How Much Do You Know About the Great Depression?

Since at-home televisions weren’t mainstream yet, most Americans got their news and entertainment from radios during the Great Depression. So, it was a natural progression to put radios in cars, and Paul Gavin was one of the first inventors to do so, debuting an affordable design in 1930. He also coined the brand name Motorola from the words “motor vehicle” and “victrola,” a popular radio brand.

Not only was Snow White Disney’s first official princess, but the movie “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs” was Disney’s first feature-length animated film. This development ushered in a new era of cinema despite the economic hardships of the time — films became an escape for the entire family. The movie debuted at Hollywood’s Carthay Circle Theater on December 21, 1937, and won an honorary Oscar in 1939.

In the spirit of fixing what you already have instead of buying anew, Scotch tape became one of the biggest products of the Great Depression. It was invented in 1930 by 3M engineer Richard Drew and became the world’s first transparent adhesive tape. The invention came from a variation of masking tape, which was invented a few years earlier in 1925.

Woody Guthrie was a major influence in American folk music during the Depression. In 1940, he penned “This Land Is Your Land” in reaction to “God Bless America” by Irving Berlin. Guthrie was inspired by his childhood in rural Oklahoma, where he gained insight into the nation’s unequal distribution of wealth. The song evokes these feelings as its lyrics repeat, “This land was made for you and me.”

Norman Rockwell’s cover illustrations for “The Saturday Evening Post” were a hallmark of the decade. In 1916, at just 22 years old, Rockwell painted his first cover for the magazine. He went on to create 321 covers over the next 47 years, featuring a range of subjects, from everyday life during the Great Depression and World War II to special-edition political and holiday covers.

During the Great Depression, scientists searched for practical fabric that wouldn't break the bank. In 1930, nylon, the first synthetic fiber, was created by DuPont. Its earliest use was for hosiery, but it gained many other uses as the Depression went on and World War II began. During WWII, nylon was used to make glider two ropes, aircraft fuel tanks, flak jackets, shoelaces, mosquito netting, and hammocks, and was called “the fiber that won the war.”

Food manufacturers knew that Americans needed inexpensive meal options. Kraft took notice and introduced their mac and cheese in 1937, at a price of just 19 cents per box. It was such a success that the company sold 8 million boxes during the product’s first year. Its popularity continued to increase during the 1940s with World War II rationing.

Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, and Rogers Hornsby were among the legendary players who made baseball’s popularity explode in the 1920s. When the Great Depression hit, attendance across the league fell some 40% by 1933. To keep the league afloat, players took an average pay cut of 25%, and the gimmick of the MLB All-Star Game was invented. The first game took place in Chicago in 1933, and was billed as a one-off “Game of the Century” in conjunction with the World’s Fair that year.

Between 1929 and 1932, sales of new cars dropped 75%, but two companies in particular found a way to succeed by moving away from luxury cars, toward more affordable options. Chrysler increased its market share by 19% during this era and took a loss in only one year, while General Motors managed to turn a profit every single year. GM reduced the prices of its most expensive vehicles by as much as 70% to help keep afloat.

Combining his love of film and aviation, Howard Hughes produced what was, at the time, the most expensive movie in history. “Hell’s Angels” reportedly cost more than $4 million in 1930, which would be about $71 million today. Joseph Kennedy Sr. was also briefly a major player in Hollywood, but he focused on low-budget movies. While “Hell’s Angels” didn’t even return a profit on its first run, Kennedy left the industry after five years with a profit of $5 million.

The Great Depression caused many things across the U.S. to become unaffordable — including regulation golf courses. While miniature golf wasn’t invented during the 1930s, it became the star outdoor entertainment venture of the decade. Soon, “rinky-dink” courses with makeshift obstacles — like tires, barrels, and pipes — began popping up all over the country.

During the Great Depression, Hollywood found success in escapist fantasies and comedies, many of which made fun of the rich. One of the very first megastars of the era was a smiling, singing, and dancing kid named Shirley Temple, who helped bring light to a very dark time. Temple made her feature debut in 1934’s “Stand Up and Cheer!” at the age of six. Just a year later, she was given a special Academy Award for her contribution to screen entertainment.

The prohibition of alcohol as a national policy and the chaos of the law’s repeal caused high crime rates during the Great Depression. During this time, the FBI, led by J. Edgar Hoover, created an official “Public Enemies List” to publicize the most high-profile criminals in the country, including Al Capone, John Dillinger, and "Baby Face" Nelson.

Though it was originally designed to be filled with helium, the Hindenburg airship was filled with flammable hydrogen in 1937 because of U.S. restrictions against Germany, where the zeppelin originated. The Hindenburg made 10 trips from Germany to the United States before it burst into flames upon landing in Lakehurst, New Jersey. The disaster brought an end to the era of rigid airships in commercial air transportation.

The phrase “the best thing since sliced bread” is generally used to mean something is the best thing to come along in a very long time, but we can actually put a specific date on that prized invention: 1928. That year, Otto Frederick Rohwedder unveiled his bread-slicing machine, and it took off in the early years of the Great Depression. By 1933, 80% of bread was sold sliced and wrapped.

