Project 20 - September 13, 1954 - May 27, 1970
A series of 34 broadcast documentary SPECIALS.
This chronicle of the impact of the atomic age on humanity was produced by Henry Salomon's documentary unit, with the technical assistance of the Atomic Energy Commission and high-placed government officials. Although aired before the Project 20 title was conceived, the program is considered the first of the Project 20 reports. Much of the broadcast consists of newsreel footage, but for certain important events, no cameras were present and reenactments were specially filmed with the participation of the actual figures involved. The subject was broken into five separate parts: ""The Bomb Explodes," a look at the 7-16-45 Hiroshima explosion; "The Atom's History," a report on the development of atom research and testing; "The Atom; A Political Force," an examination of US security policy, Soviet atomic development, and the Rosenberg trials; "The Future," a look at the future of nuclear power; and "Epilogue," a prayer written and read by Stephen Vincent Benet.
Written by Richard Hanser who would write 21 PROJECT 20 programs in the series. Music by Robert Russell Bennett who would compose the music of 22 PROJECT 20 programs in the series.
NOTE: At the conclusion of this broadcast Host Robert Montgomery and guest Sid Caesar appear, LIVE, and discuss the program just aired. Caesar also promotes his new series CEASAR'S HOUR which begins two weeks from tonight.
Soon after VICTORY AT SEA concluded production, supervising producer Henry Solomon asked for and was granted permission by NBC to keep his production unit intact for the purpose of creating new programs that would follow in the tradition of that popular and critically acclaimed groundbreaking series. In 1954, Solmon, along the Donald B. Hyatt, Isaac Kleinerman, Richard Hanser, and Robert Russell Bennett, began production on a group of compilation documentaries they christened PROJECT 20. Using a name derived from that of the 20th century, Solomon and company periodically recreated some significant lives, events, periods, and trends of the 1900's through an effective marriage of archival news film and still photos enhanced with narration provided by Alexzander Scourby who contributed to eleven productions. After Salomon's death in 1957, Donald B. Hyatt took over as head of the PROJECT 20 team, serving as producer and director for all subsequent programs. Hyatt quickly moved away from the strictly twentieth-century nature of series offering programs on the American West, THE REAL WEST, narrated by Gary Cooper, HE IS RISEN, the Life and Times of Jesus Christ, END OF THE TRAIL, narrated by Walter Brennan, a portrait of George Washington, MEET GEORGE WASHINTON, narrated by Melvyn Douglas, and others.
As time passed, PROJCET 20 became universally recognized as one of American television's most enduring and honored series, winning hundreds of national and international awards for broadcasts that were aired time and again over the years.
