
It's about personal
dynamics and relationships
that they have with their
colleagues and their peers
and their rivals and
they want to beat them.
And whether it's a business
or whether it's my house
is bigger or my building
is bigger, that's the game.
And that's how it's all scored.
The skyscraper's construction
is a monumental feat,
30,000 tons of steel
and more than 3 million
bricks will be needed.
In a building this size,
every single detail matters.
‐ One of the key innovations
in the Chrysler building was
the world's fastest elevators.
And the building had the longest
continuous elevator shaft
in the world at the time.
But Chrysler
doesn't just want his tower
to be the tallest, it also
must be the most beautiful.
‐ Every entrepreneur
knows what their,
their special sauce is, what
their, their greatest skill is.
With Chrysler, his was
beauty and precision.
This is Nirosta stainless
steel, it's German.
‐ Walter Chrysler,
whatever he did,
he was going to
be the best at it.
‐ All right.
‐ He was going to build the
most beautiful skyscraper.
It was going to be the tallest.
It was going to be
the talk of the world.
High above street level,
about 1,000 feet high in the air
on the Chrysler building
looking over Lexington Avenue.
As it nears completion
in the summer of 1929,
Chrysler wants to make sure
the world takes notice.
‐ Mr. Chrysler.
So he hires one
of America's top photographers
to document the building.
‐ Let me show you
what I have going on.
‐ Yeah, let's see it.
‐ Margaret Bourke‐White
is an amazing photographer
who is known for her
photos of factories
and city life and architecture.
And one of the reasons
that she stands out
is that she's
willing to go places
that no one else will just
for that perfect shot.
Dangling high above Manhattan,
Bourke‐White captures
the spectacle
of Chrysler's building.
Her death defying photos
help make Chrysler
and his building the
biggest news of the year.
But Chrysler has competition.
Less than 10 blocks away,
du Pont has grand plans for
a skyscraper of his own.
The Empire State Building.
They've demolished the
old Waldorf Astoria hotel
and have raised over $40
million for the construction
of the building, over a half
billion in today's dollars.
But now with Chrysler so far
ahead, some are questioning
whether the project is
worth the investment.
‐ What do you think
we should do?
‐ We're going to build.
Du Pont has no
interest in standing down.
He's going to continue
until he beats Chrysler.
So he keeps pushing
the architects
to make the building taller.
‐ They'll be coming
from a factory
in Pittsburgh and they'll
be ordering 250,000 tons.
‐ There was sort of a personal
rivalry among architects.
So you have developers
who have these big egos,
who are trying to
outdo each other.
You have the architects
who are also sort
of part of this game.
The newspapers
begin referring to it
as the skyscraper race.
‐ It's often impossible
to keep your plans
to add height secret because
you have to file these plans
with the buildings department.
But now with
competition heating up
and construction
nearly complete,
Chrysler is starting to worry.
He wants to make sure
when all is said and done,
there's no question whose
building is tallest.
‐ So he went to his
architect and he says
you will go back to
the drawing board
and you add extra height,
you figure out some way
that we can make our
building even taller.
For months,
Chrysler's team has been working
on a secret project.
Tomorrow he plans to
unveil it to the world.
‐ Let's go, let's go.
Let's go.
Hold on, hold on.
Within the
crown of the building,
hidden from view, Chrysler's
team has constructed
a massive steel spike.
‐ We need the beams over there,
all the points stack left.
‐ Hold on, hold on, hold on,
‐ Okay, we're going up,
we're going up!
Steady, steady, steady!
Hold on, hold on.
Now, in the dark of night,
the team raises the
metal structure
through the top of the building.
‐ Hello?
With the first rays of the dawn,
Chrysler's steel spire can
be seen piercing the sky.
Overnight, Chrysler has
added nearly 200 feet
to his building, surpassing
even the Eiffel Tower.
The Chrysler Building
is indisputably
the tallest structure that
humans have ever created.
‐ Great job boys, great job.
‐ Chrysler was more
than willing to spend
a significant amount of
money to have his building
express his sort of modern
architectural view of the world
and to reflect his
power and his success.
It's a huge
moment for the titan.
‐ It's the flapper buildings,
it's jazz as an edifice.
It is all the audacity all
the bombast of the 1920s
captured in concrete and steel.
‐ Look at it, that's
history right there.
‐ It was so sexy and so
new looking and so fresh
and so striking that if my
building looks like this, well
certainly the cars have gotta
be something pretty special.
So it was the biggest billboard
for a brand that was ever built.
The Chrysler
building at 42nd street
and Lexington is the tallest
structure in the world.
It's gigantic tower
dominates the city
and it can be seen
from nearly everywhere.
From it the views of
Manhattan's are sublime,
it's silver spire
flashing in the sun,
a monument of wealth
and social prestige.
But New York is not
only steel and stone.
It is people too, millions
of beating hearts,
lights and shadows, tears
and laughter, work and play,
night and day and so it moves
from the memories of yesterday
into the promise of tomorrow.
Less than 24 hours
after Walter Chrysler
tops out his building,
the UK. S. Stock Market
is taking a nose dive.
‐ In the year before the
Stock Market crash in 1929,
fortunes are being made
all over the place.
And there's this belief,
this optimism that the bull
market will never end.
No one could have foreseen
what was coming in
October of 1920.
In an instant,
the roaring twenties are over.
And the fortunes of the Titans
and the entire country
will never be the same.
‐ What's the position
on standard oil?
‐ Standard oil is down
by 14% and dropping.
UK.S. steel down by 200.
