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- The Great Depression in the 1930s: Impact on American Society and the Film Industry
The Great Depression in the 1930s: Impact on American Society and the Film Industry
Explore the dire impact of the Great Depression on American society in the 1930s. Discover how movies provided relief and escapism to the jobless and hungry populace, shaping a new national pastime. Learn how the film industry thrived amidst the economic turmoil.
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Video Transcript
When the Great Depression hit in the 1930s, America fell on hard times.
Many people were jobless, homeless, or hungry.
For some there was no escape from the misery,
but for those with a dime to spare,
relief could be found at the movies.
Going in for a dime, or six cents one time,
and we'd see the movie about two or three,
sometimes we'd stay there from the beginning
until the last, we'd see it three times.
Whether it was horror, comedy, mystery or gangsters,
Depression-era audiences flocked to the theaters,
developing another new national pastime.
Millions of Americans lost themselves in spectacle
or indulged their fascination with the rich and powerful.
The Depression fed the growth of the American film industry for many years.
It also inspired filmmakers to explore the suffering, the courage,
the frustration and the desperation of Americans who lived through it.
♪♪
The trouble with capitalism is capitalists.
They're too damn greedy.
♪♪
The central principle of capitalism is to be one step ahead of everyone else,
to be the first to buy a stock that you think may ultimately appreciate in value,
and then as others buy more and more of it, the price of that stock will realize a profit.
To be the first to sell a highly priced stock before everyone else gets nervous
and starts to dump their stock and the price comes down.
In that case you would lose your money if you weren't one step ahead of the herd.
This is exactly what happens in October of 1929.
A kind of panic sets in.
In a little over a month between September and October 1929,
the U.S. stock market first slid, then crashed,
causing economic disaster for investors, banks, and businesses.
By the last week of October, there are a series of massive trading days
where stock values start to plummet.
This triggers the Great Depression itself,
one, because so many people lose their savings
...and their accumulated funds literally overnight.
So when people lose all of this money, they start to buy...
...less and less in the marketplace, obviously.
And that further depresses the sales and the profitability of firms.
The second reason this triggers a Great Depression, as we call it...
...is that as the stock market collapses...
...investors become much more pessimistic about the future.
So even those investors who have some money on hand...
will sit back and say, well, I'm not going to invest now.
And as more and more investors hold back.
this way, it only accelerates the process of collapse.
Many observers believed the effects of the crash would be short-lived and the economy
would recover quickly.
But as weeks turned into months, and months into years, it became clear that the nation
