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We’re in the Money: Symbols of Wealth in Depression Era Film

A common man can achieve success through hard work, the drastic rags to riches tale that

is portrayed throughout the idea of the American Dream and shown through symbols of success

and wealth. However the Great Depression altered the mentality of the nation by breaking down

the established myths and symbols of success and wealth. The new medium of film allowed for

the country to adapt to the change collectively. Americans could go to the theater and see the old

myths and symbols justified in addition to the new. At the beginning of the Depression, popular

films told the lives of gangsters and showgirls allowed for escapism with the larger than life

characters striving for success and wealth. For a few cents, Americans could go and watch a

show girls struggle to survive like them but in the end the girls marry rich and live in luxury or

see a gangster work his way to the top with an expensive car and apartment. Additionally the

films provide insight into what Americans viewed as success and wealth during a time of

deprivation. Through various categories of film and with two of the most popular films of the

late thirties; the evolving views of Americans symbols are projected for the country. Popular

films provided Americans an ideal of prosperity during the Great Depression that portrayed

wealth through status symbols and continuation of the American dream of social mobility

through the characters’ successes and failures.

Historiography

Depression film has been viewed as a method of escapism from the constant deprivation

is the common theme throughout research into the films. The escapism reinforced values of the

American status quo which was refined and reflected for the entire country collectively. Some

historians argue that the films eliminated the cultural differences of America as a country of

immigrants to portray a common America with the same values, language, and culture. This

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allowed for films to change symbols of wealth to match the rapidly altering economy. Others

argue that the films represent the breaking of society’s symbols and myths. Average Americans

were looking for a method to deal with an unstable and uncertain world with stability and

understanding being represented in the cinema. This could be seen with criticism of the

government, the powerful, and how the crisis could be ended. The new symbols of wealth and

status provide a different view into how the country adapted to the Depression.

Morris Dickstein’s book Dancing in the Dark: a Cultural History of the Great

Depression argues that escapism was what the public sought for in the films. This escapist

created a sense of unity within the community that had suffered from having their common

beliefs shattered. The cinema created bonds by creating new myths and showed the changes in

society where the women held society and families together. The escape allowed for the shame

from the individualism values to be parodied in early Depression films playing on Algerian

heroes writing those who felt this was no longer possible. This is seen in Dickstein’s book when

he discusses gangster movies and how they were the new immigrants’ story, where working hard

would provide you with enough money and you could afford luxuries. The parody evolves out of

the gangsters’ violent death from rising through criminal methods rather than the hard work

image of the American Dream. Dickstein’s argument is that the cinema is a unifying factor as

well as providing a new American Dream with its own symbols of wealth and social mobility.

The argument supports the idea that these symbols of wealth provide an understanding to those

who lived during the Depression and their views.

The theme of the Depression culture as one of suffering and searching for new symbols

of status, wealth, and stability is supported in Lawrence Levine’s book The Unpredictable Past:

Exploration in American Cultural History. Levine begins with describing Americans fear of

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change but desiring modern conveniences. This mentality alters during the Depression when the

average man cannot afford the conveniences and it is reflected in the popular culture and. Levine

especially focuses on the media power to show how the people search for stability and security.

While the films providing the sense of hopelessness and suffering as a result of the uncertainty of

the times and the demise of traditions and myths. This created a unified source for the media in

their representations of the new myths and how the country would adapt to the Depression.

The Roaring 20s: Wealth Consumes All

American entered the 1920s with the destruction of the First World War and a rational of

loss purpose with the deadly cost of war. However America emerged as a stronger nation,

economically but was divided as a result of the developing industrial society. This intensified the

sense of loss, frustration and nostalgia within society. As the economy expanded, America’s

traditional image as a country of independent small towns with traditional values became

threatened by the economic boom and consumerism. In addition to the conflicts within society,

Americans began to desire the purposeful country of historic America. The result allowed for a

conformist atmosphere that eliminated the idea of the America as the melting pot country. An

atmosphere supported the harsh policies and public attitudes towards immigrants and non-

conformists. The reassertion of traditional values and images forms the new consumer culture

and the cultural portrayals such as social mobility, the middle class lifestyle, and predestined

progress. The Depression developed a new crisis in the American consciousness, that the poor

were not responsible for their condition, but a victim of society and its faults. This is seen in the

growth of common culture and identity that develops during the Depression from the common

experience of poverty.

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America was dealing with its new status as the world’s largest with a booming economy.

