Chapter 10: Never in the History of America
[Pare Lorentz:] Never in the history of America has there been an examination before or since as went on in the New Deal. We were getting reports of counties that weren’t just unemployed, but how many churches and what were the religions and what was the nature of the south. The most extraordinary in-depth in places where you’d sink, Red Rock, West Virginia, O.K. Mountaineers. You’d find Lithuanians, Swedes and different types of churches than you might expect.
Therefore, I had suggested to Roy that we had these magnificent reports so that it would be wise to do some detail about identification, not just people. I wasn’t a still picture man and of course the money and the time to make a movie and to think of music, meant a long haul. So he did show me the work of his men. He did ask opinions. And so then, you must bear in mind this: two picture magazines came into existence, Look and Life.