:1930s

{{short description|Decade of the Gregorian calendar (1930–1939)}}

{{redirect|'30s|the decade of this century|2030s|decades comprising years 30–39 of other centuries|List of decades}}

File:1930s decade montage.png|From left, clockwise: Dorothea Lange's photo of the homeless Florence Thompson shows the effects of the Great Depression; due to extreme drought conditions, farms across the south-central United States become dry and the Dust Bowl spreads; The Empire of Japan invades China, which eventually leads to the Second Sino-Japanese War. In 1937, Japanese soldiers massacre civilians in Nanjing; aviator Amelia Earhart becomes an American flight icon; German dictator Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party attempt to establish a New Order of German hegemony in Europe, which culminates in 1939 when Germany invades Poland, leading to the outbreak of World War II. The Nazis also persecute Jews in Germany, specifically with Kristallnacht in 1938; the Hindenburg explodes over a small New Jersey airfield, causing 36 deaths and effectively ending commercial airship travel; Mohandas Gandhi walks to the Arabian Sea in the Salt March of 1930. Popular comedy team The Three Stooges had prominence during the decade.|335px|thumb

rect 1 1 174 226 Great Depression

rect 177 1 375 121 Dust Bowl

rect 177 124 275 226 Second Sino-Japanese War

rect 276 124 375 226 Rape of Nanking

rect 378 1 497 226 Amelia Earhart

rect 1 229 221 353 Salt March

rect 1 357 221 488 Hindenburg disaster

rect 225 230 359 488 Nazi Invasion of Poland

rect 361 230 497 488 Kristallnacht

{{Decadebox|193}}

The 1930s (pronounced "nineteen-thirties" and commonly abbreviated as "the '30s" or "the Thirties") was a decade that began on January 1, 1930, and ended on December 31, 1939. In the United States, the Dust Bowl led to the nickname the "Dirty Thirties".

The decade was defined by a global economic and political crisis that culminated in the Second World War. It saw the collapse of the international financial system, beginning with the Wall Street crash of 1929, the largest stock market crash in American history. The subsequent economic downfall, called the Great Depression, had traumatic social effects worldwide, leading to widespread poverty and unemployment, especially in the economic superpower of the United States and in Germany, which was already struggling with the payment of reparations for the First World War. The Dust Bowl in the United States (which led to the nickname the "Dirty Thirties") exacerbated the scarcity of wealth. U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt, who took office in 1933, introduced a program of broad-scale social reforms and stimulus plans called the New Deal in response to the crisis. The Soviet Union's second five-year plan gave heavy industry top priority, putting the Soviet Union not far behind Germany 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 in South Africa (1930, whites only), Brazil (1933), and Cuba (1933). Following the rise of Adolf Hitler and the emergence of the NSDAP as the country's sole legal party in 1933, Germany imposed a series of laws which discriminated against Jews and other ethnic minorities.

Germany adopted an aggressive foreign policy, remilitarizing the Rhineland (1936), annexing Austria (1938) and the Sudetenland (1938), before invading Poland (1939) and starting World War II near the end of the decade. Italy likewise continued its already aggressive foreign policy, defeating the Libyan resistance (1932) before invading Ethiopia (1935) and then Albania (1939). Both Germany and Italy became involved in the Spanish Civil War, supporting the eventually victorious Nationalists led by Francisco Franco against the Republicans, who were in turn supported by the Soviet Union. The Chinese Civil War was halted due to the need to confront Japanese imperial ambitions, with the Kuomintang and the Chinese Communist Party forming a Second United Front to fight Japan in the Second Sino-Japanese War. Lesser conflicts included interstate wars such as the Colombia–Peru War (1932–1933), the Chaco War (1932–1935) and the Saudi–Yemeni War (1934), as well as internal conflicts in Brazil (1932), Ecuador (1932), El Salvador (1932), Austria (1934) and British Palestine (1936–1939).

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 forced collectivization in the Soviet Union of agriculture as a part of the First Five-Year Plan, forced grain procurement, combined with rapid industrialization, a decreasing agricultural workforce, and several severe droughts. A famine of similar scope also took place in China from 1936 to 1937, killing 5 million people. The 1931 China floods caused 422,499–4,000,000 deaths. Major earthquakes of this decade include the 1935 Quetta earthquake (30,000–60,000 deaths) and the 1939 Erzincan earthquake (32,700–32,968 deaths).

