books are the ladder of human progress, but it is this ladder that people first abandoned after the economic collapse. The famous writer John Steinbeck complained: “When people go bankrupt, the first thing they give up is books.” After being stressed, very few people bought books. In a year, no library in Chicago bought them. A new book. The total sales of books fell by 50%. According to the Brown Publishing Company, 1932-1933 was the worst year the company, founded in 1837, has experienced.
When many Americans gave up reading, the radio became a "rigid demand." As long as there is a radio, you can sit still at home and kill time. In 1929, the average price of radios was more than $100, when there were about 12 million radios in the United States. During the Great Depression, the selling price of radios dropped and the audience grew. Between 1930 and 1932, 4 million households bought radios. By the beginning of 1940, 28 million households had 44 million radios, covering 86% of the total population. More and more people were addicted to various news and politics. , Advertising and entertainment programs.
Sales of most entertainment and sports goods are severely declining. Urban sports clubs, country clubs, golf clubs, and tennis clubs fell by half during the Great Depression. Golf clubs alone lost about 1 million members. Under financial pressure, many private golf courses have been sold. Simple and inexpensive family games such as jigsaw puzzles, checkers, chess, backgammon, throwing rings, and horseshoes have become popular. Driven by President Roosevelt, stamp collecting became popular, and the number of stamp collectors increased from 2 million to 9 million. The
show business was hit hard. Of the 86 legal theaters in New York City, only 28 were able to maintain performances. In the first few years of the Great Depression, cinemas closed 1/3. However, in the era when watching a movie averaged 10 cents, movies were still cheap mass entertainment consumer goods and an excellent way to create dreams and escape reality in two hours.
/About 1931, in New York, people flocked to theaters to watch Charlie Chaplin's latest movie "City Lights"
The Hollywood film industry ushered in the first wave of climax in its history during the Great Depression. By 1939, there were 15,000 theaters in the United States, and the annual box office revenue had grown to nearly 700 million U.S. dollars. The average family spent $25 to watch movies every year. The content of most movies is about the luxury and legend of handsome men and beauties for escapist audiences. The audience is suffering in real life. They come to the cinema and like to see flashy and beautiful stories to temporarily paralyze the soul.
Realistic and painful films can hardly win box office success, and Charlie Chaplin may be a rare exception. The films he produced exaggerated the profile of the Great Depression. The 1931 film "City Lights" briefly touched on the irony of unemployment. Chaplin played a hungry homeless man and discouraged an agent from committing suicide. Chaplin slapped his thin chest and urged the big giant to cheer up. "Modern Times" in 1936 showed a picture of strict unified management in the machine age. In the end, this little man went crazy in the assembly line factory.
Walt Disney and lighthearted cartoons were the most popular in the Depression era. Mickey Mouse, Snow White, Pinocchio, a series of popular and popular classic images were born in the Depression era. Perhaps the best fit for the spirit of the time was "Three Little Pigs". The theme song of this colorful animated film "Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf" was popular in bars at the time. The blue-collar class especially liked the simple rhymes contained in this kind of melody. Struggle and optimism...
