Screen News Digest: Volume 14 Issue 6: The Golden Door: An Exclusive Color Report

Year Published: 1972

Creator: Hearst Metrotone News

Complete Record: Story of America’s immigrant heritage and its influence on our development as a nation. Rare still photographs and historic motion pictures recall a time at the turn of the century when one million immigrants a year passed tough the complex processing center at Ellis Island. Rare still photographs and historic motion pictures are blended with contemporary scenes of the Immigration Station of Ellis Island, N.Y., to describe immigration in America, and to show the influence it had on the development of the nation. Footage of Ellis Island interior, voiceover naming names. Audio garbled. View of Statue of Liberty. Voiceover: describing America at turn of century. Footage of immigrants coming to Ellis Island by boat. Footage of abandoned Ellis Island in disrepair. Crowds of immigrants getting medical examinations. shirtless men and boys lined up. Woman having eyes checked. Officials at desks. Abandoned desks, offices, processing rooms. Destroyed kitchens, offices, bathrooms. Immigrants eating at large tables. Eerie footage of abandoned buildings, relics, creepy music. Photos of immigrants, lists of names and dates. Views of Manhattan in background. Bustling crowds; scenes of immigrants working, taking classes, immigrants living in slums, learning English, playing in streets, working, interacting. Women sewing, factory work. Men working in mines, clocking in to work, working with animals, milking cows. Walt Whitman quote. Modern-day shots of city life, police officers, kids, clergyman, wedding, people in streets, pan over Manhattan, Einstein, other famous immigrants. Close up Statue of Liberty. Aerial view of Ellis Island. Sun setting behind Statue of Liberty.