With the advent of sound in 1927, the musical—the genre best placed to showcase the new technology—took over as the most popular type of film with audiences, with the animated musical fantasy film Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937) becoming the highest-grossing film of this decade in terms of gross rentals. In terms of distributor rentals, Gone with the Wind (1939), an epic historical romance film, was the highest-grossing film of this decade and remains the highest-grossing film (when adjusted for inflation) to this day. Popularity of comedy films boomed after the Silent era with popular comedians The Three Stooges and Marx Brothers. Popular novels of this decade include the historical fiction novels The Good Earth, Anthony Adverse and Gone with the Wind, all three of which were best-selling novels in the United States for 2 consecutive years. Cole Porter was a popular music artist in the 1930s, with two of his songs, "Night and Day" and "Begin the Beguine" becoming No. 1 hits in 1932 and 1935 respectively. The latter song was of the Swing genre, which had begun to emerge as the most popular form of music in the United States since 1933.

The world population increased from 2.05 to 2.25 billion people during the decade, with about 750 million births and 550 million deaths.

{{TOC limit|3}}

Politics and wars

{{See also|List of sovereign states in the 1930s}}

File:Flag-map of the world (1930).png

=Wars=

{{Main|List of wars: 1900–1944#1930–1944}}

File:Kamp-wrzes22-anim.gif, both Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union invaded Poland; by October 1939, they had divided the occupied territory between them in accordance with the secret part of the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact.]]

=Internal conflicts=

=Major political changes=

==Germany – Rise of Nazism==

File:Bundesarchiv Bild 102-14468, Berlin, NS-Boykott gegen jüdische Geschäfte.jpg paramilitaries outside a Berlin store during the Nazi boycott of Jewish businesses, 1933]]

==United States – Combating the Depression==

File:Roosevelt signing TVA Act (1933).jpg: President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs the Tennessee Valley Authority Act, May 18, 1933]]

  • 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 the Great Depression. The economic agenda of the "New Deal" was a radical departure from previous laissez-faire economics.

==Saudi Arabia – Founding==

==Spain – Turmoil and Civil War==

=Colonization=

=Decolonization and independence=

=Other prominent political events=

==Europe==

File:GolodomorKharkiv.jpg. Starved peasants in the streets of Kharkiv, 1933]]

==Africa==

File:Omar Mokhtar arrested by Italian Fascists.jpg rebel leader Omar al-Mukhtar after his arrest by Italian armed forces in 1931]]

  • 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.

==Americas==

==Asia==

File:Marche sel.jpg on the Salt March in 1930]]

==Australia==

  • Australia and New Zealand sign the Statute of Westminster in 1931 which established legislative equality between the self-governing dominions of the British Empire and the United Kingdom, with a few residual exceptions. The Parliament of Australia and Parliament of New Zealand gain full legislative authority over their territories, no longer sharing powers with the Parliament of the United Kingdom.
  • The New Guinea Highlands were first visited by Western explorers in the 1930s. The highland valleys were found to be inhabited by over a million people.{{cite web |title=Papua New Guinea – The colonial period |url=https://www.britannica.com/place/Papua-New-Guinea/The-colonial-period |publisher=Encyclopaedia Britannica}}

Disasters

File:Hindenburg disaster.jpg airship Hindenburg exploding in 1937]]

File:Dust storm approaching Stratford, Texas.jpg, in 1935, during the Dust Bowl]]

  • The China floods of 1931 are among the deadliest natural disasters ever recorded.
  • The 1935 Labor Day Hurricane makes landfall in the Florida 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 between Tavernier and Marathon, and the town of Islamorada was obliterated.
  • The German dirigible airship Hindenburg explodes in the sky above Lakehurst, 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 of hydrogen-inflated airships and seriously damages the reputation of the Zeppelin company.
  • The New London School in New London, Texas, is destroyed by an explosion, killing in excess of 300 students and teachers (1937).
  • The New 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 actress Katharine Hepburn, who had been staying in her family's Old Saybrook, Connecticut, beach home when the hurricane struck.
  • The Dust Bowl, or "Dirty Thirties", a period of severe dust storms causing major ecological and agricultural damage to American and Canadian prairie lands from 1930 to 1936 (in some areas until 1940). Caused by extreme drought coupled with strong winds and decades of extensive farming without crop rotation, fallow fields, cover crops, or other techniques to prevent erosion, it affected an estimated {{convert|100,000,000|acre|km2}} of land (traveling as far east as New York and the Atlantic Ocean), caused mass migration (which was the inspiration for the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck), food shortages, multiple deaths and illness from sand inhalation, and a severe reduction in the going wage rate.
  • The 1938 Yellow River flood pours out from Huayuankou, China, inundating {{convert|54,000|km2|sqmi|abbr=on}} of land and killing an estimated 500,000 people.

