You Are There (series) facts for kids
Quick facts for kids You Are There |
|
|---|---|
 |
|
| Genre | Educational |
| Created by | Goodman Ace |
| Directed by | John Frankenheimer Jack Gage Bernard Girard Sidney Lumet William D. Russell |
| Presented by | Walter Cronkite |
| Country of origin | United States |
| Original language(s) | English |
| No. of seasons | 5 |
| No. of episodes | 147 |
| Production | |
| Producer(s) | James D. Fonda Charles Russell |
| Camera setup | Single-camera |
| Running time | 22–24 minutes |
| Release | |
| Picture format | Black-and-white |
| Audio format | Monaural |
| Original release | February 1, 1953 – June 9, 1957 |
You Are There was a cool American TV and radio show that taught people about history. It was on the CBS Radio and CBS Television networks from 1947 to 1957. The show made it feel like you were actually there when big historical events happened!
Contents
Radio Show: How It Started
The idea for You Are There came from Goodman Ace for CBS Radio. Imagine a news team traveling back in time! That's what this show did. It used modern news reporting to cover famous events from the past.
Reporters like John Charles Daly and Don Hollenbeck would "report" live from these historical moments. The show first aired on July 7, 1947, and was called CBS Is There. Later, it changed its name to You Are There. The radio show ended on March 19, 1950.
Television Show: Bringing History to Life
The popular radio show moved to television in 1953. Walter Cronkite, a very famous news anchor, became the host. The TV show kept the same exciting idea: showing history as if it were happening right now.
The first TV episode was on February 1, 1953. It showed what happened during the Hindenburg disaster. The show would re-enact important moments from history.
How the TV Show Worked
In each episode, actors played historical figures. CBS News reporters, dressed in modern suits, would "report" on the action. They even "interviewed" the people involved in the historical events!
Every show started with the characters setting the scene. Then, Walter Cronkite would introduce the event from his news desk in New York City. An announcer would then say the date and the event, followed by a loud, exciting "You are there!"
At the end of the program, Cronkite would sum up what happened. He would remind viewers, "What sort of day was it? A day like all days, filled with those events that alter and illuminate our times... all things are as they were then, and you were there."
Famous Historical Events Covered
The show covered many important events from American and world history. Some of these included:
- The Battle of Hastings
- The execution of Joan of Arc
- The Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire by Hernán Cortés
Revival in the 1970s
You Are There even came back for a short time from 1971 to 1972. This time, it was a color program shown on Saturday mornings. Walter Cronkite hosted these new episodes too. Both the original and the revival shows were made by CBS News.
Guest Stars You Might Know
Many famous actors appeared on You Are There before they became huge stars!
- John Cassavetes played Plato in "The Death of Socrates"
- James Dean played Robert Ford in "The Capture of Jesse James"
- Paul Newman played Marcus Brutus in "The Assassination of Julius Caesar"
- Kim Stanley played Cleopatra in "The Death of Cleopatra"
- Rod Steiger played Richard Burbage in "The First Command Performance of Romeo and Juliet"
- Joanne Woodward appeared in "The Oklahoma Land Rush"
Where to Watch You Are There Today
Some episodes of the 1950s TV show are available on DVD. The 1970s version is harder to find. You can also watch some episodes at the Museum of Broadcast Communications in Chicago. Both versions were also made into 16mm films for schools to use for learning.
