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Culture in the 1930s

Culture in the 1930s. 23.4. MAIN IDEA. Motion pictures, radio, art and literature blossomed during the New Deal. WHY IT MATTERS NOW The films, music, art, and literature of the 1930s still captivate today’s public. NAMES AND TERMS. Gone With the Wind Orson Welles Grant Wood

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Culture in the 1930s

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  1. Culture in the 1930s 23.4

  2. MAIN IDEA • Motion pictures, radio, art and literature blossomed during the New Deal. WHY IT MATTERS NOW • The films, music, art, and literature of the 1930s still captivate today’s public

  3. NAMES AND TERMS • Gone With the Wind • Orson Welles • Grant Wood • Richard Wright • The Grapes of Wrath

  4. The Lure of Motion Pictures & Radio • MOVIES: • Cost: $.25 • 65% of Americans went to movies once a week • 15,000 movie theater – more than the # of banks, twice the number of hotels • RADIO: • Sold: 13 million in 1930, 28 million in 1940 • ½ of all American households owned a radio

  5. Hollywood takes center stage • Film stars: • Clark Gable • Marlene Dietrich • Jimmy Cagney

  6. Movies of the ’30s

  7. REALITY OF THE DEPRESSION

  8. ROMANTIC COMEDY

  9. ANIMATIONS

  10. COMEDIES

  11. COMEDIES

  12. Gangster Films

  13. Social Commentary

  14. RADIO • Drama and variety • War of the Worlds • Orson Welles later directed movie classics: “Citizen Kane” & “Touch of Evil”

  15. Comedians

  16. The Arts in Depression America • Art, music, literature • Sober and serious • But conveyed an uplifting message about strength of character and democratic values • Many artists supported the New Deal’s spirit of social and political change • Many of them also received financial support from the New Deal (Harry Hopkins and the WPA) • “They’ve got to eat just like other people.”

  17. Federal Art Project • Paid artists a living wage • Aimed to increase public appreciation of art & promote positive images of America • Artists: • created posters • taught art in schools • created murals • These murals were inspired by Diego Rivera • Focused on dignity of ordinary Americans at work

  18. Grant Wood’s American Gothic

  19. Thomas Hart Benton

  20. Photographer Dorothea Lange

  21. Dramatizing Labor struggles of the 1930s

  22. Woodie Gutherie • Music to capture the hardships of Depression America • African American singer Leadbelly described the experience of African American life • “Cotton Fields” • “The Midnight Special”

  23. AMERICA SWINGS • Big Band Era • Your Hit Parade and Make Believe Ballroom brought latest tunes to public • Bing Crosby popular singer of day

  24. Writers • Supported by Federal Writers’ Project • Future Pulitzer Prize winner – Saul Bellow – first job • Richard Wright – African-American writer, Native Son (1940) • Zora Neale Hurston – Their Eyes Were Watching God (1937) • John Steinbeck – Grapes of Wrath (1939)

  25. And more writers... • James T. Farrell: Studs Lonigan trilogy (’32-’35) • Bleak picture of working class life in Irish neighborhood of Chicago • Jack Conroy: The Disinherited (1933) • Violence & poverty in Missouri coal fields • James Agee & photographer Walker Evans teamed up for Let Us Now Praise Famous Men (1941) • Deals w/ difficult life of poor farmers – dignity & strength of character • Thornton Wilder – Our Town (a play written in ’38) beauty of small town New England life

  26. To sum up . . . • Though artists and writers recognized America’s flaws, they contributed positively to New Deal legacy • Intellectuals praised the virtues of American life • They took pride in the country’s traditions and accomplishments.

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