{{Clear}}

Assassinations and attempts

File:AlexanderIOfYugoslavia50223v.jpg]]

Prominent assassinations, targeted killings, and assassination attempts include:

  • Japanese prime minister Hamaguchi Osachi is shot and wounded by a right-wing extremist in 1930, dying of his wounds nine months later.
  • French president Paul Doumer is assassinated in 1932 by Paul Gorguloff, a mentally unstable Russian émigré.
  • Japanese prime minister Inukai Tsuyoshi is assassinated in 1932 by a group of young naval officers and army cadets.
  • Chicago mayor Anton Cermak was fatally wounded in 1933 by Giuseppe Zangara, an Italian immigrant who intended to assassinate President-elect Franklin 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 Louisiana Huey Long is assassinated in 1935 by Carl Weiss.
  • Engelbert Dollfuss, Chancellor of Austria and leading figure of Austrofascism, is assassinated in 1934 by Austrian Nazis. Germany and Italy nearly clash over the issue of Austrian independence despite close ideological similarities of the Italian Fascist and Nazi regimes.
  • Alexander I of Yugoslavia is assassinated in 1934 during a visit to Marseille, France. His assassin was Vlado Chernozemski, a member of the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization. The IMRO was a political organization that fought for secession of Vardar Macedonia from Yugoslavia."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.
  • Sergei Kirov, an early Bolshevik revolutionary and personal friend to Joseph Stalin, is assassinated in 1934, escalating political repression in the Soviet Union.
  • Saitō Makoto and Takahashi Korekiyo, both former prime ministers of Japan, are assassinated by ultranationalistic Army officers during the February 26 incident in 1936.
  • Adolf Hitler, dictator of Nazi Germany, survived an assassination attempt in 1939 when a bomb planted by Georg Elser exploded at the Bürgerbräukeller in Munich; he had left the building early, avoiding the blast that killed eight others.

Economics

File:UnemployedMenHopTrain.jpg

  • The Great Depression is considered to have begun with the fall of stock prices on September 4, 1929, and then the stock market crash known as Black 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.{{cite web|title=Inflation and CPI Consumer Price Index 1930–1939|url=http://inflationdata.com/articles/inflation-cpi-consumer-price-index-1930-1939/|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140504110518/http://inflationdata.com/articles/inflation-cpi-consumer-price-index-1930-1939/|archive-date=2014-05-04}}
  • Economic interventionist policies increase in popularity as a result of the Great Depression in both authoritarian and democratic countries. In the Western world, Keynesianism replaces classical economic theory.
  • In an effort to reduce unemployment, the United States government created work projects such as the Civilian 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 included Hoover Dam which was constructed between 1931 and 1936.
  • Rapid industrialization takes place in the Soviet Union.
  • Prohibition in the United States ended in 1933. On December 5, 1933, the ratification of the Twenty-first Amendment repealed the Eighteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution.
  • Drought conditions in Oklahoma and Texas caused the Dust Bowl which forced tens of thousands of families to abandon their farms and seek employment elsewhere.

Science and technology

=Technology=

Many technological advances occurred in the 1930s, including:

=Science=

File:Pluto in True Color - High-Res.jpg]]

  • In 1930, Astronomer Clyde Tombaugh discovers Pluto, which goes on to be announced as the ninth planet in the Solar System.
  • In 1935, Irene Joliot-Curie and Jean Frederic Joliot are awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for synthesis of new radioactive elements for application in medicine.
  • In 1936, Danish seismologist Inge 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
  • In 1939, Marguerite Perey, a student of Marie Curie, discovered the element francium by purifying samples of lanthanum{{Cite news |date=2014-12-03 |title=My Great-Great-Aunt Discovered Francium. And It Killed Her. (Published 2014) |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/07/magazine/my-great-great-aunt-discovered-francium-and-it-killed-her.html |archive-url=http://web.archive.org/web/20240508174947/https://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/07/magazine/my-great-great-aunt-discovered-francium-and-it-killed-her.html |archive-date=2024-05-08 |access-date=2024-12-14 |language=en-US}}
  • In 1939, Nuclear fission is discovered by Otto Hahn, Lise Meitner and Fritz Strassman. Albert Einstein's equations form the basis for creation of the atomic bomb.

Popular culture

=Literature and art=

=Best-selling books=

{{Main|Publishers Weekly list of bestselling novels in the United States in the 1930s}}

The best-selling books of every year in the United States were as follows:{{cite book|author1=Hackett, Alice Payne|author2=Burke, James Henry |title=80 Years of Bestsellers: 1895–1975|date=1977|publisher=R. R. Bowker Company|isbn=0-8352-0908-3|location=New York|pages=109–127}}

=Film=

{{Main|1930s in film}}

File:TempsModernesTrailer2.jpg|Charlie Chaplin in a scene from the film Modern Times (1936)

File:Judy Garland in The Wizard of Oz trailer 2.jpg|Judy Garland as Dorothy Gale in The Wizard of Oz (1939)

