Culture of the 1930s

Clark Gable• Starred as Rhett

Butler in “Gone with the Wind”

• Biggest film star of the 1930s

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.

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.

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!”

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

Salvador Dali• Born in Catalonia

Spain, 1904.• His most famous

painting “Persistance of Memory”

• Painted in 1931.• Pioneered the field

of surrealism.

Brave New World• Written in 1932 by Aldous

Huxley.• Shocking view of the future

as a dystopia (Anti-Utopia).• Efficiency triumphs over

the human spirit.• “Soma” is consumed to

shield all from pain.• Humans are no longer

born, but cloned.

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.

The Good Earth• Written by Pearl S.

Buck-1931• Story of farmer,

Wang Lung and his rise from poverty to wealth in China.

The Yearling• Marjorie Kinnan

Rawlings-1938• The story of Jody

Baxter and his fawn “Flag”

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

Nausea• Written by John Paul

Sartre-1938• Existentialist

philosophy.• World is meaningless.• Man struggles to define

himself with no objective truth.

• The only purpose of life is to define one’s purpose.