Collector's Item: #8 A new kind of apple 1929-1939

oh hey glad you came down hey sit down here I want to read you something this is really terrific well they have clubbed us off the streets they are stronger they are rich they hire and fire the politicians the newspaper editors the small man 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 jaundice passers-by yes of course I should have known that really things so realistic would be from those past those well not necessarily he wasn't the only realistic writer we had all I'll admit this bit I just read was pretty realistic he was thinking about the big business in the control it had before the crash he might also have been thinking of the Sacko Vanzetti case he's a bitter man cause a lot of them were bitter then I don't know how that I don't think bitter quite so much as less realistic don't you think now this data shows he was writing during the Depression was yes next to me he along with William Faulkner and Thurston Calvo and James T Farrell that whole gang of realism you know hard for anyone who never misses a chance to tell me oh I'm dr. slow tonight it's just that you're a little too fast for me to be so long hey dude don't rub it in 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 just a little bit more of USA or some of the other works that were written and then they all know all about yeah you're so right he's a novelist had the feeling that but well America was desperately ill and this illness was being reflected in the degeneration of the people because here all our idealism that we had before and during World War one is all gone yes I know it was the shock of the depression the suddenness and the horror of it just completely wiped out all that fine traditional American optimism and the writer really was a social critic wasn't me why not look what he saw around him all goodness is bitter grinding poverty complete lack of hope sordidness say yeah you remember that book we have that picture book the church 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 yeah 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 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 he during these 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 Tobacco Road was all 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 you know John Steinbeck must 1600 just like that when he don't Grapes of Wrath yes it just shows that the rioting during the 30s was a stock taking of the utter failure of our social and economic tradition more realistically than in yes said it true chicago slums the brutal background to James T Farrell's Lonnegan yes - that would be a scene from USA those taxes for you see the Depression was the same in New York see me the Depression was the same everything remember our own children how bewildered they were and we wouldn't exchange that wicker furniture with the big holes warning decided yes how well I remember they kept reminding us of how horrible it look you know those youngsters really big do without a lot of food but they were lucky that they didn't have to go hunting yes I know I never cease to be thankful for that néstor do you remember the thousands of children who were not that fortunate you remember but do you really remember what it was like that here well look at this during that lushness and prosperity that was early 1929 the hand that held the ticker tape held the world the eyes of thousands and thousands of Americans turned to the newspapers financial pages before they turn to the front page for the comic everyone bought stocks involved this market was not confined to bankers only the housewife the cab driver the college student who paid for his education through a recent marketing tip all washington bought the stock quotations went higher and higher and money flowed freely an America rode the crest of a gigantic spending stream 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 go to collapse others we men and women stand in line all day in Times Square of redline thousands exist in power paper shanties on the edge of town literally naming their camps Hoover built after the president who they blame in surplus agricultural products like potato provide breakfast lunch and dinner six million out of work in 1913 10 million in 1931 14 million in 1932 16 million in 1933 the jobless failed to meet rent payments moved to poorer areas wholesale addictions 3 6000 men selling apples in New York City MO president Hoover says prosperity is just around the corner but the hungry bewildered man without a job or a hope wonders which quarter March 4th 1933 Franklin Delano Roosevelt sworn in as 32nd President of the United States and Foley 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 absent there were a lot of changes made during this administration too here let me put this book away you know Roosevelt was one of the presidents can show how very effective radio could be in making the people familiar with governments in how it how it went on and that's familiar intimate style he had won him a lot of random - oh he knew the value of his radio chat 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 TV you know I think that radio in general did a lot toward living our country together Oh certainly it did just leak right over natural barriers you can imagine how people who live out away from town I get stood on their radio and it has the latest dance tunes or the latest news you can see how it makes them feel closer to their fellow Americans that's that old solidarity friend of the 1930 course with it there weren't too many records played during the 30s a lot of the studios had their own Orchestra Oh mostly it was filling in time between sponsored shows boy I suppose some of the songs were pretty well played to death at that but you know we yeah and a good thing we did because radio was beginning to branch out in all directions oh well the people in the radio industry itself in the 1930s there began to experiment with all different kinds of shows a small part of the team up here just a small part of the scene no you can't forget those quiz program and there's big giveaway shows say there was a boom to the advertisers they just kept industry humming with those commercials and you know I get a thrill when I to the New York Sunday after 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 their stock market crash worried about this poverty they if you could say oh who will come through this all right you were writing styles as I write in the trends of course there were a lot of unemployed people too you know and they had a lot of time to kill they bought a lot of radios across this radio man a source of news to these people in the world at that time early 1932 tuned in you might hear well 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 definitely it had become a very social oh I should say they did with all those millions of people listening you bet well oh say yes there orson