1930's Culture

Who were the most influential people in 1930's popular culture? 

 Walt Disney, Clark Babe, Vivien Leigh, Orson Welles, Diego Rivera, Grant Wood, Woody Guthrie, Richard Wright, and many others. They captured the American people's attention by sharing their stories of the Great Depression and presenting Americans with visions of wealth, romance, and good times to escape them from reality. Writers, artists, and singers made their paintings, novels, and songs easy for Americans to relate to because these popular people had experienced the same feelings other Americans had felt throughout the Great Depression. 

What books, movies, and other entertainment programs were popular during the Great Depression?

Gone With the Wind, The Wizard of Oz, and Snow White were just some of the most popular movies shown during the Great Depression. People would pay to go to the movies just to escape the reality of the hardships they were currently facing. Americans loved the variety of movies offered. Radio programs were popular among the American audience, also. Families would sit together for several hours a day listening to their favorite programs. One popular radio program was "The War of the Worlds". Music, paintings, and novels didn't involve drama but were serious. Some painters like ,Diego Rivera, painted pictures of Americans at work. Grant Wood's painting American Gothic became famous.  Theaters productions were another program created to entertain people. Waiting for Lefty was a theater play about labor struggles of the 1930's.

How did the entertainment of the Great Depression reflect what was going on at the time? 

The entertainment of the Great Depression showed people going through hardships just like the American people faced through the Great Depression. Some types of entertainment even showed real life examples of other peoples' experience of going through the depression. Paintings expressed sadness or serious emotions and showed people hard a work trying to survive. Novels and songs showed the listeners and readers the poverty and traveling done in search of a better life and hope.  

What part of 1930's entertainment did you find most important and why? 

I think the most important entertainment of the 1930's was movies. They helped Americans escape reality for awhile. The characters within movies showed honest and kindness which set a good example for the American people to be like. Other movies had characters that were going through hardships like the American people which gave them hope to get through their hardship just like the people in the movie did. I think movies influenced and  set the tone of American character and attitudes toward their obstacle of the Great Depression. The U.S. had more movie theaters than banks and double the amount of hotels. 

Great Depression

1. What kinds of hardships did children and teenagers suffer during the Great Depression? During the Great Depression, children suffered from malnutrition and diseases that were caused by malnutrition. Due to falling tax revenues, schools started to close. Since there was no school, teenagers went to work in sweatshops. They experienced terrible working conditions. Some children rode the freights in search of jobs and a way out of poverty. They suffered from being caught by armed freight yard patrolmen, terrible living and sleeping conditions, and being murdered by criminals. 

2. How did Men struggle with it? Men struggled finding jobs. They would walk the streets in search for jobs everyday. Some men left their families while others became hoboes. Hoboes rode freights or either hitched a ride. They would sleep in homeless shelters. 

3. What about Women? Women struggled with managing the household budget. They would often work out plans with other women to save money on food. Some put off getting married and having children. What was unique about their struggle? Women were being accused of having it better than anybody else. People thought married woman had no right to work when men were still unemployed. In some cities, they wouldn't even hire women that were married as schoolteachers. Women didn't show the struggles they were having. They would hide them in shame. 

4. What LONG LASTING effects did the Great Depression have on the personality of our society? A long lasting effect that the Great Depression had on the personality of our society was the habits of saving and thriftiness. Another long lasting effect would be setting young people's mind to achieving financial security. The bonds created between families and communities by sharing resources would continue on into a new generation.