Myths of the Golden Era -- Exploded!

[Shangas]

It does, but for the wrong reasons--like using profanity constantly for no other reason than to show you have a very limited vocabulary or to shock someone.

-Kristi

Yes, I grant that. It's an unfortunate byproduct of modern society.

There is one myth I'd like to have someone address.

Was the Great Depression as 'Great' as the history-books and movies would have us believe that it was?

I ask this because the Depression always seems to show such extremes. On one side, extreme poverty and unemployment, and yet on the other side, huge wealth, black tie dinners, flashy cars and jazz music.

They say that in 1932, the Depression was at its worst, with 1/4 of Americans, and up to 1/3 of Australians out of work.

But if there really were 1/4 Americans out of work...

What about the other 3/4? That's still a majority of the population who had work and money. So was it really as bad as all that?

 

[LizzieMaine]

It depends on which group you belonged to. At its worst, 25 percent of the population was out of work -- and that level of unemployment meant a ripple effect that spread thruout society. Factory production slowed way down, and even people who did have work found their hours cut, their wages cut, and their standard of living cut. Belts were tightened across the board, and those who had jobs lived in a constant sense of apprehension that theirs might be the next on the block. Add to this the bank panics of early 1933, when the nation's entire economic system seemed poised for collapse -- an unprecedented situation -- and you can certainly justify the use of "Great." America has never been closer to an actual revolution than it was during the last months of the Hoover Administration -- probably the only thing that prevented it was that people were too hungry and too frightened to fight.

 

[dhermann1]

There were people scratching for food on garbage heaps all over the country. Those who had money held on to it and refused to invest. According to Smedley Butler (former Commandant of the US Marine Corps) a group headed by the Duponts and other big business reps wanted him to lead a coup d'etat against FDR. He refused. My mom, who was born in 1920, said that nobody thought anything of a man coming to the back door and asking for a meal. And they usually got that meal.
It was every bit as bad as everything you're heard.
If you recall the opening scene of King King, Faye Wray is faint from hunger and is almost arrested for stealing an apple. This was a slice of contemporary life.
Yes, it was every bit as bad as they say. And worse.

 

[LizzieMaine]

I think the most common myth of the Depression era is the glittery art-deco glamour myth -- the idea that mirrored floors, padded bedsteads and white telephones were at all typical of the times. Most of that stuff was seen only in the movies -- the closest an ordinary person would ever get to that sort of thing would be to work as a porter or scrubwoman in the RCA Building.

In fact, if you were transported back to a typical American city in 1932, you'd most be struck by how seedy everything looked -- peeling paint, broken windows, cracked pavement, construction projects abandoned half-complete, dirty banged-up cars. Upkeep suffered badly at the worst of the Depression, because individuals, companies, and communities couldn't afford it -- some small-town roads and bridges deteriorated to the point of impassability until the WPA got going and was able to repair them.

 

[scotrace]

My grandfather used to say that during the Great Depression, "No one was making anything, really. Even if you had a little money, there wasn't much to buy. And no one had any money, because we weren't working as much as before and were paid less anyway. It was a circle. There wasn't a lot to be had and no one had any money to buy anything anyway. " Grandpa worked through the depression (steel mill). He would have been 31 in 1929.

 

[1961MJS]

...But if there really were 1/4 Americans out of work...

What about the other 3/4? That's still a majority of the population who had work and money. So was it really as bad as all that?

Hi

I'm not really sure which group my grandfather's were in. My dad's stepfather was a fireman on the Wabash railroad. He was working at the same wages as before the depression, but only one or two days a month. He also worked as a bartender and on the WPA. My grandparents both cooked and canned a lot, so food wasn't a huge problem.

My Mom's father worked as a mule driver in the mines in Webster County Kentucky. He also worked a few days a month. They also had cattle, and a garden, but they lived in the country. Mom was born in 1931, so she didn't remember the worst part of the depression. My Dad did, and they didn't like it much, but things weren't THAT horrible. Dad went to the movies, but only the cheap ones. He watched Turner Classic Movies until he died to watch what he missed growing up. He mentioned only getting a couple of bib overalls for school each year, they were purchased several inches too large. He rolled up his pant legs for half the year and by the end of the school year, they were high waters.

Later

 

[Espee]

I have a friend who has a 13 year old daughter, who watched the movie Pearl Harbor, think what you will about the movie, but she found the bases for it interesting and she has since done more research on the bombing of Pearl Harbor and why it happened.

I am sure if it was presented as “Reality” TV then people would be interested.

Several years ago, a character on Phil Hendrie's satirical radio show-- "Margaret Gray" the entertainment columnist, was effusive in her praise for "a brave young director, Michael Bay" who made a movie (Pearl Harbor) about what was "actually a real-life incident, which most people would never have heard of, if not for his film."

 

[Stearmen]

Wpa

A lot of present day people think that FDR created the NRA and WPA because he was a Socialist. The real reason was, on the far left he had the Communist, and on the extreme right he had the Fascist, both were fermenting revaluation. FDR just took the old saying about idle hands, and saved the Democracy.

 

[KayEn78]

I remember reading that the birth rate dipped during the Depression. In my family though, my Unlce Joe was born in 1931 and my Uncle Jerry in 1938. They already had my grandpa, who was born in 1928. A "surprise" baby girl (my Great Aunt Sandy) would follow in 1945.

-Kristi

 

[Marzena]

My own moment of myth busting came when I began to dig through Internet to find out more about Elliott Ness and his Untouchables. Before the famous movie was ever made, back in 1970s there was a TV series that actually got aired in Poland, based on Ness' book. I was a great fan ot his show, going far indeed to watch every episode.

