For much of the last half of the 20th Century, Huston Smith was the leading scholar of the world's enduring religions. His groundbreaking 1955 TV Series, The Religions of Man introduced American audiences to Eastern Religions and was nationally broadcast on National Educational Television, NET, which was the precursor to PBS. That series led to the publication of his book, The Religions of Man's since re-titled The World's Religions which has sold over 3 million copies and was used as a textbook in leading universities and colleges. His influence on the American spiritual landscape cannot be overstated. In the TV series, Search for America, Huston Smith interviews legendary mid-century icons in a wide range of interests on subjects from Race Relations to Economics and World Politics. Huston interviewed Eleanor Roosevelt, John Kenneth Galbraith and Paul Samuelson, Dr. Margaret Mead, Mark Van Doren and William Ernest Hocking, Dr. Erich Fromm, Reinhold Niebuhr, William Ernest Hocking, and Paul Tillich. Hartley Films was started in 1971 by founder Elda E. Hartley. Elda and Irving Hartley made newsreels and travel films from the 1930s through the 1960s. Some of the images that now illustrate American history were shot by Irving Hartley, including the explosion of the Hindenburg zeppelin in 1937. He and Elda also produced a series of Pan Am travelogues, a prototype for travel shows on television today. Huston Smith narrated three shows for Hartley Films on Hinduism, Tibetan Buddhism and Islam. Hartley released a lecture given by Huston Smith titled, The Way Things Are.