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tv   Second Look  FOX  September 21, 2014 11:00pm-11:31pm PDT

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from union square in san francisco to mere woods in marin county, the legacy of teddy roosevelt and how franklin roosevelt changed the bay area. and we will show you areas where you can see a piece of history. hello everyone welcome to a second look. a look at the roosevelts and
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the role that this family played in the bay area. these pictures are from may 12, 1903 the day that san francisco lined van nuys avenue to see the president who was on a tour of the west. the president's carriage was escorted by the ninth u.s. calvary regiment which was an all black company. and president roosevelt's attempts to bolster the bay area directly led to a city tradition that draws thousands of people each year. >> in 1898 when motion pictures had barely been invented, a cameraen man recorded the stately el -- embarcation of the uss indiana. the united states truthfully was not much of a naval power
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in those days. and the hungarian navy could have shot them out. that changed with roosevelt who settled the matter of who was boss on this hemisphere. roosevelt wanted the world to know the u.s. was now a force to be reconned with on land and sea. he conceived the idea of the great white fleet. >> in the wake of the spanish american war, the european powers started recognizing hey the united states is also a great power. and president roosevelt, teddy roosevelt decided to sent the united states fleet around the world. it's kind of, you know show american naval strength. and those days, the battleships were painted white. that's where the expression great white fleet comes from. >> reporter: the fleet was not
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quite the triumphant battle machine it appears. the ships were mostly obsolete by the standards of the time and two of them were in such poor disrepair that they could not complete the cruise. when the ships pulled into san francisco in the summer of 1908 for the very first fleet week they were greeted with awe and respect. despite the fact that the coal powered ships left a dismal fog of black smoke wherever they sailed. the visit had a lingering impact. at the end of the world war i the city decided to stage another fleet week celebration. sailors marched down market street in 1919 to advertise the fact that ships based here instituted an important segment of the u.s. navy. but expect for 1938 that was the last fleet week until mayor dianne feinstein revived the tradition. and these days the event draws 300,000 people to the city. president teddy roosevelt was the first president to
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recognize the value of motion pictures as good publicity. he encouraged film makers to document his postpresidential activities. it's no surprise the cameras were rolling when he presented a monument at city square. >> reporter: the square would take its permanent name from a pivotal point in san francisco's and california's history. >> it was the site of a huge gathering that documented california's solidarity and the union on the eve of the civil war. following the debate to support california as a free state in the union, the park was thereafter known as union square. the central patch of the city had forever shrugged off its
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pastoral beginnings. roosevelt came down to present the dooey monument. now said in its newfound glory, union square would soon find its noblest mission as a soup kitchen. it was at that dark hour on a wednesday morning in april 1906 that union square and the newly built san francis hotel would form a bond that still exists today. built in 1904 at union square because of the union square the st. francis was the finest hotel west of the mississippi. it's steel frame had stood up to the devastation of the great quake and that fateful morning the st. francis did what they do. >> we served breakfast where we're sitting right now. our guests were shaken and scare and they didn't know what was going to happen. but things remained fairly
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normal in terms of hotel operation. up until the next day when the fire broke out. >> the great st. francis would soon stand only as a gutted shell. now its guests and other refugees from the fire would move to union square. now it was time to gather what forces they had left and maybe get something to eat. >> the photos show people with their trunks and a woman with her bird cage all done up. you can see tables were people were dining where we would feed people out in the park. they had long picnic style tables for people to eat. >> reporter: what happened next was truly remarkable. in the middle of the rubble of union square, the st. francis hotel built the little st. francis. a prefabricated hotel big enough for 100 guest. it would operate when the original st. francis would reopen. saving ancient coastal redwoods in marin by giving
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them away. >> my grandfather was an incredible kind of guy. >> how a wealthy businessman joined forces to help teddy roosevelt protect the redwoods.
