SPONSORED BY:

Depression-Era Diary, Part Two

 

Email To A Friend

Please fill in the following information and we'll email this link.

Separate multiple addresses with commas

SPONSORED BY
 

The Chicago Tribune announces that 100 theaters in Chicago and vicinity will close up. This is because of the tremendous overbuilding of theaters during the last 5 years of the boom. Each producer built his own chain of theaters and bought the real estate at fancy prices. Now they are going broke. In Youngstown movie admissions have dropped from 60 cents to 35 cents.

[Subsequent annotation dated July 10, 1970: Admission charges to a good movie theater are $2.50.]

Aug. 9, 1931. Professional men have been hard hit by the depression. This is particularly true of doctors and dentists. Their overhead is high and collections are impossible. One doctor smoothed a dollar bill out on his desk the other day and said that this was all the money he had taken in for a week. Lawyers are almost as badly off and most of them are not taking in enough to pay. We have been helped a little by foreclosure work which followed in the wake of the depression but most of it does not pay because the assets are worthless. Most professional men for past two years have been living on money borrowed on insurance policies etc. The only work that comes in now are impossible collections on a contingent fee basis. Everybody is digging up old claims and trying to realize on them. Tempers are short and people are distrustful and suspicious. There is nothing to do but work hard for less money and to cut expenses to the bone.

© 2008

Label

Newsweek Top Stories
Visions of a Decade
Visions of a Decade

From 2000-2009, one photo per month.

The Failure of Copenhagen
The Failure of Copenhagen

Why there could be a silver lining in a failed climate treaty.

Sex Scandals of the 2000s
Sex Scandals of the 2000s

From John Edwards to Mark Sanford, the decade's memorable affairs.

118 Days in Hell
118 Days in Hell

A NEWSWEEK journalist recounts his captivity in Iran.

Discuss

Sponsored by

Member Comments

  • Posted By: Libricrat @ 11/10/2008 2:22:33 PM

    Now, once again, just like in the New Deal, we will speed faster toward more socialistic, redistributive policies. Captialism works, it just needs some curcuit breakers and speed breaks installed. My fear though is that true Socialistic change will come out of this recession, especially with respect to the medical field. We are truely at a fork in the road and as a blue collar capitalist, I'm very afraid.

  • Posted By: Karenn1 @ 10/30/2008 2:03:35 PM

    Get real Republicans trash the U S for profist. Exxon just broke the record for profits.Greed is good? Who needs to listen to what republcans have to say.Just look at the economy and what greed will do without oversights. 1929 crash is the G O P/ M O.

  • Posted By: Tea6 @ 10/29/2008 11:17:54 AM

    Trade with currency manipulation is not free trade, it is mercantilism.
    When countries run large export surpluses their currency should strengthen, which evens out the surpluses and deficits. Currency manipulation and its by-products are what got us into this financial meltdown. It is time to fix the system.

Reply

Report Abuse

Enter comments if any for reporting abuse

My Take

Customize the NEWSWEEK homepage
to feature your favorite columnists.

Customize Now
 
The Greediest People of All Time
From Bernard Madoff to AIG, Wall Street has reinvented excess. But the Masters of the Universe didn't invent greed. A look at the despots, robber barons and others who made our shortlist.


 
 
PHOTOS
What About Us?
Wall Street's problems have captured the attention of Congress, the White House and the media. But on the country's Main Streets ordinary folks are wondering if anyone is paying attention to them. A look at how Americans are coping with the economic crisis.