‐ Sell down all the stock yet?
Hold the position
on standard oil.
In just three days,
the stock market loses
almost half its value.
After a decade of
reckless spending,
investors suddenly
start to get nervous
and begin offloading shares
by the tens of millions.
It's the biggest
sell off in history.
‐ Traders know what
that feels like
and they know what it means.
It starts to feed on itself
and it, and the momentum just
picks up so rapidly.
And so, when the market started
selling off in 1929,
it snowballed.
‐ If you're a stock broker
looking up at a board
in 1929 and just watching
the numbers tick down minute
by minute by minute, it'll
make your heart stop.
I think that there
were people who just
couldn't even fathom what
they were looking at.
‐ JP Morgan is watching his
world crumble before his eyes
but he knows if anyone
can pull the country out
of the crisis, it's him.
Mr. Morgan,
what's happening?
Has the stock market
stopped falling?
‐ The worst is over,
everything's going to be okay.
Are you sure?
‐ Trust me, everything's
going to be fine.
‐ JP Morgan says,
things are fine.
Everybody goes back and buys.
‐ UK. S. Steel up to one seven.
‐ Good.
By the power
of his word alone, JP Morgan
turns around the stock
market and makes sure
that he buys at the lowest
point to make a huge profit.
Most people think the Great
Depression began right
after the stock market crash.
‐ Though the crash of 29
is considered the start
of the Great Depression, in
fact, it took another couple
of years before the full depth
of this depression hit
the American public.
‐ So in the world of the stock
market, there's this thing
called a V‐shaped recovery.
You just go down real quick
and come back real quick.
So in the brief
aftermath of the crash
there actually was a
little V and at the time,
they thought it was a big V.
With the crash seemingly over,
du Pont decides he's still
going to beat Chrysler
with the tallest
building in the world,
the Empire State building.
‐ In the fall of 1929
Raskob and du Pont, they're
crunching the numbers.
From du Pont's point of view,
it made perfect
sense to go forward.
There was every reason
to believe at that point
that their project would
be economically successful.
‐ But Chrysler's new spire
has complicated du Pont's plan.
So his architects add floors
to increase the height.
It will be taller.
Yes, 1,054 feet.
And the Chrysler building?
1,050 feet.
‐ So we'll be four feet taller?
‐ Yes.
‐ The original plans for
the Empire State building
was just to have a flat top
at a height that was greater
than a Chrysler's building.
‐ Four feet.
Chrysler gets to stick
an umbrella on top
and say he's taller.
‐ But evidently that
wasn't enough comfort.
It wasn't enough room to be
sure that they were going
to have the world's
tallest building.
So in December of 1929, they
announced that they have come
up with this plan to erect
a 250 foot high structure
which is mostly decorative,
so that is a statement.
Du Pont wanted to
literally and figuratively
put Walter Chrysler's
building in the shade.
To create a
building of this magnitude,
du Pont oversees the most
ambitious construction project
in American history.
Every day, 57,000 tons of
steel arrive from Pittsburgh.
‐ All the materials,
all the steel and stone
and the piping, everything
needed to arrive
at the site just in time
for when it was to
be put in place.
And legend has it that the
steel was still warm to touch.
A new floor is added each day,
thanks in part to the talents
of a new group of workers.
‐ Native American iron workers
from the Mohawk tribe
actually play a role
in the construction
of the Empire State building.
They're sought after iron workers
because they're recognized
as masters of the craft
and for being fearless
because of their ability to work
hundreds of feet in the air.
The Empire State
building is a true Colossus.
Three times wider than
the Chrysler building
and the first
building in the world
to have more than 100 floors.
For Chrysler, it's a disaster.
His enemy's building
is overtaking him
right before his eyes.
Chrysler decides his only move
is to try to stop
the construction.
Chrysler launches
a smear campaign.
‐ Form take two.
To make people doubt
that the Empire State building
is structurally sound.
‐ And action.
‐ Do you think it's possible
to build anything taller
than the Chrysler building?
‐ No I do not.
‐ Skyscrapers must have
seemed strange to people
as electricity once had.
They saw these massive
buildings arising
out of the landscape
and many wondered if
they'd topple over.
‐ A tall structure has
the potential to develop
stress fractures that could
lead to catastrophic failure.
‐ So you're saying the Chrysler
building will be the tallest
building for the
foreseeable future?
Du Pont knows this is just
Chrysler being Chrysler.
Construction continues
without delay.
The sooner he can top
out his skyscraper,
the sooner he can claim
victory over Walter Chrysler.
But as it nears completion,
Chrysler takes one last swing
saying the tower shouldn't
count, since it's decorative.
Coming from the person who
pushed a metal spire up
to make his building taller.
Du Pont responds by taking a
page out of Chrysler's playbook.
He tells the press that
the tower is far more
than just decorative.
It's a docking station for
airships,
and he can prove it.
‐ They announce a plan
to erect a mooring mast
where airships could anchor.
The passengers would
then exit the air ship
and then they would
go down the elevator.
But these things
are utter fiction.
In fact, no airship ever docked
with du Pont's tower.
The photograph he distributed
to the newspapers was a
fake created by a specialist
a half century before Photoshop.
‐ They knew at the time that
the mooring mast would never
be able to moor air ships.
The truth is when you're
1,250 feet in the air,
the forces of wind
are incredible.
There did not exist a
captain who was willing
to dock at the top of the
Empire State building.
The mooring mast, if anything,
was a kind of exclamation point,
a way to say this race is over,
there's no way you
can beat us now.
