Culture in the 1930s

1. Culture in the 1930s New Deal #4

2. I. The Lure of Motion Pictures and Radio • A. Movies are a Hit • 1. Movies offered pure escape from the realities of the Depression • 2. Movies presented visions of wealth, romance, and good times. • 3. The most famous film of the era was Gone With the Wind. • 4. Other notable movies included the Wizard of Oz and animated movies such as Snow White and Seven Dwarfs.

6. 5. Comedies such as Monkey Business and Duck Soup starring the Marx Brothers became popular. • 6. Gangster films such as Little Caesar and Public Enemy gave the audience characters they could understand. • 7. Director Frank Capra films Mr. Deeds Goes to Town and Mr. Smith Goes to Washington show honest people winning out over greedy people and reflected New Deal ideas.

8. Monkey Business

15. B. Radio Entertains • 1. Families spent hours listening to the radio. • 2. Radio programs offered a wide range of entertainment. • 3. Orson Welles, a writer, produced one of the most renowned radio broadcasts of all time, “War of the Worlds”. • 4. One of the first worldwide radio broadcasts was describing the crash of the German Zeppelin Hindenberg in New Jersey on May6, 1937.

18. II. The Arts in Depression America • A. Artists Decorate America • 1. The Federal Art Project paid artists a living wage to produce public art. • 2. These artists aimed to increase public appreciation of art and to promote positive images of American Society. • 3. Artists such as Edward Hopper, Thomas Hart Benton, and Iowa’s Grant Wood.

19. Hopper’s Nighthawks

25. B. Woody Guthrie Sings of America • 1. Guthrie used music to capture the hardships of America. • 2. His honest lyrics appealed to those who had suffered similar hardships. • 3. He traveled the country searching for brighter opportunities.

27. C. Diverse Writers Depict American Life • 1. The Federal Writers Project allowed Black author Richard Wright write his novel Native Son about a black man trying to survive in a racist world. • 2. The most famous book of the Great Depression was John Steinbeck’s Grapes of Wrath which reveals the lives of Oklahomans who left the Dust Bowl and went to California. Was turned into a Famous Movie.