The1930s (pronounced "nineteen-thirties" and commonly abbreviated as "the '30s" or "the Thirties") was adecade that began on January 1, 1930, and ended on December 31, 1939. In the United States, theDust Bowl led to the nickname the "Dirty Thirties".
The decade was defined by a global economic and political crisis that culminated in theSecond World War. It saw the collapse of the international financial system, beginning with theWall Street crash of 1929, the largeststock market crash in American history. The subsequent economic downfall, called theGreat Depression, had traumatic social effects worldwide, leading to widespreadpoverty andunemployment, especially in the economic superpower of theUnited States and inGermany, which was already struggling with the payment of reparations for theFirst World War. TheDust Bowl in the United States (which led to the nickname the "Dirty Thirties") exacerbated the scarcity of wealth. U.S. PresidentFranklin D. Roosevelt, who took office in 1933, introduced a program of broad-scale social reforms and stimulus plans called theNew Deal in response to the crisis. TheSoviet Union'ssecond five-year plan gave heavy industry top priority, putting the Soviet Union not far behindGermany as one of the major steel-producing countries of the world, while also improving communications.First-wave feminism made advances, with women gaining the right to vote inSouth Africa (1930, whites only),Brazil (1933), andCuba (1933). Following therise of Adolf Hitler and the emergence of theNSDAP as the country'ssole legal party in 1933, Germany imposeda series of laws which discriminated againstJews and other ethnic minorities.
Severe famine took place in the major grain-producing areas of the Soviet Union between 1930 and 1933, leading to 5.7 to 8.7 million deaths. Major contributing factors to the famine include: the forcedcollectivization in the Soviet Union of agriculture as a part of theFirst Five-Year Plan, forced grain procurement, combined with rapid industrialization, a decreasing agricultural workforce, and several severe droughts. Afamine of similar scope also took place in China from 1936 to 1937, killing 5 million people. The1931 China floods caused 422,499–4,000,000 deaths. Major earthquakes of this decade include the1935 Quetta earthquake (30,000–60,000 deaths) and the1939 Erzincan earthquake (32,700–32,968 deaths).
At the outbreak ofWorld War II, both Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union invadedPoland; by October 1939, they had divided the occupied territory between them in accordance with the secret part of theMolotov–Ribbentrop Pact.
Chaco War (June 15, 1932 – June 10, 1935) – fought betweenBolivia andParaguay over the disputed territory ofGran Chaco, resulting in a Paraguayan victory in 1935; an agreement dividing the territory was made in 1938, formally ending the conflict
World War II (September 1, 1939 – September 2, 1945) – global war centered in Europe and the Pacific but involving the majority of the world's countries, including all of the major powers such as Germany, Russia, America, Italy, Japan, France and the United Kingdom.
Soldiers mobilizing during the1930 Argentine coup.Chinese Civil War (1927–1949) – The rulingKuomintang and the rebelChinese Communist Party fought a civil war for control of China. The Communists consolidated territory in the early 1930s and proclaimed a short-livedChinese Soviet Republic that collapsed upon Kuomintang attacks, forcing a mass retreat known as theLong March. The Kuomintang and Communists attempted to put away their differences after 1937 to fight theJapanese invasion of China, but intermittent clashes continued through the remainder of the 1930s. Even with some clashes they all fought the Japanese.
Hitler pulls Germany out of the League of Nations, but hosts the1936 Summer Olympics to show his new Reich to the world as well as the supposed superior athleticism of hisAryan troops/athletes.
