AllMovie

Calling Prohibition a "noble experiment," New York congressman Fiorello La Guardia then declared the law unenforceable. Throughout most of New York City, this was the correct assessment. This is the fifth episode of the epic PBS documentary series about the "Big Apple." Also covered in this program is the deportation of pacifist and anarchist Emma Goldman during the "Red Scare" of 1919; the horse-drawn wagon bombing of the Morgan Bank in 1920, which killed 30 people; the change of Harlem from a German-Jewish neighborhood to a mostly black one; the "Harlem Renaissance"; the "Jazz Age"; the rise of radio as entertainment; the invention of the Broadway musical; and the construction of the Empire State Building. Highlights include archival newsreel footage and photographs, as well as commentary from a variety of guests including historian David Levering Lewis, construction consultant Joel Silverman, architect Robert A.M. Stern, historian Ann Douglas, and historian Joshua Freeman. Directed by Ric Burns and narrated by David Ogden Stiers.