As America was now the center of the world economy, the optimism of the country increased as

everyday Americans could now afford more luxury goods and an increased standard of living

than before the war. This optimism was a result of an expanded availability of credit, which

increased the consumers’ purchasing power. Many Americans took advantage of this as seen by

the tripling of household debt in the 1920s, from $4 before the First World War to $14 in the

1920s1. The influx of easy money allowed for Americans to increasingly purchase luxury goods;

such as appliances, cars, and radios. A consumer culture developed with raised expectations for

living standards and conditions for everyday Americans. Eric Raunchway, author of The Great

Depression and the New Deal, states, “When more Americans could afford more luxury goods

and live at least materially, better lives than ever before. So securely did they hold this belief that

they accepted newly available offers of credit in order to buy what they could not afford from

their own pockets. By the end of the decade, Americans were living lives well-furnished with

debt.”2 These well-furnished lives provide a view into the consumer culture of the 1920s based

on their purchases to understand their aspiration of wealth. As Walter B. Pitkin writes “it is the

rule rather than the exception that a cheap wooden house will contain among other things, a $500

piano or automatic playing piano, a $150 radio, a $50 talking machine, and a $50 icebox (the

latter now rapidly being displaced by a $200 electric refrigerator)… All these are bought on

installments which run from one to five years.”3 Everyday Americans are able to afford symbols

of wealth, like the car, radio, and refrigerator, at a rate that luxury goods were not purchased

before. However the car was the ultimate symbol of American consumerism in the 1920s.

1 Eric Raunchway, The Great Depression and the New Deal: A Very Short Introduction (New York: Oxford University Press, 2008): 13. 2 Raunchway, A Very Short Introduction, 13.

3 Walter B. Pitkin, “The American: How He Lives,” in Culture and Commitment 1929-1945, edited by Warren Susman (New York: G. Braziller, 1973), 189.

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The automobile provided a symbol of wealth, prosperity, and optimism of the nation,

while additionally demonstrating America’s booming economy and manufacturing sector. The

boom created the demand for new, improved, and innovative products to satisfy the consumer

and continued the development of the consumer culture. These innovations led to lower prices

and different models demonstrating the effects of America’s new place in the global economy.

While the consumer culture took off and Americans desired to keep up with the rest of the

nation, companies adapted models and extended more credit for purchases to continue spending.

As more Americans purchased cars and other luxury goods, not all viewed consumer culture as

beneficial to the nation. Lawrence W. Levine, an American cultural historian, argues that the car

was “eroding traditional standards and modes of action in religion, morality, and familial

patterns lifestyles. The change left large numbers of Americans bewildered and

alienated….Instead they attempted to contain the forces reshaping America through a series of

movements which, unlike the Red Scare and anti-immigration movements, were regional rather

than national in character.”4 The sense of the degradation of the standards and morals leads some

Americans to condemn the car and consumer culture. However the public continued to utilize

both the car and culture as methods to find the community and identity lost in the First World

War. The search developed with the new medium of film that provides a new sense of unity by

portraying the country’s shared ideals and values in theaters across the country.

The new medium of motion pictures allowed for the development of 1920s popular

culture. The medium provides detailed insight into consumer culture and the post-war society

through the genres and plotlines. Films celebrated the ideas of the new era of America with the

new woman, morality, youth, and consumption. However films still have to justify their new

4 Lawrence W. Levine, The Unpredictable Past: Explorations in American Cultural History, (New York: Oxford University Press, 1993): 197.

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ideas within the moral context of the past to gain acceptance within post-war America, such as a

cliché happy ending with a moral to the story. An example is with the return of the Wild West of

the frontier, providing the image of regeneration by representing the West as the center of virtue

and morality, as seen in The Mollycoddle (1920). The West focused on the ideas of freedom,

innocence and morality as with the idea of Manifest Destiny, the idea that America had

predestined progress and opportunity with the ability for social mobility that is central to

American values and myths. Wealth is portrayed by the character going west, earning their

wealth, and maintaining a free and moral life. This sense of nostalgia allowed for films to be a

form of escapism from the frustration of war and society. The heroes of the West exemplified

this they “were strong, clean-living, uncomplicated men who need the help of neither institutions

nor technology in defeating darkly clad villains and urban scoundrels. They were living

embodiments of the innocence, freedom, and morality which Americans identified with and

longed to regain if only vicariously.”5 The details of the past were washed over, the violence and

struggle for survival, and the films dealt with simple moral issues, individual destinies, and a

modest lifestyle without modern technology. The West demonstrated the discontent with the

consumer culture and post-war society in the 1920s from desires shown in the films. The

opposition to modern society was additionally seen in anthropological films such as Nanook of

the North, that states, societies who lack the superior technology are richer culturally than those

with modern technology. Americans watched these films and envied these societies’ lack of

inhibition, the greater sense of community, and the increased contact with nature. As films

developed into a key part of American culture, the rampant materialism was leading the land of

plenty into a time of scarcity that alters the symbols and ideas of wealth.

5 Lawrence W. Levine, The Unpredictable Past: Explorations in American Cultural History, (New York: Oxford University Press, 1993): 202.

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Dead Roar: the Crash

A growing economy motivated by the availability of credit and consumer culture, causing

Americans to spend without adequate funds. However, unlike abundant credit, available work

was not as reliable and cyclical unemployment without any social insurance for workers.

