Collector's Item: #8 A New Kind of Apple 1929 -1939

oh hello glad you came down hey sit down here I want to read you something this is really terrific they have clubbed us off the streets they are stronger they are rich they hire and fire the politicians the newspaper editors the small men with reputations the college presidents the ward Heelers they hire the men with guns the uniforms the police the patrol wagons my gracious that's powerful writing what is it that from USA by John Dos Passos yes of course I should have known that anything so realistic would be from dust pastures well not necessarily he wasn't the only realistic writer we had although I'll admit this bit I just read was pretty realistic he was thinking about big business in the control it had there just before the crash he might also have been thinking of the Sacco Vanzetti case he's a bitter man or a lot of them were bitter then I don't know how that I don't think bitter quite so much as realistic don't you think now this does pathos he was writing during the Depression wasn't he yes that's true he along with William Faulkner and Erskine Calvo and James T Farrell that whole gang of realists you know how it for anyone who never misses a chance to tell me that the arts reflect the pies your mind so on the trigger oh I'm not too slow tonight it's just that you're a little too fast for me I was getting around to it I'm getting around well I should hope so with such a period to be slow on literature the nineteen thirties really okay dude don't rub it in leave that for your students say and they're just a little gang that can do it too it's gonna be interesting discussing the Depression era literature with those kids know they're lucky in a way they really don't remember what it was like well all they have to do is to read just a little bit more at USA or some of the other works that were written to and you know all about yeah you're so right see the novelist had the feeling that well America was desperately ill and this illness is being reflected in the degeneration of the people Howard that that just isn't too hard to understand though because here all our idealism that we had before and during World War one is all gone and yes I know it was the shock of the depression the suddenness and the horror of it is completely wiped out all that fine traditional American optimism and the writer really was a social critic wasn't hey why not look what he saw around him all the goodness is bitter grinding poverty complete lack of hope sordidness say yeah you remember that book we have that picture book that shows what the writers are writing about well yes of course and I remember when we got it you said now this is quite a commentary on what the depression give to us yes I remember well it's no wonder the writers were using the candid camera approach and if they were going to be true social artists they had no choice but to record what they saw around look at some of those pictures again the books down here isn't it yes right here on the shelf I think you excuse me a minute to get my big feet down off of here but now look at that for instance see during day the farmers were badly hit that's true and millions of the southern farmers were just reduced to to utter ruin and that's what Erskine Caldwell's Tobacco Road was all about oh look now that's something that William Faulkner would write about - yes hey take a look at this shot of highway 66 leading out to the West now that's the route that was traversed by the migrant farmers as they fled to the promised land of California oh look at that deserted farm you know John Steinbeck must have seen hundreds just like that when he wrote Grapes of Wrath yes it just shows that the writing during the 30s was a stock taking of the utter failure of our social and economic traditions oh now that depicts the Depression more realistically than any yes sadly true Chicago slums the brutal background of James T Farrell's studs Lonnegan New York yes tis that would be a scene from USA those fashions oh well you see the Depression was the same in New York what did you call it seemed to me the Depression was the same every place you remember our own children how bewildered they were when we wouldn't exchange that wicker furniture with a big hole was born and decided yes how well I remember they kept reminding us of how horrible it looked you know those youngsters really did do without a lot of things but they were lucky that they didn't have to go hungry yes I know I never cease to be thankful for that but Esther do you remember the thousands of children who were not that fortunate you remember who do you really remember what it was like that here well look at this during that machinist and prosperity that was early 1929 the hand that held the ticker tape held the world the ideas of thousands and thousands of Americans turned to the newspapers financial pages before they turned to the front page for the comics everyone bought stocks and bonds this market was not confined to bankers only the housewife the cab driver a college student who paid for his education through a recent market tip all watched upon the stock quotations went higher and higher and money flowed freely an America rode the crest of a gigantic spending spree and still the stocks continued to climb and the whole world reeled with prosperity in October of 1929 in a few brief weeks thirty billion dollars in paper stocks vanished into thin air as a financial structure based on fantastical extension of credit came tumbling down to utter collapse suddenly men and women stand in line all day in Times Square red lines thousands exist in tar paper shanties on the edge of town literally naming their camps Hoover builders after the president who they blame in surplus agricultural products like the king provide breakfast lunch and dinner for hungry children six million out of work in 1930 ten million in 1931 14 million in 1932 16 million in 1933 the job has failed immigrant parents moved to poorer areas wholesale evictions occurring 6,000 men selling apples in New York City alone in 1930 president Hoover says prosperity is just around the corner but the hungry bewildered man without a job or a hope wonders which corner March 4th 1933 Franklin Delano Roosevelt's warnings is as xxxii President of the United States frankly and boldly nor need we shrink from honestly facing conditions in our country today this great nation will endure as it has endured will revive and will prosper so first of all let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself so a nation which had almost succumbed to complete paralysis began to find itself again yes and there were a lot of changes made during this administration to here let me put this book away you know Roosevelt was one of the presidents to show how very effective radio could be in making the people familiar with governments and