Press Contact: Teri L. Sullivan
WKNO/Channel 10
(901) 729-8735
tlsullivan@wkno.org
May 6, 2010
For Immediate Release
A New Film Follows a Railroad that Helped Make Memphis the Hub of Transportation
WKNO-TV will present a new one-hour film on the Memphis & Charleston Railroad and its role in the economic growth of the south and Memphis in particular. Memphis & Charleston Railroad: A Marriage of the Waters will premiere on Monday, May 24 at 9:00 p.m. on WKNO/Channel 10. It is narrated by WKNO’s Jim Eikner.
Increased cotton production in the early 1800s brought a corresponding need for an improved transportation system to get that cotton to market. Rail systems were first horse-powered and used for only short distances, but with the arrival of the steam engine in the 1830s, longer railroads were being constructed. Several influential men, among them John C. Calhoun, promoted the idea of an east-west railroad that would link the Mississippi River to the Atlantic.
Completed in 1857, the Memphis & Charleston Railroad became a major factor in the economic growth of the south and Memphis in particular. With the presence of the M&C and other railroads built to converge with it, came new opportunities for the city. Population grew from 9,000 in 1850 to more than 22,000 by the end of that decade, the fastest rate of growth of any American city at the time.
“I began to realize how much Memphis owed its emergence to that set of rails,” said filmmaker Jay Killingsworth. “As I learned how many significant moments in history were linked to what is now more commonly referred to as the Southern Railroad, I decided I wanted to tell the story in a documentary.”
Killingsworth, who moved to Memphis as a teenager, has worked in video production for over thirty years, producing corporate and instructional videos. This is his first independent documentary film. Memphis & Charleston Railroad: A Marriage of the Waters premieres Tuesday, May 24 at 9:00 p.m. on WKNO/Channel 10 and repeats overnight at 1:00 a.m. It also airs Tuesday, May 25 at 9:00 p.m. on WKNO2, available on digital channel 10.2 or on Comcast Digital Cable on Channel 910.
The broadcast of Memphis & Charleston Railroad: A Marriage of the Waters is sponsored by Good Winds Greenhouse and Nursery of Germantown, TN.
WKNO is a non-profit, private foundation serving the Mid-South for more than 50 years. An important community resource, WKNO uses the power of non-commercial public broadcasting to provide the Mid-South with quality educational and cultural programs that inform, entertain, and inspire. For more information: wkno.org
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