The Empire State
building officially opens.
In just two years,
the New York skyline
has been permanently altered
thanks to competing egos.
And Pierre du Pont
can now say he built
the tallest structure on earth,
but it quickly
turns into a hollow victory.
Nobody is leasing office space.
The Empire State building
is virtually empty.
‐ There's a bit of a myth
about what really happened
in terms of the timing
around the Great Depression.
It looked after 1929,
that things might be okay,
but just for a moment,
the V shaped recovery,
you could call it
just like a check mark
before a real swoon.
By 1931, the
Great Depression has arrived.
And this time not even
JP Morgan can stop it.
‐ House and property is
estimated at $7.3 million,
commercial properties,
including the Manhattan office
hold value at $12.6 million,
liquid cash holdings
are approximately 256
million and change.
‐ As the Great
Depression takes hold,
the house of Morgan is
cut in size by half.
‐ Furniture vehicles,
non‐commercial ancillary
properties.
‐ For God's sake,
get to the point.
‐ Overall assets
down by 400 million.
‐ So it is
dramatically affected.
The stock market loses 90%
of its value and America faces
another unforeseen disaster.
The nation's banks
begin to fail.
‐ So we all put our deposits
in a bank and we expect
to get that money back
with some interest.
But if we all get scared,
then I want to run to the bank
before you do, I want to pull
my money out before you do,
and then everybody pulls
out, that's a bank run,
and the bank collapses.
By the end of
1931, 3,000 banks have closed
and with them, billions
of dollars simply vanish.
‐ To watch your net
worth disappear,
in some cases, in a matter
of minutes and hours.
I know they're just numbers
but there's a
reality behind that.
And there are so
many people who lived
through that period
and it changed them,
it changed them forever.
Half the active
manpower of the United States
drifting helplessly
in search of work.
Marriages off by 22%,
birth rate down sharply,
suicide rate, 40% higher.
By the beginning of 1932
the world's strongest
economy has ground to a halt.
‐ This becomes the deepest,
longest lasting
economic downturn
not just in us history.
It's a global phenomenon
with a devastating impact.
‐ Spending is down
across the board.
In New York City, no one
is leasing office space
in du Pont's new tower.
The press is calling it,
the Empty State building.
The news from his car
company is even worse.
GM's sales are
down by two thirds
and Walter Chrysler is
doing just as badly.
‐ The reality is, if
you've lost everything
and you can't even
afford to feed yourself
the last thing on your
mind is going to be buying
a new automobile.
Henry Ford initially believes
he's well positioned to
ride out the depression.
‐ Henry Ford, he never
trusted Wall Street.
He thought Wall
Street was gambling
and that it was to
rip off the folks.
‐ All good here, fellas?
‐ So when the Great
Depression hit
and every company's stocks
are going downwards,
you're watching Henry
Ford say I don't
play the Stock Market.
But before
long, the depression catches
up with him too.
Ford hasn't seen car sales so
low since before World War I.
Ford's airplanes are
doing even worse.
Hungry men live in shacks
reaching the braod avenues of
‐ Two things happened with
Ford aviation at the beginning
of the depression.
One is the demand for
$50,000 airplanes dried up
almost instantly and the
other thing that happened
was there was a
number of crashes.
‐ Within the span
of a single year,
there were four major
crashes of Ford Tri Motors
that killed over 40 people.
In several cases, everyone
aboard the aircraft died.
‐ Of course I tried six times.
You're welcome to
try them yourself.
No, that's not what I meant.
Look, nobody's flying.
Yeah, I'm doing it.
There's one person Edsel knows
that could convince the public
the Tri Motors are safe,
but Ford's partner in
aviation, Charles Lindbergh
is dealing with a
crisis of his own.
In 1932, Lindbergh's 20
month old son is kidnapped.
‐ Everything about Charles
Lindbergh was a big story.
The birth of his
baby was a big story.
And then when that
child was kidnapped,
it was the biggest story
in the United States.
And then
his child is found dead.
The press refuse
to leave him alone.
Lindbergh is devastated.
‐ What if we, we built with the
metal, you know, like boomy.
Dad, wasn't expecting you.
Everything okay?
‐ It's time to cut our losses.
‐ What are you talking about?
‐ I'm shutting
Ford Aviation down.
‐ We have orders,
it could be huge.
‐ That's it, it's over.
Can I trust you to
make this happen?
‐ Sure, Dad,
whatever you want.
‐ Good.
‐ Edsel was devastated,
one of his friends said
that they had never
seen him so depressed.
Just like that Edsel
Ford's whole identity,
his whole future,
what he thought
it was going to be was gone.
But while
most titans are struggling
to survive, the Great
Depression, one is thriving.
William Boeing.
‐ Even though there
was a depression going
on for the rest of
the United States,
there were still lucrative
airmail contracts
from the UK S government and
so it was a very good time
especially for Boeing
and the early 1930s.
Americans
might not be buying cars
or taking trips but they're
sending more letters than ever.
And Boeing's planes
are moving them.
Boeing now controls most
of the air mail business
but he wants all of it.
‐ Mr. President.
He's come to
Washington to make his case
to the president,
Herbert Hoover.
‐ Now you and I both know
there is no oversight.
Do you honestly believe
you're not being bled dry?
I play by rules
but these other guys they're
raking you over the coals.
‐ Mr. Boeing.
‐ Mr. President.
‐ William Boeing convinced
the Hoover administration
that these small
independent companies
that had airmail contracts
were actually cheating
the federal government.
