Reply #10: That's not quite true

[starroute]

The early 30's had movies -- all those Busby Berkeley musicals with chorus girls singing "We're In the Money." Or the Marx Brothers making fun of the upper classes. Or Dracula and Frankenstein and The Public Enemy if you wanted to indulge your anger and despair in a non-political manner. Or Disney's Three Little Pigs proclaiming "Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf?"

Those years also had the early days of radio. Pulp magazines. Comic strips like Little Orphan Annie. Jazz on the point of turning into swing, blues, and early country music.

There were just as many forms of escapism then -- and the escapist tone was strongest in 1931-33. It was only after Roosevelt was elected that people started to get organized instead of looking for distractions.