Americans faced regular installment payments for their luxury goods and inconsistent work

placing them near their credit limit, not solely as individuals but collectively. The Federal

Reserve attempted to control the access to the easy money by withdrawing funds from the

market that raises interest rates and credit becomes more inaccessible. However the Federal

Reserve’s actions reveal the damage of excessive debt in the overseas markets. Foreign countries

had relied on America, the world’s greatest lender, to provide loans that allowed their

governments to function. Raunchway describes how the system worked and led to the financial

crash, “If the world economy of the 1920s consisted of concentric circles…And inward at last

from them lived the near aristocracy, the moneymen who made decisions that determined how

easily everyone else could get their credit and who increasingly fidgeted as they watched the

stock-tickers.”6 The closer to the center of these circles, the larger effect actions have on the

economy. Early crises in the foreign countries provided warning of an economic downturn, and

as the internal circle realized that the economy was unmanageable with the current situation. At

the time Bernard Baruch wrote, “Whereas it is wise to buy things on the partial payment plan

that will result in time in increased economies and better living, at the same time it can be

overdone. I am afraid it has now been overdone.”7 Baruch’s prediction came into effect as the

economy began to slow and falter near Christmas of 1928. The bankers managed to forestall the

crash for most of 1929 by attempting preventative actions.

6 Raunchway, A Very Short Introduction, 15. 7 Raunchway, A Very Short Introduction, 18.

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On Black Tuesday, October 29, 1929, the crash came with a dumping of shares that

weakened the financial structure of the economy, crush consumer confidence, and shattered the

idea of a consumer culture, the loss of confidence. It’s a Wonderful Life, where the town runs on

the building and loan to get their money out, but George Bailey, head of the building and loan,

does not have enough cash since it is invested in the town’s houses and businesses. When Henry

Potter, the slumlord and a wealthy man in town, calls to offer help but he would not pay the full

share amount. While Potter demonstrated the greed that caused the crash by preying on the

desperate townspeople, thus revealing the broken faith the people have with the bank and the

system. Potter also represents the sentiment that the wealthy and connected knew the crash was

inevitable, therefore they were prepared and had money or hard currency stockpiled. As the

market ceased and the economy slowed without credit spending, many banks failed and factories

closed as a result of the economic slowdown. Depression developed with the continued rise of

unemployment, factories continuing to close, layoffs, and cut wages and hours. However the

government delayed relief and expected the economy to stabilize itself. As the crisis continued

and deepened, the public began to see a long term depression with little sense of security in life.

Depression Era Films

As the Depression continued, the public search for relief from a crisis that appeared

instantaneously. The shock to the American system removed the long-standing belief in secular

progress through material growth and expansion. Additionally the country could no longer

ignore the contradictions in America between the plenty and lack of citizens since many of the

middle class had been forced into poverty. These contradictions demonstrate the sense of

personal failure and the desire for security by the public, seen in the advertisements and films of

the times such as the Grapes of Wrath and all of the migrant workers fleeing the dust.

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Furthermore the shame felt by the destitute for their fate because the view that poverty and

unemployment are sinful and failure persists. This shame altered family dynamics from the

tension placed on the father to provide and children had doubts about their parents, who

attempted to live with dignity as seen in Gone with the Wind after the end of the civil war.

Scarlett is faced with starvation, several ill people, a baby, and the threat of violence from

deserters from both sides. Instead of breaking down, Scarlett uses her shame to rebuild her farm

and life, even if she is forced to employ methods that are not socially acceptable, such as running

a business with an iron fist or marrying for survival. The survival mentality was seen throughout

the Depression era film and culture, where many survived because they did what was necessary

but outside the normal methods. This altering of the American consciousness can be through the

popular films and genres of the times like the gangsters and musicals and with the most popular

films of the time: Gone with the Wind and Grapes of Wrath. Films allowed for the public to

escape their desperate lives and experience the wealth on screen.

Gangsters: Their Rise and Fall

The beginning of the Depression saw the gangster film become increasingly popular as

crime was viewed as a method for social mobility. In the films, most of the gangsters were

immigrants that considered their life the traditional American dream of coming with nothing but

achieving wealth, that “of the 108 directors of the Chicago underworld in 1930, 30 percent were

of Italian descent, 29 percent were of Irish descent, 29 percent were Jewish, and 12 percent were

black; ‘not a single leader was recorded as native white of native born stock.’”8 The films

gangster is a variation of the Alger hero or the rags to riches story, where the protagonist rises

from hard work and superior values. The gangster films demonstrate that success comes from

8 Lawrence W. Levine, The Unpredictable Past: Explorations in American Cultural History, (New York: Oxford University Press, 1993): 224.

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diligence and application except the Algerian values of determination, courage, honesty, and

bravery are adapted to a life of crime or ignored. While the Algerian hero works hard for his

wealth, the gangster works for easy money and is rewarded with a violent death. This did not

discourage the American public who saw the glamorous lifestyle of the gangster who had

everything. Some were willing to emulate it for that wealth and success during the Depression.

The US government feared a rise in crime as a result of the films during the Depression, so at the

beginning of gangster films, there is a warning that gangsters are a violent plague and that life

only ends in death. Depression films that exemplify the gangster as a success story of the

American dream are Public Enemy, Little Caesar, and Scarface. Each of these films shows how

the gangsters achieve their extreme wealth and status before they receive their violent deaths.