how it went on he put the problem squarely up to the people and in an understandable way to know I I remember his the radio fireside chats on Sunday evenings they were always so very informal and well it made this familiar with humans people felt more secure yes then and that's familiar intimate style he had won him a lot of friends too oh he knew the value of his radio chats and you can bet that the leaders in industry and labor and science and so on were quick to learn that they could get a swift response by putting their problems over the radio to you you know I think that radio in general did a lot start knitting our country together Oh certainly it did just leaped right over natural barriers you can imagine how people who live out away from town they just tune on their radio and they have the latest dance tunes or the latest news you can see how to make them feel closer to their fellow Americans that's that old solidarity trend of the 1930 yes eventually of course with it there weren't too many records play during the 30s a lot of the studios had their own orchestras gracious they be tired of playing those instruments all day long Oh mostly it was filling in time between sponsored shows oh I suppose some of the songs were pretty well played to death at that but you know we love this yes and a good thing we did because radio is beginning to branch out in all directions Oh what do you well the people in the radio industry itself in the 1930s there began to experiment with all the different kinds of shows just a small part of the scene my dear just a small part of the scene you know you can't forget those quiz programs and there's big giveaway shows say there was a boon to the advertisers they just kept industry humming with those commercials and you know I get a thrill and I think of listening to the New York Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra Sunday afternoon yes it's still a thrill but Howard this depression didn't it affect the video industry doesn't sound like it with all the new shows starting up well you see radio like all the other industries were we're striving to advance they were they wanted to overcome the feeling that accompany the stock market crash and it had got to be just a little bit fashionable to be haughty about this poverty business you know if you could say oh who will come through this all right you were writing style society so is that the radio industry say that's what it said they followed right in the trend of course there were a lot of unemployed people too you know and they had out of time to kill they bought a lot of radios courses radio men a source of news - these people - yes and there certainly was a lot happening in the world at that time to hear about yes early 1933 tuned in you might hear what have Benito Mussolini for instance saying that he had no desire to bring about another war later on the decade maybe the reports of the floods right off Hitler's or it really sounds as though the radio was an important factor in life during the service definitely it had become a very open social force you know the broadcaster's must have had to be terribly careful to didn't say anything wrong over-the-air oh I should say they did with all those millions of people listening you bet well thanks to me there was something about Orson Welles do you know say yes there worsened well program you know come to think of it that's probably was the best example of the force of radio during that time that was in 1938 you know I didn't care about I hear it but I remember that all we created a terrific stir stir it's hardly the word was it's naturally hysteria you know it's funny hard to think of one little radio program affecting so many people the world was in that show well for the most part it was just a dance music program interrupted now and then by bulletins and on their spot reports about the invasion of the Atlantic seaboard by men from Mars war of the world the people realize just a radio program apparently not way after the show the people were panic-stricken why they began to call up everybody in the Army in the Navy the Boy Scouts so forth why have you got to flee from their homes women fainted one woman even tried to commit suicide well after the shoulders there were such a panic that the stations had carried the broadcast had to put on special bulletin saying that this program was just a radio play and nothing more it sounds very fantastic in fact almost unbelievable what was true though it just demonstrated the force of radio during the 1930s you know I can think it's a mother example oh you're not thinking of those daylight serials again well now hard you must admit that women do listen to the sofa but I didn't have that in mind no I was thinking about the Chicago rural cable and the debates on the town meeting of the area well now that's more like hey you win the bright red apple and not a Depression Apple either for knowledge of radio facts during the 1930s and I think that I'll take two when I tell you that the reason I remember these radio discussions is because our city established a town home and we held regular public forum well fine that certainly deserves a second award yes ma'am yes now I remember that's that's when you weren't connected with that women's group there oh that tells me where you were when I was working late at the College nights they're off debating somewhere probably about how to keep husbands at home no nothing so involved is that we we discussed wealth and poverty and all the career issues and that isn't involved so you know come to think of it I must have my notes on those debates someplace I'm attempting that maybe you can use them on your lectures oh yes of course hello uh are they that type of material that would change the fate of Nations neither are your lectures together now I'll go and hunt them up would you have an Apple teacher yes thank you now look be sure you come back because I don't want to be left down here in stitches wondering what you girls were debating about well let's talk about some of the things that are now in the history books FDR agencies the political world in the 1930s was dominated by the Democratic regime the results of the first 100 days of Roosevelt's office during this period agency after agency was established swiftly by Roosevelt and Congress and the government stepped in and took a direct part in helping people to reconstruct their lives now the important thing here was not just giving a handout it was putting men to work and giving them back their self-respect one example was the federal music project it was established in 1935 and provided work for unemployed musicians and soon there were government-sponsored WPA orchestras giving concerts before millions throughout the entire United States that's just one of the examples the type of thing that happened in the 30s that will be recorded in our