1930s Social Events

Sports

Though the 1920s was known as "the golden age of sports", many athletes broke records during the 1930s. Swimmers, track stars, horse racers, and race car drivers all broke new speed records. To make the games move faster and increase scores, basketball and football's rules were changed. Women were starting to take the field as well! Jackie Mitchell was the first woman to sign with a professional baseball team. She struck out both Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig in a 1931 exhibition game.

Popular Pastimes

Fashion

People had to do something to pass their time. Some tuned into sports on the radio, listened to popular music, like jazz and swing, or played the new board game at the time, Monopoly. If they had enough money, people would go the movies or the drive-in theater and watch a new film, or they were able to attend a game and watch their favorite team play.

In the 1920s, fashionable young men were called "sheiks" and women were called "flappers." Because of the Great Depression, however, Americans could not afford extravagant new fashions for all the seasons. They were to get by with what they had, and wore practical clothes year-round. The most popular dress for women at the time was a simple short-sleeved print dress with a belted waist and a flowing calf-length skirt. Men wore high-waisted pants and jackets with wide, short lapels in the 1930s.

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Music

Popular African Americans of the Time

The 1930s Was Also a Social Time!

Many new styles of music emerged and developed. Jazz matured and branched off into genres like swing. The blues were incredibly popular, especially in Chicago. Musicians would play guitars and sing about their current situations, and people could relate. Western music and something people called "hillbilly music" also got its start in the 30's.

Blueswomen were popular African American jazz singers in the 1930s. Bessie Smith, Mamie Smith, and Gertrude "Ma" Rainey were probably the most recognizable. They, as well as many other Blueswomen, performed in vaudeville, stage shows, and small clubs and cabarets during that decade. Other popular African Americans, as well as great musicians, were Louis Armstrong, a jazz trumpeter, and Ella Fitzgerald, a popular jazz vocalist.

In the eyes of many, The Great Depression was, well, a depressing time. However, it also gave birth to many great things from books, to new styles of music, to popular fads and fashions, and more.

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Movies

Print Culture

The 1930s are known by many as the golden age of Hollywood cinema. With the creation of technicolor and "talkies," a whole new world had opened up for filmmakers.

During the Great Depression, many Americans read newspapers as a source of information. However, reading was also a source of entertainment. People especially liked magazines, mystery novels, and fantasies. Comic books became extremely popular. Superheroes like Batman and Superman thrilled readers. People also read serious fiction as well, like John Steinbeck's "The Grapes of Wrath" (1939).

Frankenstein

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs

IT'S ALIIIIVE!!!

Hi-ho, hi-ho, it's off to work we go...

The first feature length animated movie, Snow White, was an unexpected and unlikely commercial success that made Walt Disney into an even bigger legend and paved the way for animated films.

Frankenstein, perhaps one of the most iconic science fiction characters of all time, was actually created by a teenage girl! The popular movie spawned a series of sequels and is still a Halloween staple today.

The Wizard of Oz

Follow the Yellow Brick Road!

This classic movie, based on the novel of the same name, is still a family favorite today.

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The Social Happenings of the 1930s

By: Tiffany Santos, Natalie Remiszewski, Kira Venables, and Nicole Maldonado