The Great Depression

The Great Depression lasted from 1929 to 1939. There had been depressions before, but none of them were that bad. None of them were that long, either.

There were many causes of the Great Depression, and all of them were linked. First, people started buying stocks with loaned money. Then they bought only what they needed to pay back the loan. When everyone started doing that, businesses didn’t get enough money, which led to employee layoffs. Many of those employees also had loans to pay off. When they got laid off, they couldn’t pay back their loans. Everybody tried to pull all of their money out of the banks. Finally, the banks crashed and nobody had money.

During the Great Depression, marathon dancing became very popular. Marathon dancing was where couples would dance for 45 minutes and rest for 15 minutes. The audience would watch and throw coins to their favorite couple. That was called the “Silver Shower.” Couples would continue marathon dancing for months. The last couple dancing won money.

The movie industry grew. People could watch movies all day for 15 cents. People often called movies “Their Great Escape” from life during the Depression. Sometimes, they were where people “Got Their News.”

Radio also became popular. Comedians played on the radio. Many women were housewives, so the radio played soap operas for them. The president would talk on the radio at least once a week, which were called “Fireside Chats.” Families would drop what they were doing to listen to what Roosevelt had to say. On the radio, people heard the Hindenberg tragedy as it happened.

The Dust Bowl also happened during the Great Depression. The dirt became dry and the wind picked up in the Great Plains. People started moving to California to get away from the dust storms. People who moved from Oklahoma were called Okes, and they were treated badly.

There were a lot of homeless people. Okes were homeless, because they moved out of their homes and couldn’t afford to buy a new house. Some people lived in places called shantytowns, which were often called Hoovervilles. Homeless men were sometimes called hobos. Hobos would travel on trains or they would walk. They were originally called ho boys.

Dorothea Lange was a professional photographer. She started out taking pictures of America’s wealthy families. Then, she started taking pictures of homeless families. She found a family with a mother and her children. Lange took six pictures of them. One of the six pictures was very famous and it was called “Migrant Mother.”