Boeing argued, you really
should be trusting, reliable,
dependable,
trustworthy companies
like my company with
the airmail contracts
and amazingly the Hoover
administration agreed.
The new
routes are worth millions
of dollars for Boeing's
growing business.
While the rest of the
industry struggles to survive,
Boeing buys up aviation
companies for pennies
on the dollar and adds
them to his empire.
‐ Bill Boeing makes this
incredible vertical business.
Airplanes, engines, propellers.
He has a school to train pilots
and mechanics and even
builds his own airfield.
Everything under
one corporation.
‐ Boeing has bought nearly
every airplane company
in the country, combining them
into the largest airline
the world has ever seen.
He calls the new
company, United Airlines.
By 1932, William
Boeing has expanded his empire
with his newly formed
United airlines.
But for most Americans,
the depression is taking
a devastating toll.
‐ When the stock market crashed,
Herbert Hoover thought
that was just a weird spasm
in the stock market
and we would come back
so he didn't do anything.
And meanwhile, people suffered
like you can't even imagine.
People were living in
little shanty towns,
they started being
called Hoovervilles.
We were in deep dark shape.
‐ Things went from bad
to worse so quickly
that American business
was in grave peril.
They need consumers.
They need a sound currency.
They need a sound
banking system.
They need an overall economy
that's going to function
well on a macro level
if they're going to remain
profitable themselves.
Du Pont has closed GM factories
and laid off workers and still,
he's losing millions.
In New York, Wall
Street is a ghost town
and. Morgan is
bleeding money.
‐ By 1932, as the
depression tightens
and deepens as millions
of more Americans go
on the unemployment roles,
as the savagery
of the great depression
becomes more apparent,
. Morgan Jr. And
the house of Morgan,
they begin to doubt Hoover.
‐ Many American business leaders
thought that Herbert Hoover's
administration handled
it so poorly.
They needed decisive action.
Morgan and du Pont decide
the time has come for a change.
With an election coming,
they make it their mission
to get President Hoover
kicked out of office.
They found their candidate,
an elite like them,
from one of the most
respected political families
in America.
‐ Governor.
Franklin Delano Roosevelt.
‐ Mr. Morgan, my
friend, Pierre du Pont
‐ Good to meet you, sir.
‐ Good to meet you.
‐ Franklin Roosevelt was
a aristocratic child,
a patrician, born
on the Hudson river,
lived there, went to prep
school, went to Harvard.
‐ He was very much in the
upper‐class in New York.
He could really
communicate extremely well
with people from all classes,
all religions, all
races, et cetera.
Although he
conceals it from the public,
FDR has lived with polio
since the age of 39.
‐ He didn't do anything
to bring on his polio.
Now for the rest of his life,
he couldn't walk again unaided.
And the essence of
the great depression
for millions of Americans was,
"I didn't do anything wrong,
but the sky fell in upon me."
And Roosevelt was able to
connect with those people.
‐ Mr. Harrison's office please.
‐ Well, wake him up.
Morgan and du
Pont throw their influence
and their money behind FDR.
‐ Let's talk about the
Roosevelt campaign.
‐ Yes, I want to talk to you
about the Roosevelt campaign.
‐ We're very excited
about Roosevelt.
I think he's all right.
‐ du Pont and the
house of Morgan,
and turning their attention
away from Herbert Hoover
and embracing FDR,
supporting FDR with their money.
This really was an example
of an early super pack.
On the campaign trail,
FDR is greeted by huge crowds.
He blames Hoover for
the nation's misery
and positions himself as
the candidate of change,
promising desperate
Americans a new deal.
‐ He was very fuzzy on what
the new deal was going to be.
He simply promised that the
government would be more active
and be more helpful,
but it wasn't clear
what that meant.
All they knew was it
sounded a whole lot better
than be very quiet
and seemingly too little
too late ideas of Herbert.
‐ I am confident.
‐ He was a great politician, FDR
and he was able to
appeal to the unemployed,
the working people,
without startling the
rich industrial titans.
‐ Well we'll wait and see.
FDR wins the
election in a landslide.
His inaugural address
brings hope to millions.
So first of all,
let me assert my firm belief
that the only thing we have
to fear is
fear itself.
‐ Good morning sir.
And there must be an end
to a conduct in banking and
in business which too often
has given to a sacred trust
the likeness of callous
and selfish wrongdoing.
‐ The speech is one of the
great political speeches
of the 20th century.
Practices of the
unscrupulous money changers
stand indicted in the
court of public opinion.
‐ And the Morgan bankers,
they're expecting
that their voice
will be listened to
in the White House
as it has been more
or less since 1918,
incorrectly as it transpired.
They have resorted
In the speech,
Roosevelt says the first
thing he's going to do
is go after the bankers.
This nation is asking for action
and action now.
And within two
weeks, FDR turns on Morgan
and comes for him.
‐. Morgan Jr.
‐ helped put Franklin Roosevelt
into office but now,
the President is
coming after him.
‐ How many?
The hell is this?
To pull America
out of the depression,
FDR is targeting the people
he thinks caused the crash.
Bankers.
‐ Roosevelt needed an enemy
in order to justify the
major changes he knew
he would have to undertake
to get the economy moving
and he was a good enough
politician to know
that you had to find an enemy
that many people would hate.
‐ And. Morgan was
an obvious person.
His name was synonymous
with Wall Street.
So, just like today, if you're
upset with big business
you call Jeff Bezos to
testify before Congress
and Mark Zuckerberg.
Well. Morgan was that guy.
Now, FDR intends
to create a public spectacle
to ensure that
. Morgan becomes
the face of the
stock market crash.