File:Albert Einstein and Charlie Chaplin City Lights premiere 1931.jpg|Albert Einstein with Charlie Chaplin during the premiere of "City Lights" (1931)

File:Disorder in the Court.JPG|The Three Stooges produced multiple short comedy films with Columbia Pictures during the decade, making them icons.{{Cite web |date=2021-10-27 |title=History of The Three Stooges: Pop-Culture Icons Forever |url=https://tedium.co/2021/10/22/three-stooges-history/ |access-date=2023-12-27 |website=Tedium: The Dull Side of the Internet. |language=en}}

==Highest-grossing films==

{{Main|List of highest-grossing films}}

class="wikitable plainrowheaders"

! scope="col" |Year

! scope="col" |Title

! scope="col" |Worldwide gross

! scope="col" |Budget

! scope="col" |Reference(s)

scope="row" |1930

|All Quiet on the Western Front

| align="right" |{{nts|3000000|prefix=$}}{{ref|Rentals|R}}

| align="right" |{{nts|1250000|prefix=$}}

|{{cite news |date=June 21, 1932 |title=Biggest Money Pictures |page=1 |work=Variety |url=https://archive.org/details/variety106-1932-06/page/n120/mode/1up |via=Archive.org}} Cited in {{cite web |title=Biggest Money Pictures |url=http://www.cinemaweb.com/silentfilm/bookshelf/7_v_32_4.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110708155503/http://www.cinemaweb.com/silentfilm/bookshelf/7_v_32_4.htm |archive-date=July 8, 2011 |access-date=July 14, 2011 |publisher=Cinemaweb}}{{cite book |last=Cormack |first=Mike |title=Ideology and Cinematography in Hollywood, 1930–1939 |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan |year=1993 |isbn=978-0-312-10067-4 |page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=w0JSFWpr2gAC&pg=PA28 28] |quote=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.}}{{cite book |last=Balio |first=Tino |title=Grand Design: Hollywood as a Modern Business Enterprise, 1930–1939 |publisher=University of California Press |year=1996 |isbn=978-0-520-20334-1 |volume=5 of History of the American Cinema}}

  • Cavalcade: p. [https://books.google.com/books?id=_J9HTLOI08wC&pg=PA182 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. [https://books.google.com/books?id=_J9HTLOI08wC&pg=PA212 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 included Palmy Days (1931), The Kid from Spain (1932), and Roman Scandals (1933)."Hell's Angels
  • {{cite book |last=Balio |first=Tino |title=United Artists: The Company Built by the Stars |publisher=University of Wisconsin Press |year=1976 |page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=QljKdIYzncoC&pg=PA110 110] |quote=Hughes did not have the "Midas touch" the trade press so often attributed to him. Variety, for example, reported that Hell'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. But Variety{{'}}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.}}
rowspan="2" scope="row" |1931

|Frankenstein

| align="right" |{{nts|12000000|prefix=$}}{{ref|Rentals|R}} ({{nts|1400000|prefix=$}}){{ref|Rentals|R}}

| align="right" |{{nts|250000|prefix=$}}

|{{cite web |last=Feaster |first=Felicia |title=Frankenstein (1931) |url=https://www.tcm.com/this-month/article/18617 |access-date=July 4, 2011 |publisher=Turner Classic Movies}}{{harvnb|Block|Wilson|2010|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=vpbuSXSSqdkC&q=%22worldwide+rentals%22&pg=PA163 163]}}. "It drew $1.4 million in worldwide rentals in its first run versus $1.2 million for Dracula, which had opened in February 1931."

City Lights

| align="right" |{{nts|5000000|prefix=$}}{{ref|Rentals|R}}

| align="right" |{{nts|1607351|prefix=$}}

|{{cite book |last=Vance |first=Jeffrey |title=Chaplin: genius of the cinema |publisher=Abrams Books |year=2003 |page=[https://archive.org/details/chaplingeniusofc00vanc 208] |quote=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.}}

scope="row" |1932

|The Sign of the Cross

| align="right" |{{nts|2738993|prefix=$}}{{ref|Rentals|R}}

| align="right" |{{nts|694065|prefix=$}}

|{{Cite book |last=Birchard |first=Robert S. |title=Cecil B. DeMille's Hollywood |publisher=University Press of Kentucky |year=2009 |isbn=978-0-8131-3829-9}}

