| The March Of The Bonus Army (27 min) USA |
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Director: Robert Uth
Executive Producers: Robert Uth and Simonida Perica Uth
Producer: Glenn Marcus
Description:
A thought-provoking documentary based largely on The Bonus Army: An American Epic, by Paul Dickson & Thomas B. Allen tells the dramatic story of a march on Washington, DC in 1932 by forty-five thousand WWI veterans, many with families. They came to demand a "bonus" promised to them for their military service. Impoverished by the Great Depression, the veterans hoped their country would help them in their time of need, just as they had helped their country. Their epic journey initiated a string of events that influenced the rights of veterans and the rights of citizens to assemble and petition the government; it was one of the first instances of large scale racial integration in the fight for social justice. In 1936, Congress overrode the president's third veto and granted WWI veterans their bonus. Nearly four million men and women benefited, each receiving on average $800. The money enabled many veterans to buy a house, start a business or send their children to college. WWII created another generation of veterans. Roosevelt promised the American people that veterans would not be reduced to selling apples on street corners again. In 1944, Congress passed the "GI Bill of Rights," which provided veterans with housing, education, and medical assistance.
Biography:
Robert Uth is a partner in New Voyage Communications. For the past twenty years he has been the Executive Director of National Productions, a full service television production and communications company in Washington, DC. He has produced hundreds of programs for corporate and non-profit organizations worldwide. For National Productions, he wrote and directed other documentaries for PBS, including Living Double Lives, a look at the nuclear age, and The Spirit of Cooperation, about the cooperative movement in America. Uth received the "Chris Award" for outstanding educational program and won first prize in the Casa de las Ciencas International Competition for Scientific Diffusion Videos.
Contact Information:
New Voyage Communications
e: npproducer@aol.com
w: www.newvoyage.tv/documentaries
