J FRANCIS GLADSTONE – NOVA DOCUMENTARY SERIES PRODUCTIONS AND LINKS TO ONLINE VERSIONS OF THESE FILMS. (If the links do not work, copy into your browser.)

STRANGE SLEEP: NOVA # 6/ Transmission date 2-April-1976/ Production code 0106:

 Briefly: History of how anesthesia made surgical operations pain free in the 180-1920 period. Seen through the lives of pioneers with ether, nitrous oxide, chloroform and cocaine. Also the –sometimes tragic – human impact of this work on the pioneers. I hour. Dramatized except open and close segments.

https://archive.org/details/StrangeSleep
 

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WAR FROM THE AIR: NOVA #21/ Transmission date 5-Jan-1975/ Production code 0208.

Briefly: from early bomb thrown from the sides of by-planes to the A bombs to the million ton assault by the US on Hanoi, how successful has mass bombing been as a new form or warfare and how successful the counter propaganda? All historic footage. 60 minutes.

https://archive.org/details/WarFromTheAir

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HITLER’S SECRET WEAPON: (made with my close colleague, the late Patrick Griffin)  Nova 51/ Transmission date 5/1/77/ Production 0401.

Briefly In 1946 long range rockets from defeated Germany plus US atomic war heads threaten to change conflict for ever. This is the history of those German rockets and the scientists (Nazis, now American) who made the programme possible. 60 minutes/ historic film and interviews.

https://archive.org/details/HitlersSecretWeapon

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THE WOMAN REBEL (life of Margaret Sanger)/ Nova 46/ Shown first on 23 May 1976 – production code 03016.

Briefly: Exploration of the life and work of the American feminist and birth control pioneer, Margaret Sanger. 60 minutes. Recreated drama.

Not available online. A DVD can be obtained from me.

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WHAT PRICE COAL? / Nova 53/ Transmission date 19/Jam/77/ Production code 0407.

Briefly: Documentary about the – often tragic – safety and – often drastic – environmental effect of coal mining in the USA. It was made in the light of President Carter’s vision that coal could provide a strategically safe alternative for the USA to Middle Eastern oil.

https://archive.org/details/NOVAWhatPriceCoal

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ACROSS THE SILENCE BARRIER/ Nova 68/ Transmission date 22/June/ 1976/ Production code 0418.

Briefly: Deafness in the USA. The film focussed on the question of whether children were more whole by learning sign language (which could isolate them from other than the deaf community) or being taught to speak as well as possible (in many cases with little real comprehension.)

https://archive.org/details/NOVAAcrosstheSilenceBarrier

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THE TRIAL OF DENTON COOLEY / Nova 76/ Transmission date 22/February/78/ Production code 0506.

Briefly: Recreation of the trial of the famed Texas heart surgeon who was accused of putting self-publicity ahead of patient ethics in the case of inserting an artificial heart into a patient he deemed be otherwise dying (and who did die).

https://archive.org/details/TrialofDentonCooley

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THE ROAD TO HAPPINESS (made with my colleague, the late Patrick Griffin) Nova 83/ Transmission date 3/May/78/ Production code 0513.

Briefly: The life, rise and decline of the automobile pioneer, Henry Ford, entirely thought his personal and the Ford company’s film archive.

https://archive.org/details/TheRoadtoHappiness

I stepped down from Nova when my partner, Josephine Gladstone (Elwyn Jones) took over as executive producer.