  • ch. [https://books.google.com/books?id=h8I1dEf7GqIC&pg=PT104 45. The Ten Commandments] (1923). "Cost: $1,475,836.93; Gross: $4,169,798.38"
  • ch. [https://books.google.com/books?id=h8I1dEf7GqIC&pg=PT138 56. The Sign of the Cross]. "Cost: $694,064.67; Gross: $2,738,993.35 (to 1937)"
  • ch. [https://books.google.com/books?id=h8I1dEf7GqIC&pg=PT177 68. Samson and Delilah]. "Cost: $3,097,563.05"
  • ch. [https://books.google.com/books?id=h8I1dEf7GqIC&pg=PT181 69. The Greatest Show on Earth]. "Cost: $3,873,946.50; Gross receipts: $15,797,396.36 (to December 29, 1962)"
  • ch. [https://books.google.com/books?id=h8I1dEf7GqIC&pg=PT185 70. The Ten Commandments] (1956). "Cost: $13,272,381.87; Gross receipts: $90,066,230.00 (to June 23, 1979)"{{cite journal |year=1937 |editor-last=Ramsaye |editor-first=Terry |title=The All-Time Best Sellers – Motion Pictures |journal=International Motion Picture Almanac 1937–38 |pages=[https://archive.org/stream/international193738quig#page/942/mode/2up 942–943] |quote=Kid from Spain: $2,621,000 (data supplied by Eddie Cantor)}}{{cite book |last=Sedgwick |first=John |title=Popular Filmgoing In 1930s Britain: A Choice of Pleasures |publisher=University of Exeter Press |year=2000 |isbn=978-0-85989-660-3 |pages=[https://books.google.com/books?id=YsUfc8Ijb-wC&pg=PA146 146]–148 |quote=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.Shanghai Express
  • {{harvnb|Block|Wilson|2010|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=vpbuSXSSqdkC&pg=PA165 165]}}. "Shanghai Express was Dietrich's biggest hit in America, bringing in $1.5 million in worldwide rentals."
rowspan="4" scope="row" |1933

|King Kong

| align="right" |{{nts|{{#expr:1856000+306000+685000+2500000}}|prefix=$}}{{ref|Rentals|R}} ({{nts|1856000|prefix=$}}){{ref|Rentals|R}}

| align="right" |{{nts|672,255.75|prefix=$}}

|King Kong

  • {{cite journal |last=Jewel |first=Richard |year=1994 |title=RKO Film Grosses: 1931–1951 |journal=Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television |volume=14 |issue=1 |page=39 |quote=1933 release: $1,856,000; 1938 release: $306,000; 1944 release: $685,000}}
  • {{cite web |title=King Kong (1933) – Notes |url=https://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/2690/king-kong#notes |access-date=January 7, 2012 |publisher=Turner Classic Movies |quote=1952 release: $2,500,000; budget: $672,254.75}}
I'm No Angel

| align="right" |{{nts|{{#expr:2250000+1000000}}|prefix=$}}+{{ref|Rentals|R}}

| align="right" |{{nts|200000|prefix=$}}

|{{cite web |title=I'm No Angel (1933) – Notes |url=https://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/79021/im-no-angel#notes |access-date=January 7, 2012 |publisher=Turner Classic Movies |quote=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.}}{{harvnb|Finler|2003|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=rvVhEJmbfrsC&q=angel%20rock-bottom%20cost&pg=PA188 188]}}. "The studio released its most profitable pictures of the decade in 1933, She Done Him Wrong and I'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..."

Cavalcade

| align="right" |{{nts|3000000|prefix=$}}–{{nts|4000000}}{{ref|Rentals|R}}

| align="right" |{{nts|1116000|prefix=$}}

|{{cite book |last=Solomon |first=Aubrey |title=The Fox Film Corporation, 1915–1935: A History and Filmography |publisher=McFarland & Company |year=2011 |isbn=978-0-7864-6286-5}}

  • Way Down East: p. [https://books.google.com/books?id=zospQ7o5u0oC&pg=PA52 52]. "D.W. Griffith's Way 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. [https://books.google.com/books?id=zospQ7o5u0oC&q=What%20Price%20Glory%20hit%20the%20jackpot%20with%20massive%20world%20rentals%20of%20%242%2C429%2C000%2C%20the%20highest%20figure%20in%20the%20history%20of%20the%20company.%20Since%20it%20was%20also%20the%20most%20expensive%20production%20of%20the%20year%20at%20%24817%2C000%20the%20profit%20was%20still%20a%20healthy%20%24796%2C000&pg=PA122 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. [https://books.google.com/books?id=zospQ7o5u0oC&pg=PA170 170]. "The actual cost of Cavalcade 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. [https://books.google.com/books?id=zospQ7o5u0oC&pg=PA170 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."
She Done Him Wrong

| align="right" |{{nts|3000000|prefix=$}}+{{ref|Rentals|R}}

| align="right" |{{nts|274076|prefix=$}}

|{{citation |last=Block |first=Alex Ben |title=She Done Him Wrong |page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=vpbuSXSSqdkC&pg=PA173 173] |year=2010 |quote=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: {{harvnb|Block|Wilson|2010}}.{{cite book |last=Phillips |first=Kendall R. |title=Controversial Cinema: The Films That Outraged America |publisher=ABC-CLIO |year=2008 |isbn=978-1-56720-724-8 |page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=ViQzDunkm9QC&pg=PA26 26] |quote=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.}}{{harvnb|Block|Wilson|2010|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=vpbuSXSSqdkC&pg=PA135 135]}}. "Total production cost: $274,076 (Unadjusted $s)."

