Entertainment in the 1930s | History, Forms & Examples - Lesson | Study.com (2024)

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What were the major forms of entertainment during the 1930s? ›

Radio programs, music, dancing and dance marathons, and cinema were popular forms of entertainment during the Great Depression. Many people affected by the economic downturn sought inexpensive ways to pass the time and distract themselves from the challenging circ*mstances.

It became a place for young people to meet, children to watch action-packed matinees, and for adults to briefly escape the reality of the Depression. The first Welsh language talkie was screened in 1935.

1930s: The greatest form of entertainment for most children was their own imagination! Kids used whatever was laying around to create their own games and toys. Girls made rag dolls and kids played school yard games like tag and jump rope.

Songs and stories were very popular during The Middle Ages. People would entertain themselves with song, dance, music and stories. Wandering entertainers, called minstrels or troubadours, would travel from village to village providing such entertainment – particularly music – for the local people.

The single most significant new instrument of mass entertainment was the movies. Movie attendance soared, from 50 million a week in 1920 to 90 million weekly in 1929.

American culture in the 1930s revolved around the ever increasing need to be frugal and the desire to escape the struggles brought on by the Great Depression. Jazz and swing music became popular, as did movies, board games, and Art Deco.

As Andrew Bergman has shown, the fantasy world of the movies played a critical social and psychological function for Depression era Americans: In the face of economic disaster, it kept alive a belief in the possibility of individual success, portrayed a government capable of protecting its citizens from external ...

[1] Examples include: art shows/festivals/displays/galleries, author appearance/signing, ballet, book reading, chorus/choir, comedy, concert, dance, gallery night, museums, musical, opera, orchestral, symphony, and live theater among others.

The Great Depression was a largely successful decade for Hollywood. Tickets on average cost under a quarter for the whole of the 1930s, down from 35 cents in 1929, so spending time in the cinema was an affordable form of escapism for many.

The sports offered included tennis, deck tennis, hockey, swimming, volleyball, hiking, archery, golf, basketball, track, and most importantly, live-saving. An important aspect of Women's Sports in the 1930s was the Big Six Board which was responsible for regulating the various departments of girls' athletics on campus.

What games did kids play in the 1930s? ›

Children would share toys such as hoops, marbles and skipping ropes. Other games included tag and hopscotch – which are still played in schools and playgrounds today. In the 1930s, many families were too poor to afford manufactured toys, which meant children would have to find creative ways of making their own fun.

While music and dancing were good ways to distract Depression-era Americans for an evening, movies were equally popular, if not more so.

There were fêtes, carnivals, art exhibitions and lessons in singing, dancing and cooking to attend. Talks were given by visiting notables, scientists, preachers, and people who had been adventuring in different countries.

Theater, one of the oldest forms of entertainment, dates back to ancient Greece, where it was a significant part of cultural and religious festivals. The art of storytelling through live performances has traversed through time, evolving in style and presentation.

The thirties brought tremendous change starting with the Great Depression. By the end of the decade, the world was at war. Read on to learn more about moments that defined the '30s. October 29, 1929: The Wall Street Crash of 1929 triggers the Great Depression — the worst economic crisis in U.S. history.

A vaudeville was originally a comedy without psychological or moral intentions, based on a comical situation: a dramatic composition or light poetry, interspersed with songs or ballets. It became popular in the United States and Canada from the early 1880s until the early 1930s, while changing over time.

The 30s was also the decade of the sound and color revolutions and the advance of the 'talkies', and the further development of film genres (gangster films, musicals, newspaper-reporting films, historical biopics, social-realism films, lighthearted screwball comedies, westerns and horror to name a few).

MOVIES. The increased prosperity of the 1920s gave many Americans more disposable income to spend on entertainment. As the popularity of “moving pictures” grew in the early part of the decade, “movie palaces,” capable of seating thousands, sprang up in major cities.