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Hosted by James Whitmore, this syndicated 1964-65 documentary series used newsreel footage and dramatic re-creations to recount amazing true stories of people overcoming the odds in the face of natural disasters and man-made adversities. Episodes include "Alaska Earthquake," "Bomber Pilot," "Crisis in Little Rock," "The Maccabees," and more. 10 episodes on 1 disc. 4 1/4 hrs. Standard; Soundtrack: English.

There are ten episodes of Survival on this first volume and here is a brief rundown on each one.

1. Alaska Earthquake:
This first episode starts off with a real bang, delivered by Mother Nature herself. The earthquake hit on March 27, 1964 and registered as magnitude 9.2, so needless to say there was lots of major damage done to streets, houses, buildings and hillsides. The Survival production crew had Lowell Thomas Jr. and his wife Tay (1927 - 2014) re-enact what they went through during that terrible time and there are lots of scenes of the earthquake's aftermath shown.

2. Bel-Air Fire:
This program centered on the whopping big brush fire that hit the Bel-Air, California area on November 6, 1961. Local news filmed footage is shown here and those camera operators didn't shy away from the fire...lots of close ups of the flames. Check out the still photographs shown at the start of the program. They show Joe E. Brown, Kim Novak, and even a grinning Richard M. Nixon applying water to their property.

3. Bomber Pilot:
Norman Appold (April 13, 1917 - March 17, 2004) takes us through his experiences on bomber runs during WWII. There are some startling scenes of heavy bombers flying extremely low as they approach their targets.

4. Crisis in Little Rock:
This covers the problems that black students faced while trying to attend high school classes in Little Rock back in the 1950's. Terrence Roberts and Jefferson Thomas (September 19, 1942 - September 5, 2010) give eloquent accounts of what they went through at that time. Warning...there are some rather disturbing scenes of mob violence shown.

5. Danish Resistance:
My knowledge of WWII is rather limited and I was surprised to learn that when the Nazis took over Denmark, they did not do so with an iron fist. Still, the Danish people would have none of it and they resisted. Sven Rye and Hannah Scheel describe the goings on during the Nazi occupation. (I was surprised at the great amount of town's folk that got about on bikes.)

6. Desperate Voyage:
Moishe Ben-Tzipor describes the pain and suffering of the Jews, after WWII, when they were in search of a country they could call their own.

7. Carlsen of the Flying Enterprise:
I really enjoyed this episode of Survival. It centers on one Henrik Kurt Carlsen (February 20, 1914 - October 7, 1989) whose large freighter; The Flying Enterprise was hit and disabled by a hurricane. The ship developed a bad list and the crew and nine passengers were evacuated onto a nearby vessel, but not Captain Carlsen. He decided to remain aboard and arrange for a tow to Great Britain. His actions caught the world's fancy and many watched to see if he could succeed in saving his cargo of pig iron, coffee, peat moss and Volkswagens.

8. The Maccabees:
This is a fascinating account of the residents of Crown Heights, New York back in 1964 and their attempt at stopping crime. Rabbi Samuel Schrage (1935 - 1977) came up with a plan to utilize people in cars with radio contact to monitor the streets and give rides to folks that were afraid to walk home. They would also help the police locate prowlers and burglars. It was controversial at the time, some thought a vigilantes problem would develop. There is one scene in particular that I believe is Survival's longest running filmed segment without a break. It comes when Rabbi Schrage is in a class with students and he walks amongst them as they are taking a test. I clocked it at 1 minute and 43 seconds.

9. Scott Carpenter:
I can remember all of the original Project Mercury space shoots but for the life of me, I can't recall the problem that astronaut Scott Carpenter (May 1, 1925 - October 10, 2013) had while orbiting the earth on May 24, 1962. I learned from this episode that there was a problem with his fuel being used up at a rather alarming rate, possibly to the point where he wouldn't have enough left over to re-enter the earth's atmosphere. One automatic control (the pitch horizon scanner) malfunctioned and was responsible for the fuel being used up to the point where Scott had to manually maneuver the capsule back to earth, where he over shot his touch down point by 250 miles.

10. USS Franklin:
This final episode of volume one covers the horrific damage that the great aircraft carrier (nicknamed "Big Ben") sustained while on duty during WWII. Over 800 men lost their lives on that day, but after watching the burning ship (filmed from a nearby vessel), it's hard to believe that anybody could have survived the conflagration.