rowspan="2" scope="row" |1934

|The Merry Widow

| align="right" |{{nts|{{#expr:2608000}}|prefix=$}}{{ref|Rentals|R}}

| align="right" |{{nts|1605000|prefix=$}}

|{{cite book |last=Turk |first=Edward Baron |title=Hollywood Diva: A Biography of Jeanette MacDonald |publisher=University of California Press |year=2000 |isbn=978-0-520-22253-3 |orig-date=1st. pub. 1998}}

  • 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.]
It Happened One Night

| align="right" |{{nts|2500000|prefix=$}}{{ref|Rentals|R}} {{ref|One Night|ON}}

| align="right" |{{nts|325000|prefix=$}}

|{{cite magazine |date=November 7, 1962 |title=Wall St. Researchers' Cheery Tone |magazine=Variety |page=7}}{{Cite book |last=Dick |first=Bernard F. |title=Claudette Colbert: She Walked in Beauty |publisher=University Press of Mississippi |year=2008 |isbn=978-1-60473-087-6 |page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=P3P9efYabOQC&pg=PA79 79] |quote=Although Columbia's president, Harry Cohn, had strong reservations about It 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.}}

scope="row" |1935

|Mutiny on the Bounty

| align="right" |{{nts|4460000|prefix=$}}{{ref|Rentals|R}}

| align="right" |{{nts|1905000|prefix=$}}

|

scope="row" |1936

|San Francisco

| align="right" |{{nts|{{#expr:5273000+124000+647000}}|prefix=$}}+{{ref|Rentals|R}} ({{nts|5273000|prefix=$}}){{ref|Rentals|R}}

| align="right" |{{nts|1300000|prefix=$}}

|

scope="row" |1937

|Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs

| align="right" |{{nts|{{#expr:418000000}}|prefix=$}}+{{ref|Snow White|S7}} ({{nts|{{#expr:4200000+4300000}}|prefix=$}}){{ref|Rentals|R}}

| align="right" |{{nts|1488423|prefix=$}}

|Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs

  • {{cite book |last=Monaco |first=Paul |title=A History of American Movies: A Film-By-Film Look at the Art, Craft, and Business of Cinema |publisher=Scarecrow Press |year=2010 |isbn=978-0-8108-7434-3 |page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=tgnKY6k5tHYC&pg=PA54 54] |quote=Considered a highly risky gamble when the movie was in production in the mid-1930s, by the fiftieth anniversary of its 1937 premiere Snow White{{'}}s earnings exceeded $330 million.}}
  • {{cite book |last1=Wilhelm |first1=Henry Gilmer |url=https://archive.org/details/permanencecareof00henr/page/359 |title=The Permanence and Care of Color Photographs: Traditional and Digital Color Prints, Color Negatives, Slides, and Motion Pictures |last2=Brower |first2=Carol |publisher=Preservation Pub |year=1993 |isbn=978-0-911515-00-8 |page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=0OtTAAAAMAAJ&q=%22snow+white%22+million+worldwide+grosses 359] |quote=In only 2 months after the 1987 re-release, the film grossed another $45 million—giving it a total gross to date of about $375 million!}}
  • {{cite web |title=Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1987 Re-issue) |url=http://pro.boxoffice.com/movie/9400/snow-white-and-the-seven-dwarfs-1987-re-issue |access-date=May 29, 2016 |website=Boxoffice |quote=North American box-office: $46,594,719}}
  • {{cite web |title=Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1993 Re-issue) |url=http://pro.boxoffice.com/movie/9401/snow-white-and-the-seven-dwarfs-1993-re-issue |access-date=May 29, 2016 |website=Boxoffice |quote=North American box-office: $41,634,791}}Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and Pinocchio
  • {{harvnb|Block|Wilson|2010}}

:: p. [https://books.google.com/books?id=vpbuSXSSqdkC&q=When%20the%20budget%20rose%20from%20%24250%2C000%20to%20%241%2C488%2C423&pg=PA207 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 of Snow White."

:: p. [https://books.google.com/books?id=vpbuSXSSqdkC&q=%22%248%20million%20in%20worldwide%20rentals%22%20george%20lucas%20blockbusting&pg=PA237 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 epic Ben-Hur".