And then when I start digging, I find that reality was a very different affair. Ness and his group did have serious achievements, but nothing as spectacular as I was led to believe. And the final blow: Ness and Untouchables were never a part of the FBI (http://historicalgmen.squarespace.com/storage/NESS57.pdf). Hollywood made a much glorified version of the book Ness wrote, already a much glorified account, apparently questioned from all sides today.

To me it was a sad moment indeed.

Or, maybe, you can tell me that THAT is actually a myth, as some people love noting better than destroying great reputations? Please!

 

[Shangas]

Ness was never part of the FBI. He was a prohibition enforcement officer or whatever the proper terminology was (I forget). That's about all I remember. But in the end, it was an accountant who chucked Al Capone in jail when he caught the big man on tax evasion.

 

[Marzena]

Oh well, another giant had feet of clay...

 

[LizzieMaine]

Ness was a T-Man, not a G-Man. Prohibition Enforcement was a wing of the Treasury Department -- the Justice Department's Bureau of Investigation (not yet the Federal Bureau of Investigation) was a rather insignificant operation during Prohibition times. It was Treasury agents who actually had the glamorous reputation during the twenties -- Eliot Ness would have likely been proud of that affiliation.

 

[Story]

if you were transported back to a typical American city in 1932, you'd most be struck by how seedy everything looked -- peeling paint, broken windows, cracked pavement, construction projects abandoned half-complete, dirty banged-up cars. Upkeep suffered badly at the worst of the Depression, because individuals, companies, and communities couldn't afford it --

Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose.

(Yes, there's a link hidden right above)

 

[Stanley Doble]

I think the most common myth of the Depression era is the glittery art-deco glamour myth -- the idea that mirrored floors, padded bedsteads and white telephones were at all typical of the times. Most of that stuff was seen only in the movies -- the closest an ordinary person would ever get to that sort of thing would be to work as a porter or scrubwoman in the RCA Building.

You would be surprised. Many people were in severe difficulties it is true. It is also worth remembering that there was no social safety net as we know it. There were soup kitchens and other relief provided by private organizations, often churches. But things like unemployment, welfare and food stamps did not exist, they were developed because of the depression.

On the other hand, anyone who did have money or a good job, could live like a king. I had a teacher in high school who graduated from university in the depth of the depression and went straight to work for the government. He told me he never lived so well. He bought a good brick house at a discount price, got a mortgage at record low interest rates. Bought a late model Studebaker sedan for half what it cost new. Vacation cruises and summer resorts were nearly empty and were begging for clients at cut prices. He and his wife even had a maid.

I agree that Hollywood has a way of exaggerating but believe me, for those who kept their money or had a steady pay check, a dollar went a long way.

 

[Shangas]

For those who had money, and who could hold onto it during the Depression, they were laughing. Everything was half-price and people were desperate for business and trade. I seem to recall a documentary that said, the sale of luxury cars, by makers like Duesenberg, Auburn, Pierce etc, all went UP during the Depression because they were priced cheap, and the rich people kept snapping them up.

 

[Stanley Doble]

For those who had money, and who could hold onto it during the Depression, they were laughing. Everything was half-price and people were desperate for business and trade. I seem to recall a documentary that said, the sale of luxury cars, by makers like Duesenberg, Auburn, Pierce etc, all went UP during the Depression because they were priced cheap, and the rich people kept snapping them up.

For a time they did. Sales of luxury cars held up through 1930 as did a lot of other things. The real bad times were in 1931 and 32. Luxury car sales plummeted and never really came back. A lot of people who could afford a luxury car, found it unseemly and in bad taste to be seen in one. Former Cadillac and Pierce Arrow owners bought Buicks and Chryslers.

I know of one case where a prominent New Yorker ordered a custom built Belgian Minerva with six wire wheels (two spares on the front fenders) costing $6000. This was a real connoisseur's coach in the Rolls Royce class. He drove it for no more than a month or 2 before he sold it for a small fraction of what he paid for it, and bought a Buick. He was offered an important position in the Roosevelt administration and could not afford to be seen in an expensive foreign car.

The man who bought the Minerva made out like a bandit.

 

[LizzieMaine]

The main point, though, is that while some could live the dream, so to speak, they were few and far between. Less than four percent of Americans in the 1930s were college graduates -- America was predominantly a working class country until after WW2, and most people were just getting by even before the Depression hit. In small cities and towns, where employment tended to center around a single factory or mill, or a single industry, the consequences of even a slowdown in production could be devastating. The lucky people who drove the Duesenbergs and had the high-styled apartments in a classy building on 57th Street were just that -- lucky. Everyday life for most people was far frowsier.

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

If you recall the opening scene of King King, Faye Wray is faint from hunger and is almost arrested for stealing an apple. This was a slice of contemporary life.
Yes, it was every bit as bad as they say. And worse.

Even in the darkest days of the war when the Army needed all the men it could get, they still had to reject 1/4 of those who were called up for the draft as physically unfit on account of prewar malnutrition.

 

[AtomicEraTom]

I know my Great-Great-Grandfather did well during the depression and took advantage of the times to buy up some real estate and more vehicles for his company and owned two Pierce Arrows.

For those who had money, and who could hold onto it during the Depression, they were laughing. Everything was half-price and people were desperate for business and trade. I seem to recall a documentary that said, the sale of luxury cars, by makers like Duesenberg, Auburn, Pierce etc, all went UP during the Depression because they were priced cheap, and the rich people kept snapping them up.