35. Man of glass (26:27)

Date:
1954
Summary:
Teaching Film Custodians release of a "Cavalcade of America" television series episode, "Man of Glass" (season 2, episode 16), which originally aired January 26th, 1954 on ABC-TV. Traces the history of German-born immigrant Henry William Stiegel from his immigration to Pennsylvania, rising from an industrious worker in an iron foundry, to success as the head of a large glass factory. Describes Stiegel's realization, following his financial ruin, that material success did not make him superior to other men, but that his greatness lay in the beauty of the glassware which he created.

36. Mightier than the sword : Zenger and freedom of the press (21:29)

Date:
1953
Summary:
Teaching Film Custodians abridged classroom version of a Cavalcade of America television series episode, "Mightier Than The Sword" (season 1, episode 13) which originally aired on March 18th, 1953 on NBC-TV. This pre-Revolutionary War drama focuses on the 1734 court case in which Royal Governor William Cosby of New York charged John Peter Zenger with libel because he printed the truth about corruption in Cosby's administration. The outcome of this trial established the principle of freedom of the press. The film shows Cosby arresting Zenger and disbarring James Alexander, Zenger's lawyer, on trumped-up charges. Travelling to Philadelphia, Alexander persuades Alexander Hamilton, one of the oldest and most respected attorneys in all the provinces, to take Zenger's case. Hamilton convinces the jury that publishing the truth is not libelous, resulting in Zenger's acquittal and establishing a precedent in American jurisprudence which would be adopted as a principle of law in the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution 57 years later when the Bill of Rights was ratified in 1791.