[Female Voice] This program is made by MPT to serve all of our diverse communities and is made possible by the generous support of our members.

Thank you.

(smooth music) - My name is Joe Hammer.

I'm a detective and I live in the big city.

It is my home.

It has tall buildings, lots of people, a harbor, and great steamed crabs.

A little messy.

I thought I'd seen and knew it all, but I was wrong.

Very wrong.

Now I know what really happened.

It's a whopper of a tale.

(cat meowing) No, Felix, not that kind of tail, a story.

A story so incredible, I remember it like it was tomorrow.

Or wait, like it was yesterday.

Or was it last year?

Whatever.

Yuck, next case I'm checking out who sold me this coffee.

This is a story about a kid, a Kid Vid.

Huh?

Or is it a Vid Kid?

Not that much older than I was at that age.

His name is Bob, Bob the Vid Tech.

What the heck kind of a name is Bob the Vid Tech?

Potato farmer?

Diaper delivery salesman?

Video technician, yeah, that's it.

He's easy to find, see.

After all, he wears a bright green jacket, plus his breath, yeesh.

Pew-yew.

With his Vid gizmo, he can zap from place to place.

Pretty cool.

Sometimes he's seen talking to his pet vid fish, Sid.

Sid, hah, he can get out of his fish bowl.

- Hey Bob, you got a juice box?

- Sure, Sid.

- That's just plain weird.

Anyway, our story begins at the beginning, in school.

Bob likes his classes, see.

But one day he got hit with the biggest homework assignment of his life.

Tough school.

His assignment was to write a report about the city, my city, the people, the history, and how it all works, see.

It was due in one minute, or one day, or, wait, one week, something like that.

Bob was nervous.

He broke into a cold sweat.

Who could help him?

When he asks the right questions, like who, what, why, where and when?

And when is recess anyway?

(school bell rings) Ah, there it is.

Mr. Bob the Vid Tech has a date, a date with the city, a big city adventure.

- Howdy, Vid Kids.

(upbeat music) - Bobby, where are you going?

- Hey, slow down there, video boy.

- How come Bob gets a logo?

- [Child's Voice] Bob the Vid Tech's Big City Adventure has been made possible in part by Baltimore city public schools.

- It was a day like any other day.

The city was hot, I was hot, my cat was hot.

(cat meowing) And I had a belly ache the size of a triple fudge marshmallow ice cream cone with extra sprinkles.

Then there was a knock at the door.

Come in.

There he was, green jacket and all.

Of all the detective agencies in all the world, he had to walk into mine.

Thank goodness, I hadn't worked in three weeks.

He told me he needed to learn all about the city and he needed help fast.

He went on and on until I told him to just clam up his big yapper.

Then, I told him, I knew people, see.

Good people, people who could help.

- Cool, thanks.

(upbeat music) Wow, its the Maryland Historical Society.

Come on, let's go.

Safety first.

(upbeat music continues) Please do not touch.

Wonder what little town this is?

- This is Baltimoretowne.

- Baltimoretowne?

- Yes.

- You mean it wasn't always a big city like this?

- No, actually it had to grow over almost 300 years for it to become the city we know today.

- Hi, I'm Bob the Vid Tech.

- Debbie Armiger.

- Debbie, why is being near water so important?

- Well, 300 years ago they didn't have planes, trains, or automobiles.

People would travel by ship.

So they would sail in and out of the city every day.

- So the water was kind of like their highway.

- Exactly.

- Crazy driving sailors!

- But what made this spot so special?

- People were able to grow their crops because we had excellent soil.

They would grow wheat and tobacco, but also lots of fast moving streams and creeks that provided a lot of water power for gristmills that would process wheat into flower.

Also, there were a lot of trees for burning, for fuel, as well as to build all their buildings, their homes.

- Would that be the inner harbor?

- [Debbie] Yes, it would.

- Deb, how did Baltimoretowne get its name in the first place?

- Well, most colonial towns and cities in America got their names from places in Europe.

- Oh, okay.

- Boston is named after a town in England.

New York is named after the Duke of York.

- So Baltimore is named after the Duke of Baltimore.

- No, Bob, it's named after George Calvert, the man who founded the colony of Maryland.

