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It's Thursday, October 24th, 1929 in the Financial District of Manhattan.

A young man hurries along Wall Street, his bowler hat tipped against the early morning sun.

William Harvey is a successful stockbroker.

He helps his clients invest in the market and makes good money in the process.

But this morning, William looked strung out. Yesterday, a wave of panicky selling on the stock exchange drove down the share price of several major company stocks. If the market doesn't recover today,

the U.S. economy could go into a tailspin. William passes between the columns of the New York

Stock Exchange and pushes open the heavy wooden doors. As he crosses the busy trading floor,

William notices the worried expressions of his fellow brokers. There's an

atmosphere of nervous tension in the room, as if everybody is bracing for the worst. William positions

himself next to a telephone and waits. At 10 a.m., the bell rings, the day's trading starts.

Immediately, pandemonium erupts ring off the hook as panicking investors

tell their brokers to sell and cash out of the market. Down on the floor, the clerks

gesticulate madly at the traders frantically signaling the dramatically falling prices. William is on

the phone, desperately trying to calm down one of his clients,

but he's distracted by the numbers on the ticker board.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average Stock Index is falling faster than William has ever seen before.

William is nearly paralyzed as the numbers on the ticker board plummet.

Gradually, he lowers the receiver until the frantic voice of his client

...