quantities but literally be smaller. the figures became so popular that when g.i. joe was resurrect it as an action figure in the 1980's, a came out in that format, the three and three-quarter inch or met. figures started a new trend in action figures. one of the most important elements was the development of computer technology. you start to see microchips and ins -- simon which comes out 1978 is a big example. texas instruments, with speak and spell using digital technology. these may seem archaic today, of this is the forerunner computer technology we use in games today. theeen 1950's through

1970's, the basic tenants of play didn't change all that much. most important thing was to give children and opportunity to harness their imagination. whether this is a two-way meant for educational purposes or for pure pleasure, that was the primary intent. what is interesting to say -- interesting to see is how many toys influence the occupations of children when they became adults. a lot of kids who played with director sets became engineers and scientists. it's a great way to show how the toys we play with the children really become part of our lives. it can influence where we are as adults. we have anywhere from 500 to a thousand people going through the exhibit on a weekend.

is everyoneeasons remembers what it's like to be a kid. like to knows what it's have that toy that you absolutely love and then there's the opportunity to throw a nerf ball, have the slinky go down the stairs, to play with a loop or play with earl of monkeys. opportunity to learn how to play. >> all weekend long, american history tv is featuring saint paul, minnesota. after the war of 1812, the u.s. government traded extensively with indian tribes of the upper mississippi. saint paul's location at the junction of the mississippi and minnesota rivers made a trade hub. established fort snelling which was completed in 1825. our comcast cable partners worked with c-span's city tour

staff when we recently traveled there to explore the area's rich history. learn more about saint hall all weekend here on american history historystop -- american tv. >> if you want to understand where the modern world is today, there's no better place to start than because he was so complex. that still resonates with him. had a huge impact on fitzgerald and distro had a huge impact on st. paul. st. paul was the most important to f scott fitzgerald's legacy. he lived all over the world.

on his life up until he was probably about 40 and the hollywood years. stories,ad fitzgerald they are washed in st. paul imagery. on september 24, 1896. it was considered a luxury apartment back then. befitting of the daughter, one of the richest men in st. paul. unfortunately, he died pretty young. living offly was kind of the legacy money. but still, they were well respected around the town of st. paul. took his first steps here and said his first words here. there were two sisters that died he suggested he become a writer. another sister was born in new york but he said he did not know anything else existed in the universe until his younger

sister was born. his father went to get a job in to york but they came back st. paul. we are standing in front of st. paul academy, the former st. paul academy. the school has moved now. fitzgerald's parents had a lot of ambition for him. that is why they named him after a distant relative. francis was the middle name of mcluhan, hiss grandfather who had all the money. when the family moved back to st. paul in 1908, and his father could not even keep the family together because of finance, but, they still wanted to thrust him kind of in the st. paul society. so you send him to the most private school in st. paul, st. paul academy. dancing lessons a couple blocks away on grand avenue.

fitzgerald was rubbing shoulders with the elite of the avenue, even though his folks were not quite there. it is not that he was a poor boy. you would think of him of a millionaire amongst the winners. you do not feel sorry for the millionaire. many of his stories are about the influence of money. just the fact at money was a big driver in the united states. just on the cusp of being a , he was very handsome and very smart. natural leader. sometimes, he was probably a little overaggressive. .

apparently, he talked a lot. , but hed to play sports was not very big. he was a little bit taller than i am and weighed a lot less than i do. but he was like on the stump -- the third string baseball team. how many students were here? not that many, probably. he realized he was not going to be the kind of hero athlete, so tothought about other ways gain notoriety. he found it through writing. he was writing detective stories and he liked to read them, so he would write them. he was writing westerns, mysteries. he was writing about the civil father was ofs course alive during the civil war and lived in maryland. his relatives, he heard stories

about his relatives in the civil war. he was doing a lot of different kinds of genres. he was doing place. the plays were being formed around the town and he was gaining notoriety in the town. his parents lived in a couple of different ones. his parents moved from townhome to townhome. with the twociated great loves of his life. east of school. and hisin love with her parents were living at one of the townhomes here, where he kind of moped about. he eventually joined the army and went south and met zelda.