- [Bob] But what does Calvert have to do with Baltimore?

- [Debbie] Well, his title was Lord Baltimore and his estate was in Ireland, and in old Irish it's called Bale Ante More, it means town of the big house.

- Bale Ante More, Baltimore, town of the big house.

- Yes!

- Did it have big windows?

- No, Bob.

- Big doors?

- No, Bob.

- Big bathrooms?

- No, Bob.

- So what other uses did they have for the harbor?

- Well, trade was very, very important to Baltimore.

We would import and export goods.

To import something, if we didn't have something here, we would ask another country or another colony to bring it to us.

And to export means it goes out, we would ship it to them.

So we would ship tobacco and wheat out to other colonies or to other countries.

A few hundred years ago, tobacco was our most important cash crop.

Now, we know today that tobacco is not healthy, that smoking is not a good thing to do.

(Sid coughs) But a few hundred years ago, people thought it was a healthy thing.

- So what would be some of the things that we'd import?

- We would import sugar, spices and coffee.

- Just kidding.

And what happened next?

- Baltimore prospered.

More and more people came here to live and to work.

By 1797, it was incorporated as a city.

By 1800, it was the third largest city in the United States of America.

But not everyone was happy.

England was very angry at us.

- Why was that?

- They called us a nest of pirates.

- Arg.

(upbeat music) - Are you ready to be pirates?

- To the ship!

(group hollers) Let's go!

(upbeat music continues) Pirates in Baltimore?

Incredible.

Hi, I'm Bob the Vid Tech.

- Ahoy there, Peppercorn the Pirate, welcome aboard.

- Do you know what a pirate's favorite letter is?

- Everybody say R!

- Were there really pirates in Baltimore?

- Aye, indeed there were pirates in Baltimore.

So many in fact that the English considered Baltimore a nest of pirates, a very dangerous place to be.

(upbeat music continues) Not all of them were pirates per se, many of them were privateers.

- Privateers, what were those?

- Well, a privateer is a privately owned vessel, that in times of war, is set to attack other vessels, take their goods and defend the country.

- Hey, Baltimore, the privateers are coming!

Arg!

Were there any famous privateers?

- Aye, Captain Boyle, Thomas Boyle.

He was so famous that, after he left, they named his ship the Pride of Baltimore.

- What happened next?

- The war of 1812 happened next.

Go ahead, tie up a big mess of a knot, no reason to make it look pretty.

- I'm all tied up!

Did the British ever attack Baltimore?

- Aye, well after the English set fire to Washington DC and burned it to the ground, the British set their sights on Baltimore.

They needed to get to all of those fast clipper ships that were sailing against them.

But first they had to get past Fort McHenry.

- Did the British ever get past Fort McHenry?

- Nae, mate.

After 25 hours of battle, a large flag flew above the fort and a young poet on a ship saw that flag.

He wrote a poem called "The Star Spangled Banner".

(The Star Spangled Banner plays) His name was Francis Scott Key.

- Wow.

- I was in my office, see, eating my pizza, when that weird kid in the jacket beamed back into my life.

- I learned the absolutely coolest stuff, it was so neat.

And you know what, I can't wait to rush back in.

- I told him to clam up as big yapper again.

He wasn't done yet, he still had so much to learn.

And frankly, so did I.

Like, why does pizza get cold so fast?

At least cold pizza is still tasty, but I digress.

I told this Vid Tech there was more, see.

And off he went.

(upbeat music) - Hey, it's the Baltimore Museum of Industry.

Come on, let's go.

(upbeat music continues) This place is awesome.

I wonder how long it's been here.

- Actually, the museum has been here since 1981, but part of the building has been here since 1865.

- 1865, that's right after the civil war.

Hi, I'm Bob the Vid Tech.

- My name's John Green.

Bob, welcome to the Museum of Industry.

- Industry, what exactly do you mean by industry?

- Industry simply means work.

It means factories, manufacturing, it's where people go to earn a living and to do their jobs.

- Was there a lot of industry here in Baltimore?

- Oh, Baltimore was a very busy place, it still is today, but a long time ago we had lots of factories around here where everybody came to work.

Close your eyes and imagine that it's 1883.