Roosevelt taps a tough New
York lawyer, Ferdinand Pecora,
to call Morgan before Congress.
‐ The hearings as it turned out,
were the subject of
extraordinary interest.
Mr. Morgan.
Thank you very much
for joining us today.
‐ It was late May early June,
and it was unusually
hot in Washington DC
and there was no air
conditioning in those days.
It was Torrid in every
sense of the word.
‐ You know what, proportion
of your total business
and total profits rise
from your transactions
on the stock exchange?
‐ I wouldn't know off hand,
it would take a long time
to find out.
‐ What was the reason for
not keeping any minutes
or other written record
of the proceedings?
‐ Well, for reasons
of convenience.
Take a man's time
to write them up
and they'd be of no use to you.
‐ Did you manipulate the stock
market for your own gains?
Yes?
‐ Yes, no.
‐ Mr. Morgan, please
answer the question.
Yes or no?
The hearings accomplish
exactly what FDR wanted.
Millions of Americans now
believe that. Morgan
and his Wall Street elites
led the nation to ruin.
‐ FDR was not going
to coddle the rich.
He genuinely believed that
the concentration of power
in a few hands was
bad for our country.
But Roosevelt is doing more
than just pinning the
crash on. Morgan.
He's drawing a line in the sand
between the rich elites and
the rest of the country.
‐ He picked his
enemies carefully
and he cast them
as these dinosaurs
who have only their own
moneyed interests at heart
and we need to get
them out of the way,
so that the American
people could live up
to the American dream.
To prove once and
for all which side he's on,
FDR is going to take
down another titan
who got him elected.
Pierre du Pont
And to do it,
FDR will capitalize
on a best‐selling book
about world war one.
‐ The idea behind the
"Merchants of Death"
was that if the United
States government
and the American people
were dragged into
or duped into war by
bankers, by industrialists,
by people who are going
to profit from war.
And one of the chief villains
that they arrive at is du Pont.
Pierre du Pont and
the du Pont company
were deeply offended by this.
They really
genuinely did not see
that they had done
anything criminal.
Du Pont soon finds himself
the subject of a
congressional inquiry.
‐ You charged the
government $100 million
to build your
smokeless powder piles
and then another 200 million
in operating expense.
The du Pont company
pocketed at a profit
of nearly $50 million.
While thousands of soldiers
were sent to their deaths.
You are quite simply
a war profiteer
but now, operating not in
accordance with the interests
For du Pont,
everything he's trying to
leave behind resurfaces.
‐ du Pont and the du Pont
company get the label
of being the "Merchant of Death"
which is catchy
and horrific.
‐ Franklin Roosevelt was a
very, very gifted politician.
And he saw this as
a real opportunity
to appeal to American voters.
If du Pont was vilified
in the process,
that's the price of politics.
This Nation is
asking for action,
and action now.
For du Pont, his family
name and reputation
have been dragged
through the mud.
But for Morgan, his entire
empire is being threatened.
Congress passes a law
that sets new rules
for how Morgan can operate.
His banking empire
will be broken up.
‐ You have these titans
who are used to
calling all the shots.
Who are used to having
things go their way.
They didn't like
government interference.
Unable to conduct business
how he wants in America,
Morgan turns his focus
to an area FDR can't touch,
outside of the UK. S.
‐. Morgan Jr. loaned
millions of dollars
to various countries to
finance all kinds of regimes.
It was financing
the British Empire.
It was financing
the French Republic
and it was financing
Japan and Germany as well.
‐ But Germany now
has a new leader.
Adolf Hitler.
Loaning them money is a decision
that Morgan will come to regret.
After cracking down
on Morgan and du Pont,
FDR turns to phase two
of his recovery plan.
Getting the country
back to work.
‐ President Roosevelt
told the nation
that the project
would set an example
of funding for all the
generations to come.
‐ Roads and trails are
being made safe and easy
for motor cars.
‐ Democracy had
stepped on the gas.
‐ FDR went in fast mode
with his new deal programs
where you would build bridges
and roads and infrastructure
to constantly put some form
of funding into middle‐class
poor and unemployed
people's hands.
FDR chooses one
project to be the centerpiece
of his new deal.
It will require a
massive workforce
and four million cubic
yards of concrete.
A project this big
would be a perfect fit
for industrial type means
like Ford or du Pont,
but FDR doesn't trust them.
So he gives it to an unknown.
His name is Henry Kaiser.
‐ Henry Kaiser starts
out at the bottom
of the construction industry.
He's the son of immigrants.
He comes from humble origins.
He doesn't go to
Ivy league schools.
But the one thing he
learns early on is that,
he was always willing
to work harder
and longer than anyone else.
We need to know if we
can get those foundations in..
One day,
he'll have so many
people working for him
that he starts a
healthcare company
for his workers.
Kaiser Permanente.
‐ All of this here, all of
this is gonna have to
But right now, he's a nobody.
Now Kaiser has been given
the job of his life.
Far out West in the
hot barren desert.
Kaiser's project is
already underway.
If completed,
it will be the most
ambitious engineering project
America has ever built.
The Hoover dam.
Initial construction
began under Herbert Hoover.
Blasting enormous tunnels
through solid rock
to divert the Colorado river.
Now more than two
years into the project,
the river bed is dry and ready
but the dam itself
hasn't been started.
The press is calling it,
"The $50 million
hole in the ground."
‐ It was an unimaginably
hostile environment.
Desert heat of dust.
‐ Where's my engineer?
