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In 1 933, the peak of the Great Depression, twenties percent of Americans w ere left unemployed, with many more struggling to make ends meet. The decade lasts Eng from 1 929 to 1939 was sandwiched in between “The Roaring Twenties” and the second Wow RL War, and left little to be highlighted besides the bleak consequences Of the Great Depression n. However, despite the horrific economic tragedies faced by nearly every American citizen, sixty t o seventy million Americans still piled into cramped, smoky theaters every single week.
Many would think that during a period of such hardship, uncertainty, and MIS ere, few would have the time, nor the means, to pay a hardened fifteen cents to mere Ely sit for an hour and a half. However, as concisely explained by President Franklin D. Roosevelt , “During the Depression, when the spirit of the people is lower than at any other time, it is a splendid thing that for just fifteen cents an American can go to a movie and look at the smile Eng face of a baby and forget his troubles. Americans attended these movies in hopes of escape g their arduous and hopeless lives, if only for an hour or so. While the films served as an escape, a ND the theaters a haven, the themes and motifs presented in these films were ‘t necessarily oh t of reach. The film industry upheld many American values and institutions within their movies, such as government and family, while creating characters and plot lines that r manned within the realm of possibility.
This allowed Americans to identify with and relate to the drama, heartache, People 2 and successes portrayed on screen. Hollywood, in turn, took advantage of HTH s. Film industries recognized that if Americans did not believe in and relate to the things being presented on screen, they would surely find entertainment elsewhere. Hollywood acknowledge edged this consumer power and carefully evaluated the genres Of films to which citizens responded the most. Upon this analysis, they began to create films which reflected America’s growing De sire for escapism and distraction.
Through this came the emergence of comedies and musicals, which painted more milliamp scenes to that of the everyday American citizen, such as cricketing cities and tension filled homes. In a way, the fact that the actors on screen could laugh through t heir hardships allowed citizens to do the same, if only for an hour or two. While these stories related to the harsh realities in which everyone was facing, they also captured the emotions of their audience. The goal of this was to manipulate the audience with a positive turn of events, subsequently boosting the morale and lightening the burden of each and every viewer.
Along with this escapist entertainment, the comedies during the Great Depress Soon also served as a safe battleground on which to address weighty or controversial us objects under a entertaining, comedic lens. Class conflicts often surfaced as a prevalent ex ample of this, and were more often than not resolved happily by the end of the movie. Citizens b 10th loved and hated the spectacular fantasies of high society, in that they enjoyed pretending g to identify with the rich, but on some level, they still resented them.
The crazy personae of Sir eyeball comedy old afford to be screwballs, while the average American could not. However , for an hour or two, they could pretend to be Cary Grant or Katherine Hepburn, which, for the e vast majority, was sufficient. People 3 All in all, the film industry was vastly impacted by the social and economic cool apse that befell society during the Great Depression. Theatres transformed into refuges for all classes and the stories told within them served as lights at the end of the tunnel, providing g hope for all audiences, even if that hope only lasted until the final joke.