The assassination of the German diplomatErnst vom Rath by a German-born Polish Jew triggers theKristallnacht ("Night of Broken Glass") which occurred between 9 and 10 November 1938, carried out by theHitler Youth, theGestapo, and theSS, during which much of the Jewish population living in Nazi Germany and Austria was attacked – 91 Jews were murdered, and between 25,000 and 30,000 more were arrested and sent toNazi concentration camps. Some 267 synagogues were destroyed, and thousands of homes and businesses were ransacked.Kristallnacht also served as the pretext for the wholesale confiscation of firearms from German Jews.Cheering crowds greetAdolf Hitler andBenito Mussolini in Munich, 1938
Germany and Italy pursue territorial expansionist agendas. Germany demands the annexation of theFederal State of Austria and of other German-speaking territories in Europe. Between 1935 and 1936, Germany recovers theSaar and re-militarizes theRhineland. Italy initially opposes Germany's aims for Austria, but in 1936 the two countries resolve their differences in the aftermath of Italy's diplomatic isolation following the start of theSecond Italo-Abyssinian War, and Germany becomes Italy's only remaining ally. Germany and Italy improve relations by forming an alliance against communism in 1936 with the signing of theAnti-Comintern Pact. Germany annexes Austria in theAnschluss; the annexation of theSudetenland follows negotiations which result in theMunich Agreement of 1938. TheItalian invasion of Albania in 1939 succeeds in turning theKingdom of Albania into an Italianprotectorate. The vacant Albanian throne is claimed byVictor Emmanuel III of Italy.[3] Germany receives theMemel territory fromLithuania, occupies what remains ofCzechoslovakia, and finally invades theSecond Polish Republic, the last of these events resulting in the outbreak ofWorld War II.
In 1939, several countries of the Americas, including Canada,Cuba, and the United States, controversially deny asylum to hundreds of German Jewish refugees on board theMSSt. Louis who are fleeing the Nazi regime's racist agenda ofanti-Semitic persecution in Germany. In the end, no country accepts the refugees, and the ship returns to Germany with most of its passengers on board. Some commit suicide, rather than return toNazi Germany.
Franklin D. Roosevelt is elected President of the United States in November 1932. Roosevelt initiates a widespread social welfare strategy called the "New Deal" to combat the economic and social devastation of theGreat Depression. The economic agenda of the "New Deal" was a radical departure from previouslaissez-faire economics.
TheAnglo-Egyptian treaty of 1936 is signed which gradually decreased British influence in Egypt and increased Egyptian sovereignty. It led to the withdrawal of British troops across Egypt to the Suez Canal Zone and decreased the number of British troops in the country to 10,000 men.
In 1930,Miguel Primo de Rivera,Prime Minister of Spain and head of amilitary dictatorship is forced to resign in response to a financial crisis (part of theGreat Depression).Alfonso XIII of Spain, who had previously backed the dictatorship, attempts to return gradually to the previous system and restore his prestige. This failed utterly, as the King was considered a supporter of the dictatorship, and more and more political forces called for the establishment of a republic. In 1931, republican and socialist parties won a major victory in the local elections, while the monarchists were in decline. Street riots ensued, calling for the removal of the monarchy. TheSpanish Army declared that they would not defend the King. Alfonso flees the country, effectively abdicating and ending theBourbon Restoration phase which had started in the 1870s. ASecond Spanish Republic emerges.
The "Great Purge" of "Old Bolsheviks" from theCommunist Party of the Soviet Union takes place from 1936 to 1938, as ordered by Soviet Union leaderJoseph Stalin, resulting in hundreds of thousands of people being killed. This purge was due to mistrust and political differences, as well as the massive drop in grain produce. This was due to the method of collectivization in Russia. The Soviet Union produced 16 million lbs of grain less in 1934 compared to 1930. This led to the starvation of millions of Russians.
The1937 World's Fair in Paris displays the growing political tensions in Europe. The pavilions of the rival countries ofNazi Germany and the Soviet Union face each other. Germany at the time was internationally condemned forLuftwaffe (its air force) having performed abombing of theBasque town ofGuernica in Spain during theSpanish Civil War. Spanish artistPablo Picasso depicted the bombing in his masterpiece paintingGuernica at the World Fair, which was asurrealist depiction of the horror of the bombing.