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the destruction of san francisco following an earthquake and but when they turned their attention to the redwoods, a wealthy businessman turned to teddy roosevelt. during his presidency he visited the grand canyon and slept beneath the stars in yosemite valley along with john muir. it was roosevelt who signed the legislation that saved muir
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woods from loggers. >> reporter: down into a forested niche lies this ancient place. the elderly are more than 1,000 years old. the youngsters a mere 200 to 300. the miracle of mier woods lies in its beauty but the greater miracle may be that it has somehow survived the ambitions of human kind. >> john muir once said that any fool can destroy a tree and that even if these trees could run and hide those same fools would run and hunt them down so they could make a dollar from their bark. he soon said about the task of preserving the land known then
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as secoia. in 1903, kent borrowed $45,000 to purchase 600 acres of the old growth forest and while he had no desire to make a buck from its bark he did want people to see and enjoy this beautiful land. >> he spent a good deal of time tramping through the woods of marin and i think it made a very deep impression on him about what was valuable in life, what was important for him soul. >> he encouraged the railroad which he was investor, the crooked railroad in the world to put in a car line that would bring people here. he built an inn so people could get refreshment and stay overnight. he really promoted the redwoods. >> reporter: but a near by
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natural disaster put the inn at risk. the wood starved city anxious to rebuild turned its hungry eyes on secoia canyon. the forest was quickly looked at for logging. and kent turned to the president of the united states, roosevelt. >> he did something significant, he offered to donate the land to the federal government. this was the first time that an individual had done this. >> reporter: president roosevelt acted quickly setting aside the land under the anticties act which allowed a president to set aside land for public use. roosevelt called that the woods be named kent woods. but kent had a different idea. >> kent said he didn't think it right to name a forest after a
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man. he had five strong boys to carry on his name. so why not instead name it to the writer muir. >> reporter: so the woods became muir national forest. >> my dad was represented by this kind of an environment. with these great big trees and this beauty that he, that he enjoyed. >> reporter: in a letter to william kent, written more than 90 years ago john muir expressed his gratitude. saving these woods from the ax and saw from money changers and water changers and giving them to our country and the world is in many ways the most notable service to god and man i have heard of since my forest wanderings we began. >> the same week that president
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roosevelt proclaimed that forest muir protected he extended that to pinnacles. the park is now is home to massive boulders and numerous caves. it's also where condors make their home. and where captive bred condors are released into the wild. the stock market crashed. how did the bay area get through the great depression. a visit to fdrs floating white house which is now anchor at jack london square. blood pressure
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today we're looking back at the roosevelts. teddy roosevelt served four terms. mackenzie looks at what
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roosevelt's new deal accomplished in america. >> reporter: a great depression had cast a chilling shadow across the land. a stock market crash, a series of violent strikes, collapsing farm prices and a generally stalled economy had thrown millions of americans out of work. >> i think it was about the worse catastrophe i've ever seen in my life. that includes two stints of war that i was in. you just couldn't find anything to do. >> we kids would go out and we would just be looking for a job. >> reporter: men who were turned down for jobs over and over began to feel there was something wrong with them. the suicide rate multiplied. >> there was a man in a house adjacent to us. he would play cards in the upstairs all the time. so my sister went up to get him one day for lunch and he was hanging from one of the
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rafters. absolute dispair i guess. >> reporter: things began to turn around, frank quinn remembers when franklin roosevelt began president. >> if you were listening to it and looked out your window you wouldn't see anybody. the streets -r would be clean of pedestrians. he would start with a very, my friends, and you would warm up right away. >> let us unite in vanishing fear. >> his positive belief in the country's destiny captured american's hearts. in office he signed a flurry of new programs that essentially were big bits on future prosperity. even the vast system of public works projects he instituted were no substitute for a healthy manufacturing committee. but the wpa did put men back to work. men who had work began to feel better about themselves and slowly the feeling grew that
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the worse was over. that things were looking up even those skeptic had massive doonbogles. no one said that about the mightiest public program of all. one that the citizens of the bay area were paying for with their own money. the idea had been dismissed as impossible. now the longest single span suspension bridge in the world was being flung across this historic land. at almost the same time. another bridge was being erected across the bay and was in its way an equal marvel of engineers. partly because of the stimulus of the bridge project. the bay area began an economic recovery. the ferry boats trending slowly across the bay. each morning -- a good downtown job might pay $40 a week. but a lunchroom supplied a darn
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good meal for 39-cents and a new ford could be had for $600. fisherman's wharf was hauling up tons of shrimp and lobsters. civic leaders began to talk about a celebration of sorts. a coming of age ceremony that would announce san francisco as an arrived metropolis. how about a world's fair. two months after the bridge opened ground breaking began. three years later it was ready. when we come back on a second look, changes in the 1940s as america reelects president roosevelt. and first lady elenore roosevelt visits treasure island. it makes me happy to go on the computer.
