Photography in the 1930s

Farmers sleeping in a "white" camp room in a warehouse. They often must remain several days before their tobacco is sold. Durham, North Carolina
Marion Post Wolcott, 1939
(Smithsonian American Art Museum)

San Francisco, California - Police and strikers battle

(Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum)

Paintings in the 1930s

Taos Indian Woman

Kenneth M. Adams, 1920~1930
(Smithsonian American Art Museum)

Homeward
Frank C. Kirk, 1933
(Smithsonian American Art Museum)

Apple Vendor
Barbara Stevenson, 1934
(Smithsonian American Art Museum)




Note: the orginial webpage is accessible through clicking the pictures

Photographs

· Many display the social uncertainty of the era.

· Photographs such as Child in doorway of shack of migrant pickers and packing house workers, near Belle Glade, Florida and Farmers sleeping in a “white” camp room in a warehouse. They often must remain several days before their tobacco is sold. Durham, North Carolina (Both by Marion Post Wolcott, 1939) shows the audiences the helplessness of everyday people.

· Pictures such as San Francisco, California - Police and strikers battle (Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum) illustrates the economic uncertainty of the 1930s.

· Other photographs depict the technical advances of the 20^th century.

· 1934 View of Assembly Line, Haer, Ind. (Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division) demonstrates the progress and technical advancements of the United States.

Paintings

· The paintings made in the 1930s greatly reflected the turbulent society of that period.

· Paintings such as Apple Vendor (Barbara Stevenson, 1934), Flop House (Edward Millman, 1937), and Dispossessed (Mervin Jules, ~1938) goes to great detail to display the everyday life in America during this era.

· Used vivid color and different shape to display the emotions.

· In the late 1920s and early 1930s, painters painted industries and skyscrapers.

· By the end of 1930s, the focus shifted to the street corners.

· In the 1930s, laborers of all sorts were portrayed as heroic figures.

· Paintings such as Homeward (Frank C. Kirk, 1933), Paper Workers (Douglass Crockwell, 1934), and Automobile Industry (William Gropper, 1940) displayed the hope for progress inside many people of that time.

· In the 1930, more and more Americans looked at the folktale, folk-art and traditional music created by immigrants and native communities.

· Many of them realized the richness and diversity of their country.

· Painters created paintings such as Taos Indian Woman (Kenneth M. Adams, 1920~1930), Brothers (Malvin Gray Johnson, 1934), and Joseph Roy, Portrait of Worker (William Gebhardt, 1934) to celebrate the colorful diversity of the United States.

Documentaries

· Many carried a strong theme.

· Some, such as Triumph of America (Handy Organization, 1933) shows the industrial progress that United States has achieved in the 1930s.

· Others, including General Strike (Burt Gould, 1934) examined the civil unrest during the depression.

· Everyday life of Americans are examined in Pick of the POD (American Documentary Films, Inc., 1939)

· However, not all documentaries are serious.

· Documentaries such as All-American Soap Box Derby (Handy Organization, 1936) have light-hearted themes.

· They were designed to entertain viewers.

These films are viewable through the webpage below:

http://americanart.si.edu/education/picturing_the_1930s/

Special Thanks to:

Smithsonian American Art Museum

http://americanart.si.edu/

Jazz:

· Jazz is a music genre that begun in the 20th Century in the South of the US with African-American communities who combined the influences of African and European music[i].
· Swing music is a form of jazz that developed in the early 1930’s, which had a faster tempo than jazz and a swing-time rhythm[ii].
· Louis Armstrong is a famous jazz trumpet player from the time period. Benny Goodman was a white musician as legendary as Elvis Presley, who created jazz bands of both black and white musicians.
** This revolutionized the music culture, because black musicians were generally discriminated and were not as successful
· During the Prohibition era from 1920 to 1933, when alcohol was banned, people related jazz with illegal substances, dark and crowded cabarets because that was where the jazz bands played.
** When swing came to be, it was considered more wholesome because the performers were well-dressed and clean-cut.
· It was still a very popular type of music, especially in Alabama and other parts of the South such as New Orleans in Louisiana, where jazz and swing are said to have originated.
· This is the song “It’s the Talk of the Town”, by Fletcher Henderson, played in 1933. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d5e4VOQbfKk


Dance:

· Swing dance sometimes was known as a bad influence for young people because it was associated with dark and smoky cabarets with drugs
· Some of the major swing era dances include the Lindy Hop, Lindy Charleston, Shag, Balboa and Blues.
· There were many dancing competitions, which was part of the fun of social dancing
· Lindy Hop was a popular dance that originated mid-1920’s in New York, together with the Jitterbug[iii].
** http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o5T8XauYhlU In this clip, the band Whitey’s Lindy Hoppers, created by a bouncer in the Savoy Ballroom in New York, are part of a popular film called “A Day at the Races”.
· In the 1930’s, college dance bands had an important role in the history of both jazz and swing-dancing in the South.
** The Alabama Cavaliers, the Auburn Knights and the Bama State Collegians.
· The dances included many difficult steps such as very high jumps and fast footwork.

[i] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jazz
[ii] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swing_music
[iii] http://www.centralhome.com/ballroomcountry/swing.htm