:: p. [https://books.google.com/books?id=vpbuSXSSqdkC&q=%22foreign%20rentals%22&pg=PA255 255]. "On its initial release Pinocchio brought in only $1.6 million in domestic rentals (compared with Snow White{{'}}s $4.2 million) and $1.9 million in foreign rentals (compared with Snow White{{'}}s $4.3 million)."

scope="row" |1938

|You Can't Take It With You

| align="right" |{{nts|5000000|prefix=$}}{{ref|Rentals|R}}

| align="right" |{{nts|1200000|prefix=$}}

|1938

  • You Can't Take It With You:{{cite web |title=You Can't Take It With You Premieres |url=http://focusfeatures.com/flashback?article_url=you_can_t_take_it_with_you_premieres |archive-url=https://www.webcitation.org/6AeWlL1hk?url=http://focusfeatures.com/flashback?article_url=you_can_t_take_it_with_you_premieres |archive-date=September 13, 2012 |publisher=Focus Features |quote=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.}}{{cbignore}}
  • Boys Town: {{citation |last=Block |first=Alex Ben |title=Boys Town |page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=vpbuSXSSqdkC&pg=PA215 215] |year=2010 |quote=The film quickly became a smash nationwide, making a profit of over $2 million on worldwide rentals of $4 million.}} In: {{harvnb|Block|Wilson|2010}}.
  • The Adventures of Robin Hood: {{cite journal |last=Glancy |first=H. Mark |year=1995 |title=Warner Bros Film Grosses, 1921–51: the William Schaefer ledger |journal=Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television |volume=1 |issue=15 |pages=55–60 |doi=10.1080/01439689500260031 |quote=$3.981 million.}}
  • Alexander's Ragtime Band: {{citation |last=Block |first=Hayley Taylor |title=Alexander's Ragtime Band |page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=vpbuSXSSqdkC&q=%22worldwide%20rentals%22&pg=PA213 213] |year=2010 |quote=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: {{harvnb|Block|Wilson|2010}}.{{cite magazine |last=Chartier |first=Roy |date=September 6, 1938 |title=You Can't Take It With You |url=https://www.variety.com/review/VE1117796537 |magazine=Variety |access-date=September 13, 2011}}
scope="row" |1939

|Gone with the Wind

| align="right" |{{nts|390525192|prefix=$}}–{{nts|402352579}}

({{nts|32000000|prefix=$}}){{ref|Rentals|R}} {{ref|GWTW|GW}}

| align="right" |{{nts|3900000|prefix=$}}–{{nts|4250000}}

|{{cite web |title=Gone with the Wind |url=https://www.the-numbers.com/movies/1939/0GWTW.php |access-date=February 8, 2013 |website=The Numbers |publisher=Nash Information Services. LLC}}{{cite web |title=Gone with the Wind |url=http://pro.boxoffice.com/movie/4094/gone-with-the-wind |access-date=May 29, 2016 |website=Boxoffice}}{{Mojo title|id=gonewiththewind|title=Gone with the Wind}}{{harvnb|Hall|Neale|2010|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=jhvrSwOOsRgC&pg=PA283 283]}} ."The final negative cost of Gone with the Wind (GWTW) has been variously reported between $3.9 million and $4.25 million."

=Radio=

File:Welles-Radio-Studio-1938.jpg' radio adaptation of The 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 of The War of the Worlds is broadcast, causing panic in various parts of the United States.

=Music=

{{Main|1930s in music}}

The most popular music of each year was as follows:{{Cite web |title=1930s Music: What Songs Were Most Popular? |url=https://www.retrowaste.com/1930s/music-in-the-1930s/ |access-date=2022-11-23 |language=en-US}}

=Fashion=

{{further|1930–1945 in Western fashion}}

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, especially rayon for dresses and viscose for linings and lingerie, and synthetic nylon stockings. The zipper 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 the Mediterranean, in the Bahamas, and on the east coast of Florida 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.Wilcox, R. Turner: The Mode in Fashion, 1942; rev. 1958, pp. 328–36, 379–84

Revolutionary designer and couturier Madeleine Vionnet gained popularity for her bias-cut technique, which clung, draped, and embraced the curves of the natural female body. Fashion trendsetters in the period included The Prince of Wales (King Edward VIII from January 1936 until his abdication that December) and his companion Wallis Simpson (the Duke and Duchess of Windsor from their marriage in June 1937), socialites like Nicolas de Gunzburg, Daisy Fellowes and Mona von Bismarck, and Hollywood movie stars such as Fred Astaire, Carole Lombard, and Joan Crawford.