Beginning in 1909, The Public Enemy provides an insight into the early stages of a

gangster with Tom Powers and Matt Doyle, best friends from Chicago. The boys start their life

of crime with petty theft and a friendship with Petty Nose, a fencer and criminal mentor. After a

failed robbery attempt, the boys are forced to fend for themselves and later work with Paddy

Ryan running booze during Prohibition. Their booze business becomes aligned with gangster,

Nails Nathan; the boys are wealthy and flaunt it around town. Tom’s brother, Mike, disapproves

of how Tom makes his money, which leads to Tom’s estrangement from his family. The boys’

downfall comes after the accidental death of Nails Nathan and the gang war that results from the

confusion. After Matt is gunned down in the street when leaving a safe house with Tom, when

Tom retaliates he is wounded and taken to the hospital. There he is reunited with his family and

promises to stop his life of crime. However, Tom is abducted from the hospital, but when he

returns to his house; Tom is wrapped in a blanket and full of bullet holes, dead.

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Throughout Public Enemy, Tom is striving to achieve any form of wealth or status that he

can, whether it is stolen watches that he sells to Putty or a glamorous girlfriend. The first thing

Tom and Matt purchase when they receive a large amount of cash is expensive clothes; the boys

have a tailor fit them for new suits to fit their new status. Once they look the part, Matt and Tom

go to night clubs that are opulent and full of the wealthy with their furs and jewels. The car

returns, the boys buy a flashy roadster to prove that they are successes in the world. Instead of

living at home, Matt and Tom live in an expensive hotel suite. Their apartment is one of luxury

and decadence with several rooms and expensive furniture. The boys have more than most when

the film is released in 1931 at the height of the Depression. For many, the lifestyle of a gangster

would be appealing with the easy money and status, especially when many are only trying to

survive rather than thrive like Matt and Tom. Money is the ultimate method of Tom and Matt’s

ability to thrive and rise in society; they use it to buy their way into wealthy society through the

symbols of status such as suits, flashy cars, and dating glamourous women. The status and

wealth lead to Tom’s downfall, brining Matt with him when a gang war breaks out and their

survival depends on not money but time. For film gangsters’ time is not the key to success, Matt

dies for loyalty to Tom, a noble trait, but Tom dies for revenge and greed, showing the effects of

excessive wealth and violence on a person. This is the warning of gangster films against wealth

achieved through crime, and then ends in death.

Another warning begins Little Caesar, “...For all they that take the sword shall perish

with the sword,”9 which outlines the methods that are used by Rico “Little Caesar”. The

beginning scene has Rico and Joe, two small time criminals, in a diner discussing how they want

to be somebody. They want to go to the big city for clothes, money, and women, everything that

symbolizes success to them. Once in Chicago, Rico joins a gang and is very eager to plan big

9 Little Caesar, 1931

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jobs in order to fulfill his dreams of being successful and respectable; this creates tension within

the gang who need to keep their activities low because of a new crime commissioner. After Rico

plans a job at the nightclub, where Joes dances, he gains control of the gang. Rico’s success

grows due to his ruthlessness, however Joe’s knowledge of him forces Rico to demand Joe return

to gang life. When Rico is unable to take Joe’s life, the police use this as an opportunity to

capture Rico. As the police crush Rico’s organization, he flees back into poverty and only returns

after Sergeant Flaherty’s interview with the press creates a negative, weak image of Rico. The

film ends in a final confrontation with the police, where Rico dies behind a billboard for Joe’s

show.

Both Joe and Rico move to Chicago to become somebody with wealth and status. Rico

achieves wealthy lifestyle and high status, although his violent methods create an unsustainable

income and living from his growing enemies. The excessive wealth shown with the luxury

apartments filled with expensive furniture and paintings, first shown in Rico’s meeting with the

head of all Chicago crime. As Rico settles into the lifestyle, he begins to wear tuxedos and

expensive clothes to show off his status and wealth. The comparison between Rico and the

limited view of the head boss or Big Boy, Rico tries to emulate the luxury and status that Big

Boy has with what he buys and his dress. While he does achieve status and wealth as seen in an

extravagant banquet held in his honor with press in attendance, Rico’s rise had unexpected

consequences when Joe refuses to join his gang. Joe has worked as a dancer in a nightclub and

gains recognition through his form of success, at the end there is a billboard advertising Joe’s

show. This duality to Little Caesar shows the difference between hard honest work for success, a

key ideal of the American Dream, and the easy rise of the gangster or criminal lifestyle. This

duality end when Rico cannot maintain his status as a tough, quick trigger gangster because of

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his conflict with Joe. The conflict causes Joe’s girl brings in the police, Rico’s failure results

with his gang members being arrested and forcing him to flee. Rico returns to where he started

with nothing, his dreams of wealth and status brought him only loneliness and death representing

the problem with social mobility that the Depression revealed. Little Caesar contains a message

of the American Dream through hard work and criminality, while revealing that rags to riches

stories can be reversed as it was for many Americans.

