#depression era

[cherrychouchou]

current obsession

[vintage-tigre]

Lunch Atop a Skyscraper, attributed to Charles C. Ebbets, though the photographer is not definitively confirmed, September 20, 1932. This famous photograph shows eleven construction workers calmly eating lunch on a steel beam high above Manhattan during the construction of Rockefeller Center. Suspended hundreds of feet in the air, the men appear relaxed and ordinary, giving the image its enduring power as a symbol of Depression-era New York, industrial courage, and the modern city rising into the sky.

Taking a photograph in 1932 was far more physical, deliberate, and risky than it is now. For a professional press or publicity photographer, the likely camera would have been a large-format press camera such as a Graflex Speed Graphic, a bulky 4x5 inch film camera widely used by news photographers in the early 20th century. It weighed roughly 7 pounds, about 3.2 kg, before adding film holders, lenses, tripod or support gear, and any flash equipment.

The process was slow by modern standards. The photographer had to load individual sheet-film holders, focus manually, set aperture and shutter speed by hand, often compose through a ground-glass screen or viewfinder, then expose one frame at a time. Each shot mattered because film was limited and changing plates or holders took time. On a skyscraper beam, wind, height, balance, haze, and safety would all have made the work difficult. The famous image was also part of a staged Rockefeller Center publicity shoot, and at least three photographers were reportedly present: Charles C. Ebbets, William “Lefty” Leftwich, and Thomas Kelley.

[toughtalkers]

Joan Crawford ~born March 23, 1906 in San Antonio, Texas

🎞 American actress that started her career as a dancer in traveling theatrical companies before debuting on Broadway. Crawford was signed to a motion-picture contract by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in 1925. Initially frustrated by the size and quality of her roles, Crawford launched a publicity campaign and built an image as a nationally known flapper by the end of the 1920s. By the 1930s, Crawford's fame rivaled MGM colleagues Norma Shearer and Greta Garbo.

Crawford often played hardworking young women who manage to find romance and financial success. These "rags-to-riches" stories were well received by Depression-era audiences and were popular with women. Crawford became one of Hollywood's most prominent movie stars and one of the highest paid women in the United States, but her films began losing money. By the end of the 1930s, she was labeled "box office poison". However, after an absence of nearly two years from the screen, Crawford staged a comeback by starring in Mildred Pierce (1945), for which she won the Academy Award for Best Actress. Throughout her film career, Crawford starred in a total of 81 films (d; 1977 in New York City, New York, aged 73)

[stone-cold-groove]

An Art Deco inspired fashion ad for Furs by Gunther - 1928.

[ihatemyunclesuryasunspear]

Are you surprised Casper hasn't reporteed you to your uncle

I honestly don’t care if he does. The more the merrier.

Right, @robbed4twentyyears?

[victusinveritas]

Depression/WWII era youth grew up to become parents of Boomers and gave their all so that their kids wouldn't have to live like they did.

[frankenclownsims]

i'm doing Sims inspired by different decades - this is my 1930's sim 🏚

[filmtrospective]

Bette Brought A Bitter Backlash

The 1934 Best Actress race became one of the Academy's earliest and most controversial scandals. Amid growing resentment over the Academy's perceived alignment with producers during labor disputes, both the Screen Actors Guild and Screen Writers Guild encouraged members to boycott the organization, dramatically reducing participation in the nominations. As a result, only a small pool of actors selected the nominees, leading to several high-profile omissions, most notably Bette Davis for her acclaimed performance in Of Human Bondage.

Davis had already angered Warner Bros. by insisting on being loaned to RKO for the role, and the studio reportedly refused to campaign on her behalf after blocking her from It Happened One Night. The omission sparked widespread outrage throughout Hollywood, with trade papers, actors such as Joan Blondell and Dick Powell, and even fellow nominee Norma Shearer publicly questioning the Academy's decision.

The backlash forced the Academy into damage control. Just days after the nominations, newly elected president Howard Estabrook introduced unrestricted write-in voting for all categories, a reform supported by Frank Capra, Robert Riskin, Norma Shearer, William Powell, and Norman Krasna in the hope of ensuring more credible winners. Although Davis received a substantial write-in vote, it was not enough to overcome the official nominees, and Claudette Colbert ultimately won for It Happened One Night.

Davis later received an Oscar for Dangerous, a performance she herself regarded as inferior, while the controversy prompted lasting institutional reforms, including the appointment of Price Waterhouse to oversee Oscar vote counting from the following year onward. The episode also underscored the Academy's increasingly strained relationship with Hollywood's emerging labor guilds, whose boycott even kept Oscar-winning screenwriter Robert Riskin away from the ceremony.