Department Stores, The After Hours

The 1930's are a time of need and want as opposed to have, but it was still the decade in which American's begin their insatiable hunger for material goods. The mecca of purchasing power was of course, the department store.

Marshall Field Department store, Chicago, IL; 1938

The department store was success because it centralized shopping necessities in an urban setting. Original department stores include Kendalls in the UK, and Le Bon Marche in France. They used self service displays and shopping clerks to assist customers, and different department stores may have catered to certain ethnic groups or shoppers of a higher or lower economic class depending on the marketing intention.

Although this original Twilight Zone episode aired in 1960, it is a great example of a vintage department store in the feel and the way that it operates. The Twilight Zone itself also carries many of the same themes as 1930's radio shows in its eeriness and format.

Eleanor Berton

1930's Kitchen Utensil Orchestra

Food is an important link to any culture. So far, our dialogue about food in the 1930's in this class has been restricted to the lack there of, the controversial production methods and subsequent environmental disasters(the dust bowl), and frozen foods. Surely at this time in American there are extreme diversities in kitchen types and food preparation as there has been and continues to be a huge flux of immigrants into the US. I am going to share this awesome video I found that I believe genuinely represents the extent of what use most of the cookware got in the 1930's.

Eleanor Berton

Huey Long, an American Dictator Part 1

America of the 1930's was an era in history defined not only by the hardships of the depression but the national insecurity that took root in populous moments. One such expression of the disenfranchised people was the rise to power of Louisiana Governor and later United States Senator Huey Long. Huey Long, for those who may not know is seen as the closest America ever came to having a dictator like regime in the white house. He ran his governorship like a fascist state, firing off officials who disagreed with his platform and then electing figure heads to take his place after his move to Washington. While in Washington during the first year of his post as senator, he spent more time in Louisiana than in the capital building, pushing for improvement of impoverish area and the break up of business holdings in his state primarily the ones of Standard Oil. In many's opinions, these are admirable feats, a true vanguard of the people. he even planned to put in motion his "Everyman a King" act, which would drastically redistribute the wealth in America through net asset taxes. The problem with his platform was that it circumvented the constitution by treating every rich person or company like an enamy of the state.
I am going to turn this discussion into a two part discussion, the next part talking about his effect and relation to fellow progressives.

Youth in America!

Yesterday, our mentor session received a blessing in disguise when, to our surprise, we found out our session had been cancelled. We all stood around for a few moments, wondering if we should all just head home and come back for main session or if we could put this free time to better use. Luckily, the sun was shining and the sky was blue. We all put on our imagination caps and put ourselves in the shoes of the youth of 1930s Americans. There we were, in the park blocks, drifting with no direction home, when we came upon a shady paradise complete with twisty slides and monkey bars. We let our inner children free and returned to a simpler time. We didn't need phones, video games, TV, or facebook. All we had was each other's company and that was just fine with us. Already we could feel the 1930s making its way into our modern world. Next, with nothing but time on our side, we wandered down to Pioneer Square, where we were acquainted with some colorful characters. We watched a well-dressed poet spout free verse while being accompanied by a rather grungy looking gentleman strumming a ukulele. One of their friends even asked to borrow my pen, which he failed to return after putting it in his mouth. C'est la vie, as they say. As we traveled back towards campus, back to 2011, we reflected on how lucky we are to be young and able. We may not have hopped on trains and ran away from home, but we at least got a taste of adventure all thanks to our 1930s counterparts. Get well soon, Cody!

Goodwill

I didn’t realize this company was started so long ago, but when I read about my character in “Hard Times” she mentioned Goodwill so I wanted to do further research. I think it is great that the company has made its living by helping others and employing people in need.

Goodwill Industries of Chicago was founded in 1919 with the mission "to provide a chance, not charity," to people society had labeled as unemployable, including thousands of soldiers returning from WWI. Goodwill responded by creating employment opportunities for veterans with disabilities and older workers displaced by the return of younger individuals. During the 1930s and the Great Depression, Goodwill’s number of stores grew to help more people. Goodwill led a number of opportunities for people in need in the area including a cooperative effort with the Red Cross that distributed food and clothing to needy families. They also offered hundreds of individuals temporary employment opportunities, helping them provide for their families during such hard times. The even developed a school of occupational therapy. Throughout the decade, an average of 130 workers were employed daily by Goodwill. In 1937, the official organization name became Goodwill Industries of Chicago and Cook County.

Jesse Owens' Olympic Feats

The 1936 Olympics were held in Berlin, Germany, the epicenter of hate and prejudice in the 1930's. But African-American people were not just despised in Germany, but America as well. That's why it's kind of ironic that the U.S. sent an African-American to a Nazi Olympics to not only compete, but to shock the world.

At home, Owens couldn't even drink out of the same water fountains, use the same bathrooms or eat at the same restaurants as his white counterparts. Those luxuries were allowed to him in Germany, but not without the personal disdain of his very being by the host of the games, Adolf Hitler, who considered African people to be non-human. Much to Hitler's dismay, non-human turned out to be the perfect word to describe Owen's performance, who notched four gold medals in 100 meter, 200 meter, long jump and 4x100 relay competition. The crowd in Berlin showered him with praise and the city eventually named a street after him in 1984. Jesse Owens' dominance at the Olympic games not only empowered all African-American peoples, it also undermined Hitler's Aryan ideology. His triumphs are remembered in America and abroad as one of the greatest Olympic performances of all time.

King Kong

One of the most memorable films from the early 1930's was, of course, King Kong. At the time, Monster Movies of all varieties were being produced. The originator of this trend started in Germany, with the silent era The Golem from 1915 and the Expressionist offering Nosferatu in 1922. The Americans started getting into the act by the 1930s, using the Expressionist's ideas for films like Dracula, Frankenstein, The Mummy & The Invisible Man. Monster movies tended to focus on the misunderstood, out of place monster struggling to find a place in modern society. For many Americans, this was something easy to relate to as the march of progress left many people feeling disconnected. Another huge influence on King Kong was the growing and developing genre of jungle films, many of which featured civilized man journeying into the unknown to discover the secrets of the jungle.

The most well-known element of this film was the stop-motion animation. While this was not new in film, this one featured it in a huge and prominent way that made the technique quickly become a part of film culture. The influence of this movie cannot be understated; animators and filmmakers quickly latched on to the key concepts here. Within months, Japan had their own version of King Kong, which pre-figured their own Monster Movie trend by almost 16 years. Ray Harryhausen made an entire career out of this kind of animation. King Kong himself appeared in endless re-releases, remakes and sequels, keeping him in the public consciousness for decades after the original film was released.

It's always a pleasure to watch this movie, and I am greatly saddened that I could not join you for this. Enjoy!