Culture, Women, and Entertainment of the 1930s

Battle of the Colas 5 cents for a 12 oz. bottle of Pepsi Cola vs 5 cents for a 6 oz. bottle of Coca-Cola

Everybody’s Favorite Cookie Toll House cookie was invented in 1930 by accident Ruth Wakefield owned the Toll House Inn in Whitman, MA Didn’t have enough cocoa in the house to make cookies; substituted with bits of a Nestle’s chocolate bar she found in the cupboard

Dracula In February 1931, Hollywood announced that a new movie would be released. The film was Dracula and it promised to be a real spine- chiller.

Tallest Building in the World Even though America was in the middle of a depression, work was completed on the Empire State Building in NYC. The building is 1,250 ft. tall and contains 86 stories of office space. Tours of the building in 1931 cost $1.

Plop, Plop, Fizz, Fizz Alka-Seltzer went on the market in 1931 to help those battling the flu and colds.

Do Not Pass Go… Monopoly, one of the two biggest selling games in history, was invented in The game reflected the problems of the depression; with one unlucky roll of the dice, a person could lose everything.

Dy-Dee-Doll A new kind of doll came onto the market in Called the Dy-Dee-Doll, it could “drink” a bottle of water and then wet itself.

KONG The first King Kong movie was made in The giant ape-like monster looked huge on screen; the makers of the film actually used a clay model or hand puppet that was about 18 inches tall.

America’s Little Darling Shirley Temple was a popular child star of the 1930s. In 1934, at age six, she was making $400,000 a year. Watching the little girl with dimples and curly blond hair was a welcome relief for those who were starved for happiness during the Depression.

LIFE The first issue of LIFE, one of the most successful magazines in history, went on sale in 1936.

Gone With the Wind In 1936, the novel Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell broke sales records. This exciting, romantic story was set in the South during the Civil War. Up until then, the top selling book in America was Uncle Tom’s Cabin.

Jesse Owens Jesse Owens, an African- American athlete, won four gold medals at the 1936 Olympic Games held in Berlin, Germany. He disproved Hitler’s claim that German athletes were superior over other “imperfect” races. Rather than congratulate Owens personally as he had for every other winning athlete, Hitler left the stadium early claiming he was worried about the rain.

Snow White Walt Disney’s Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs debuted in The wicked witch, a scary old hag in the movie, was so frightening that many of the children in the audience wet their pants; one theater reported that many of its velvet seats had to be reupholstered.

Amelia Earhart World famous flier Amelia Earhart and her navigator set out to fly around the world in They were somewhere over the Pacific Ocean when they vanished.

It’s a Bird, It’s a Plane… Superman, the one who could leap tall buildings in a single bound, came to life in 1938 with the publishing of the very first Action Comic.

Follow the Yellow Brick Road One of the hit movies of 1939 was The Wizard of Oz, starring a young Judy Garland. In 1939, a child could go to the theater, see a film, a cartoon, and a newsreel, and buy two large candy bars all for a quarter.

Women of the 1930s In 1939, a young singer named Marian Anderson was invited to perform in Washginton, DC. A group called the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) said that Anderson had no business performing at Constitution Hall because she was black. When first lady Eleanor Roosevelt heard this, she promptly resigned from the D.A.R. and organized an alternate site for the concert - the Lincoln Memorial.

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Bibliography Stewart, Gail B. 1930s. New York: Crestwood House, Print.