ROOSEVELTS
THE RISING ROAD
THURSDAY, APRIL 23 @ 7:00PM & 11:00PM
Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s 1933 presidential inauguration comes during the nation’s worst economic crisis – the Great Depression. Banks have failed and savings accounts have been wiped out, so to explain the banking system and how it works, Franklin Roosevelt gives his first “fireside chat” to the American people. In fourteen and a half minutes he calms the public, and by the next Monday people begin to redeposit their money, thereby averting a crisis. This begins his first one hundred days in office, the most productive in presidential history. Fifteen major bills are passed, social programs are instituted, and the federal government – which up to this point has been a mostly passive observer of the people’s problems – becomes an active force in trying to solve them. Eleanor Roosevelt takes to her new role as First Lady with energy and purpose.
