In 1935, 90% of American farms were without electricity. Without an electric pump, most farms lacked running water. A typical rural family spent ten hours a week pumping water and carrying it to the kitchen. This water then had to be heated for wash day (known as "Blue Monday"), and the clothes were scrubbed by hand. Preservation of food was also difficult without electricity; the diet was usually monotonous and could be unhealthy. Without indoor plumbing, it was not uncommon for the family to take their weekly bath in the kitchen in front of the coal stove - often sharing the same bath water as each took their turn. And all had to use the unsanitary outdoor "privy."

Recognizing the enormous social costs associated with living without electrical service, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt created the Rural Electrification Program in 1935. In an effort to persuade more American farmers to join rural electric cooperatives, the REA asked Pare Lorentz, then head of the U.S. Film Service, to make a film on rural electrification. Finding himself busy on other projects, Lorentz asked Dutch filmmaker Joris Ivens to take over direction of this film. After scouting out a location, Ivens selected the Bill and Hazel Parkinson family of Warnock, Ohio. The final film, Power and the Land, was released in 1940 and was shown to millions of farmers.

Power for the Parkinsons is the story of the introduction of electricity to rural America as seen through the experiences of a typical American farm family. Narrated by Walter Cronkite.

Power for the Parkinsons begins with an overview of what it was like to live on a farm in America in the 1930s without electricity. We are then introduced to the REA and their hiring of the United States Film Service to produce the film. After historical background on Pare Lorentz and Joris Ivens, we meet the Parkinsons - Bill, Hazel, Dan, Tom, Jake, and Ruth. Then, using never before shown photographs and rare film footage, we watch the interaction between Ivens and the family as they make a film showing life before and after electricity.

Wednesday, 11/12/08 from 4:30-5:30 a.m. ET

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