The next film, Scarface, follows the Algerian model of rags to riches with the Italian

immigrant Tony Camonte rising to lead a powerful Chicago gang. He begins his rise by

murdering the boss for Johnny Lovo, who becomes the new boss and Tony his second in

command. However, Tony does not follow orders and attracts the attention of the police and

Irish Northside gangs with his bold and violent actions, which causes Johnny to realize that Tony

wants to be the boss. Tony starts a war with the Northside gangs by having their leader

murdered; the war is personified by the Thompson submachine guns and the city wide violence

that the police cannot stop. This violence leads to Tony’s downfall after he kills his sister’s new

husband and his close friend, Guino, causing her to go to the police. The film ends with a

shootout at Tony’s gaudy apartment with Tony dead after trying to flee.

Tony’s rise through the gangster world is the classic immigrant story of having nothing

but working, in Tony’s case criminally, to change status and become wealthy. The contrast is

seen when Tony goes home to his mother’s house, a simple house, to his apartment full of luxury

and expensive furnishings. Johnny’s girl, Poppy, even says “Kind of gaudy, isn't it? Ain't it

though”10

showing that Tony is trying to buy his way into status and wealth to be accepted by the

powerful of Chicago. His clothes are also how Tony expresses his wealth by buying fancy and

showing suits and shirts. The clothes are a further extension of his wealth that he proves is

10 Scarface, 1932.

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disposable when he says to Poppy, “You like? I'm gonna get some ties made to match. See, what

I'm gonna do is wear a shirt only once. Then I give it right away to the laundry.”11

By only

wearing clothes once, Tony is showing the world that he has enough wealth and status that he

cannot be seen in the same clothes twice and can afford to continually buy expensive clothes.

The ending reinforces the message throughout all the gangster films that wealth and status of

crime will end with the gangster dead. Tony’s ending is revealed that his real wealth was his

sister, who comes to his apartment to kill then fight with him against the police. However he

loses his desire to live after she is killed by a stray bullet that his fancy apartment with its steel

reinforcements, Tony realizes wealth and status only protect him so much completing the

gangsters’ tale.

Gangster films were popular at the height of the Depression because they provide an

outlet for the public to see the rise and success of gangster that lived a wealthy and fast paced

lifestyle. This lifestyle is shown through the gangsters’ expensive cars, apartments and clothes

providing a contrast to the suffering that was America during the Depression with the

Hoovervilles and jalopies or cars being sold so the owner could survive. The films were a parody

of the Algerian hero, providing hope to those struggling for survival with a familiar storyline and

a warning about the effects that the incorrect method of social mobility and accumulation of

wealth. The gangster films disappeared as the conditions in the country improved, but they

provided relief, inspiration and a critical view of the American symbols of wealth and success

through the lifestyles the gangsters’ lead.

Musicals

The musicals of the Depression displayed excessive wealth with minimal effects of the

Depression on the average person. The backstage musicals show the daily struggle for success in

11 Scarface, 1932.

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the hopes of living the consumer lifestyle again with nice apartments and luxury. For these

musicals the struggles of surviving in show business, the stakes are high risk and high reward

like gambling which was how the country entered the Depression. While the more lavish

musicals portray a life of luxury that was unattainable for most even before the Depression. The

musicals Gold Diggers of 1933, 42nd Street, and Top Hat provide an insight into the wealth and

extravagance that contrasted with the Depression and destitution Americans.

Gold Diggers of 1933 opens with a musical number about having enough money and all

of the dancers are in costumes that showcase wealth. At the apartment of the actresses, Hopkins,

a producer, tells the girls of a show that is ready except for the money. He hears their neighbor,

Brad a songwriter, playing and asks him to write the music for the show. When Brad discovers

all the show needs is money, he offers the money, but only if Polly, his girlfriend, plays the lead.

Everyone is in disbelief when Brad shows up with the cash and the play goes into rehearsals, but

the girls’ question where he got the money, believing he is a criminal since he refuses to

perform. However, on opening night Brad is forced to perform when the male lead hurt his back,

it is discovered that Brad is a blue blood from Boston whose family disagrees with his career

choice. When his brother and family lawyer come to prevent him from marrying a gold digger,

they both end up in relationships with Polly’s friends, one who pretends to be Polly when his

brother, Lawrence, tries to pay her so she will not marry Brad. In the end the ruse is discovered

when Brad and Polly marry, however, both Lawrence and the lawyer are in love with their

respective ‘gold diggers’.

