The Role Of Entertainment In The 1930s

The 1930s was a rough time for most Americans. Most people had a lot of their money either in the bank or invested in the stock markets. To start off these terribly hard times the stock market crashed. Many people lost quite a bit of money when that happened. With their money from the stock market gone America had what is called “Bank Runs”. A bank run was when everybody who had their money in the bank went and withdrew it. Eventually the banks went broke and not everyone was able to get their money out. To help them through these rough times many people looked to entertainment to help put them in a better mood. Entertainment has changed drastically since the 1930s; this is shown through the different forms of mass media, art, music, and dancing. First, movies were a popular form of entertainment in the Great Depression. Movies provided an escape from the struggles of the depression and offer a glimpse into high society life and how things were before the depression
Jazz and Swing music made people forget the hardships they had in their life (Living History Farm). “According to many who lived through the depression, you can’t be sad and dance at the same time.” (Living History Farm). People had barn dances that one day played classical music and the next played jazz (Living History Farm). They had many local bands come to play at their dances (Living History Farm). Many popular songs of the ‘30s are still listened to by people today (Living History Farm). The WPA built several bandstands so the bands could perform live for an audience (Living History Farm). Duke Ellington, Benny Goodman, and Glenn Miller were all bandleaders until the early 1940’s when the bands broke up (Library Of Congress). In the beginning jazz was simple but later grew more complex form. It became more and more popular to people of the middle-class. To sum up, music and dancing was important to many people in the