Referendum in theIrish Free State in December 1937 on whether Ireland should continue to be a constitutional monarchy under KingGeorge VI or to become arepublic results in citizens voting in favour of a republic, ending the remains of British sovereignty through monarchial authority over the state.
J. B. M. Hertzog of South Africa, whose National Party had won the 1929 election alone after splitting with the Labour Party, received much of the blame for the devastating economic impact of the Depression.
Canada and other dominions under theBritish Empire sign theStatute of Westminster in 1931, establishing effective parliamentary independence of Canada from the parliament of the United Kingdom.
1939 New York World's Fair, the USA displays the pavilions showing art, culture, and technology from the whole world.
Newfoundland voluntarily returns to British colonial rule in 1934 amid its economic crisis during the Great Depression with the creation of theCommission of Government, a non-elected body.
Amelia Earhart receives major attention in the 1930s as the first woman pilot to conduct major air flights. Her disappearance for unknown reasons in 1937 while on flight prompted search efforts that failed.
In 1932, the PolishCipher Bureau broke the German Enigma cipher and overcame the ever-growing structural and operating complexities of the evolvingEnigma machine withplugboard, the main German cipher device duringWorld War II.
Mao Zedong's Chinese communists begin a large retreat from advancing nationalist forces, called theLong March, beginning in October 1934 and ending in October 1936 and resulting in the collapse of the Chinese Soviet Republic.Japanese march intoZhengyangmen ofBeijing after capturing the city in July 1937
Colonial India'sMuslim League leaderMuhammed Ali Jinnah delivers his "Day of Deliverance" speech on December 2, 1939, calling uponMuslims to begin to engage in civil disobedience against the British colonial government starting on December 12. Jinnah demands redress and resolution to tensions and violence occurring between Muslims andHindus in India. Jinnah's actions are not supported by the largely Hindu-dominatedIndian National Congress whom he had previously closely allied with. The decision is seen as part of an agenda by Jinnah to support the eventual creation of an independent Muslim state calledPakistan from British Empire.
TheNew Guinea Highlands were first visited by Western explorers in the 1930s. The highland valleys were found to be inhabited by over a million people.[6]
TheChina floods of 1931 are among the deadliest natural disasters ever recorded.
The1935 Labor Day Hurricane makes landfall in theFlorida Keys as a Category 5 hurricane and the most intense hurricane to ever make landfall in the Atlantic basin. It caused an estimated $6 million (1935 USD) in damages and killed around 408 people. The hurricane's strong winds and storm surge destroyed nearly all of the structures betweenTavernier andMarathon, and the town ofIslamorada was obliterated.
The GermandirigibleairshipHindenburg explodes in the sky aboveLakehurst, New Jersey, United States on May 6, 1937, killing 36 people. The event leads to an investigation of the explosion and the disaster causes major public distrust of the use ofhydrogen-inflated airships and seriously damages the reputation of theZeppelin company.
TheNew England Hurricane of 1938, which became a Category 5 hurricane before making landfall as a Category 3. The hurricane was estimated to have caused property losses of US$306 million ($4.72 billion in 2010), killed between 682 and 800 people, and damaged or destroyed over 57,000 homes, including the home of famed actressKatharine Hepburn, who had been staying in her family'sOld Saybrook, Connecticut, beach home when the hurricane struck.
TheDust Bowl, or "Dirty Thirties", a period of severedust storms causing major ecological and agricultural damage to American and Canadianprairie lands from 1930 to 1936 (in some areas until 1940). Caused by extremedrought coupled with strong winds and decades of extensive farming withoutcrop rotation, fallow fields,cover crops, or other techniques to prevent erosion, it affected an estimated 100,000,000 acres (400,000 km2) of land (traveling as far east as New York and the Atlantic Ocean), caused mass migration (which was the inspiration for thePulitzer Prize-winning novelThe Grapes of Wrath byJohn Steinbeck), food shortages, multiple deaths and illness from sand inhalation, and a severe reduction in the going wage rate.