While Gold Diggers is a backstage comedy that continues the gold digger genre, the view

of the wealthy is seen in contrast with the poor show girls. The opening number is a song about

having money so that there is no need for public assistance, but this idea is immediately shattered

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when the sheriff’s men break up the production and take away everything to pay off the debts for

the show. The clash seen then in the girl’s apartment where there is no food and they have sold

every outfit except one for auditions. The culmination of this idea of forgotten in poverty is in

the last number, “Remember My Forgotten Man,” which portrays the societal problems of the

Depression. The number shows the breadlines and the effect on the man and family, where the

man has no way to support forcing the woman to provide. This ideal changes the how poverty

was viewed since it affected everyone. However, in Gold Diggers this contrasts with the family

of Brad, who is blue bloods from Boston and fear him marrying a gold digger. His brother and

lawyer come to prevent gold diggers from going after Brad, only for both of them to marry show

girls. Trixie and Carol use the stereotype of gold diggers to provide for them as they ‘defend’

Brad from a bad marriage. The girls receive meals, furs, jewels, and Trixie even gets the lawyer

to purchase her a dog. The luxury and wealth the men show the girls does not prevent Carol

refusing money from Lawrence when he tries to pay her off, demonstrating how even the poor

have dignity. The glitz of the musical and show business contains the ability to comment on the

current situation; however the film provides an idea of the American Dream through marriage

with a gain of extreme wealth for the girls.

42nd

Street is a backstage musical that focuses on the difficulties of putting on a musical

in the height of the Depression. The musical would be the director’s, Julian Marsh’s last because

of his health and he needs it to be successful since he is broke. This makes the notoriously

demanding director place greater pressure onto the performers. The musical, Pretty Lady, stars

Dorothy Brock, who gets the show financed with the wealthy Abner Dillon but problems arise

because Dorothy keeps Abner at arm’s length and by secretly seeing Pat Denning, her old

vaudeville partner. At casting and rehearsals, Peggy Sawyer, a new comer, is struggling until she

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gets help from two senor chorines and they help her get the job. Dorothy’s relationship with Pat,

forces Marsh to send his gangster friend to warn him and Pat goes to Philadelphia to work. As

rehearsals continue, Marsh is dissatisfied with the progress, but the night before the opening in

Philadelphia, Dorothy fractures her ankle. Abner wants to replace her with his new girlfriend but

she says while she cannot do it, Peggy can. Marsh rehearses Peggy until an hour before the show

and they are both exhausted. The Films concludes with Dorothy wishing Peggy luck and saying

that she and Pat are getting married. The show goes on and is a success with large musical

numbers, thus making Peggy a success.

The idea of wealth in 42nd

Street is one of control, where Abner controls the musical

because he is providing the funds. This means he has the approval of the leading lady and for

Dorothy, it is a benefit to her career, but she does not care for him and this causes problems.

Marsh is forced to comfort Abner to keep the production and has to keep Dorothy in line by

threatening her boyfriend, Pat. Dorothy and Abner live very luxurious lives with a chauffeured

car, expensive clothing, and housing to display Abner’s wealth. While the show does not contain

an actual plot, but is filled with expensive displays of wealth and status with the song “Shuffle

off to Buffalo.” The song portrays a honeymoon to buffalo by train, however, within the song

there are references to divorce and how after Peggy will go to Vegas to make her fortune rather

than through her husband’s wealth. The train is clearly an expensive prop, which is not practical

for a theater, but a large soundstage, shows the idea that even when the newlyweds are saving

they still have the ability to show their status and wealth by traveling for a honeymoon or even

getting married during the Depression. While 42nd

Street does not address the Depression, there

are references, but overall the musical displays wealth and status as attainable and a method for

control.

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The final musical is Top Hat, a Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers musical. Astaire plays

Jerry Travers, an American dancer, in London to star in a show produced by Horace Hardwick.

However, while dancing in his hotel room; he wakes up Dale Tremont, played by Rogers. She

confronts him to complain and Jerry falls in love with her, causing him to pursue her all over

London. Dale believes that Jerry is Horace, since he is staying in Horace’s suite. This creates

problems because Horace is married to Dale’s friend Madge causing her to leave London and go

to Venice where Madge is. Jerry follows Dale to Venice, but she is with the designer Alberto

Beddini, for whom Dale is modeling his gowns. When Jerry proposes to Dale, she rejects him

because she still believes he is Horace and agrees to marry Alberto instead. Jerry is lucky when

he discovers that Horace’s valet, Bates, married the pair while he was following Dale under

Horace’s orders. After a gondola ride and some trickery on Jerry’s part, the confusion is cleared

up, allowing for Jerry and Dale to dance off into the sunset.

Top Hat provides the idea that the Depression never had an effect where Jerry and Dale

are able to live luxurious lives in Europe with little thought to the economic difficulties in the

world. The only reference is when Dale threatens to leave Alberto and return to America, living

on the dole. Other than that, Dale throughout the film is wearing designer clothes, riding horses

and lives in a luxury London hotel. She treats the wealth that surrounds her with a sense of

aloofness and that it is all disposable. This compares to Scarface, where Tony is successful and is

willing to purchase new shirts for everyday of the week rather than wash them. Dale has this

sentiment towards the clothes and lifestyle that she leads, an example is when she takes a

handsome coach to go riding rather than a car. The car is the symbol of consumerism and status

beginning in the 20s, but Dale rejects that for the horse, which shows her disdain for the symbols

of wealth and status. Meanwhile, Jerry is first seen in one of the private clubs of London, the

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height of old aristocratic money and status. While Jerry rejects the idea of the club by refusing to

be quiet, he still maintains their symbols through his expensive clothes and spending. He sends

all the flowers in the hotel to Dale’s room, but the sentiment of money is lost when he charges it

to Horace. This is seen again when Jerry demands Horace to book a flight to Italy so that they

can follow Dale. Horace is forced to book a private plane as well as a luxury suite at the Italian

resort. From the clothes to the sets, Top Hat is a display of extreme wealth and status during the

Depression, which provided the idea of prosperity to a nation of crisis.

