American Cinema of the 1930S SCREEN AMERICAN CULTURE / AMERICAN CINEMA DECADES
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American Cinema of the 1930s SCREEN AMERICAN CULTURE / AMERICAN CINEMA DECADES Each volume in the Screen Decades: American Culture/American Cinema series presents a group of original essays analyzing the impact of cultural issues on the cin- ema and the impact of the cinema in American society. Because every chapter explores a spectrum of particularly significant motion pictures and the broad range of historical events in one year, readers will gain a continuing sense of the decade as it came to be depicted on movie screens across the continent. The integration of his- torical and cultural events with the sprawling progression of American cinema illu- minates the pervasive themes and the essential movies that define an era. Our series represents one among many possible ways of confronting the past; we hope that these books will offer a better understanding of the connections between American culture and film history. LESTER D. FRIEDMAN AND MURRAY POMERANCE SERIES EDITORS Ina Rae Hark, editor, American Cinema of the 1930s: Themes and Variations Wheeler Winston Dixon, editor, American Cinema of the 1940s: Themes and Variations Murray Pomerance, editor, American Cinema of the 1950s: Themes and Variations Lester D. Friedman, editor, American Cinema of the 1970s: Themes and Variations Stephen Prince, editor, American Cinema of the 1980s: Themes and Variations American Cinema of the 1930s Themes and Variations EDITED BY INA RAE HARK RUTGERS UNIVERSITY PRESS NEW BRUNSWICK, NEW JERSEY AND LONDON LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA American cinema of the 1930s : themes and variations / edited by Ina Rae Hark. p. cm. — (Screen decades) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN–13: 978–0–8135–4081–8 (hbk. : alk. paper) ISBN–13: 978–0–8135–4082–5 (pbk. : alk. paper) 1. Motion pictures—United States—History. I. Hark, Ina Rae. PN1993.5.U6A85735 2007 791.430973’09043—dc22 2006032344 A British Cataloging-in-Publication record for this book is available from the British Library. This collection copyright © 2007 by Rutgers, The State University Individual chapters copyright © 2007 in the names of their authors All rights reserved No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without written permis- sion from the publisher. Please contact Rutgers University Press, 100 Joyce Kilmer Avenue, Piscataway, NJ 08854–8099. The only exception to this prohibition is “fair use” as defined by U.S. copyright law. Visit our Web site: http://rutgerspress.rutgers.edu Manufactured in the United States of America To . Shirley Errol and Olivia Nelson and Jeanette Cary,Victor, Douglas, and Sam Judy, Ray, Bert, Jack . and Toto, too Bashful, Doc, Dopey, Grumpy, Happy, Sleepy, and Sneezy . who inhabit my earliest memories of 1930s cinema CONTENTS Acknowledgments ix Timeline: The 1930s xi Introduction: Movies and the 1930s 1 INA RAE HARK 1930 Movies and Social Difference 25 AARON BAKER 1931 Movies and the Voice 48 CYNTHIA ERB 1932 Movies and Transgression 69 DAVID LUGOWSKI 1933 Movies and the New Deal in Entertainment 92 MARTIN RUBIN 1934 Movies and the Marginalized 117 CHARLENE REGESTER 1935 Movies and the Resistance to Tyranny 139 INA RAE HARK 1936 Movies and the Possibility of Transcendence 162 SUSAN OHMER 1937 Movies and New Constructions of the American Star 182 ALLEN LARSON 1938 Movies and Whistling in the Dark 206 SAM B. GIRGUS 1939 Movies and American Culture in the Annus Mirabilis 227 CHARLES MALAND Select Academy Awards, 1930 –1939 253 Works Cited and Consulted 257 Contributors 267 Index 269 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I suppose my involvement with this book would never have happened had it not been for the program directors of my local television stations in Charleston, West Virginia, in the 1950s who filled up their after- noons and weekends with movie packages consisting mostly of films from the 1930s. My earliest impressions of what real movies looked like started then, so I give a nod of appreciation to WCHS and WSAZ. The volume itself would not have been possible without the hard work and gifted insights of its contributors: Aaron, Cynthia, Marty, Charlene, Susan, Allen, Sam, and Chuck. I thank you for your cooperation, profes- sionalism, and good humor during all the stages of writing and revision. To the editors for this series, the terrific trio of Murray, Les, and RUP’s Leslie Mitchner, thanks for always being engaged, responsive, and supportive from the moment you asked me to edit the volume until its final stages of production. The book would not look as handsome or as professional as it does without the great work of copyeditor Eric Schramm and all the ven- dors from whom the other authors and I obtained photos. Special thanks to Ron Mandelbaum, Victor Burgos, Cory Plowman, and Doug McKeown at Photofest. Invaluable assistance at the proofreading and