Tragedy And Promise - The Capture Of John Wilkes Booth / Spindletop - The First Texas Oil Strike

"What Sort Of A Day Was it? A Day Like All Days, Filled With Those Events That Alter And Illuminate Our Time... And You Were There."

You Are There, the multiple Emmy Award winning weekly live CBS TV series, remains a daring innovation with its faithful and dramatic reconstructions of significant historical narratives - utilizing actual primary sources and historical quotations, and employing real CBS News reporters as if some of the most significant moments in history were live television events. Some of the country´s greatest writers, producers, directors and actors worked on this series.

Educational, insightful and entertaining, the whole family will enjoy these famous re-enactments of history´s most dramatic moments! Walter Cronkite takes you ´there´ to witness the action, the debates, the differing points of view posited by powerful historical figures at these pivotal moments of epic decision-making and action-taking.

The Capture of John Wilkes Booth:
April 26th, 1865. Twelve days ago, President Lincoln was assassinated by actor John Wilkes Booth (Michael O´Connell). While the people of the nation mourn the loss of their President, Secretary of War, Edwin Stanton (Lawrence Dobkin), strives to bring the remorseless murderer to justice. Those thought to be Booth´s accomplices, including Dr. Samuel Mudd (Ernesto Sarracino), Mary Surratt (Ellen Corby) and Lewis Paine (Claude Akins), are interrogated. With the help of local farmers, Booth is finally apprehended in a barn in Bowling Green.

Spindletop - The First Texas Oil Strike:
January 10th, 1901. After Pattillo Higgins (Robert Bray) failed in drilling oil on Spindletop just south of Beaumont, Texas, a mining engineer, Captain Anthony Lucas (Parley Baer), believing in the endeavor, took over the financing. That spectacular day produced a great oil gusher, which became a turning point in the nation´s economy and helped propel the United States to become a leading producer of oil. Also starring Deforest Kelley and Paul Birch.