The1938 Yellow River flood pours out fromHuayuankou, China, inundating 54,000 km2 (21,000 sq mi) of land and killing an estimated 500,000 people.
Prominent assassinations, targeted killings, and assassination attempts include:
Japanese prime ministerHamaguchi Osachi is shot and wounded by a right-wing extremist in 1930, dying of his wounds nine months later.
French presidentPaul Doumer is assassinated in 1932 byPaul Gorguloff, a mentally unstable Russian émigré.
Japanese prime ministerInukai Tsuyoshi isassassinated in 1932 by a group of young naval officers and army cadets.
Chicago mayorAnton Cermak was fatally wounded in 1933 byGiuseppe Zangara, an Italian immigrant who intended to assassinate President-electFranklin D. Roosevelt. Zangara fired five shots at Roosevelt, but Cermak was the one hit, succumbing to his wounds several weeks later.
U.S. presidential candidate and former Governor of LouisianaHuey Long is assassinated in 1935 byCarl Weiss.
Engelbert Dollfuss,Chancellor of Austria and leading figure ofAustrofascism, is assassinated in 1934 by Austrian Nazis. Germany and Italy nearly clash over the issue of Austrian independence despite close ideological similarities of theItalian Fascist and Nazi regimes.
Sergei Kirov, an early Bolshevik revolutionary and personal friend to Joseph Stalin, is assassinated in 1934, escalating political repression in the Soviet Union.
Adolf Hitler, dictator ofNazi Germany, survived an assassination attempt in 1939 when a bomb planted byGeorg Elser exploded at theBürgerbräukeller inMunich; he had left the building early, avoiding the blast that killed eight others.
In the United States the significantly high unemployment rate lead many unemployed people to use freight trains in order to seek employment in various cities across the country
TheGreat Depression is considered to have begun with the fall of stock prices on September 4, 1929, and then thestock market crash known asBlack Tuesday on October 29, 1929, and lasted through much of the 1930s.
The entire decade is marked by widespread unemployment and poverty, although deflation (i.e. falling prices) was limited to 1930–32 and 1938–39. Prices fell 7.02% in 1930, 10.06% in 1931, 9.79% in 1932, 1.41% in 1938 and 0.71% in 1939.[8]
In an effort to reduce unemployment, the United States government created work projects such as theCivilian Conservation Corps (CCC) which was a public work relief program that operated from 1933 to 1942 to maintain National Parks and build roads. Other major U.S. government work projects includedHoover Dam which was constructed between 1931 and 1936.
Rapid industrialization takes place in theSoviet Union.
Drought conditions in Oklahoma and Texas caused theDust Bowl which forced tens of thousands of families to abandon their farms and seek employment elsewhere.
In 1930,Warner Brothers released the first All-Talking All-Color wide-screen movie,Song of the Flame; in 1930 alone, Warner Brothers released ten All-Color All-Talking feature movies inTechnicolor and scores of shorts and features with color sequences;
Radar was invented, known as RDF (Radio Direction Finding), such as in British Patent GB593017 byRobert Watson-Watt in 1938The Place de Varsovie inParis during theWorld Expo in 1937, photographed using newly inventedAgfacolor process.
In 1936, The first regularhigh-definition (then defined as at least 200 lines) television service from theBBC, based atAlexandra Palace in London, officially begins broadcasting.
TheVolkswagen Beetle, one of the best-sellingautomobiles ever produced, had its roots inNazi Germany in the late 1930s. Created byFerdinand Porsche and his chief designerErwin Komenda. The car would prove to be successful with over 21 million units built and was in production until 2003 with last model built in Mexico. It was superseded by all-new front-wheel-driveNew Beetle whose production began in 1997 continued until 2019.
In 1937, flying the same H-1 Racer fitted with longer wings, the ambitious Hughes sets a newtranscontinental airspeed record by flying non-stop from Los Angeles to Newark in 7 hours, 28 minutes, and 25 seconds (beating his own previous record of 9 hours, 27 minutes). His average ground speed during the flight was 322 mph (518 km/h).[11]
First intercontinental commercial airline flights.
