Ben Grauer

"Kon-Tiki" was the name of a wooden raft used by six Scandinavian scientists, led by Thor Heyerdahl, to make a 101-day journey from South America to the Polynesian Islands. The purpose of the expedition was to prove Heyerdal's theory that the Polynesian Islands were populated from the east- specifically Peru- rather than from the west (Asia) as had been the theory for hundreds of years. Heyerdahl made a study of the winds and tides in the Pacific, and by simulating conditions as closely as possible to those he theorized the Peruvians encountered, set out on the voyage.

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Based on a popular radio series, each show tells a different reporter's Big Story, a true story selected from newspapers across the United States. Comments from the actual reporter open and close each show but the permanent narrator drives the plot line and a featured actor dramatizes the reporter's role.

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Familiar radio voice Ben Grauer leads the viewer on a behind the scenes tour of the National Broadcasting Company studios -- both radio and television -- in Rockefeller Center and Hollywood. The original 25-minute film previewed by network execs and affiliates in the fall of 1948 was cut down to 20 minutes before its first broadcast, reportedly to excise high-profile stars and programs such as Amos 'n' Andy, Jack Benny, and Edgar Bergen that had since left NBC for other networks.

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Fight of the Wild Stallions is a 1947 short documentary film produced by Thomas Mead about wild stallions in the wilds and the business of wrangling them. It was nominated for an Oscar for Best Short Subject, Two-Reel.

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Americana is a weekly game show which ran on NBC from December 8, 1947 to July 4, 1949. The series was originally hosted by literary critic John Mason Brown and produced by Martin Stone Productions with NBC Television. Each week's show was sponsored by Encyclopedia Americana. The 30-minute show aired Mondays at 8:10pm ET in the 1947-48 television season, and Mondays at 8:30pm ET in the 1948-49 season.

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John Weston leaves his wife and kids to marry adventuress Doris Clark and loses his mind when he realizes his mistake. A lost film.

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George Dryden, an atheist since he saw his mother struck and killed by lightning as a kid, becomes a prominent surgeon and marries a woman who soon dies of heart disease. Years later, on his daughter's wedding day, he discovers that his wife had a serious love affair with an artist. Infuriated, he drives his daughter away. She becomes ill, suffering an emotional collapse. The doctor exhausts his knowledge trying to save her and finally, in desperation, he calls upon God. The girl is miraculously cured and George Dryden's faith is restored. A lost film.

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A village schoolteacher, unaware that Eben, the village carpenter, is in love with her, marries a surveyor and has a son, David. Eben, distraught at losing her, goes away, and he returns years later to find that David, now an orphan, is running away from his cruel foster father, the squire. Eben befriends David, and when the town is destroyed by a storm the two escape harm. An epilog shows David 25 years later as a successful businessman, happily married, helping to rebuild the town.

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Young Annabelle succumbs to tuberculosis and dies, leaving her admirer distraught and without an emotional anchor.

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A religious zealot and his nephew are thrown together on a South Seas Island with an alcoholic beach comber and a native dancer. A battle to see who will "civilize" whom ensues.

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