Detective Journals

As a child growing up in the 1950s, the atomic bomb and the threat of nuclear annihilation was not a theoretical possibility, it was a daily topic for both adults and kids. In elementary school, I remember practicing for a nuclear attack. We were instructed to file into the halls of the school building, face the wall, and cover our heads. While it seems silly today (cover your head to protect you from an atomic blast - fat chance) it was serious business then.

While my family didn’t have a fallout shelter, plenty of Americans did. I remember looking at pictures of the atomic bomb blast that devastated Hiroshima, but having no real comprehension of the awesome power that had been unleashed. Even seeing pictures of the charred ruins of the destroyed city didn’t really register. It was simply too far outside my level of experience to grasp.

All of these memories were brought back to me on the Manhattan Project shoot. Like most Americans, I knew very little about the race for the bomb, and the massive effort our government undertook to develop a nuclear weapon before the Germans. I hardly knew that at its height, the Manhattan Project employed more workers than the American automobile industry, and that scientists were working in secret in various laboratories and research facilities across the country.

Most of the scientists were unaware of the work that was being done at other facilities. They only knew that they were working on an atomic weapon, and only a handful knew the entire story.

During my investigation, I was fortunate to interview Dr. Francis Bonner, who was, by his own admission, a relatively low-level player in the Manhattan Project, working out of the Nash Building in New York City.

In truth, sitting and talking to Bonner in his peaceful Long Island backyard, was one of the highlights of my career as a History Detective. As he related his experiences as a newly minted Ph.D. working on a top-secret project, I found myself in total awe. It didn’t matter what Bonner did, he was there! He was part of one of the most important developments in the history of humankind. And he was telling me all about it. I couldn't leave without asking him the ultimate question: “After the bomb was dropped, did you regret what you had done?” Without hesitation he answered: “No. We helped win the War, and saved countless lives that might have been lost if we had invaded Japan”.

Thanks for watching this season,

Wes.

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Posted on 10 September 2007 By Wes Cowan

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For this investigation we have a film, or at least a label on a film canister that says ‘Der Führer in Bayreuth’. It could be Nazi propaganda or something quite unusual, even unique. The label is handwritten, suggesting to me that it might have been a home-movie. Possibly evenimages of Hitler that may never have been seen before.

The subject of the film itself is controversial - the first glimpse shows Hitler, Goebbels, Goering and Himmler apparently arriving at the Richard Wagner opera festival staged annually in Bayreuth. Hitler’s life-long love for Wagnerian opera was a genuine passion. It’s led some people to reject the music altogether, especially since Wagner himself was a strong German nationalist and anti-Semite. The connections are real and they deserve personal reflection as well as scholarly interest. For myself, however, I feel strongly about not reducing the music to those associations. Wagner composed in the mid-19th century; so we can’t say that his music contained the seeds of Nazism.

It was wonderful to meet the man who found this film, and others, too, at the ruins of the Bayreuth Opera House. Walter Ladziak is now 86 and remarkably sharp in his memories about the event, and about life today as well. He was a chauffer for the American military government in 1945, stationed across Europe from France to Germany, including several months in Bayreuth, as the Allies took control from the Nazis.

A fluent Polish speaker, having grown up in a Polish-Catholic family in New York, Walter made special efforts to help the displaced Poles who were desperately scavenging a life in the ruins of the Third Reich. I’m also intrigued by his fascinating family. Walter and his brother married two sisters just before the war andthey lived right next to each other in two almost identical houses on Staten Island. And most remarkable - Walter and his sister-in-law still live in those two houses today.

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Posted on 3 September 2007 By Gwen Wright

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I was really looking forward to this shoot as I had never been to Springfield. I was also really excited about the Lincoln letter, although I had some great concerns about its condition.

The crew met at the airport for our flight to Illinois to check out the lovely Owen Lovejoy house. I did not know very much about Owen Lovejoy before I started this investigation and I really enjoyed meeting Rev. Moore. He was extremely knowledgeable, well spoken and taught me a great deal about this remarkable man and his views on slavery.

The Lovejoy house was quite a treat. I’d never been in an official Underground Railroad home, and it was very interesting to see how Owen Lovejoy hid slaves - or maybe I should say it was depressing to see the conditions the slaves had to live in to survive.

Afterwards, we drove two hours to Springfield, passing beautiful scenery through cornfields and farmland, just as the sun started to set.

The next two days in Springfield were great. It was fun researching at the Lincoln Library, meeting other experts and historians, seeing the Old State Capitol and the room that Lincoln made his great “House Divided” speech in. It helped me to really understood what a great politician Lincoln was and how he so carefully guided our nation during such a traumatic time. What we learned about our story was incredibly exciting as well.