In 1936, Danish seismologistInge Lehmann was able to conclude that the Earth had a solid inner core and a molten outer core to explain inconsistencies in seismic wave data from earthquakes
Near the end of the decade, two of the world's most iconic superheroes and recognizable fictional characters were introduced in comic books;Superman first appeared in 1938, andBatman in 1939.
The 1930 also saw the widespread popularity of thepulp magazine. Printed on cheappulp paper, these magazines provided affordable entertainment to the masses and quickly became one of the most popular forms of media during the decade. Many prominent writers of the 20th century would get their start writing for pulps, includingF. Scott Fitzgerald,Dashiell Hammett,Isaac Asimov andH. P. Lovecraft. Pulp fiction magazines would last in popularity until the advent oftelevision in the 1950s.
David Alfaro Siqueiros paints the controversial muralAmérica Tropical (full name:América Tropical: Oprimida y Destrozada por los Imperialismos, orTropical America: Oppressed and Destroyed by Imperialism[13]) (1932) atOlvera Street in Los Angeles, California.[14]
In the art of filmmaking, theGolden Age of Hollywood enters a new era after the advent of talking pictures ("talkies") in 1927 and full-color films in 1930: more than 50 classic films were made in the 1930s; most notable wereGone With The Wind andThe Wizard of Oz.
In 1930, Howard Hughes producesHell's Angels, the first movieblockbuster to be produced outside of a professional studio, independently, and at the time the most expensive movie ever made, costing roughly 4 million dollars and taking four years to make.
On October 30, 1938Orson Welles' radio adaptation ofThe War of the Worlds is broadcast, causing panic in various parts of the United States
Radio becomes dominant mass media in industrial nations, serving as a way for citizens to listen to music and get news- providing rapid reporting on current events.
October 30, 1938:Orson Welles' radio adaptation ofThe War of the Worlds is broadcast, causing panic in various parts of the United States.
"Swing" music starts becoming popular from 1933, the dawn of theSwing era. It gradually replaces the sweet form ofJazz that had been popular for the first half of the decade.
"Delta Blues" music, the first recorded in the late 1920s, was expanded byRobert Johnson andSkip James, two of the most important and influential acts of "Blues" genre.
The most characteristic North American fashion trend from the 1930s to 1945 was attention at the shoulder, with butterfly sleeves and banjo sleeves, and exaggerated shoulder pads for both men and women by the 1940s. The period also saw the first widespread use of man-made fibers, especiallyrayon for dresses andviscose forlinings andlingerie, and syntheticnylonstockings. Thezipper became widely used. These essentially U.S. developments were echoed, in varying degrees, in Britain and Europe. Suntans (called at the time "sunburns") became fashionable in the early 1930s, along with travel to the resorts along theMediterranean, in theBahamas, and on the east coast ofFlorida where one can acquire a tan, leading to new categories of clothes: white dinner jackets for men and beach pajamas, halter tops, and bare midriffs for women.[20]
Mexican muralism was aMexican art movement that took place primarily in the 1930s. The movement stands out historically because of its political undertones, the majority of which of aMarxist nature, or related to a social and political situation of post-revolutionary Mexico. Also in Latin AmericaSymbolism andMagic Realism were important movements.
^Bix, Herbert P. (1992). "The Showa Emperor's 'Monologue' and the Problem of War Responsibility".Journal of Japanese Studies.18 (2):295–363.doi:10.2307/132824.JSTOR132824.
^Hunt, Lynn. "The Making of the West: Peoples and Cultures" Vol. C since 1740.Bedford/St. Martin's, 2009.