There are no cars, no TVs, no cell phones, and no video games.

- Wow.

- Bob, this building was opened in 1865 as an oyster cannery.

They would bring oysters up from the Chesapeake Bay and they would shuck them and can them.

- Wow, was this the only one?

- No, in 1883 there were over 60 canneries.

- What kind of jobs were there in the cannery?

- Well, here in the cannery there were lots of jobs.

About 500 people would work here.

There would be loaders who carry the oysters around, shuckers who opened the oysters, can boys that carried cans around all day, printers, and labelers, and ladies who put oysters in the can.

- Can you shuck an oyster?

- I can show you how to shuck an oyster.

Now, when an oyster comes in here, that oyster is closed up really tight and you can't pull it open.

So, a shucker uses a knife like this.

This is called a shucking knife.

Jams it in and he finds an opening and he pries open that oyster.

And inside here would be the meat of the oyster that he has to put into a bucket.

And his pay is based on how many buckets he fills in a day.

- When do we eat?

John, what did they do with the oysters next?

- Well, after they shuck them, they have to can them and then cook them.

And they would use a machine like this.

They would fill the can with oysters, put them in these big baskets, lower them down in here, close the lid, and they'd introduced steam into here and it cooked things very quickly.

They can cook 500 cans at one time.

- So the adults are inside working, the kids are outside playing.

- Oh no, Bob.

Kids all worked.

Everybody in the family had to work in order to buy the things the family needed.

Kids as young as three years old actually worked sitting next to their mothers to do a job.

Kids worked for 10 hours a day, six days a week.

- Did you hear that, Biff?

- What's that?

Did I miss something?

- What other kinds of jobs did people have?

- Well, a very important job that men did here in Baltimore was a blacksmith.

Now, he's called a blacksmith because he works with black metal.

Now, the blacksmith is a very skilled worker.

He makes everything from railroad spikes to different kinds of hooks, things to hang your coats on, and he makes some of his own tools.

Now, in the morning, as my apprentice, you were very busy.

Starting when you were about 10 years old, you would work here for about eight years to learn everything the blacksmith could teach you.

And you would get the fire going, pumping air into the fire because we need lots of oxygen to get that fire as hot as we need it because we can't bend metal when it's cold.

And he would pull it out of here and he brings it over to the anvil.

Now, if I hit it once, you'll hit it once.

If I hit it twice, you hit it twice.

If you hit me, I'm gonna hit you.

- John, could a blacksmith make a lot of the same thing.

- No, Bob, that was called mass production, and because a blacksmith works with hand tools and not machines, he can't make two things that are exactly the same.

In order to mass produce something, which means make a lot of things, you need a machine shop because the machines can be more exact.

Here in Baltimore in 1904, we had a huge fire.

1,500 buildings were destroyed.

So fire companies came from all over to help us fight the fire.

They came from New York, Philadelphia, Wilmington, Delaware, even Washington DC.

- So with all that fire equipment, why didn't they put out the fire?

- Well, let's say you're a fireman from New York and you're gonna take your hose and you're gonna connect it so you can help me fight the fire.

- It doesn't fit, it's not working.

- Exactly, and the same thing happened in 1904.

When those fire companies came here, every city had a different size for its hoses and its hydrants.

And that was why the fire lasted so long.

So let's say we want to make a thousand pieces like this.

Can the blacksmith do that?

* If I had a hammer * I would hammer in the morning * - I don't think so.

- No, he can't because he's working with hand tools.

We need a machine to do this.

And machines can cut this outside thread or this inside thread exactly the same way every time.

- Hey John, how are you?

- Fine, Bob, how are you today?

- Great.

Wow, where did you get all this food?

- Well, every city needs a food industry and Baltimore has a lot of things that were first.

For example, the first ice cream factory in America was right here in Baltimore.

Schmidt's Blue Ribbon Bread was made here in Baltimore and they've been around for a long time.

Baltimore also had a lot of meatpacking industries.

Esskay Meats that you can buy at the ballpark.

McCormick Spices, the largest spice maker in the world.

Domino Sugar, which still makes sweetener today.

H&S Bakery makes all the bread for McDonald's company.

- Hello?

Right, got it.

That was Momma Vid Tech.