The musicals showed the ability for prosperity and social mobility during the Depression

through their use of wealth and status. However, there is little shown of the Depression and how

the public dealt with the economic struggles, rather the musicals are full of extensive dance

numbers with expensive sets and costumes. The contradictions between the musicals and

Depression are seen in each film with the luxury of the characters and sets but without the

content about the Depression. Even when the Depression is discussed or portrayed, there is no

sense of comprehension or how to deal with the extreme divide between the rich and poor of the

country rather than showing the flashy wealth of show business.

Gone With the Wind

The film follows Southern culture through the Civil War, beginning with the

extravagant lifestyle on plantations before the war. Through Scarlett O’Hara the deprivation of

the luxury culture is seen as the South begins to lose the war. As Atlanta burns, the last of the

Old South burns with it. Scarlett returns home to Tara Plantations to discover the house

scavenged by Yankee Soldiers and there is no food left. At Tara, Scarlett is forced to rebuild her

life and help her family survive not only starvation, but increased taxes and the threat of

destitution. Scarlett is forced to go to the blockade runner turned confederate the rogue Rhett

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Butler for tax money; however, when this does not work Scarlett marries her sister’s now

wealthy fiancé, Frank Kennedy. She builds up Frank’s business and even expands it, to great

criticism of many Southerners. At Frank’s death, a result of defending Scarlett’s honor, Rhett

asks Scarlett to marry him and she accepts this is her third marriage. The Butlers’ live in

luxurious wealth from the combined fortunes; however, tragedy strikes with Scarlett’s

miscarriage and the death of their daughter Bonnie. Rhett leaves Scarlett because Ashley, the

man she has been pining for since before the war, is free to marry and he has grown tired of

waiting for her.

Gone with the Wind provides a story that follows the Depression, one that created the

idea of the Depression ending with Americans being able to return to their lives of consumers.

Before the war, the South had a very specific lifestyle that emulated wealth and status through

dress and actions. The O’Haras attend a barbeque that lasts all day and ends in a ball, while there

the Southerners follow a specific set of manners that show their status. However the house at

Nine Oaks portrays the desire of old plantations to emulate European palaces with the large

entryway and extensive staircase. While the furnishings make those in the gangster movies look

inexpensive, the house is large with expensive and elaborate furnishings that portray the

Southern ideal of refined wealth of old money. This world is broken when it is announced that

the South is going to war. While there is great confusion as the men go to enlist, there is the

sense that the house will be empty and later in the film is shown to be burned down. The

announcement of war serves as Scarlet’s crash, the life as she knows it ends and the time of

deprivation begins with Southerners selling their wealth to provide for the men. During this time

Scarlett is in Atlanta, a bustling city full of activity and wealth. The city and its people are not

spared the effects of war, when everyone flees the Yankee invasion, the confusion shows the

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carts filled with all their valuables rushing through the streets to prevent them from being burned

or looted. The city burns and with it the old ideas of the South as a symbol of the old consumer

culture of the 1920s that burned with the crash and Depression.

Now with nothing left, Scarlett returns to Tara and expects the plantation to have

remained the same, only finding the plantation as a shell with only a few slaves left and no food

or any form of wealth. Scarlett is forced to survive like those during the Depression by living

through the shame and keeping her dignity as she fights on. When she goes to ask Rhett for tax

money, Scarlett makes a dress out of the curtains to maintain the idea that she is a Southern lady

even though she has been working tirelessly in the fields. However Rhett sees through her façade

but cannot help her, Scarlett in desperation marries her sister’s fiancé now a successful

businessman to save Tara and her family. The survival tactics to preserve her dignity and status

as a Southerner shows how the ideas of status and wealth continue, for Scarlett that meant being

Southern and having Tara. Once Scarlett marries Rhett, she again lives the life of wealth and

status. They rebuild Tara and have a house in Atlanta that is extravagant and filled with luxury

goods and furnishings. Rhett tries to integrate more into the society of wealth and status to

benefit his daughter, whereas Scarlett does not care about society since she has always been

included. The importance of status is seen after Scarlett is accused of having an affair with

Ashley, Rhett leaves her at Ashley’s house for a party and she enters wearing a luxurious red

dress to everyone’s shock. Scarlett did not want to face the shame, however the red dress and

Rhett’s insistence show that status with wealth symbolizes success for Scarlett. The symbols may

be physical, but it is also the acceptance by the wealthy society of the South. While she is

accepted by society again, her use of wealth and former status help her to continue her lifestyle

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even when Rhett leaves her. Scarlett’s return to Tara afterwards shows that the land is her wealth

and status whether it is during the war or after.