‐ Men who worked on it said
that conditions were harsher
than anything they
had ever experienced.
But Kaiser has
run into a serious problem.
Constructing the largest
dam in the world,
requires a massive
amount of concrete.
‐ 120, this is way too hot.
Enough to pave a
two lane highway
from San Francisco to New York.
‐ What's it at?
‐ 120 after 72 hours.
It's not enough.
What do you think we should do?
‐ I need you to
monitor this closely
and let me know as soon
as anything changes.
You can take the
temperature down.
Pouring this
much concrete can result
in a very dangerous outcome.
Cracking.
‐ Concrete emits
heat as it cures
and if it's not cooled properly,
you'll get cracks
in the concrete
and the entire structure
will be much weaker
and in fact, it might fail.
There was so much concrete
going into Hoover dam,
experts estimated that
it would take more
than a century to
fully cool down.
In 1928,
just a couple of years before
Hoover dam project began,
the St. Francis dam in
California had failed.
The reservoir behind St.
Francis emptied in 11 minutes
and then swept toward the coast,
taking people, and houses,
and livestock with it.
450 people lost their lives.
Kaiser needs to
figure out a solution quickly
or he could jeopardize
FDRs new deal
and his project will be one
of the most expensive failures
in American history.
In the Nevada desert,
the biggest most
important project
in FDR's new deal is underway
but Henry Kaiser has a problem.
He needs to find a way to
cool four million cubic yards
of concrete as it hardens
or the Hoover Dam will fail.
‐ Henry Kaiser was
someone who said
"Get the job done no
matter what it takes."
And a good example of
that is the challenge
they have when they
have to figure out
how to cool the concrete
used in the construction
of the Hoover dam.
He and his team figure
out they can do this
by cooling it from
the inside out.
Kaiser embeds nearly 600 miles
of piping into the concrete
and then pumps chilled
river water through it.
‐ Henry Kaiser built a
whole refrigeration plant
to cool the water that would
be pumped through the dam
to help it cool properly.
With chilled water running
through every
section of the dam,
the concrete cools in
a fraction of the time.
‐ I think one of the
critical components
to being successful in
business is being decisive
because you're going to
have a lot of naysayers,
so you're going to
have to be decisive
and know, "I believe
this is going to work.
I'm going to put all
my energy behind it."
Over 20,000 people
will work on the Hoover dam
but that's just the
tip of the iceberg.
All across America,
FDR's new deal programs
are creating millions
of well‐paying jobs
and for the first time in years,
people start to feel
optimistic about the future.
‐ Money is circulating
in the hands of people
and the assumption is
that this might actually
stimulate the economy.
‐ Good morning, Mr. Boeing.
‐ Morning.
Ladies and gentlemen,
thank you for coming.
You are the first Americans
to witness the
future of aviation.
By late 1933,
Boeing rules the skies
and he's even built
a passenger plane
like no one's ever seen before.
‐ The Boeing 247 is faster
than any other civilian plane.
Boasting a top speed of
over 200 miles per hour.
You can have
breakfast in New York
and be in Los Angeles in
time to catch the sunset.
‐ The Boeing 247 was
a huge step forward
in aviation both in design,
as well as aviation technology.
It's sleek, single wing,
all metal, art deco design.
It just looks like
a modern airplane.
Boeing is betting that soon
the public will be flying again
and he's completely changing
the entire flying experience.
‐ Bill Boeing's airline
hired eight nurses
to care for the passengers,
ease their fears and
take care of them
if they're sick
during the flight.
These were the first flight
attendants in the world.
‐ Smile for the camera's ladies.
With his new plane
and growing control
of the skies,
who could possibly stop him now?
Just one man.
The President.
He believes the government
should be in charge of mail,
not Boeing.
A scandal gives FDR his opening.
‐ Mr. Boeing, Mr. President.
‐ The air mail scandal was a
disaster for William Boeing.
It really took the shine off
of his company's reputation
because newspapers across
the country were running
front page stories
about corruption, and
bribery, and graft,
and suddenly William Boeing's
entire aviation empire
is now under the
scrutiny of the public.
‐ FDR believed that there
was an unfair advantage given
to these large corporate
titans to make profits
at the expense of
the American people.
And so the charges of monopoly
really drove Roosevelt
to act.
‐ William Boeing?
‐ Yes?
What's this?
FDR terminates all of
Boeing's air mail contracts.
In the wake of
a scandal, FDR takes away
all of William Boeing's
air mail contracts.
For Boeing, it's a catastrophe.
‐ William Boeing was
counting on that revenue
and income to continue to invest
in and expand his business.
So without those airmail
contracts, he has now lost one
of the only sources of
guaranteed income in the 1930s.
Roosevelt
believes that just like
with the Hoover Dam,
airmail is best left
in the trusted hands
of the government.
‐ There had been corruption
and bribery involved.
And so President Roosevelt
decided the UK. S. Army Air Corps,
the early American Air Force,
would deliver the mail.
‐ The Army Air Corps
now have to pick up
for these very experienced
pilots who had been
flying every day
over well‐proven routes
and scheduled airlines.
They now have to pick it
up and carry that forward.
The army realizes immediately
just how unprepared
they are for the job.
Their planes are
leftovers from World War I
and most of the pilots
are inexperienced.
‐ They don't have the planes.
They don't have the
infrastructure in terms of
flying day and night
around the clock
in all types of
weather operations
For the young
pilots flying old planes,
it's a disaster
waiting to happen.
‐ In a span of six weeks,
you have more than 60 crashes
killing many young
airmail pilots.