It’s not a coincidence that the dire economic circumstances of the 1930s led to the fall of some of the most well-known criminals in American history. The infamous gangster Al Capone was arrested during the Depression for tax evasion, John Dillinger was arrested for robbing banks in Ohio, and the headline-grabbing duo Bonnie and Clyde were arrested at separate times for robbing gas stations in the early '30s. John Gotti’s involvement with organized crime came decades later, and he was arrested in 1990.

The LEGO Group was founded in 1932 by Ole Kirk Kristiansen, a Danish carpenter. With the global economic fallout of the Great Depression, Kristiansen lost many of his key customers — farmers and small landholders. So, after reading in a trade magazine about the wisdom of creating small, ready-to-market objects such as toys, he shifted his focus to creating wooden playthings, and Lego was born.

Though it may not sound very appetizing at first, vinegar pie is a delicious combination of sweet and sour flavors: It's made with eggs, butter, vinegar, and vanilla. Similar recipes date back to the 18th century, and were a convenient option when no fresh fruit was available. The sweet treat has another nickname: “Desperation Pie.” Because it can be thrifty, it was particularly popular during the Great Depression.

Walt Disney’s animated take on the fable of “The Three Little Pigs” was a huge commercial success. It brought entertainment to people during the Great Depression, but it also delivered a moral lesson about working together. The Big Bad Wolf symbolized economic hardship, while the Three Little Pigs were common people, who survived the Wolf’s attacks by banding together to survive.

Dorothea Lange began her photography career working in a studio, taking portraits for families and businesses. When the Great Depression hit, she took to the streets to capture what this economic crash really looked like for those most affected, focusing on people who were unemployed and had lost their homes. She was hired by the Farm Security Administration to help combat rural poverty, and her 1936 photo “Migrant Mother” is one of the most iconic images of the era, currently on display at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City.

One unlikely Depression-era hero came in the form of an American racehorse named Seabiscuit, who hailed from Kentucky and became a cultural phenomenon. He was active from 1935 to 1940 and won 33 out of 89 races, setting a record for American Thoroughbreds. Millions of Americans cheered him on, race after race, as a welcome distraction from their daily hardships.

The golden age of American radio began in the 1930s, and even the President joined in. From March 1933 to June 1944, FDR issued around 30 radio broadcasts, speaking about banking, unemployment, and the rise of fascism in Europe, among other topics. These “fireside chats” had nothing to do with a fireplace, but were named because of their comforting tone.

The U.S. stock market crashed in October 1929, with the biggest trading day of the crash coming on Tuesday, October 29, now known as “Black Tuesday.” That day, some 16 million shares changed hands at the New York Stock Exchange, with billions of dollars lost. London markets had previously crashed in September, and the ripple effect began in the U.S. when the Dow Jones crashed on Thursday, October 24, which is also commonly referred to as “Black Thursday.”

While Al Capone was making millions off the sale of illegal liquor during Prohibition, he was also cultivating a public image as a community leader providing for Chicago’s poor. His Depression-era soup kitchen for the unemployed was part of this persona. However, in 1932, the kitchen was closed after it was revealed that Capone extorted business and stole from the poor to stock his kitchen.

With money scarce during the Great Depression, board games provided a cheap form of family entertainment. Monopoly, created in 1902 by game designer Elizabeth Magie, was one of the most popular Depression-era games. It could be played by parents and children alike, and it gave families an escape from their real-world financial struggles.

Under the New Deal, President Roosevelt created the Public Works Administration (PWA), which funded infrastructure projects that provided new jobs. The Hoover Dam was one of those projects. Even though the dam’s construction started in the 1920s under Herbert Hoover, it was PWA funds that enabled its completion in 1935.

On top of the financial crisis of the Great Depression, many families also contended with the Dust Bowl drought, which ravaged farmland throughout the Great Plains and forced farmers to flee the region. Published in 1939, John Steinbeck’s “The Grapes of Wrath” followed the plight of a migrant family fleeing the Oklahoma Dust Bowl for California. Steinbeck won the Pulitzer Prize for the novel 1941.

The financial crisis of the Great Depression left thousands of people unhoused. Throughout the U.S., they formed hundreds of makeshift towns from crude shacks. These towns were nicknamed “Hoovervilles” after Herbert Hoover, who was President when the crisis began. The name helped lay the blame for the Great Depression and the housing crisis squarely on Hoover.

Swing music, also known as big band jazz, is an upbeat and dance-oriented style of music that developed during the late 1920s and early ’30s. The Benny Goodman Orchestra was a household name in swing, and heavyweights such as Duke Ellington, Count Basie, and Artie Shaw further developed the genre. The style remained popular in the U.S. until the beginning of World War II.

In 1933, President Franklin D. Roosevelt took office after defeating the incumbent Herbert Hoover for the White House. Immediately, Roosevelt set into motion a series of projects designed to stabilize the economy and relieve unemployment, which together became known as the New Deal. Many New Deal programs became permanent fixtures in the U.S. economy, including Social Security and unemployment insurance.

The bombing of Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, precipitated both the beginning of U.S. engagement in World War II and the end of the Great Depression. The military draft took unemployed men off the job market, while increased industrial production to support the war effort created new jobs. Together, these two acts reduced unemployment to pre-Depression levels.