^"The first central committee of IMRO. Memoirs of d-r Hristo Tatarchev", Materials for the Macedonian liberation movement, book IX (series of the Macedonian scientific institute of IMRO, led by Bulgarian academician prof. Lyubomir Miletich), Sofia, 1928, p. 102, поредица "Материяли за историята на македонското освободително движение" на Македонския научен институт на ВМРО, воден от българския академик проф. Любомир Милетич, книга IX, София, 1928.
^Cormack, Mike (1993).Ideology and Cinematography in Hollywood, 1930–1939.Palgrave Macmillan. p. 28.ISBN978-0-312-10067-4.Although costing $1250000—a huge sum for any studio in 1929—the film was a financial success. Karl Thiede gives the domestic box-office at $1500000, and the same figure for the foreign gross.
Cavalcade: p.182. "Produced by Winfield Sheehan at a cost of $1.25 million,Cavalcade won Academy Awards for best picture, director, art direction and grossed close to $4 million during its first release, much of which came from Great Britain and the Empire."
Whoopee: p.212. "Produced by Sam Goldwyn at a cost of $1 million, the picture was an adaptation of a smash musical comedy built around Eddie Cantor...A personality-centered musical,Whoopee! made little attempt to integrate the comedy routines, songs, and story. Nonetheless, Cantor's feature-film debut grossed over $2.6 million worldwide and started a popular series that includedPalmy Days (1931),The Kid from Spain (1932), andRoman Scandals (1933)."
Balio, Tino (1976).United Artists: The Company Built by the Stars.University of Wisconsin Press. p. 110.Hughes did not have the "Midas touch" the trade press so often attributed to him.Variety, for example, reported thatHell's Angels cost $3.2 million to make, and by July, 1931, eight months after its release, the production cost had nearly been paid off. Keats claimed the picture cost $4 million to make and that it earned twice that much within twenty years. The production cost estimate is probably correct. Hughes worked on the picture for over two years, shooting it first as a silent and then as a talkie. Lewis Milestone said that in between Hughes experimented with shooting it in color as well. ButVariety's earnings report must be the fabrication of a delirious publicity agent, and Keats' the working of a myth maker. During the seven years it was in United Artists distribution,Hell's Angels grossed $1.6 million in the domestic market, of which Hughes' share was $1.2 million. Whatever the foreign gross was, it seems unlikely that it was great enough to earn a profit for the picture.
^Block & Wilson 2010, p. 163. "It drew $1.4 million in worldwide rentals in its first run versus $1.2 million forDracula, which had opened in February 1931."
^Vance, Jeffrey (2003).Chaplin: genius of the cinema.Abrams Books. p. 208.Chaplin's negative cost for City Lights was $1,607,351. The film eventually earned him a worldwide profit of $5 million ($2 million domestically and $3 million in foreign distribution), an enormous sum of money for the time.
ch.70. The Ten Commandments (1956). "Cost: $13,272,381.87; Gross receipts: $90,066,230.00 (to June 23, 1979)"
^Ramsaye, Terry, ed. (1937). "The All-Time Best Sellers – Motion Pictures".International Motion Picture Almanac 1937–38:942–943.Kid from Spain: $2,621,000 (data supplied by Eddie Cantor)
^abcdSedgwick, John (2000).Popular Filmgoing In 1930s Britain: A Choice of Pleasures.University of Exeter Press. pp. 146–148.ISBN978-0-85989-660-3.Sources: Eddie Mannix Ledger, made available to the author by Mark Glancy...
Grand Hotel: Production Cost $000s: 700; Distribution Cost $000s: 947; U.S. box-office $000s: 1,235; Foreign box-office $000s: 1,359; Total box-office $000s: 2,594; Profit $000s: 947.
The Merry Widow: Production Cost $000s: 1,605; Distribution Cost $000s: 1,116; U.S. box-office $000s: 861; Foreign box-office $000s: 1,747; Total box-office $000s: 2,608; Profit $000s: -113.
Viva Villa: Production Cost $000s: 1,022; Distribution Cost $000s: 766; U.S. box-office $000s: 941; Foreign box-office $000s: 934; Total box-office $000s: 1,875; Profit $000s: 87.
