1929: The Great Crash

00:25:32 Some professional speculators sensed that the market was overheating.

00:27:03 But out of nowhere, a sharp fall in automobile stocks provoked a frantic last hour's trading.

00:28:55 and a perfect stranger, who recognised me

00:30:14 The crowd grew thicker and noisier

00:31:28 And those funds would be used to support a key list of stocks.

00:32:46 were assembled on Wall Street outside of his bank office.

00:34:07 But in the offices of the Financial District, there was total chaos.

00:35:39 the entire machinery is thrown into the reverse and the losses are also magnified.

00:37:10 out an extra, that's what it was called, an extra, for two cents.

00:38:35 of the bankers trying to stem the tide.

00:39:55 $25 billion dollars worth of personal wealth had simply disappeared.

00:41:17 Now the only thing I have left

00:42:26 not to pay her bills, but because she once again wanted to take a fancy trip to Europe.

00:43:41 I saw her body lying in the street and the sight was so harrowing, that I became half sick.

00:45:06 And then people would hear that the bank down the street wasn't good

00:46:45 And so they began going bankrupt and as they went bankrupt they laid

00:48:13 They used to wrap their feet up in newspaper and put them in cardboard

00:49:23 Miraculously, her photographs are discovered.

00:50:42 or at least it didn't have to crash so hard and, and I think...

00:52:30 blackened the reputation of Wall Street.

00:53:38 Ferdinand Pecora had a great quote, he said, "it was shocking disclosures of low standards in high places,"

00:54:56 the Great Depression that it created in many countries a desire for some

00:56:30 Now we've had cheap credit and people have speculated on houses

00:57:56 than reason and restraint.