Culture in the 1930s

MAIN IDEA

• Motion pictures, radio, art and literature blossomed during the New Deal.

WHY IT MATTERS NOW

• The films, music, art, and literature of the 1930s still captivate today’s public

The Lure of Motion Pictures & Radio

• MOVIES:– Cost: $.25– 65% of Americans went to movies once a

week– 15,000 movie theater – more than the # of

banks, twice the number of hotels

• RADIO:– Sold: 13 million in 1930, 28 million in 1940– ½ of all American households owned a radio

Movies and Radio NBC and CBS=Radio

Networks

MGM, Warner Brothers, Twentieth Century Fox, and Paramount= Film Companies

1935- 2 of 3 homes in Americans owned a radio.

1940- 9 in 10 homes in America owned a radio

Social Commentary Films such as Public Enemy showed public

distrust of the government and big business. People turning to crime to survive the

depression

G Men police officials capture bad men.

Mr. Smith Goes to Washington- Senator goes to Washington to fight corruption.

As the New Deal changed opinions about government, movies began to show that.

1930s Culture

Escaping the troubles

Wizard of Oz

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs

Frankenstein

Top Hat

Gone With the Wind

Gone With the Wind• Debuted in 1939• Sold more

tickets than any other film before or since.

• If released today would gross over 1 billion dollars

• One of the first color films.

Clark Gable• Starred as Rhett

Butler in “Gone with the Wind”

• Biggest film star of the 1930s

Movies of the ’30s

Gangster Films

W.C. Fields• Comedic actor• Starred in “My Little

Chickadee”• Famous for playing

a lovable curmudgeon

Errol Flynn

• Starred as the title character in “The Adventures of Robin Hood”

• Considered to be the most handsome man of his time.

Fred Astaire• Considered by many

to be the best male dancer who ever lived.

• Starred in “The Gay Divorcee” “Top Hat” and “Shall We Dance”

Basil Rathbone• Starred as Sherlock

Holmes in over a dozen films.

• Played the Sheriff of Nottingham in “The Adventures of Robin Hood”

The Marx Bros.• Starred in

“Animal Crackers”, “Horsefeathers”, “Duck Soup” and “A Night at the Opera”

• Groucho, Chico, Harpo & Zeppo

• “One morning I shot an elephant in my pajamas. How he got into my pajamas, I’ll never know.”

Ginger Rogers• Starred in “The Gay

Divorcee” & “5th Avenue Girl”

• Known for being Fred Astaire’s dancing partner

Greta Garbo• Starred in “Mata

Hari” and “Anna Karenina”

• Born in Sweden 1905

• Considered to be one of the top 5 actresses of all time.

Bette Davis• Starred in “Of

Human Bondage” and “The Petrified Forest”

• Sued to get out of a studio contract in 1934

Jean Harlow• Dated Aviator Howard

Hughes and boxing champ Max Baer

• Starred in “Dinner at 8” and “Bombshell”

• Died at 26 of kidney failure.

• Played by Gwen Stefani in the 2005 film “The Aviator”

Mae West• Starred in “She Done Him

Wrong” and “I’m No Angel”

• Powerful in Hollywood and wrote most of the scripts of the movies in which she starred.

• Born in 1895. Older than most of the actresses of her time.

• Was infamous for her sexual double entendres. “Come up and see me sometime.”

Shirley Temple• Starred in over a

dozen films in the 1930s

• One of the first child stars.

• “Heidi”, “The Little Colonel”, “The Littlest Rebel”.

Dracula • Debuted in 1931.• Launched Bela

Lugosi’s career.• Considered to be

the scariest movie of all time when it was released.

Frankenstein• Debuted in 1932• Launched Boris

Karloff’s career.

King Kong

• Debuted in 1933• Won awards for

special effects• Hitler’s favorite

film.• Remakes made in

1976 and 2005.

Wizard of Oz

• Debuted in 1939• First color film

ever made.• One of the most

popular films of all time.

• “Lions & Tigers & Bears. Oh my!”

RADIO

• Drama and variety– War of the Worlds

• Orson Welles later

directed movie classics:

“Citizen Kane” &

“Touch of Evil”

• Music to capture the hardships of Depression America

Golden age of radio

Bob Hope and Jack Benny- Comedians

Soap operas and variety shows were popular.

The Lone Ranger and The Shadow ran for years.

FDR used fireside chats

Sounds of the Era

Swing dominated the charts

Duke Ellington

Benny Goodman

Artie Shaw

Jimmy and Tommy Dorsey

Bing Crosby

D.J.s introduced

Latin music rumba and samba.

Woody Guthrie

Music provided a happy diversion and a serious outlet for social concerns.

“Swing” music played by “big bands” topped the charts.

Latin music and dances like the rumba and the samba were popular.

The folk singer Leadbelly described the harsh lives of African Americans.

Woodie Guthrie wrote ballads about the Dust Bowl and the Okies.

• Art, music, literature– Sober and serious– But conveyed an uplifting message about strength of

character and democratic values

• Many artists supported the New Deal’s spirit of social and political change

• Many of them also received financial support from the New Deal (Harry Hopkins and the WPA)– “They’ve got to eat just like other people.”

• Paid artists a living wage• Aimed to increase public appreciation of

art & promote positive images of America• Artists:

– created posters – taught art in schools– created murals

• These murals were inspired by Diego Rivera • Focused on dignity of ordinary Americans at work

Grant Wood’s American Gothic

Thomas Hart Benton

New Deal and the Arts

• Federal Art Project- Job opportunities for artists.

• Murals painted on public buildings, a lot had to do with the history of the nation.

• Dorothea Lange- Photographer, created powerful images of the era.

Literature of the Depression

John Steinbeck- The Grapes of Wrath

Richard Wright- Native Son- Racial prejudice

Lillian Herman- Wrote about strong women.

Clifford Odets- struggles of working class.

Dick Tracy and Superman

The Hobbit• Written by J.R.R. Tolkien• Same author as “Lord of

the Rings”• The adventures of Bilbo

Baggins in which he encounters Gollum/Smeagol

• Bilbo is helped by the magic ring of invisibility, “The Precious”

John Steinbeck• “Of Mice and Men”-1937.

George and his mentally challenged friend Lenny try to survive as ranch hands during the depression.

• “The Grapes of Wrath”-1939. Tom Joad tries to help his family survive in California after moving from Oklahoma dustbowl during the depression.

Who Goes There?• Written by John Campbell

1938.• Antarctic research team

uncovers a frozen alien in the ice.

• It awakens and hunts down the crew one by one.

• It has the ability to mimic any living creature after consuming them.

• Made into a movie, “The Thing”-1982 with Kurt Russell

POW!POW!

Comic strips and comic books also were very popular.

• Flash Gordon

• Dick Tracy

• Superman

Science Fiction

Detective Story

The first great superhero comic

Joe Louis• “The Brown

Bomber”• Longest reigning

heavyweight champion of the world. 12 years (1937-1949)

• Made 25 consecutive defenses of his title.

Joe Louis II• Defeated Billy

Conn in 1941.• Conn said, “I’m

going to hit and run.”

• Louis replied-“He can run, but he can’t hide.”

• Ranked as the greatest heavyweight of all time and the 2nd best boxer of all time.

Seabiscuit• Horse of the

Year 1938• Won match race

against war admiral 1938

• Movie made about Seabiscuit 2003

To sum up . . .

• Though artists and writers recognized America’s flaws, they contributed positively to New Deal legacy

• Intellectuals praised the virtues of American life

• They took pride in the country’s traditions and accomplishments.