I need to bring home a dozen eggs, quart of milk, and a loaf of bread.

- Whatever you want, Bob, we've got it all right here.

(loud buzzing) Say Bob, that's a really nice jacket you have on.

- Why, thanks, John.

You know, I was wondering, back then where did people get their clothes?

- Here in Baltimore, the largest industry was making clothing.

One in every four people in Baltimore made clothing.

- 42 Regular, nice fabric.

- In 1846, a man in Massachusetts named Elias Howe-- - Who?

- Elias Howe.

- Oh.

- He invented a sewing machine, but we didn't have electricity, so you had to peddle it.

And that made the needle go up and down, but it made sewing faster than doing it by hand.

And then Baltimore got electricity in 1881.

So in 1881, we were able to use electric sewing machines, which were much, much faster.

- Done.

You wouldn't have anything here that could help me out?

- Well Bob, we may have just what you're looking for right over here.

What do you think?

- Perfect.

Welcome to Bob the Vid Tech's tailor shop, need a jacket?

Whoa, they made umbrellas too?

- Yes they did.

A matter of fact, in Baltimore, the first umbrella factory in America opened in 1828 by the Beeler company.

There was another umbrella company called Gans Brothers.

And the motto for their company was that their umbrellas were born in Baltimore and raised everywhere.

- You know what my motto is?

- What's that?

- Keep me covered, it's raining.

Are these industries still here today?

- No, most of them have gone because we don't have a manufacturing industries like we used to have, we have more of what's called a service industry.

We have tourism, we have restaurants, we have banking, we have finance, we have industries where people are helping people.

The Baltimore Museum of Industry is a service industry because we tell people about Baltimore.

- John, thanks, you've been a great host.

- I hope you learned a lot.

- I was taking a nap when I heard the zap, hey, that rhymes, that weird kid in the green jacket was back.

You got a lot of nerve coming back here after you did what you did, see.

- What did I do?

- Oh, wait, that was someone else.

Sorry.

I know too many weird people, goes with the job.

We can't do it all in this half hour kid, but I got a lot more cool info for you to learn.

Are you ready?

- Yes, sir, Mr. Detective, sir.

- Polite, but weird.

- Wow, I'm right here in the middle of the big city.

(upbeat music) - Hey, how are you?

Welcome to Baltimore, how can I help you?

- Hi, I'm Bob the Vid Tech.

- And I'm Karen Miller.

- Karen, how many people live in Baltimore?

- There are about 640,000 people that live in Baltimore city and 2.7 million in the metropolitan area.

- Metro what area?

- Metropolitan area.

That's the surrounding areas, Towson, Dundalk, Glen Burnie, Catonsville.

- There's so much going on here.

Does it all happen on its own?

- Of course not.

It all starts right here in city hall.

- Do you think we can go visit.

- Certainly, I work there, I can take you.

You wanna go?

- Yeah, come on, let's go.

(upbeat music) Hi, I'm Bob the Vid Tech.

So Karen, I got to know who are the people that work here?

- They are people like you and I, thousands of people.

- And what do they do?

- They count money, they clean streets, they take care of the library, recreation and parks where you go out and have activities there, they do all of that.

- And you have thousands of streets here.

Does the city take care of them?

- The public works takes care of them.

They handle the water, your garbage and your recyclables, when you flush your toilet.

- Hey, a little privacy.

- That's also public works, and we do a lot of road construction, that's also public work.

- What about, like, kids who go to school?

I mean, who handles that?

- The Baltimore city public school system handles that.

- So how many kids go to school in Baltimore?

- 83000.

- And how many schools?

- 200 schools believe it or not.

- Wow, how many teachers?

- 7,000.

- Hey, that sounds like a firetruck.

Is there a fire department?

- There's a fire department.

- You think I could meet a firefighter today?

- I think we can arrange that.

You wanna come this way?

- Yeah.

Excuse me, do you work for the fire department?

- As a matter of fact, I do.

- Hi, I'm Bob the Vid Tech.

- Hi, I'm Chief Kevin Cartwright.

- Chief Cartwright, why do big cities need fire departments?

- It's important because with lots of people it's necessary to provide fire safety and emergency medical protection.

