Groups of various national and ethnic origins arrived seeking their fortune; this documentary focuses on the Jewish presence in California during the Gold Rush. This feature traces the arrival of Jews in the ‘rough and tumble’ West and follows how they settled and grew with the towns and establishing communities, which have grown to become more valuable than gold in a sense.
Opening remarks by Charlton Heston and Mickey Rooney are used to establish the film’s direction and mood. Introductory scenes quickly dissolve into one laced with sounds of thunder and artillery fire. The setting is atop Niagara Falls where waters cascade over the falls’ edge. Superimposed in the haze are dissolving scenes of American conflicts from the American Revolutionary War through Desert Storm.
In Citizen Kane, Welles plays Charles Foster Kane, whose fictional life partially mirrors that of Hearst's. However, Chicago inventor and utilities magnate Samuel Insull, Chicago Tribune publisher Robert R. McCormick, and even Welles's own life were used in creating Kane.