Mutiny on the Bounty: Production Cost $000s: 1,905; Distribution Cost $000s: 1,646; U.S. box-office $000s: 2,250; Foreign box-office $000s: 2,210; Total box-office $000s: 4,460; Profit $000s: 909.
San Francisco: Production Cost $000s: 1,300; Distribution Cost $000s: 1,736; U.S. box-office $000s: 2,868; Foreign box-office $000s: 2,405; Total box-office $000s: 5,273; Profit $000s: 2,237.
Jewel, Richard (1994). "RKO Film Grosses: 1931–1951".Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television.14 (1): 39.1933 release: $1,856,000; 1938 release: $306,000; 1944 release: $685,000
^"I'm No Angel (1933) – Notes".Turner Classic Movies. Archived fromthe original on November 30, 2020. RetrievedJanuary 7, 2012.According to a modern source, it had a gross earning of $2,250,000 on the North American continent, with over a million more earned internationally.
^Finler 2003, p. 188. "The studio released its most profitable pictures of the decade in 1933,She Done Him Wrong andI'm No Angel, written by and starring Mae West. Produced at a rock-bottom cost of $200,000 each, they undoubtedly helped Paramount through the worst patch in its history..."
Way Down East: p.52. "D.W. Griffith'sWay Down East (1920) was projected to return rentals of $4,000,000 on an $800,000 negative. This figure was based on the amounts earned from its roadshow run, coupled with its playoff in the rest of the country's theaters. Griffith had originally placed the potential film rental at $3,000,000 but, because of the success of the various roadshows that were running the $4,000,000 total was expected. The film showed a profit of $615,736 after just 23 weeks of release on a gross of $2,179,613."
What Price Glory?: p.112. "What Price Glory hit the jackpot with massive world rentals of $2,429,000, the highest figure in the history of the company. Since it was also the most expensive production of the year at $817,000 the profit was still a healthy $796,000..."
Cavalcade: p.170. "The actual cost ofCavalcade was $1,116,000 and it was most definitely not guaranteed a success. In fact, if its foreign grosses followed the usual 40 percent of domestic returns, the film would have lost money. In a turnaround, the foreign gross was almost double the $1,000,000 domestic take to reach total world rentals of $3,000,000 and Fox's largest profit of the year at $664,000."
State Fair: p.170. "State Fair did turn out to be a substantial hit with the help of Janet Gaynor boosting Will Rogers back to the level of money-making star. Its prestige engagements helped raked in a total $1,208,000 in domestic rentals. Surprisingly, in foreign countries unfamiliar with state fairs, it still earned a respectable $429,000. With its total rentals, the film ended up showing a $398,000 profit."
^Block, Alex Ben (2010),She Done Him Wrong, p. 173,The worldwide rentals of over $3 million keep the lights on at Paramount, which did not shy away from selling the movie's sex appeal. In:Block & Wilson 2010.
^Phillips, Kendall R. (2008).Controversial Cinema: The Films That Outraged America.ABC-CLIO. p. 26.ISBN978-1-56720-724-8.The reaction to West's first major film, however, was not exclusively negative. Made for a mere $200,000, the film would rake in a healthy $2 million in the United States and an additional million in overseas markets.
The Merry Widow: p.361 Cost: $1,605,000. Earnings: domestic $861,000; foreign $1,747,000; total $2,608,000. Loss: $113,000.
San Francisco: p.364 Cost: $1,300,000. Earnings: domestic $2,868,000; foreign $2,405,000; total $5,273,000. Profit: $2,237,000. [Reissues in 1938–39 and 1948–49 brought profits of $124,000 and $647,000 respectively.]
^"Wall St. Researchers' Cheery Tone".Variety. November 7, 1962. p. 7.
