Merrily We Roll Along: The Early Days of the Automobile

Narrated by Groucho Marx

Project Twenty productions of the 1950s and 1960s created the world of the historical documentary for prime time TV. This series first perfected techniques of combining archival film, scanned still photos, rich musical orchestration and compelling narration. winner of almost every major broadcasting award, Project Twenty set the standards against which later series such as PBS' American Experience and Ken Burns' films are measured.

Merrily We Roll Along looks at the impact the automobile had on America during the transition from horse and buggy to horseless carriage, roughly between 1900 and World War I. In those few short years the gentle pace of 19th Century life was overwhelmed by a mass culture intoxicated with speed, noise and newfound freedom of movement, and the automobile was the key ingredient in the transformation. Throughout, the narrative is illustrated with priceless film of the changing face of city and country as the auto grew from curiosity and nuisance to an integral part of our lives.