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a broader mix of energies, world needs which is why we are supplying natural gas, to generate cleaner electricity, that has around 50% fewer co2 emissions than coal. and why with our partner in brazil, we are producing a biofuel made from renewable sugarcane to fuel cars. let's broaden the world's energy mix, let's go. in 1938 as the world's fair was under construction at
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treasure island. president san -- president franklin d. roosevelt came to see the new bridge. and the year laugh first lady elenore roosevelt came to visit the world's fair. so what would it take to take a nation out of the great depression. and here's the 1990 record, break of war. >> reporter: in 1940, america was holding the rest of the
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world at arm's lenght. fortress america wanted no part of the war that hitler and his access partners japan and italy were waging. as the year began, americans were hanging on every piece of news from europe where poland had already fallen and the entire continent. with the isolationist tide was so strong he became fear of republican isolation would become a target for hitler. so he accepted his third term in office. >> i do so with mixed feelings. >> reporter: thus committed, fdr began to steer the country away from isolationism and
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toward the role of ally. he wanted to show the country they were still neutral but on the other side he was doing his best to turn america into the arsenal of democracy. >> this nation will remain a neutral nation. but i ask that every american remain neutral as well. even a neutral cannot be asked to close his mind or to close his conscious. i hope the united states will keep out of this war, as long as it remains within my power to prevent there will be no black out of peace in the united states. >> reporter: what was america like in 1940? this country on the brink of war. in the 11th year of the great depression, 20% of the work force was unemployed. half of the population lived on
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fares or in small farms. a quarter of families in america lived on less than $750 a year. in may fdr asked congress for more than a billion dollars for rearmament and aid in the front. he got it. this was one of many requests for millions of the dollars of aid all of them granted by congress. the november election swept fdr into the white house for a third time he won by a landslide. in late 1940 an avalanche of money for defense and aid. in two years the cattle would be gone replaced by a vast naval shipyard. on december 7, 1941 the japanese attack pearl harbor and in every conceivable sense they had awakened a sleeping tiger. america was instantly on a war
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footing. the white hot steel mills to the vast oil fields of texas even on the sleepy mud flaps of sausalito california. this would eventually grow into the largest industrial complex ever built in marin county. the mandate or challenge accepted by the beckel corporation was simple enough. build more ships than the enemy could sink. a vast influx of new labor was needed. the whole county's population grew by 20% in 1942. a total of 100,000 immigrants came to the area almost all of them shipyard workers. >> the bay area's home to what was once called the floating white house. the uss patomic.
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>> reporter: this ship was known as the floating white house. the patomic was his get away. he also met here with heads of state, king george six, the queen mother. but after roosevelt died harry trueman didn't use the yacht, et maid him seasick. later elvis presley bought it, -- the port of oakland bought it for $15,000 and has spent close to decade fixing it up. >> the decks are teaked in an area. 1930 radios and ship equipment. that kind of thing. >> reporter: now that the patomic is restored it's been declared a national landmark.
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it's the first roosevelt memorial west of the mississippi. the patomic are open for tours and for two hour educational cruises. we'll see you next week. police, airline pilots, bus drivers... they're randomly tested for drugs and alcohol... but not us doctors. you can change that: vote yes on proposition 46. your lives are in our hands.
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man: listen, kid. you seem like a nice guy, but this is not a city or a job for nice guys. "gotham's" a show very much about the origin stories of some of the great super villains of the dc mythology. mckenzie: so you see a young catwoman, you see a young poison ivy, a young penguin, riddler, possibly the joker. you see all of these legendary characters, but you're seeing them at a point in their lives which has not really been explored before. part of this fun is that we don't want to just regurgitate a comic book. we need to elevate it. we need to make it something it's never been before while still staying true to the dna. it really pays due homage to everything anyone knows about gotham in the past and gets crazier and crazier.

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