It was a public relations
nightmare for FDR.
Roosevelt
realizes he has no choice.
He reverses his decision and
gives the airmail business
back to private industry.
‐ It was a big
humiliation for Roosevelt.
He had just been
elected a year before
and he was flying high.
He was very popular
because of the New Deal.
And this was his first
real political defeat.
But when FDR
does give air mail back,
there's a huge catch.
The government will no
longer permit companies to
both build planes and fly them.
Boeing's empire is broken up
but the president
doesn't stop there.
As punishment for
creating a monopoly,
FDR specifically
bans William Boeing
for life from ever
flying air mail again.
It's a staggering blow
to the aviation titan.
‐ Bill Boeing was very
angry, disappointed
to be attacked by the government
and be accused of
being a criminal.
It crushed him.
It was more than
he could accept.
In just two
decades, William Boeing turned
a small plane‐making business
into the largest aviation
empire in the world,
taking out industrial
giants along the way.
Now, while the company bearing
his name will restructure
and live on, William Boeing
is forced into retirement.
FDR has taken down
another titan.
After the Boeing scandal,
FDR wants to make sure
all American businesses
play by the rules.
So he passes a sweeping
new law forcing companies
to allow unions.
‐ This was an
extraordinary moment.
This shifted the power structure
of American industry entirely.
‐ It became clear that
business leaders didn't
know what workers wanted
or workers needed.
And this was Roosevelt's way
of trying to show
the American public
that he could maintain
capitalism,
but improve the lives
of those who were
stuck in the system.
Often in horrible jobs, by
making their jobs better.
To industrial giants,
the law is an attack
on capitalism.
‐ It was a huge change.
Government is going to
tell you to some degree
how to run your own business.
People become entrepreneurs
because they don't
like other people
telling them what to do.
And now all of a sudden,
the government's trying
to tell them what to do.
They didn't like it a bit.
No one hates
it more than Henry Ford.
‐ Yes, no. I've only just heard.
My God, this is exactly
what I was trying to avoid.
No, I'll talk to him, myself.
‐ What FDR was basically
saying was
yes, you guys have huge power
but that power needs
to be balanced.
‐ The early Henry Ford of
the Model T era was seen as
the ultimate people's person
because of his $5
a day to workers,
but he didn't believe in
the union movement.
And so if you were a
union activist working
in Henry Ford's facility
you weren't going to keep
your job for very long.
Ford calls Roosevelt a tyrant
and says he'll never
negotiate with unions.
‐ Henry Ford felt
threatened by FDR.
The problem for Henry Ford
and many industrialists
at the time was
that they saw the
federal government trying
to dictate how they
ran their businesses.
And this did not sit
well with Henry Ford.
Nobody was going
to tell Henry Ford
how to run his own business.
‐ Heads of businesses
never want regulations.
They never want
rules. No one does.
But at that time in history,
the everyday American
the everyday worker
wanted better rights.
In the middle of a depression,
these titans' cries
fell on deaf ears
because they weren't the
most important voice.
By 1935, Franklin Roosevelt
is as popular as ever
and out west,
the president celebrates
a major victory
for his New Deal.
The dedication of
the Hoover Dam.
Rising 726 feet above
the bedrock of the river,
bordering the geography
of a whole region,
we are here to
celebrate the completion
of the greatest
dam in the world.
‐ The Hoover Dam changed
the United States
and brought electricity
to thousands and thousands
of American families.
And it put tens of
thousands of people to work
not just in the
building of the dam
but then in the
management of the dam.
Hoover dam was in some ways
the perfect New Deal project.
It brought light to people,
it brought hope to people.
And it also brought confidence.
We could do new things.
We could achieve things
again, we could overcome fear.
Remarkably
absent from the dam's opening
is the man who built
it, Henry Kaiser.
FDR has already sent him
off to oversee more projects
like the Oakland Bay bridge
and the Grand Coulee dam.
Two jobs worth a quarter
billion dollars alone.
It's a massive
investment in America,
which FDR pays for by
significantly raising taxes
on America's richest titans.
‐ The Roosevelt administration
needed to find ways to
fund the New Deal.
One of those was a wealth tax.
‐ Roosevelt had the audacity
to raise the wealth tax
up to as much as 75%.
And he scared the bejesus
out of industrial titans.
‐ Morgan is so angry
with Roosevelt
that it becomes personal
and he can't stand to read
or hear anything about FDR.
Wait.
In fact, there's a
story that Morgan's servants
are instructed to cut
out all references to FDR
in the paper.
Thank you.
‐ Morgan himself saw
FDR as a class traitor,
as a charlatan, as
a left wing hack
who betrayed his own class
in order to help the masses.
This to him was a cardinal sin.
For du Pont, whose reputation
has already been
destroyed by FDR,
the wealth tax is
the last straw.
He calls on other
titans of industry
to do something about it.
‐ Gentlemen, we
have been vilified
for all the country's ills.
We've become pariahs
and it's all because
of this president.
So,
we all know what we have to do.
‐ All of these guys hated FDR.
He was raising
75% taxes on them.
He was a fan of labor
unions, and he openly talked
about how he hated the banks.
They thought he was a socialist.
Together, they form the
American Liberty League.
It's a bold move with
one clear mission.
Stop FDR from getting reelected.
‐ Many different industry
leaders, even competitors
within the auto
industry came together
in the Liberty League
because they shared a concern
about the way Roosevelt
was using his political
power to limit what
they wanted to do.
Nothing brings competitors
together better
than a common enemy.