With everyone happy it was time to go home. It was my son’s fifth birthday the next day and despite some flight cancellations I managed to negotiate my way back to New York. I arrived at 3am, my son heard the door open, woke up and ran down the steps, into my arms. Home safe and sound.

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Posted on 27 August 2007 By Elyse Luray

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Mt. Rushmore has always perplexed me, I admit. It’s certainly grand in scale and concept, yet the monument seems an intrusion into the magnificent natural landscape of the Black Hills of South Dakota.

I've discovered while researching this story that this land is sacred to the Lakota Sioux. Their creation myth says they followed the buffalo out of those hills into the world, and even today it is the site for all their ceremonies, both public and private. I’ve also learnt that their claims on this land go far beyond the integrity of their cultural beliefs; there was a treaty...

I went out to the sacred land to meet Alfred Red Cloud, chief of the Lakota and great-great-grandson of Red Cloud, one of the most respected Native American leaders of the late-19th century. He lives in Pine Ridge Reservation, several hours away from Mt. Rushmore, with 60,000 Lakota on a small territory that is the poorest county in the United States.

Alfred Red Cloud is truly inspirational, and meeting him was the highlight of this story. He and the tribal elders are undertaking extraordinary projects to help break the cycle of poverty, malnutrition, and dependency on the reservation. Native American engineers have helped them set up wind-generators for power and solar panels for their houses. Straw-bale houses have become popular, in a return to the tradition of renewable resources. People here have started growing more of their food, healthy food, unlike what’s available in stores (I’ve seen stories like these on other reservations – most, if not all, owned by whites and more expensive than any conventional grocery store). And the tribe now has a herd of 23 young buffalo. They are looking forward to the day when these animals can again provide not just meat but many other basic needs for the Lakota.

Alfred Red Cloud told me that two white buffalo calves were born this spring, an auspicious sign of positive events in the near future. Check out my web interview with the chief of the Lakota. I hope you, our History Detectives viewers, can join me in supporting these wonderful efforts. 

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Posted on 20 August 2007 By Gwen Wright

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This was a great story to investigate, and it started by checking out a couple of the world’s largest. One of the first stops was at Powell’s Books in Oregon, which is the largest book store in the world. We went there to do some research on Howard Hughes and his passion for aviation. I was quite amused when one of the guys working there pulled out a book I wrote and asked me to sign it! I left with a shirt and cup to prove that I was actually at Powell's Books. Among academics Powell's is a well known institution.

Next we headed to the Evergreen Aviation Museum in McMinnville, Oregon, home to Howard Hughes' famous Spruce Goose, the largest airplane in the world. Visitors usually don’t get to go inside, and I was pretty thrilled when I was given permission to have a look around for a couple of hours to uncover a critical part of our investigation - our altimeter was exactly the same model and make as one of those in the Spruce Goose.

This wasn’t the only exciting discovery we made – our enquiries uncovered a crash report that hadn’t been seen in decades and a bunch of incredible photos taken just hours after the crash, which we’ve put up on this website.

And apart from a fascinating investigation for our contributor, we managed to make someone else’s day. On that fateful day Hughes crashed into a few houses in Beverly Hills, the left landing gear plunging into one of the roofs. We went to the location to film, and the woman who now lives there had no idea her house had such an incredible history, and even featured in The Aviator.

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Posted on 30 July 2007 By Tukufu Zuberi

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Avery Clayton is a remarkable figure. I’m not sure what I’ll learn about Nora Douglas Holt, whose autograph book I’ll be investigating, but meeting Avery is an inspiration. He’s about to launch the Mayme Clayton Collection and Museum in Los Angeles. It will be the world’s largest collection of African-American history and memorabilia. Avery’s mother, Mayme Clayton, was a professional librarian at USC and UCLA who spent over 40 years assembling these works, which now total over 3.5 million objects.

The range is astounding. It includes both master works and what we historians call ‘ephemera’, the ordinary everyday things that tell us so much about how people live. Just to take a few categories: this is the largest collection of films by African-American directors and actors, as well as films about African-American life. It is also the largest collection of recordings and sheet-music in all genres, from jazz and pop to classical. It includes every book ever published by an African-American, including several that don’t exist in any other collection, as well as the full run of every magazine with African-American editors and every one that aimed for that market. Mayme Clayton also collected memorabilia about African-American cowboys (who were actually one in three cowboys for most of the late-19th Century). The collection comprises articles that evoke slave life and urban poverty as well as astonishing feats of creativity in every field of the arts, sciences, politics, business, and social reform.

A week later. Nora Douglas Holt! I’d never heard of her, nor has anyone else I’ve talked to. Turns out that she was a woman of prodigious creative talent who traveled the world. Even historians sometimes think we know most of what’s important about the past, but there is still so much to take in. And, indeed, to marvel about. And Nora Holt is certainly in that category.

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Posted on 23 July 2007 By Gwen Wright