As the United States faced its longest and deepest economic downturn in the Great Depression, spending money on entertainment was out of the question for most people. The culture of escapism of the 1930s revolved around finding innovative and inexpensive forms of entertainment that diverted attention from the pressing problems and hardships of everyday life for millions of Americans.
Music
As it had for hundreds of years, music continued to enjoy wild popularity as a form of entertainment. In the 1930s, however, it took on added importance as music cost the audience little or nothing and diverted public attention from everyday economic troubles. Americans loved a variety of music genres in the 1930s, with Big band and Jazz music maintain ever-increasing popularity following their explosion onto the national cultural scene in the previous decade.
Following World War I there was a mass migration of Jazz musicians from New Orleans to major northern cities like Chicago and New York, leading to a wider dispersal of Jazz as different styles developed in different cities. As the 1920s progressed, Jazz rose in popularity and helped to generate a cultural shift. Because of its popularity in speakeasies, illegal nightclubs where alcohol was sold during Prohibition, and its proliferation due to the emergence of more advanced recording devices, Jazz became very popular in a short amount of time, with stars including Cab Calloway and Chick Webb.
Due to the racial prejudice prevalent at most radio stations, white American Jazz artists received much more air time than black Jazz artists such as Louis Armstrong, Jelly Roll Morton and Joe "King" Oliver. Big-band Jazz, like that of James Reese in Europe and Fletcher Henderson in New York, was also popular on the radio and brought an African-American style and influence to a predominantly white cultural scene. One of the exceptions was Duke Ellington and his big band, who played several types of music from Blues to Gospel to Jazz and more. One of his most successful songs was, It Don't Mean a Thing (If It Ain't Got That Swing).
Duke Ellington
Duke Ellington was one of the most popular Jazz musicians and Big Band leaders who became well known in the 1920s and remained popular in the 1930s.
Radio
In the 1930s listening to radio broadcasts became a source of nearly free entertainment for millions of Americans and radio stations had a little bit of everything for listeners of all ages. Since the 1920s radio had provided Americans with a trendy new avenue for exploring unfamiliar cultural experiences from the comfort of their living room. The most popular type of radio show was a "potter palm," an amateur concert and Big-band Jazz performance broadcast from New York and Chicago.
In the 1930s, American adults frequently listened to newscasts, radio theater, soap operas, religious sermons, and entertainment programs. President Franklin D. Roosevelt broadcast his so-called “fireside chats” on national radio in the evenings throughout his presidency beginning in 1933. Amos ‘n’ Andy, while controversial for its racial stereotypes, was a popular comedy and drama beginning in the late 1920s on NBC radio, boasting as many as 40 million listeners in 1930-1931 and lasting into the 1950s on radio and as a television series. Singer Bing Crosby first gained recognition on radio shows in the early 1930s, while famed comedy duo Abbott and Costello made their first known radio performance on The Kate Smith Hour in 1938.
The Grand Ole Opry music program, highlighting the biggest stars of that genre, became extremely popular following its launch on November 28, 1925, as a one-hour, radio “barn dance” in Nashville, Tennessee. Its popularity swelled in the 1930s as singers and musicians performed Country, Bluegrass, Folk, and Gospel music, as well as comedic performances and skits. The show, which is still aired weekly, helped launch the careers of numerous Country music luminaries such as Hank Williams, Patsy Cline, Bill Monroe, the Carter Family, Minnie Pearl, Dolly Parton, and Reba McEntire.
One of the most popular radio shows for young children in the 1930s was Little Orphan Annie, based on a newspaper cartoon strip created by Harold Gray that first appeared in the New York Daily News in 1924. The strip, about an adventurous young girl with an equally daring pet dog named Sandy and a foster father called Daddy Warbucks, was enjoyed by children as well as adults attracted to its political commentary targeting subjects such as organized labor, communism and FDR’s New Deal.
Little Orphan Annie
The Little Orphan Annie comic strip began in 1924 and became a hugely popular radio program during the 1930s.
The strip was adapted to a 15-minute radio program that debuted on WGN in 1930 before going national on NBC’s Blue Network beginning in April 1931. The show was so loved that merchandise such as Annie pins became popular items for children. At its height the radio program had an estimated 6 million listeners and remained on the air until 1942. There were two film adaptations in the 1930s, the first by David O. Selznick in 1932 for RKO and the next by Paramount in 1938. The show later saw a huge revival as a theater musical, appearing first on Broadway from 1977 through 1983 and appearing internationally on stage and screen ever since.
Films
Following on the great developments in film of the 1920s, with silent films becoming “talkies” and black and white films gradually turning to color, the 1930s saw the release of numerous films and other moving picture fare that are still highly cherished today.
By the 1930s, all of America's theaters were owned by the Big Five studios: MGM, Paramount Pictures, RKO, Warner Bros., and 2oth Century Fox. Between them, there was a flood of films for a public clamoring for Escapism, a departure into a world of fantasy that provided a way to forget the pain and drudgery of the period. Frankenstein (1931), Dracula (1931), King Kong (1933), The Invisible Man (1933), The Bride of Frankenstein (1935), and The Wizard of Oz (1939) were all examples of films that strayed outside the confines of reality. At the same time, romance and dramas such as It Happened One Night (1934), Mutiny on the Bounty (1935), The 39 Steps (1935), and Gone With the Wind (1939) cemented themselves in the pantheon of timeless films.
Comedies were popular films in the 1930s, as a good laugh eased the mind in a time of adversity. Charlie Chaplin was perhaps the world’s biggest film star, maintaining his stature as a top box office draw with comedies such as City Lights (1931) and Modern Times (1936). The Marx Brothers also provided popular big screen laughs with Monkey Business (1931), Horse Feathers (1932), and Duck Soup (1933).
Modern Times
Charlie Chaplin's 1936 film, Modern Times, depicted life in the Great Depression with comedy and empathy and has been named one of the 100 Greatest Films.
Films depicting America’s fight against the Great Depression became popular as well. Chaplin’s Modern Times shows his character, The Little Tramp, fighting through the pitfalls of life during the Depression and was named to the American Film Institute’s list of 100 Greatest Films. Other examples of life in the Depression include A Man’s Castle (1933) starring Spencer Tracy, Our Daily Bread (1934), My Man Godfrey (1936), and the highly acclaimed Of Mice and Men (1939). Toward the late 1930s, movies from foreign countries also began to play in American theaters.
The late 1920s saw the emergence of Walt Disney and his eponymous studio. Disney’s marquee character, Mickey Mouse, made his debut in Steamboat Willie on November 18, 1928, at the Colony Theater in New York City. Mickey would go on to star in more than 120 cartoon shorts, as well as "The Mickey Mouse Club" and other specials. This jump-started Walt Disney Studios and led to the creation of numerous other characters going into the 1930s. Beloved Disney films of the 1930s included The Three Little Pigs (1933) and Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937).
Walt Disney
Animator Walt Disney became a pioneering legend in the film industry with films that became popular in the 1930s including Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.