Early Videos of TVA

The Tennessee Valley Authority had its birth at Muscle Shoals.  Billed as a great new social project to elevate the quality of life of the Tennessee and Alabama farmers in the great crescentric swath of geography that formed the watershed of the Tennessee River, the program, in reality, was designed to provide the electric power to fuel the effort to become independent of foreign sources of nitrates that are necessary to manufacture gunpowder and other explosives for the war effort of the U. S. military.  Begun at the end of WWI, the project became urgent as we faced the run-up to WWII.

The Presidents involved in the decision-making for these projects hesitated, schemed, and fought powerful private industrialists until George Norris, Senator from Nebraska and arch rival of Henry Ford over the ownership of major waterways, proposed TVA.  Franklin Delano Roosevelt and proponents of TVA then had the task of selling this project to other legislators and the American public.  

To inform the public and assist them in the persuasion of other Senators and Congressmen, a number of films were made which championed the need for TVA and the worthiness of the expenditure of funds for its creation.  Here are a few of these interesting films.  With actual film footage, you get a glimpse of the monumental task of building Wilson Dam that occurred well before the advent of such heavy equipment that is used in major building projects today.

These two 35-minute film clips are from a series of five produced by the Tennessee Valley Authority which was created by an Act of Congress in 1933--six years after completion of Wilson Dam which was begun in 1918.  The films feature the building of Norris Dam and the contributions of TVA to the betterment of the entire Tennessee Valley.  Google has not yet made the entire series available on Google Videos, but I'll keep on the lookout and add the links when they do.

The Need for TVA, 1935

Building TVA, 1936

The Electric Valley, Agee Films, 1984

Now, here's a full-length independent film about the TVA that might interest some of you who love "The Shoals."  Agee Films received an Emmy nomination for this huge account of one of the most interesting, controversial federal agencies ever created.  Check your neighborhood Blockbusters. . . . or the public library, or your high school library.  Or you can purchase the video tape on the Agee Films website.