cessed here. these ones are single beach pacific and they are going to be cold today and make it out to restaurants by tomorrow. when it is coming off the bay, this is the harvest container straight from the farm. he is moving the oysters to be washed cleaned. they will be hand graded and mechanically graded to make sure they are the right size. all the extra smalls are the same size and smalls and mediums are all the same size. this is the industry that the industry was based on until the 1920's and 1930's and 1940's when overharvest knocked the population back. we've been farming them for a long, long time. we're one of the few companies that still produces them today.

oysters have a distinctive flavor. it has a coppery aftertaste that is wonderful. they are small oyster bus that have a big flavor. this is the freezer line. we're moving the top shelf shell from the oysters. this is our faster chucker. he is quickly removing the top shell then the oyster will be rinsed, graded and run through a nitrogen freezer. this is a flash freezing the oyster. we'll be running it at 100 degrees below zero and freezing it at a core temperature of 80 degrees below zero in seven minutes. this is our deep freeze. it is about negative 10 fahrenheit in here, which maintains the quality of your

freeze. it is kind of empty right now and we're in the process of restocking it. over the course of the winter, we restock and in the summer we sell them. i feel proud to be parking lot of an industrypart of sucha wonderful industry that has a history. we've been doing this generation after generation. having that connection to the past i have a lot of drive to. we've been doing something in a similar way and if we do it right and protect our environment we can doll it for generations. >> all weekend on american history tv we're featuring historic sites and local historians from cities across america. these are highlights from c-span's 2014 cities tours. see the schedule of where we've been and watch video from all of

our stops. ♪ ♪ >> right now we're at the douglass theatre probably one of the most famous musical landmarks in macon, georgia. it was a theater that started in the 1920's by an entrepreneur and the first african american millionaire charles douglass. charles douglass was macon's

first african american millionaire but he started out with humble beginnings. he was the son of a former slave. he began working with the florida blossoms circuit and how to network different venues that would play or showcase african american artist. it led to the ground work for the chit lynn circuit. he opened it as a premier vaudeville hall. it hosted bessie smith but it would become an important movie theater for african american filmmakers. it became a premier spot and it made macon an important stop in the way. the street douglas theater is on

was well known. the theater was important in building that network of entertainment and touring possibilities. what is interesting is when you get into the later years, in the 1950's the jazz led to eventually the formation of rhythm and blues and soul artists such as james brown and otis redding graced the stage. rhythm and blues began getting its start not long after the break of little richard. we call little richard the break of rock 'n' roll. if he can make it, maybe they could to. it started out as race records as they would call it. they were 45 newly pressed. they couldn't quite put their

finger on that sound. young artists like otis redding would come to local talent shows to perform and try to gain some notoriety. it was broadcast live on the radio. it was here during this talent show that young otis, who is known as rock house redding would win consistently. nobody could beat him. nobody could out play him. one of the listeners on the radio station happened to mimi uncle who would become a business partner and manager with otis redding. phil heard that early sound of otis that would make him so famous, that amazing soul he was able to project.

that is something you could just feel. it was music that you could feel. for whatever reason whatever fate maze have it here in macon georgia, these two young guys a black guy and a white guy in a segregated south would look at each other and shake hands and form an unbelievable partnership that would lead to the commercial success of the music. the douse douglass theatre is a beautiful example of the rich architecture in macon. it survived through the roaring 1920's and the great depression and this intersection of rhythm of blues. in the 1970's it fell into disrepair. it was closed down and