News, History & Ephemera · NBC
Heritage Over the Land
January 10, 1954 – April 11, 1954 · 13 broadcasts
A 1954 NBC documentary series on the rebirth of "the New South," funded by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation and over six months in the making. Former foreign correspondent and NBC commentator Henry Cassidy narrates tape-recorded interviews gathered on location across the South -- no actors, only authentic voices -- tracing the region's postwar revolution in industry, agriculture, education and culture.
Thirteen weekly half-hours, each taking up one facet of Southern life -- cotton and dairy farming, timber, textiles, Florida citrus, heavy industry, rivers and ports, TVA power, petrochemicals, research, and the arts -- all framed by the verse from Ecclesiastes 3, "a time to build." Written and directed by William Alan Bales, produced by Lee F. Painton. Twelve of the thirteen programs survive; the finale, "The Last Frontier," is lost.
Collection status:
12 of 13 held (92% complete)
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Episode Spine
1954
January 10, 1954
A Time To Build
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The series opener. Cassidy sets out from playwright Paul Green's Chapel Hill home and travels the Carolinas, Alabama and Georgia, gathering the voices of a "New South" rebuilding itself.
January 24, 1954
The Land is New
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(MP3)
The South's oldest livelihood made new -- cotton and dairy farming turning from the old plantation economy toward modern, diversified agriculture.
January 31, 1954
The Growth of the Timber Industry in the South
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(MP3)
The region's forests as an engine of postwar growth: logging, timber and the construction industries built on them.
February 7, 1954
Pattern for Tomorrow
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(MP3)
The Southern textile mills -- the looms that patterned much of the region's working life and their place in its changing economy.
February 14, 1954
Bounty of the Sun
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(MP3)
Florida's citrus country -- the groves and packing houses that turned Southern sunshine into a national crop.
February 21, 1954
Forge for the Future
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(MP3)
Heavy industry comes South: the growth, and the growing pains, of big industry taking root in a land long defined by farming.
February 28, 1954
Doorway to the Future
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(MP3)
The rivers and ports of the South as its doorway to the world -- the waterways and harbors carrying the region's new output to market.
March 7, 1954
The Power and the Pride
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(MP3)
Industrial power comes to the South, and with it the rising importance of the Tennessee Valley Authority's dams and grids.
March 14, 1954
Legacy of the Centuries
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(MP3)
The South's petrochemical industries -- long-buried natural resources refined into a modern chemical economy.
March 21, 1954
Lesson For Tomorrow
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(MP3)
Research and education in the South -- the universities, laboratories and schools being built, and what they promise for the region's future.
March 28, 1954
Time for Beauty
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(MP3)
The resurgence of cultural life across the South -- the arts, letters and civic beauty rising alongside its factories and farms.
April 4, 1954
The Land is Bright
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(MP3)
Spartanburg, South Carolina stands in for the forces still resisting change even as the series looks ahead -- the last surviving program before the lost finale.
April 11, 1954
The Last Frontier
The Story
A 1954 NBC documentary series on the rebirth of "the New South," funded by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation and over six months in the making. Former foreign correspondent and NBC commentator Henry Cassidy narrates tape-recorded interviews gathered on location across the South -- no actors, only authentic voices -- tracing the region's postwar revolution in industry, agriculture, education and culture.
Thirteen weekly half-hours, each taking up one facet of Southern life -- cotton and dairy farming, timber, textiles, Florida citrus, heavy industry, rivers and ports, TVA power, petrochemicals, research, and the arts -- all framed by the verse from Ecclesiastes 3, "a time to build." Written and directed by William Alan Bales, produced by Lee F. Painton. Twelve of the thirteen programs survive; the finale, "The Last Frontier," is lost.
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