Modern Culture/America In The 1930s - Sophia Hunter by Sophia Hunter

Entertainment/Music

huntersm16 — 2019-04-07 23:59:11 UTC

Between 1929-1936, an average of 600 stations were operational in the U.S. The reach of radio was enormous. Mass communication and entertainment could reach Americans within their own homes, and capitalised on by business advertisers, artists, and politicians.

Gangsters & Crime

huntersm16 — 2019-04-08 00:00:40 UTC

Bank robbery, as paradoxical as it may be, has been glorified and cherished in American culture. By the rise of organised crime and gangsters in the 1920s/30s, many Americans already knew the names and told stories of famous bank robbers and outlaws of the Wild West like Jesse James. The Depression fuelled bank robbery and criminals like Bonnie and Clyde, whose stories provided real-life melodrama during the hard knock Depression, excited the public.

African Americans In The US

huntersm16 — 2019-04-08 00:02:22 UTC

Most young black southerners of the blues generation worked as migrants, circling from farm to city getting various low paid jobs. Many of the first Mississippi blues musicians came from farming families, often returning to that work after a few years. Much like the spirituals and gospels created during slavery, blues music was directly reflected the situation of black men and women in the 1920s/1930s. Stories of a Faustian agreement sprung up around well-known, and short-lived Robert Johnson, but that legend supposedly originated with an earlier musician named Tommy Johnson (unrelated). It is said that Tommy Johnson sold his soul to the devil at a dark crossroads in exchange for masterful musical skill.

Politics

huntersm16 — 2019-04-08 00:04:39 UTC

Another figure of iconic of the 1930s was the politician, a sort of stock character. Huey Long is the greatest example in American history, rising through radio and the desperation of people in the Great Depression. Though Long was considered a thug-intimidator and heavily into nepotism and the spoils system, he made huge reforms as Louisiana’s governor in the early 1930s. W. Lee “Pappy” O’Daniel also gained fame as a radio personality with his bluegrass band the Hillbilly Boys. Running for his only term as governor of Texas, O’Daniel promoted his Flour Mill Company, with the slogan “Pass the biscuits, Pappy” and promoted reform using a broom to symbolise cleaning up after dirty politics, a common tactic of the time. Governor Davis of Louisiana also was known through the radio from his popular rendition of “You Are My Sunshine” and Texas Governor Neff famously pardoned a country singer after a good performance<4>. The Pappy O’Daniels in “O Brother” is definitely an amalgamation of the above figures. He promotes his “Flour Hour” over the radio, pardons the three flawed heroes in the end, is accused of nepotism and ineffectiveness, and calls on newly gained supporters to join in a glorious round of “You Are My Sunshine.” However, it is his opponent that uses old-timey music, bandwagon campaigning, and shakes a broom for theatrics.

Labour Camps

huntersm16 — 2019-04-08 00:07:15 UTC

Years of hard labor in unregulated penitentiaries or labor camps were common sentences for minor crimes committed by poor whites or blacks in the South for decades. Escape was fairly frequent. Punishment usually included torture such as the sweatbox, a dramatically prolonged sentence, and in most extreme scenarios death during re-capture<5>. The three convicts escape without explanation, straight off the chain gang as if it were as easy as that at the very start of the movie to the song “Big Rock Candy Mountain,” describing a perfect world absent of manual labor. But the escapees are constantly eluding their pursuers within inches of their life.

Race Issues: Ku Klux Klan

huntersm16 — 2019-04-08 00:09:00 UTC

The Klan, at its height during the revival, had 3 million members, who discriminated and sometimes physically harmed and murdered Jews, Catholics, Immigrants, and Blacks in the 1930s. The demographics was an equal cross-section of white men and up to 500, 000 white women at one point. This meant the law was often involved in the clan, along with politicians, and businessmen. Some politicians couldn’t get elected without the support of the Klan. Rallies were secret, as were identities, but in many cases public, daytime marches were held in the streets as intimidation<6>.(See link to early footage in Gallery page). The KKK rally in the film is meant to be both sinister and absurd, almost like the “O-wee-O” scene from “Wizard of Oz.” The films comic approach does not keep it from being truthful, though. The racist sentiments expressed by the red-robed wizard, who is actually the political gubernatorial candidate, are true to KKK doctrine. The sacredness of the Confederate flag and the lynching of an innocent black man (here Johnson) are also accurate to say of a KKK rally or meeting in 1937 Mississippi.