1. Culture of the 1930s

2. The Lure of Motion Pictures
Escape from reality
Wealth, romance, good times
Comedies
Gangster films
N.D. accomplishments
The visit to the theater was an escape from the drab realities of Depression living; entranced by never-ending variety of stories. Movies provided a window on a different, more exciting world.
Cost 25 cents to go to movies
By late in 1930s, approximately 65% of population was attending movies once per week
Over 15,000 movie theaters (more than banks, 2x hotels)
Clark Gable, Gone With the Wind

3. Wealth, romance, good times
Gone with the Wind (1939)
The Wizard of Oz (1939)
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937)
Flying Down to Rio (1933)
Fred Astaire & Ginger Rogers
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs is the first full-length cel animated feature film and the earliest in the Walt Disney Animated Classics series. (Traditional animation, (or classical animation, cel animation, or hand-drawn animation) is an animation technique where each frame is drawn by hand. The technique was the dominant form of animation in cinema until the advent of computer animation.)
Gone with the wind --
Flying Down to Rio --

4. Comedies Marx Brothers Duck Soup Chico, Harpo, Groucho Gummo and Zeppo

5. Accomplishments of New Deal
Social & political accomplishments of New Deal in positive light
Honest people winning over greedy special interests
Mr. Deeds Goes to Town (1936)
Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939)
These filmed portrayed honest, kindhearted people winning out over those with greedy special interests. In much the same way, the New Deal seemed to represent the interests of average Americans.
Mr Smith Goes to Washington --

6. SUCCESS OF RADIO 90% of homes have radio
Evening: dramas, variety programs
Orson Welles, “The War of the Worlds”
Soap operas, kids’ programs
Immediate news coverage (Hindenburg)
Radio embodied the democratic spirit of the time
Families typically spent several hours a day gathered together, listening to their favorite programs
No accident that FDR chose radio as the medium for his ‘fireside chats’  most direct means of access to the American people
The War of the Worlds: Martians invade Earth.

7. ARTS Generally serious w/ uplifting messages FWP
Steinbeck  “Grapes of Wrath”
Woody Guthrie  “Dust Bowl Refugee” (1940)
FAP: dignity of ordinary work
Despite grim artistic tones, much of artistic work conveyed more uplifting message about strength of character and democratic values of American people
Number of artists and writers embraced spirit of social and political change fostered by new Deal
Many received direct support through New Deal work programs from government officials who believed that art played an important role in national life
Song--
ASK: Why did the New Deal fund art projects?
Aimed to increase public appreciation of art and to promote positive images of American society
Project artists created posters, taught art in the schools, painted murals on the walls of public buildings. These urals, inspired in part by revolutionary work of Mexican muralists, typically portrayed the dignity of ordinary Americans at work
Picture  from the mural ‘industries of california,’ painted in 1934 by Ralph Stackpole. It decorates San Francisco’s Coit Tower, one of the best preserved sites of WPA mural projects

8. Grant Wood “American Gothic” 1930 American Gothic (1930)
Grant Wood’s 1930 painting, American Gothic, became of the most famous portrayals of life in the Midwest during the Great Depression. Painted in the style known as Regionalism, Wood painted familiar subjects in realistic ways. The house in the background was discovered by Wood in Eldon, Iowa, while he was looking for subjects to paint. He returned home with a sketch and a photograph, and used his sister and his dentist as models for the farmer and daughter in the painting’s foreground.
ASK: What is the message Wood portrays in this painting? Explain.
ASK: Do you think this painting is representative of the Great Depression? Why/why not?