They back a
candidate to run against FDR,
Alf Landon.
They know if elected, Landon
would do what they want.
So they bankroll
his entire campaign.
‐ Let's drink.
With du Pont
fronting almost a third of it.
By election night,
they hope it's enough.
This Baseball
park is a good place
to talk about box scores.
From where I stand, it
looks as if the game
was pretty well in the bag.
President
Roosevelt was cheery as ever
when he went into the booth
to record his own vote
and a few hours afterwards,
his optimism was justified.
Broadway went mad as
the former president was
returned again with the
biggest majority ever
known in American politics.
In an election of
42 million votes,
the president wins the
most overwhelming victory
in the country's history and
the greatest popular election
in the history of the world.
FDR has been reelected
president in a landslide.
He carries all but two states.
The Liberty League's
efforts are for nothing.
‐ The Liberty league failed
for one very simple reason.
Roosevelt's policies
were working.
The Liberty League had
a very weak argument.
What were they defending?
Going back to Herbert Hoover?
Who would support that?
FDR's reelection
means four more years
of fighting with
the White House.
At this point, the titans and
FDR are bitter adversaries.
But what none of them realize is
the real enemy is
4,000 miles away.
He's building up his army and
is growing more
powerful every day.
Since the
devastating loss of his son,
Charles Lindbergh
has been in hiding.
But now he's back in the pilot
seat, testing a new plane.
For Hitler.
‐ Charles Lindbergh had
been living in Europe
since the early thirties.
Lindbergh had had
it with the press
after his child was
kidnapped and murdered.
Hitler has
spent the last five years
building a massive military.
His Luftwaffe air force
is the crown jewel
and he wants the world to know.
‐ While living in Europe,
Lindbergh was invited
to come to Germany
by Herman Goehring,
head of the Luftwaffe.
Lindbergh is
the first American to see
the German war machine up close.
‐ This is part of his legacy.
Charles Lindbergh went
from being an American hero
to a friend of the Nazis.
To Hitler, the American hero
is the perfect pawn to
deliver Germany's message.
‐ Hitler hopes that Lindbergh
would be incredibly impressed
with the progress that
the Germans had made
in terms of aircraft production.
And he proved to be right.
Upon returning to America,
Lindbergh brings a dire warning.
‐ The Messerschmidt is
not like any other plane.
It's in a different league.
And trust me, I
have flown the best.
‐ What makes it so good?
‐ It's fast, 380 miles an hour.
The fastest in the book.
It can fly higher than any
other plane, 20,000 feet.
How many do they have?
‐ Around 5,000, but
they are building more.
Bombers, too.
If there was a war,
no country in Europe
would stand a chance
against Germany.
Come to think of it,
neither would America.
‐ Lindbergh was incredibly
impressed by the new bombers,
the new fighters that
Germany had developed.
He did exactly what
Hitler wanted him to.
He basically told
the rest of the world
that he thought
Germany was invincible.
By 1937, Hitler's army
is a half a million strong
and is on track to quadruple
in size in less than two years.
And there's more bad news.
Japan has just invaded China
and also has built
up a huge army.
‐ Suddenly you have
two super power armies
and it's obvious
they're on the March.
In Tokyo, there
is widespread rejoicing.
Now, say the Japanese
generals, it is our turn.
Japan marches in
China against
FDR realizes war is inevitable.
‐ As he saw Japan going
to war against China,
Roosevelt thought,
okay, this is trouble.
The United States will suffer
if the Japanese gain
control of East Asia.
As Germany rearmed
for war, he saw how
the United States would
inevitably get involved,
drawn into a war in Europe.
But there's a huge problem.
During the depression,
FDR has been focusing
on rebuilding America's economy
and infrastructure and
spent virtually no money
on its own military.
‐ America's situation,
as far as being prepared
for fighting a modern
war, was pretty abysmal.
We had maybe the 18th largest
military in the world.
Holland had a bigger
military than we did.
Hungary had a better
military than we did.
FDR knows
he must quickly build up
America's military.
Tanks, ships, planes, munitions
on an industrial scale
never before attempted
in American history.
‐ America's going to
need to build hundreds
of factories and hire
millions of workers.
And there are really
only a few people
in the country equipped
in that moment to be able
to do that.
Titans like Ford, du
Pont, Morgan, Chrysler
and Boeing.
‐ I think there's an
irony that Roosevelt has
to turn to some of the
people he vilified,
but that's how American
capitalism works.
And now FDR needs these titans,
the very people he's
condemned, to help
save the world.
Next time on the Titans
That Built America.
As World War II
begins in Europe,
FDR needs help
preparing for battle.
‐ You're asking me to start
producing munitions again?
‐ The president is
asking, as well.
‐ The same President who labeled
me the merchant of death.
After years
of the Great Depression,
Americans have no appetite
for another crisis.
‐ You can tell FDR that
Ford makes cars, not planes.
If he wants planes,
you can tell him
to go to a damn plane maker.
But a surprise
attack at Pearl Harbor
changes everything.
‐ Sir, please come quickly.
The bombing of Pearl
Harbor by enemy planes
It will take
America's industrial might
to build the greatest
war machine on earth
and the stakes
couldn't be higher.
‐ We're moving as
fast as we can.
Every adjustment means
a delay in the assembly.
‐ We have a problem
with the M‐3.
They're a complete disaster.
Now the Titans
must put aside their differences
with each other
and FDR and unite.
‐ Their goal is to create
a sustained nuclear
chain reaction.
The fate of the
world rests in their hands.
‐ It's only a matter of time.