^Dick, Bernard F. (2008).Claudette Colbert: She Walked in Beauty.University Press of Mississippi. p. 79.ISBN978-1-60473-087-6.Although Columbia's president, Harry Cohn, had strong reservations aboutIt Happened One Night, he also knew that it would not bankrupt the studio; the rights were only $5,000, and the budget was set at $325,000, including the performers' salaries.
Monaco, Paul (2010).A History of American Movies: A Film-By-Film Look at the Art, Craft, and Business of Cinema.Scarecrow Press. p. 54.ISBN978-0-8108-7434-3.Considered a highly risky gamble when the movie was in production in the mid-1930s, by the fiftieth anniversary of its 1937 premiereSnow White's earnings exceeded $330 million.
p.207. "When the budget rose from $250,000 to $1,488,423 he even mortgaged his own home and automobile. Disney had bet more than his company on the success ofSnow White."
p.237. "By the end of 1938, it had grossed more than $8 million in worldwide rentals and was ranked at the time as the second-highest-grossing film after the 1925 epicBen-Hur".
p.255. "On its initial releasePinocchio brought in only $1.6 million in domestic rentals (compared withSnow White's $4.2 million) and $1.9 million in foreign rentals (compared withSnow White's $4.3 million)."
You Can't Take It With You:"You Can't Take It With You Premieres".Focus Features. Archived fromthe original on September 13, 2012.You Can't Take It With You received excellent reviews, won Best Picture and Best Director at the 1938 Academy Awards, and earned over $5 million worldwide.
Boys Town:Block, Alex Ben (2010),Boys Town, p. 215,The film quickly became a smash nationwide, making a profit of over $2 million on worldwide rentals of $4 million. In:Block & Wilson 2010.
The Adventures of Robin Hood:Glancy, H. Mark (1995). "Warner Bros Film Grosses, 1921–51: the William Schaefer ledger".Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television.1 (15):55–60.doi:10.1080/01439689500260031.$3.981 million.
Alexander's Ragtime Band:Block, Hayley Taylor (2010),Alexander's Ragtime Band, p. 213,Once the confusion cleared, however, the film blossomed into a commercial success, with a profit of $978,000 on worldwide rentals of $3.6 million. In:Block & Wilson 2010.
Allen, Frederick Lewis.Since Yesterday: The Nineteen-thirties in America (1939)online
Brendon, Piers.The Dark Valley: A Panorama of the 1930s (2000) global political history; 816ppexcerpt
Cornelissen, Christoph, and Arndt Weinrich, eds.Writing the Great War – The Historiography of World War I from 1918 to the Present (2020)free download; full coverage for major countries.
Cunningham, Valentine,British Writers of the Thirties (Oxford University Press, 1988)
Garraty, John A. The Great Depression: An Inquiry into the Causes, Course, and Consequences of the Worldwide Depression of the Nineteen-Thirties, As Seen by Contemporaries (1986).
Grenville, J.A.S.A History of the World in the Twentieth Century (Harvard UP, 1994) pp 160–251.
Grossman, Mark.Encyclopedia of the Interwar Years: From 1919 to 1939 (2000). 400pp. worldwide coverage
Lewis, Thomas Tandy, ed.The Thirties in America. 3 volumes. Pasadena: Salem Press, 2011.
Matera, Marc, and Susan Kingsley Kent.The Global 1930s: The International Decade (Routledge, 2017)online
Watt D.C. et al.,A History of the World in the Twentieth Century (1968) pp 423–463.
America in the 1930s Extensive library of projects on America in the Great Depression from American Studies at the University of Virginia
The 1930s Timeline year by year timeline of events in science and technology, politics and society, culture and international events with embedded audio and video. AS@UVA
.png)
.jpg)
.jpg)
![The Three Stooges produced multiple short comedy films with Columbia Pictures during the decade, making them icons.[17]](/mt/?noimg=&dark=on&url=https%3a%2f%2fen.wikipedia.org%2fwiki%2fFile%3aDisorder_in_the_Court.JPG)
.jpg)
.jpg)
_(cropped).jpg)