To make certain that our citizens stay safe, we recommend having a smoke alarm in every household.

- So the fire department just doesn't fight fires.

- That's correct.

We have paramedics that respond to people that are having emergency medical crisis.

Dial 911 and we'll dispatch a medic unit to their home to treat them and transport them to a hospital.

Firefighters, they drive fire engines and fire trucks to emergencies.

If there's a fire, they'll pull fire hoses off the fire engine and extinguish it with water.

They raise ladders to the roof sometime to rescue a person and they provide emergency medical care as well.

- How many people actually work for the Baltimore city fire department?

- In our fire department we have over 1700 men and women that serve the city of Baltimore.

- If a Vid Kid wants to be a firefighter, what should they do?

- Any Vid Kids that are interested in becoming firefighters, number one, it's important to listen to the rules of your mom and dad, do their chores, eat your vegetables, study, and become physically fit.

- Chief Cartwright, thanks for teaching me about the fire department.

I got to go and get in shape.

(upbeat music) What a cool old police car.

I wonder who gets to drive this.

- Well, no one gets to drive this.

You know, this car was built in 1929.

- Hi, I'm Bob the Vid Tech.

- I'm Commissioner Fred Bealefeld, very nice to meet you, Bob.

- You mean you're the commissioner of the entire police department?

- The whole place.

- How long has Baltimore had police?

- For over 150 years we've had police all over the city.

- And what kind of jobs do policemen do?

- Well, there are lots of jobs.

They ride horses, they fly in helicopters, they ride on motorcycles.

Because we're so close to the water, sometimes they get to ride in boats and patrol the harbor.

- So why is it important that cities and towns have police?

- Well, they're important to help make people safe and to enforce the rules that we have all across the city.

For example, you're not supposed to litter in your community and you're not supposed to break out windows, right?

- Right.

- And you're supposed to be careful when you cross the street.

You shouldn't take things that don't belong to you.

- You should never hurt anybody.

- You should never, ever hurt anyone.

- Commissioner, what do Vid Kids need to know if they want to become police people?

- One of the things they need to do is they need to listen to their moms and dads.

The second thing they need to do is follow the rules.

The third thing they need to do is go to school and stay in school.

They need to learn to read and write, that's very important for being policemen.

And the last thing, they need to eat all their vegetables.

- Do you think someday maybe I can even be a policeman?

- Yes, you need to keep building in getting strong, drink all your milk, and keep reading those books.

- I will.

Gee, Baltimore sure has a lot of history, but there's a lot going on right now.

- I'm so glad you love our city.

What part do you like about our city?

- It's so hard to figure out.

I mean, you've got the inner harbor, all these places to go, and then there was city hall, I don't know.

- It sounds like you're talking about our neighborhoods.

- What exactly is a neighborhood?

- Well, you know, a neighborhood is made up of houses where people live, and schools are located in neighborhoods, religious groups, churches, or synagogues, and businesses, and they're grouped all together and people live in those neighborhoods.

- And what's your favorite part?

- Oh, you know, I have so many favorite parts of Baltimore.

If you go downtown to the inner harbor at the aquarium, or you go over in my neighborhood, Hunting Ridge, or we have Leakin Park and the Carrie Murray Center where kids can come and learn about nature.

Or you can go down to Fells Point, or Roland Park, or Mount Washington.

We have so many great neighborhoods and I like all of our neighborhoods.

- Madam Mayor, you have a meeting.

- Nice meeting you, Bob.

- Why, thank you, Madam Mayor.

That was the mayor?

- I hope you Vid Kids have enjoyed the city, my city, the big city.

There's a lot that goes on every day and every night.

There's a lot of people that can teach you more about it, good people, people I know.

As it turned out, that Bob the Vid Tech did really well on his big city report at school, which made me very proud.

You know, when you think about it, that Bob the Vid Tech wasn't such a bad kid after all.

- Mr. Hammer, I need your help.

- But he sure has a lot of weird friends.

Guess it goes with the job.

Hey, I'll see you around Vid Kids.

(smooth music ends) (upbeat music) - [Child's Voice] Bob the Vid Tech's Big City Adventure has been made possible in part by Baltimore city public schools.

(upbeat chime)