Six Men of Wood

Cavalcade of America was a radio and television show in the 1940s and 1950s. Six Men of Wood was an episode that focused on a family and how they survived in the Great Depression. In the beginning the family is shown in the Roaring Twenties. The mother's main concern was with such a successful father the kids will never learn the value hard work. The father decides to teach them carpentry skills and each kid had to build something. The kids ran out of supplies and sold some of their furniture and the mom was upset. What would the neighbors think that they have their kids working? The neighbors ended up loving the furniture and thought nothing of it. Then the depression hits. The father loses his clients and the family decides to downsize. The kids then begin their furniture business and that is how the family survived the depression. The last image is the three oldest sons announcing there wives were all expecting.

Cavalcade of America is a great example of making history accessible to a wider audience. It should not be a person's only source for history but it is a great way to get people interested. The main problem I had was it was extremly positive. The only hardship was the lack of jobs but they built their own successful business. It was a complete Horatio Alger story. They went from riches to rags back to riches. If this was used in my classroom I would make sure to show a wide picture on what happened. Hopefully shows like this get people interested but I hope they do not rely on this as their only source.