Getting to California

1. Ch 17 Sec 2: The Depression • bread lines / soup kitchens – charities provided the primary source of food for many urban Americans • baliffs – delivered court orders that forced homeowners to leave their homes when they could not pay the mortage • Hoovervilles – shacks built by homeless people (also called shantytowns) named after President Hoover • hobos – homeless Americans who “rode the rails” traveling from town to town looking for work • Movie Theaters – provided an “escape” for Americans with cheap entertainment and newsreels for information • Soap Operas - radio dramas that provided cheap at home entertainment that were aired nationwide during the daytime and sponsored by soap companies Getting to California

2. Chapter Objectives Section 2: Life During the Depression • Describe how the Great Depression affected American families.  • Discuss how artists portrayed the effects of the Depression. Click the mouse button or press the Space Bar to display the information. Intro 3

3. Click the Speaker button to listen to the audio again. Section 2-4

4. The Depression Worsens • By 1933 thousands of banks had closed and millions of American workers were unemployed. (pages 535–537) Click the mouse button or press the Space Bar to display the information. Click the mouse button or press the Space Bar to display the information. Section 2-5

5. The Depression Worsens • Unemployed workers often stood at bread lines to receive free food or at soup kitchens where private charities gave a free meal to the poor. (pages 535–537) Click the mouse button or press the Space Bar to display the information. Click the mouse button or press the Space Bar to display the information. Section 2-5

6. The Depression Worsens • Americans unable to pay their mortgage or rent lost their homes. (pages 535–537) Click the mouse button or press the Space Bar to display the information. Click the mouse button or press the Space Bar to display the information. Section 2-5

7. The Depression Worsens(cont.) • Those unable or unwilling to move had a court-ordered eviction notice delivered by a court officer or bailiff who forced nonpaying tenants out onto the street. (pages 535–537) Click the mouse button or press the Space Bar to display the information. Section 2-6

8. The Depression Worsens(cont.) • Many of the homeless built shacks in shantytowns, which they referred to as “Hoovervilles” because they blamed the president for their financial trouble. (pages 535–537) Click the mouse button or press the Space Bar to display the information. Section 2-6

9. In 1931 a Christmas tree was placed amid the rubble from some demolished buildings. Workers who still had jobs decorated the tree with tin cans and paper. A few years later at the same site, the official Rockefeller Center tree tradition was inaugurated. FYI 3-2b

10. The Depression Worsens(cont.) • Hobos, or homeless Americans who wandered around hitching rides on railroad cars, searched for work and a better life. (pages 535–537) Click the mouse button or press the Space Bar to display the information. Section 2-6

11. Hobo Signs The hundreds of thousands of hobos who roamed the country developed intricate symbols that they wrote on trees, fences, or buildings to warn or inform other hobos. Many became a part of American folklore. At the height of the Great Depression there may have been as many as 250,000 teenage hobos. F/F/F 2-Folklore

12. The Depression Worsens(cont.) • As crop prices dropped in the 1920s, many American farmers left their fields uncultivated. • A terrible drought in the Great Plains, beginning in 1932, caused the region to become a “Dust Bowl.” (pages 535–537) Click the mouse button or press the Space Bar to display the information. Section 2-7

13. The Depression Worsens(cont.) • Many Midwestern farmers and Great Plains farmers lost their farms. (pages 535–537) Click the mouse button or press the Space Bar to display the information. Section 2-7

14. The Depression Worsens(cont.) • Many families moved west to California hoping to find a better life, but most still faced poverty and homelessness. (pages 535–537) Click the mouse button or press the Space Bar to display the information. Section 2-7

15. White AngelMigrant Mother by Dorothea Lange Click the Speaker button to listen to the audio again. Moment in History 2

16. Escaping the Depression • Americans escaped the hardships of the Depression by going to the movies and listening to radio broadcasts. (pages 537–538) Click the mouse button or press the Space Bar to display the information. Section 2-10

17. Escaping the Depression • Stories tended to be about overcoming hardships and achieving success. • Walt Disney produced the first feature-length animated film, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, in 1937. (pages 537–538) Click the mouse button or press the Space Bar to display the information. Section 2-10

18. Escaping the Depression • Other films, like The Wizard of Oz, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, and Gone with the Wind, contained stories of triumph over adversity and visions of a better life. (pages 537–538) Click the mouse button or press the Space Bar to display the information. Section 2-10

19. Escaping the Depression(cont.) • Families gathered around the radio daily to hear news or listen to comedians like George Burns or a dramatic series like the Lone Ranger. (pages 537–538) Click the mouse button or press the Space Bar to display the information. Section 2-11

20. Escaping the Depression(cont.) • Melodramas, called soap operas, became very popular with housewives. • Soap operas received their name because makers of laundry soaps often sponsored them. (pages 537–538) Click the mouse button or press the Space Bar to display the information. Section 2-11

21. Ironically the board game Monopoly was invented during the Depression. Charles Darrow was an unemployed Pennsylvania engineer when he designed the famous game in the early 1930s. FYI 3-1a

22. The Depression in Art • Homeless and unemployed Americans were the subjects of art and literature during the 1930s. • Artists and writers tried to capture the real life drama of the Depression. • Thomas Hart Benton and Grant Wood emphasized traditional American values in their art. (pages 538–539) Click the mouse button or press the Space Bar to display the information. Section 2-13

23. The Depression in Art(cont.) • JohnSteinbeck’s 1939 novel The Grapes of Wrath told the story of an Oklahoma family fleeing the Dust Bowl to find a new life in California. • Steinbeck, like many writers of this time, wrote of poverty, misfortune, and social injustice. (pages 538–539) Click the mouse button or press the Space Bar to display the information. Section 2-14

24. The Depression in Art(cont.) • Novelist William Faulkner’s literary technique, stream of consciousness, revealed characters’ thoughts and feelings before they spoke–thoughts they dared not reveal. • In his novels, he exposed hidden attitudes of Southern whites and African Americans in a fictional Mississippi county. (pages 538–539) Click the mouse button or press the Space Bar to display the information. Section 2-15

25. End of Section 2