Culture of the 1930s
Clark Gable
• Starred as Rhett
Butler in “Gone with
the Wind”
• Biggest film star of
the 1930s
W.C. Fields
• Comedic actor
• Starred in “My Little
Chickadee”
• Famous for playing a
lovable curmudgeon
Errol Flynn
• Starred as the title
character in “The
Adventures of Robin
Hood”
• Considered to be the
most handsome man of
his time.
Fred Astaire
• Considered by many
to be the best male
dancer who ever lived.
• Starred in “The Gay
Divorcee” “Top Hat”
and “Shall We Dance”
Basil Rathbone
• Starred as Sherlock
Holmes in over a
dozen films.
• Played the Sheriff of
Nottingham in “The
Adventures of Robin
Hood”
The Marx Bros.
• Starred in
“Animal
Crackers”,
“Horsefeathers”,
“Duck Soup” and
“A Night at the
Opera”
• Groucho, Chico,
Harpo & Zeppo
• “One morning I
shot an elephant in
my pajamas. How
he got into my
pajamas, I’ll never
know.”
Ginger Rogers
• Starred in “The Gay
Divorcee” & “5th
Avenue Girl”
• Known for being Fred
Astaire’s dancing
partner
Greta Garbo
• Starred in “Mata Hari”
and “Anna Karenina”
• Born in Sweden 1905
• Considered to be one
of the top 5 actresses
of all time.
Bette Davis
• Starred in “Of
Human
Bondage” and
“The Petrified
Forest”
• Sued to get out
of a studio
contract in
1934
Jean Harlow
• Dated Aviator Howard
Hughes and boxing champ
Max Baer
• Starred in “Dinner at 8”
and “Bombshell”
• Died at 26 of kidney
failure.
• Played by Gwen Stefani in
the 2005 film “The
Aviator”
Mae West
• Starred in “She Done Him
Wrong” and “I’m No
Angel”
• Powerful in Hollywood and
wrote most of the scripts of
the movies in which she
starred.
• Born in 1895. Older than
most of the actresses of her
time.
• Was infamous for her
sexual double entendres.
“Come up and see me
sometime.”
Shirley Temple
• Starred in over a dozen
films in the 1930s
• One of the first child
stars.
• “Heidi”, “The Little
Colonel”, “The Littlest
Rebel”.
Dracula
• Debuted in 1931.
• Launched Bela
Lugosi’s career.
• Considered to be the
scariest movie of all
time when it was
released.
Frankenstein
• Debuted in 1932
• Launched Boris
Karloff’s career.
Gone With the Wind
• Debuted in 1939
• Sold more tickets
than any other
film before or
since.
• If released today
would gross over
1 billion dollars
• One of the first
color films.
King Kong
• Debuted in 1933
• Won awards for
special effects
• Hitler’s favorite
film.
• Remakes made in
1976 and 2005.
Wizard of Oz
• Debuted in 1939
• First color film ever
made.
• One of the most
popular films of all
time.
• “Lions & Tigers &
Bears. Oh my!”
Joe Louis
• “The Brown
Bomber”
• Longest reigning
heavyweight
champion of the
world. 12 years
(1937-1949)
• Made 25
consecutive
defenses of his title.
Joe Louis II
• Defeated Billy
Conn in 1941.
• Conn said, “I’m
going to hit and
run.”
• Louis replied-“He
can run, but he
can’t hide.”
• Ranked as the
greatest
heavyweight of all
time and the 2nd
best boxer of all
time.
Seabiscuit
• Horse of the Year
1938
• Won match race
against war
admiral 1938
• Movie made about
Seabiscuit 2003
Salvador Dali
• Born in Catalonia
Spain, 1904.
• His most famous
painting
“Persistance of
Memory”
• Painted in 1931.
• Pioneered the field
of surrealism.
Brave New World
• Written in 1932 by Aldous
Huxley.
• Shocking view of the future
as a dystopia (Anti-Utopia).
• Efficiency triumphs over
the human spirit.
• “Soma” is consumed to
shield all from pain.
• Humans are no longer
born, but cloned.
The Hobbit
• Written by J.R.R. Tolkien
• Same author as “Lord of
the Rings”
• The adventures of Bilbo
Baggins in which he
encounters
Gollum/Smeagol
• Bilbo is helped by the
magic ring of invisibility,
“The Precious”
John Steinbeck
• “Of Mice and Men”-1937.
George and his mentally
challenged friend Lenny try
to survive as ranch hands
during the depression.
• “The Grapes of Wrath”1939. Tom Joad tries to
help his family survive in
California after moving
from Oklahoma dustbowl
during the depression.
The Good Earth
• Written by Pearl S.
Buck-1931
• Story of farmer,
Wang Lung and his
rise from poverty to
wealth in China.
The Yearling
• Marjorie Kinnan
Rawlings-1938
• The story of Jody
Baxter and his fawn
“Flag”
Who Goes There?
• Written by John Campbell
1938.
• Antarctic research team
uncovers a frozen alien in
the ice.
• It awakens and hunts down
the crew one by one.
• It has the ability to mimic
any living creature after
consuming them.
• Made into a movie, “The
Thing”-1982 with Kurt
Russell
Nausea
• Written by John Paul
Sartre-1938
• Existentialist
philosophy.
• World is meaningless.
• Man struggles to define
himself with no
objective truth.
• The only purpose of life
is to define one’s
purpose.