sense of whose message is resonating and who is on the .ath to the nomination >> >> this year, c-span's touring cities across the country exploring american history. first a look at our recent visit to santa barbara, california. >> in the 1910's, into the early teens, film studios were anybody with a camera. there was a lot of people realizing there is money to be made in this new endeavor. previously films had been shown at nickelodeons. they had a camera that took a picture of a girl doing a shimmy shake, so you paid a nickel and got to watch a movie like this. but it to develop into a real art and we started to get real art and we started to get real writers, producers and experienced people to put this together. this is when things were really getting good. we are currently at one of the remaining pieces of the studio in santa barbara, california. the building behind us is the green room. here is what the actors would come change into costumes and get their makeup on and wait in the main room. the each of private rooms in the midwood weight in the green room to be called to the studio to take their shots and do their things up there. as the owner found out, the walls were green when he started restoring this and create -- cleaning it up but this is actually the best of these little three building centers. the studio was started in chicago in 1910 and when it started it came off the ground perfectly because send a hutchinson, the man who put it together simply went to other motion picture studios in chicago and offer them more money. when they came to the american film opening, he had a studio from start to finish. no training was needed so they started making films. they specialized in cowboy films. unlike other studios filming in chicago back east, they had a unit down in new mexico, and arizona. they said, we have real westerns made with real cowboys in the real west. >> we are here at the center -- at the historical museum at downtown santa barbara. i'm standing in front of one of the most interesting items. this is a silent movie camera used in the flying ace studio productions. it was owned by the cameraman and donated to the museum by his wife. this camera is interesting because this model camera was used for over 40 years and was really revolutionary for its time because the film could hold a 400 foot real of film which allowed for continuous filming at that time. >> the flying a came to santa barbara when the because he had a unit working out of the san diego unit, san juan capistrano or bayside and the director said that he pretty much figured he had shot up the scenery and was looking for something different. in 1912 they came up to santa barbara and their first studio was in of old abandoned ostrich farm about two blocks from where we are now. in 1913 they built the studio that we were currently sitting at. it was eventually three quarters of a block that we have here but they started off inserted getting bigger and better. this was the largest film studio in the united states. was it by size of the building or the volume of films they were turning out? we don't know. but even back then the newspapers proudly reported that our new studio here in santa barbara is the largest. >> of those who got their start here, the best known is the director victor fleming who went on to direct gone with the wind and the wizard of oz. the biggest star was mary miles minter. she played innocent young waifs who would be subjected to danger and temptation and at the end of the day, everything would turn out all right. she was a huge star in the teens for the flying a studio. her career ended tragically. in 1922, she was implicated in the shooting death of william desmond taylor, a hollywood director. that case was never solved and there were all sorts of rumors flying that mary miles was lover of taylor even though she was 30 years younger than he was. one story has it that one of those rivals was mary miles mintor's mother. >> one of the more controversial films they made was a movie called "purity." they got america's top model, audrey munson, to oppose in this movie. it was of a younger and her boyfriend who is a poet and she wants to make money to publish her boyfriend's book. she comes across an artist to who sees her bathing naked in one of the pools, so he sees her and thinks that she is his ideal model. audrey munson was famous for her nude work as a model and a lot of the statuary featured audrey munson. she was the head of the mercury head dime and a liberty quarter. she was a famous model who came to the flying a and she posed nude during this film. when she was posing nude, she did not move, so people thought it was art and that went on to do this. as the movie went on they would show famous works of art -- it was even in the vatican. but of course it was highly controversial to have a nude woman on the screen. it is a great art piece. it is not the first time that a nude was done in a movie. it made big news for them and was a big hit. the flying a became -- came to an end because hollywood in the center of film making. at the beginning it was fine, that is hollywood got more established, there was camaraderie. people are meeting after hours talking about things they had done and how did they do it. close-ups, dolly shots. santa barbara is getting isolated. it started costing more to get things to santa barbara. everything can be bought in bulk in los angeles and taken to the studio it had to be shipped by train or car up here. more actors wanted to be in los angeles. you could do a shoot for one recentlyty staff traveled to santa barbara to learn about its history. you can learn more at www.c-span.org/citiestour. you are watching american history tv all weekend every weekend on c-span3 > the reality is, the best presidents, the greatest presidents, have been willing to recognize they weren't at the smartest person in the room. themselves with people that thought were smarter than themselves. sunday night, former secretary of defense and director of the cia robert gates discusses his book "a passion for leadership." he served under several presidents, most recently george w. bush and barack obama. >> at the of the cold war when i was director of central intelligence, i came to believe very strongly that the american ssople had given the cia a pa on a lot of things because of this existential conflict with the soviet union. i believe that after the end of war we had to be more open about what we did and why we did it to help the american people better understand why intelligence was important.

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