Typical fashions in the 1930s:

File:1930s fashions (cropped).jpg|

File:Walt Disney NYWTS.jpg|

File:GR Lee, 1937.jpg|

File:Gloria Swanson in Los Angeles, Calif, 1937.jpg|

File:Empire State Building from the Top of the Rock.jpg became the world's tallest building when completed in 1931]]

=Architecture=

{{See also|:Category:1930s architecture}}

File:Kavanagh building 15-11-2005.jpg in Buenos Aires]]

=Visual arts=

{{See also|Social Realism|History of painting}}

Social realism became an important art movement during the Great Depression in the United States in the 1930s. Social realism generally portrayed imagery with socio-political meaning. Other related American artistic movements of the 1930s were American scene painting and Regionalism which were generally depictions of rural America, and historical images drawn from American history. Precisionism with its depictions of industrial America was also a popular art movement during the 1930s in the USA. During the Great Depression the art of photography played an important role in the Social Realist movement. The work of Dorothea Lange, Walker Evans, Margaret Bourke-White, Lewis Hine, Edward Steichen, Gordon Parks, Arthur Rothstein, Marion Post Wolcott, Doris Ulmann, Berenice Abbott, Aaron Siskind, Russell Lee, Ben Shahn (as a photographer) among several others were particularly influential.

The Works Progress Administration part of the Roosevelt Administration's New Deal sponsored the Federal Art Project, the Public Works of Art Project, and the Section of Painting and Sculpture which employed many American artists and helped them to make a living during the Great Depression.

Mexican muralism was a Mexican art movement that took place primarily in the 1930s. The movement stands out historically because of its political undertones, the majority of which of a Marxist nature, or related to a social and political situation of post-revolutionary Mexico. Also in Latin America Symbolism and Magic Realism were important movements.

In Europe during the 1930s and the Great Depression, Surrealism, late Cubism, the Bauhaus, De Stijl, Dada, German Expressionism, Symbolist and modernist painting in various guises characterized the art scene in Paris and elsewhere.

People

=Scientists and engineers=

=Actors/entertainers=

{{Div col|colwidth=18em}}

{{div col end}}

File:Laurel & Hardy in Flying Deuces 1 edited.png|Laurel & Hardy in their film "The Flying Deuces" (1939)

File:Shirleytemple young.jpg|Shirley Temple, 1933

File:Marx Brothers 1931.jpg|The Marx Brothers, 1931

File:Clark Gable as Rhett Butler in Gone With the Wind trailer.jpg|Clark Gable as Rhett Butler in the trailer for Gone with the Wind (1939)

File:Three Stooges 1937.jpg|The Three Stooges

{{Clear}}

=Filmmakers=

=Musicians=

=Influential artists=

==Painters and sculptors==

==Photography==

=Sports figures=

==Global==

{{div col|colwidth=22em}}

{{div col end}}

==United States==

{{See also|History of baseball in the United States}}

{{div col|colwidth=22em}}

{{div col end}}

=Criminals=

See also

=Timeline=

The following articles contain brief timelines which list the most prominent events of the decade:

{{hlist|1930|1931|1932|1933|1934|1935|1936|1937|1938|1939}}

{{clear}}

References

{{reflist}}

=Books and magazines on film=

{{reflist|group=#}}

=Works cited=

{{refbegin|2}}

  • {{cite book|last1=Block|first1=Alex Ben|last2=Wilson|first2=Lucy Autrey|title=George Lucas's Blockbusting: A Decade-by-Decade Survey of Timeless Movies Including Untold Secrets of Their Financial and Cultural Success|date=30 March 2010|publisher=Harper Collins|isbn=978-0-06-196345-2|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vpbuSXSSqdkC|language=en}}
  • {{cite book|last1=Finler|first1=Joel Waldo|title=The Hollywood Story|date=2003|publisher=Wallflower Press|isbn=978-1-903364-66-6|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rvVhEJmbfrsC|language=en}}
  • {{cite book|last1=Hall|first1=Sheldon|last2=Neale|first2=Stephen|title=Epics, Spectacles, and Blockbusters: A Hollywood History|date=2010|publisher=Wayne State University Press|isbn=978-0-8143-3008-1|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jhvrSwOOsRgC|language=en}}

{{refend}}

Further reading

  • Brendon, Piers. The Dark Valley: A Panorama of the 1930s (2000) global political history; 816pp [https://www.amazon.com/Dark-Valley-Panorama-1930s/dp/0375408819/ excerpt]
  • Cornelissen, Christoph, and Arndt Weinrich, eds. Writing the Great War – The Historiography of World War I from 1918 to the Present (2020) [https://www.berghahnbooks.com/title/CornelissenWriting free download]; full coverage for major countries.
  • Gardiner, Juliet, The Thirties: An Intimate History. London, Harper Press, 2010. {{ISBN|978-0-00-724076-0}} on Britain
  • 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.
  • Watt D.C. et al., A History of the World in the Twentieth Century (1968) pp 423–463.