welles program you know come to think of it that probably was the best example of the force of radio during that time that was in 1938 you know I didn't hear about here but I remember that we created the trickster hardly the word naturally hysteria funny hard to think of one little radio program affecting so many people that show for the most part it was just a dance music program interrupted now and then by bulletins and honor spot reports about the invasion of the Atlantic seaboard by men from Mars war of the world not well after the show the people were panic-stricken why they began to call up everybody the Army in the Navy the Boy Scouts so forth why he began to flee from their homes women fainted one woman even tried to commit suicide well after the shoulders there were such a panic that these stations had carried the broadcast had to put on special bulletin saying that this program was just a radio play and nothing more very fantastic in fact almost unbelievable what was true though it just demonstrated the force of radio during the nineteen thirties you're not thinking of it would be like serials again but I didn't have that in mind no I was thinking about the Chicago roundtable and the debates on the town well now that's more like hey you win the bright-red act and not a depression Apple even for knowledge of radio fact during the 1930 and I think that I'll take two when I attend that's the reason I remember those radio discussions is because our city established a town hall well fine that certainly deserved a second award yes ma'am yes now I remember that's that's when you were connected with that women 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 and that isn't involved so you know come to think of it I must have my notes on those debates in place I'm not maybe you can use them on your lecture oh yes of course so uh are they that type of material that would change the fate of Nations neither are your lectures together 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 now 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 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 the 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 song and it seems to me generally true that the things people compose music about are the things which they experience from day to day for sometimes songs are written just for the amusement of Extender I have no particular significance and of course don't live long under those circumstances but well let's now 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 field during this time way back in the early part of the decade people were suffering from the results of the market crash into 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 there was a depression but a little closer examination would reveal it too fast the 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 the problem one song read the rap through troubles and dreams and dream new troubles away where are the songs in general took on an optimistic thing and 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 here remember Rudy Vallee singing that oh there were so many others here oh yes remember Walt Disney's three little piggies who's afraid of the big bad wolf and there were a lot of big bad wolves to contend with in those days too but now the songs I've mentioned are just a very few of the hundreds that were written each year all the songs didn't 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 tunes of the day that sort of thing became popular novelty tunes came in were played with death and then forgotten radios and homes took the place of fathers fiddling while sister's piano gathered dust now just why 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 20s temporarily faded during the early 30s and sweet music to forward the bands of Wayne King and Guy Lombardo became popular during that time then along about 1934 jazz had a rebirth took on some new characteristics he was called swing and again the field of music added new words to our vocabulary jam session sprung up all over the country people were in the groove going to town no one dares which made exactly what we knew but in generally to read that it was smoother with a bass rhythm over which solo was 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 that just listen to this and you'll understand why but Benny Goodman wasn't the only one of the many solar was to gain recognition during the 30 this was a time when music of Rangers began to gain importance the popular teen and his born morph on 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 climax into the decade of Swain came in 1938 when the carnival of Swing was held in New York there were twenty five bands features and twenty three thousand fans listened for six hours now that was a show was the American at the 1930s was not only listening to swing music he tuned his radio into the programs of classical nature too with over 10 million families listen to the symphony programs in 1939 others were following the developments of the music of Copelan and menotti Freddie gray and rich Stein these men were all turning the styles and techniques of popular and folk music into serious work in 1930 Aaron Copland wrote his music ballet Billy the Kid and ferde grofe a composers familiar Grand Canyon sweet so these were the men who were arrangers and composers and they still hold a top position on the popularity with on the other end of the scale we had the hillbilly ditty with quite a favor I for the vast number of the population so when Dillinger was being hunted by the police the hillbilly songwriters 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 an era of 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 could still do a mean Lambeth walk and truck for the best up hey you remember that finger raise business couple additional just playing some swing tunes from the nineteen thirties well I think you better sit down on the couch and Ricky truck till morning well that's alright but you sit down anyway yeah I want to read some of these debates 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 leave them or not oh don't have a real world I won't check another lake well might try the Big Apple or maybe take a swing at the Suzie Q get out my zoot suit with the drape shape thank I almost thought I might take up totally again okay yeah well anyway you don't do to bug me wasn't the only type of dancing well no that's right now see there's Martha Graham and still producing modern dance but they weren't there was a new girl - look Han you're home I was making a name for itself but it was new people coming into the field all the time and Broadway shows being produced and the leaders in the dance field we're doing the choreography talking about 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 death toll now you listen it is estimated that a million people were uprooted from their homes cinematography was by John Rutter