Grapes of Wrath

The film is based the novel, The Grapes of Wrath, by John Steinbeck in 1939 and the

film was released the next year. Opening with Tom Joad, recently paroled, hitchhiking back to

his parent’s farm in Oklahoma and is joined along the way by the ex-preacher Jim Casey. They

discover the farm abandoned until Muley Graves hiding out. Muley tells of how the farmers are

forced off their land by the deed holders to create large farms. The company is knocking down

the houses with a Caterpillar tracker, the driver says that there is no use fighting it because

someone else would come to do the work. In the morning, Tom and Casy go to Uncle John’s

place to find his family, who is planning on leaving for California as the bank foreclosed on the

farm. At daybreak the family of twelve piles into their jalopy with all their possessions to head to

California, the promise land. The Joads travel along Highway 66 and they lose both Grandpa, to

a stroke, and Grandma before arriving in California. When they arrive at their first migrant

campground, the family begins to become disillusioned to California with the crowds of starving,

jobless, and desperate people. Trouble at the camp with an “agitator,” forces the Joads to leave in

a hurry but they find work at the Keene Ranch, picking peaches. Again the camp is far from

ideal, the only store has high prices taking the entire day's wage and the wages are inconsistent.

The ranch is also facing a strike because of the wage inconsistencies, Tom foes to a secret

meeting in the woods, but it is broken up by the guard camps and Casy is killed in the process.

Tom tried to defend Casy but accidentally killed a guard and is wounded on the cheek making

him identifiable. The family manages to escape the next night by hiding Tom under a mattress of

the truck, after leaving the ranch they discover a camp run by the Department of Agriculture with

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running water and clean facilities. The family stays for a while working and the atmosphere of

the camp changes Tom, he wants to continue Casy’s mission of fighting for social reform. He

leaves the family when the police appear at the camp and look at the license plates, Tom leaves

to keep his family safe and the family moves onto the next job as migrant workers. The film

concludes with Ma Joad saying that they cannot beat them since they are the people and will go

on forever.

The Grapes of Wrath provides the view of the everyday man of the Depression and

wealth. The Joads’ symbol of wealth is their farm and the ability to work the farm with dignity

and to provide for the family. However, during the Depression and Dust Bowl, many families

were kicked off their land because they could not farm enough crops to feed their family or pay

their share cropping fees. The people were tied to the land because the symbol of the family that

it represented when their family had farmed it for generations. The rich are seen as the enemy,

kicking many off their land and using the crisis to find the cheapest workers while they drove

new cars and bought off the police. The wealth and status are lacking for the Joads and many in

the film providing a contrast to the other films from the Depression.

Conclusion

Symbols of wealth have remained relatively consistent throughout time. The goal of these

symbols is to demonstrate to others that one person has the means to provide beyond the basic

needs of himself and his dependents. The Great Depression shows that this standard can drop due

to difficult economic times, but the standard will drop based on the societal demand. Before the

Depression, the standard was the car and luxury goods. While during the Depression, initially the

standard was having a job and providing for your family’s basic needs. The popular culture

represents this desire for normalcy and to return to the time when most people could afford

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luxury goods. The gangster films from the early Depression demonstrate this with the tactics of

getting rich quick off of easy money no matter what the consequences were. This is additionally

seen in the blockbuster of the Depression, Gone With The Wind, which provided a similar

narrative as the Depression and showed Americans that the country and their lives would get

better as seen through Scarlett’s life. Popular culture is a method that allows for a great depth of

knowledge into a time. This examination of Depression popular culture allows for a deeper

understanding of the aspirations of Americans and how they dealt with the Depression. Popular

films provided Americans an ideal of prosperity during the Great Depression that portrayed

wealth through status symbols and continuation of the American dream of social mobility

through the characters’ successes and failures.

Bibliography 42nd Street. Performed by Warner Baxter, Bebe Daniels. USA: Warner Bros, 1933. Film.

Gold Diggers of 1933. Performed by Warren William, Joan Blondell. USA: Warner Brothers,

1933. Film.

Gone with the Wind. Performed by Clark Gable, Vivien Leigh. USA: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer

(MGM), 1939. Film.

Grapes of Wrath. Performed by Henry Fonda, Jane Darwell. USA: Twentieth Century Fox Film

Corporation, 1940. Film.

It's A Wonderful Life. Performed by James Stewart, Donna Reed. USA: RKO Radio Pictures,

1946. DVD.

Levine, Lawrence W. The unpredictable past: explorations in American cultural history. New

York: Oxford University Press, 1993.

Little Caesar. Performed by Edward G. Robinson, Douglas Fairbanks Jr. USA: First National

Pictures, 1931. Film.

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edited by Warren Susman, 188-192. New York: G. Braziller, 1973.

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Raunchway, Eric. The Great Depression & The New Deal: A Very Short Introduction. New

York: Oxford University Press, 2008.

Scarface. Performed by Paul Muni, Ann Dvorak. USA: The Caddo Company, 1932. Film.

The Public Enemy. Performed by James Cagney, Jean Harlow. USA: Warner Brothers, 1931.

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