history books now what about some of the arts during this time someone once said that the history of a country could be found in its popular songs and it seems to me generally true that the things people compose music about other things which they experience from day to day of course sometimes songs are written just for the amusement of it and I have no particular significance and of course don't live long under those circumstances but well let's not go on philosophizing let's take a look at some of the music of the 1930s you know there were a lot of things that's happening in this in this field during this time way back in the early part of the decade people were suffering from the results of the market crash from the depression now just on the surface if you were to look at a list of popular songs written during those days you wouldn't get much of an indication that there was a depression but a little closer examination would reveal a few facts a song that was reflecting the poverty situation was brother can you spare a dime but for the most part the songs popular songs during the depressed were trying to get people to forget their problems and one song read the rap your troubles and dreams and dream new troubles away where the songs in general took on an optimistic vein a tune which became the theme of the Democratic Party and a hit of the day you remember it happy days are here again and then there was another sweet tune yes life is just a bowl of cherries your remember Rudy Vallee singing that then oh there were so many others here oh yes remember Walt Disney's Three Little Pigs who's afraid of the big bad wolf remember those three little guys and there were a lot of big bad wolves to contend with in those days too well now the songs I've mentioned are just a very few of the hundreds that were written each year all the songs did become famous of course but you could be assured that most of them were heard at one time or another now this was a time when the radio programs were playing the hip tombs of the day that sort of thing became popular novelty tooms came in were played to death and then forgotten radios and homes took the place of fathers fiddle while sister's piano gathered dust now just fire was the style of music that the radio stations were plugging I mentioned before that we had quite a change jazz which had been the thing in the twenties temporarily faded during the early 30s and sweet music took over the bands of Wayne King and die Lombard Oh became popular during that time then along about 1934 jazz had a rebirth took on some new characteristics and was called swing and again the field of music added new words to our vocabulary jam sessions sprung up all over the country and people were in the groove or going to town no one dares to explain just exactly what swing is but in general it's agreed that it was the hottest jazz to date a little smoother with a bass rhythm over which soloist improvised there was a lot of variety in the melodies offbeat rhythm and well for heaven's sake I think you could understand better if you just listen to it let me hook up the record player these are some Benny Goodman recordings here here's one of them he was a clarinetist who gained the name of a King of Swing now just listen to this and you'll understand why but Benny Goodman wasn't the only one of the many soloists who gained recognition during the 30s this was a time when music arrangers began to gain importance the popular tunes depended more and more upon the arranger and the reason for the popularity of many of the big commercial bands was the fact that the arrangements were done so well one of the climaxes of the decade of Swain came in 1938 when the carnival of Swing was held in New York there were twenty five bands featured and twenty three thousand fans listened for six hours now that was a show well the American that the 1930s was not only listening to swing music he tuned his radio into the programs of classical nature too with over ten million families listen to the symphony programs in 1939 others were following the developments of the music of Copelan and monatti Freddy Griffin Blitzstein his men were all turning the styles and techniques of popular and folk music into serious works in 1930 Aaron Copland wrote his music ballet Billy the Kid and ferde grofe a compose his familiar Grand Canyon suite so these were the men who were arrangers and composers and they still hold a top position on the popularity list on the other end of the scale we had the hillbilly Divis which were quite a favor either the vast number of the population know when Dillinger was being hunted by the police the hillbilly song writers one of them had him killed and the other had him captured alive it's rather a weird example but the songwriters were commenting on the time so there we have it the 1930s and era a booming radio growth an era when the new swing tunes accompanied a host of bright new faces and an era when Jitterbugs got into the groove because of the strange jiving music that was in the air just have a listen to this you know the nineteen thirties I we still do a mean Lambeth walk and truck for the best up to remember that finger raise business something like this just playing some swing tunes from the nineteen thirties I think you better sit down on the couch and rip truck till morning well that's alright but you sit down anyway I want to read some of these debates at first oh you found them well yes but you know the way you're dancing around here I don't know whether it's safe to read them or not oh don't have a worry in the world I won't check another lake okay the jitterbug you're kicking around well might try the Big Apple or maybe take a swing at the Suzie Q get out my zoot suit with the drape shape in graceful movement of the walls perhaps more compatible to my classic disposition Bank I almost thought I might to take a totally oh do you think that you would expense the period of the nineteen thirties that way oh my then again looking like that well anyway you know jitterbugging wasn't the only type of dancing well no that's right now let's see there's Martha Graham and Dora's house right now no doubt they were still producing modern dance but they were and there was a new girl to Hannah home I'm making a name for herself now like modern dancing was still growing oh you bet it was new people coming into the field all the time and Broadway shows being produced and the leaders in the dance field were doing the choreography what are we doing talking about dances when I brought these notes down to read to you oh yes read on my keister now this is one of the debates that we had at one of our town meetings we discussed the social and economic implications of the Dussel now you listen mm-hmm it is estimated that a million people were uprooted from their homes and forced on the road cinematography was by John ruts