she rejected him because he was not making enough money, he came back to this townhome. this is where magic struck, up in the third-floor space up there, he rewrote the book he would -- he had written while in the army. published. it was literally tacked in and worked really hard to write the book. after he learned the book was going to be published, he ran out and that, my book will be punished -- published. his parents gave him a last chance. get your novel published or go out and get a job.

one of his friends got him a job on the railroad. the world was completely changed. he got the girl of his dreams. zelda agreed to marry him. published.s he became the 21st century self remoter. we, the difference between the victorian age and the jazz age, that kind exemplified of exuberance and self-promotion you see continuing today. his peers would not have done the kinds of things he did. they probably looked down on him a little bit. he got a lot of publicity during his time. he wrote a famous letter about being half lakh irish and then

half of his father from the old southern family. he said he would grovel in front of kitchen maids and is told the rich. i suspect his whole life he had a little bit of a test and. artie complex, especially when he went east of school and saw who made vast amounts of money and that came out in tom buchanan in the great gap it. this show had an interesting relationship with the will of money. they were his friends, but i do not think he worshiped money. he was too frivolous. in order to read frivolous with money, you had to have it very he made a lot of money during his lifetime. he did make money off of his books and he made money off of motion pictures. he made money while in hollywood. he made money selling short stories. he worked really hard and he

made a lot of money area but, he did not worship. the biblical, it is the worship of money that is the root of all evil, not the money itself. ♪ >> when i had the opportunity to come to the louisville house, it is such a thrill for me because i know that this provided in duration for fitzgerald and the kinds of stories he was interested in, to make money. the saturday evening post stories. the academy of that huge volume of work he produced that he felt a little bit ashamed of, but are wonderful stories.

as a real positive place for his career. party at one secular his house that actually .itzgerald did not attend apparently, a young man, it was a costume ball. louisville like to have custom balls and this room would be filled with people with different customs. a young man apparently dressed up in a camels outfit and went to the wrong house. who knows why. the next day, fitzgerald or -- heard about the story and he said he tried to find out more information. but then he just sat down and wrote a short story called a camels back. fitzgerald said he did not particularly like the stories but it won an award, the first of his stories to 1 -- to win and oh henry award. it is a nice story about a costume party that takes ways

here at the louis hillhouse. in ohioit -- he set it but everyone knows it was at the hillhouse here. a lot of people inc. this trail made money off of his writing early on. he actually was making it from movies. it was the movie money and encouraged zelda to marry him and camels back became a movie called conductor 1492. it has very little to do with the story. but there is a dancing camel in the movie. that is about it. in the the scene prize-winning stories. at this point, when he is writing short stories for the saturday evening post, get artie sold this site of paradise, but it took a while for the book to be published. in the meantime, short stories

he had already written coming was washing and setting off the publications him and he was writing other shorts race and selling them to publications and also selling them to the movies. at this point, he was in his 20's. those interesting is, what a -- when i was doing research, i would ask people who are still alive, who are good friends with them, we always kind of heard outsider, insider. they all denied it and said him a no, he was a great friend and not an outsider. and itpart of a group. ofd of help may -- kind puzzled me where the whole idea came from. i started asking they are associated with his and they said no. mother and father, it kind of skipped a generation. so his grandparents associated with the wealthy people of summit avenue, and he did, but

his parents did not. and so, there were reasons for that. his father had lost his job. he was unemployed. his mother was a little bit quirky. they did not run around a lot with the parents of the children fitzgerald ran around a lot with. he got the feeling of also being a little bit of an outsider. step back andld objectively write about that time without fawning over it. f scott fitzgerald himself probably sat at this bar. he wrote almost everything down, but he did not say, i was at the basement bar. but i'm guessing he was very and so, this is a pretty rational place for fitzgerald scholars, to see the actual places where he socialized, where he worked,

that inspired him. this is just one of the many places in st. paul's that provided an inspiration for fitzgerald and his stories. the university club was the center or one of the centers of social life and didn't call back then. it still is today. a lot of weddings here. the euro was probably never a member there it but he had a lot of friends who would have been. he would've had access to these rooms. here, several people including donald stewart, who he convinced to become a writer and then went on to win an academy award for philadelphia story. he had a party for zelda when they were living at goodrich here area they called it the bad luck all because it was on friday or team. to show you the extent they would go to entertain their guests, fitzgerald literally