A man unashamed to make money, he was also a firm believer in the creative use of capitalism. Brother, Can You Spare A Billion? shows how Jones used his business acumen to both enrich himself and enhance the common good. Indeed, his status as a successful entrepreneur may have been what made it possible for him to run the RFC as forcefully as he did.

It was during his time at the RFC that Jones made his most indelible imprint on America. Besides saving the economy during the Depression, Jones led the country's move into wartime. Using his dual position of secretary of commerce and chairman of the RFC, Jones mobilized industry to make the United States' "arsenal of democracy" a reality. By the time he left federal service in 1945, forced out by a bitter rivalry with Roosevelt's vice president, Henry Wallace, he had forever altered the way business and government dealt with each other.

When Jones returned to Houston he was 71, but far from ready to retire. He started back where he had left off when he headed to Washington in 1932, making deals, doubling and tripling the size of buildings he had erected decades before, entering the new world of television with KTRK-TV and, equally important, establishing scholarships and charitable programs to give others opportunities to excel. One year before his death in 1956, Houston, a town of 40,000 when Jones arrived, passed the one million mark in population. When Jones died, he had left a mark matched by only a select few in America's history.

Brother, Can You Spare A Billion? The Story Of Jesse H. Jones is produced by KUHT/Houston Public Television and underwritten by Houston Endowment Inc. Brother, Can You Spare A Billion? The Story Of Jesse H. Jones has earned a regional Emmy award, a CINE Golden Eagle (recognizing it for creative and technical merit), a Golden Apple award (approving it for classroom and corporate use) and a gold award from WorldFest Houston (for best documentary).