indexing phases came from the English Department at the University of South Carolina and graduate student Andy Smith. As with nearly every scholarly project I have undertaken since gradu- ate school, this book has benefited immensely from the encyclopedic mem- ory, analytical intelligence, and listening ear of Steven Cohan. He has been especially helpful during my work on American Cinema of the 1930s, from brainstorming about possible contributors to reading the first draft of my own chapter to lending me a great Astaire-Rogers photo. Most of all, when- ever I would get tunnel vision and turn the decade into one endless parade of Warner Bros.’ gangsters and swashbucklers, he would always remind me of the centrality of MGM, melodrama, and musicals. Ina Rae Hark Columbia, S.C. 15 September 2006 ix TIMELINE The 1930s ■■■■■■■■■■ 1930 12 MARCH Mohandas K. Gandhi begins his Salt March to protest British monopoly of and tax on salt in India. 24 MARCH Pluto, newly discovered and designated as a planet, is given its official name. 31 MAY The Production Code is drafted by the MPPDA’s Hays Office. 14 SEPTEMBER The Nazis win 107 seats in Germany’s Reichstag (Parliament). 5 NOVEMBER The Nobel Prize for literature is awarded to Sinclair Lewis, the first American recipient. 22 NOVEMBER Elijah Muhammad forms the Nation of Islam in Detroit. ■■■■■■■■■■ 1931 3 MARCH “The Star-Spangled Banner” becomes the national anthem. 1 MAY The Empire State Building is completed. 18 SEPTEMBER Japan invades Manchuria. 17 OCTOBER Al Capone is convicted of income tax evasion. 20 OCTOBER Variety reports “the end of silent pictures.” ■■■■■■■■■■ 1932 1 MARCH Charles Lindbergh’s baby son is kidnapped. 28 JULY The military is brought in to remove the protesters of the “Bonus Army” from government property in Washington, D.C. 30 JULY Flowers and Trees, the first cartoon to use the new three-color Technicolor process, debuts. 1 OCTOBER Oswald Mosley forms the British Union of Fascists. 8 NOVEMBER Franklin Delano Roosevelt is elected the thirty-second president. 27 DECEMBER Radio City Music Hall opens in New York. ■■■■■■■■■■ 1933 30 JANUARY Adolf Hitler becomes chancellor of Germany. 3 MARCH Mount Rushmore is dedicated. xi xii TIMELINE — THE 1930s 9 MARCH FDR launches the New Deal by calling Congress into a special 100-day session. 7 APRIL Prohibition ends. 6 JUNE The first drive-in movie theater opens in Camden, New Jersey. 16 JUNE The National Industrial Recovery Act, which will spawn the National Recovery Administration, is authorized. 30 JUNE The Screen Actors Guild incorporates. ■■■■■■■■■■ 1934 MAY Great Dustbowl storm. 18 MAY The Academy Award is first called “Oscar” in print. 23 MAY Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow are killed in a police ambush. 13 JUNE The Production Code Administration is established. 2 AUGUST Germany’s President Hindenburg dies, paving the way for Hitler to become sole Führer of the nation. 16 OCTOBER Mao Zedong and his communist followers begin their Long March to avoid defeat by the armies of Chiang Kai-shek. 1 DECEMBER S. M. Kirov is assassinated in Leningrad; Stalin uses the event as an excuse to begin two years of purges and show trials of political rivals. ■■■■■■■■■■ 1935 27 MAY The Supreme Court declares the NRA unconstitutional. 31 MAY Twentieth Century Pictures merges with Fox Film Corporation, creating Twentieth Century Fox. 13 JUNE Becky Sharp, the first feature-length film using an improved three-strip Technicolor process, premieres. 15 AUGUST Record-setting aviator Wiley Post and his friend Will Rogers die in a plane crash in Alaska. 15 SEPTEMBER The Nuremberg Laws deprive German Jews of citizenship and the swastika becomes the official symbol of Nazi Germany. 3 OCTOBER Italy invades Abyssinia (Ethiopia). ■■■■■■■■■■ 1936 30 JUNE Margaret Mitchell’s novel Gone with the Wind is published. 18 JULY The Spanish Civil War begins. 1–16 AUGUST The Berlin Olympics are dominated by African American track star Jesse Owens. TIMELINE — THE 1930s xiii 14 SEPTEMBER MGM’s boy wonder producer Irving Thalberg dies at age thirty-seven. 3 NOVEMBER FDR wins a landslide reelection victory over Alfred M. Landon. 10 DECEMBER King Edward VIII of Great Britain abdicates to marry American divorcée Wallis Warfield Simpson, “the woman I love.” ■■■■■■■■■■ 1937 6 MAY The Hindenburg explodes over New Jersey before live newsreel cameras and radio microphones. 9 MAY The Screen Actors Guild is recognized by studios as the official union for performers in films and is allowed to enter into labor negotiations on their behalf. 28 MAY The Golden Gate Bridge opens. 2 JULY Amelia Earhart disappears over the Pacific Ocean. 13 AUGUST The Japanese attack Shanghai, starting war with China. 21 DECEMBER The first feature-length animated film, Disney’s Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, opens. ■■■■■■■■■■ 1938 12 MARCH Hitler annexes Austria. 22 JUNE Joe Louis KOs Max Schmeling. 30 SEPTEMBER The Munich Pact cedes Sudetenland to Germany.