The Rockefellers

In 1893, John D. Rockefeller Jr. went to Brown University, where "to the horror of his mother, he learned to dance." A model of Christian propriety, Laura Rockefeller was the wife of one of the richest men in the world at the time, the reviled and revered John D. Rockefeller, self-made multi-millionaire head of the Standard Oil Company, whose offices at 26 Broadway in New York city were dubbed a "cave for pirates." In this near 5-hour portrait of one of the most powerful American dynasties, originally airing on PBS's The American Experience, directors Elizabeth Deane and Adriana Bosch draw on the insights of notable biographers/historians (such as the Pulitzer Prize winning Ron Chernow), and Rockefeller family members (including John D. Rockefeller Jr.'s surviving sons David and Laurance) to chart the Rockefeller story primarily through the lives of three men: John D. Rockefeller (the original "titan" of capitalism); his troubled, charitable son John D. Rockefeller Jr.; and Jr.'s ambitious son, Nelson Rockefeller. It is, as might be expected, a quintessentially American tale, with the most fascinatingly contradictory character being John D. Rockefeller, himself: a child from a broken home (with a bigamist for a father), who was morally indifferent in the acquisition of wealth (ruining, through devious and often illegal means, a number of competitors in the oil industry), yet driven by Christian charity to give it away to promote the social welfare of the country (even today the Rockefeller Foundation remains a notable example of organized philanthropy). While some viewers will feel that the portrait unduly leans toward the uncritical as we near modern times (mention is made of the tell-all 1976 exposé The Rockefellers, based in part on insider grumblings from the fourth-generation kids, but the fact that those same fourth-generation kids have contributed little to the wealth-generating aspect of the Rockefeller make-and-give formula goes unremarked). Sure to be popular, this somewhat scattershot but mostly engaging chronicle is recommended. Aud: H, C, P. (R. Pitman)