Depression Era Recordings

The Greatest Generation earned the label for answering the call during the Second World War, so it is easy to forget that when they answered that call they were applying the lessons they learned by growing up during the Great Depression. The economic crisis which began with the Stock Market Crash of 1929 ultimately marked America's maturity as a world power. America joined the community of Great Nations with its entry into the Great War in 1917, even though she managed to escape the ravages which affected most of the rest of the world during WWI. The nation enjoyed a rollicking adolescence during the Jazz Age of the Roaring Twenties, but when the Depression hit it was like a signal that life needed to be taken seriously, just as a young man discovers when he transitions from football hero during his school years to the sober maturity of fatherhood and family life.

As tough as conditions became during the Great Depression, and they did indeed become desperate, the period was an essentially hopeful time. When the crisis began, farmers were already experiencing their own depression due to drought and falling food prices for much of the Twenties. Four million Americans were looking for work in 1930, and that number would grow to six million in the next year. Industrial output dropped by half and by 1933 thousands of banks would close their doors. The years of drought and poor soil conservation practices led to Dust Bowl conditions in the Great Plains which would displace thousands of families. However, through most of the period, people maintained a feeling that they would not only survive but that conditions would eventually improve if they were only able to "hold on".

Assembling a virtual alphabet of federal agencies, the government's "New Deal" helped to turn unemployment around and brought industry back from the brink. Regulatory reform saved the financial industry, and improved conservation and agricultural techniques eased conditions in the Farm Belt. Hollywood fantasy was a relief for the day-to-day drudgery of recovery, but a new type of film, the "Screwball Comedy" gave the impression that no matter how terrible conditions got, things would work out for good people, and Americans were by and large good people.

America had been blessed by avoiding most of the ravages of WWI, but that conflict had actually come to an end before most of the underlying issues had been resolved. When Europe finally began to recover from the Depression, resources were freed to continue the unresolved conflicts of the Great War. Naturally, American sentiment was generally that we should avoid involvement in the conflict, but our role in the world order dictated that America was destined to take a lead. The economic boom which came with the Second Word War continued nearly unabated in America for the remainder of the century.

• One of the most colorful figures in the entertainment world of the Great Depression was Orson Welles. By 1939, when Wellespresented an adaptation of Dashiell Hammett's "The Glass Key" in The Campbell's Playhouse, the Depression was finally drawing to a close. War fears and the economic boom resulting from War industry were ever present, making the story of violence and small town morality at the beginning of the Great Depression all the more relevant.
• Although better known for exploring new techniques of presenting Radio narrative, The Columbia Workshop also broadcast several examples of social commentary. "Ecce Homo (Behold the Man)" begins with an audio picture of industrialization and proceeds to a portrait of the Dust Bowl migration. "Heavenly Rest: A Hymn for Lost Americans" is a prayer in the darkness of the gathering clouds of War, but also a lament for children and families made homeless by the Great Depression. Hope in the face of adversity is demonstrated in the story "A Crop of Beans".
• Attitudes and opinions would shift a good deal as the Depression wore on, especially as the inevitable recovery seemed to near. The Mighty Allen Art Players demonstrated this phenomenon on Town Hall Tonight with a two-part sketch. The first part takes place during the dark year of 1932, a customer goes into a department store to purchase a five-cent collar button, and the staff of the store has not seen a customer for so long they practically declare a holiday. By 1936, the store is so busy the same customer is practically tossed from the premises.
• Hollywood movies became an important escape from the reality of the Great Depression, and it seemed as though no story or situation could be too unbelievable or fantastic, as long as the girls were pretty, the men were handsome, and they were headed for a happy ending. The greatest expression of this phenomenon may have been the "screwball comedy". The film genre was named for 1930's major league pitcher Carl Hubbell's signature pitch. Hubbell developed a surprising pitch with a spin that sort of fluttered and dropped, went in different directions, and behaved in very unexpected ways. An early episode of The Kraft Music Hall was an on-air preview for RKO's Down to Their Last Yacht (1934), the story of a "poor little rich girl" and the gambler who makes a play for her.
• Folks who couldn't make it to see pictures at the local movie palace could always listen to the movies on The Lux Radio Theatre. Gold Diggers (1936) told the story of pretty girl roommates trying to make it on Broadway about the time the Depression was catching up with show business. Claudette Colbert, Joel McCrea, Walter Pidgeon, and Catherine McKuen star in Hands Across The Table (1935). A comedy that makes fun of the rich, My Man Godfrey (1936) starred William Powell and Carole Lombard, the film was also adapted for Academy Award Theatre. It Happened One Night (1934) starring Clark Gable and Claudette Colbert is considered the original true screwball comedy. Several other Lux movie adaptations are included in this collection. Screen Directors Playhouse presents another Depression-era show business story with their adaptation of You Were Meant For Me (1948).
• The Great Depression of the 1930s was not the first economic depression the country faced (nor, sadly, the last). The Long Depression (formerly referred to as the Great Depression) began with the Panic of 1873 through 1879, although some economic historians say the crisis was book-ended by the Panics of 1873 and the Panic of 1893. The 1893 event led to an economic depression of its own, but the crisis was solved during the second term of President Grover Cleveland, and the tale is related on Mister President.
• One of the most celebrated literary works to come out of the Great Depression (and arguably the most important work of Twentieth Century American fiction) is John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath. Telling the story of a family of "Okies" migrating to California to escape the Great Dust Bowl, but the novel is less the story of a family struggling against long odds than a blatant tale of man's inhumanity to man. The Grapes of Wrath has been called "the most thoroughly discussed novel of 20th century American Fiction". It is presented in this collection by the NBC University Theater. A scene from the novel is presented by The Radio Readers Digest sponsored by Hallmark in the episode "Two For a Penny".
• Just as President Cleveland demonstrated in the Panic of 1893, the path out of an economic Depression requires strong political leadership, so the Presidential Election of 1932 was of critical importance. Both incumbent Herbert Hoover and New York governor Franklin D. Roosevelt tried to convince the nation that their own ideas could lead us out of the crisis.
• For other related recordings of the 1930s era, see also: Si and Elmer, Moon River, Pat ODaniel and his Hillbilly Boys,  Phil Baker, Former Slave Interviews, Herbert Hoover Speeches, and WPA Concerts.