Hollywood in the 1930s

The glamour, the glitz and the style that defined cinema, and wider culture, are all embodied in Hollywood’s “Golden Age” of the 1930’s.

Here emerged the studios and the American Style of filmmaking, a style that would become so dominant for films internationally that variations from the American Style would be deemed as radical.

The 1930’s was also a time of great stress and challenges for Americans with The Wall Street Crash of 1929 heralding The Great Depression and The Dust Bowl destroying lives in the agricultural South. The emerging threat of war in Europe also cast its shadow over America.

The film industry played a vital role in providing psychological relief and strengthening for the trials facing American workers and families during the 1930s as well as being a source of entertainment and distraction from the sometimes grim realities of life in the USA.

This decade produced a plethora of classic films that are still shown and enjoyed today: Top Hat, Gone with the Wind, Goodbye Mr Chips, Snow White, It Happened One Night to name but a few!

Colin Shindler, who is our speaker for this talk was awarded his PHD at Cambridge University and subsequently lectured on film for their History Faculty between 1998 and 2019 exploring its relationship to modern British and American social and cultural history.

To relive Hollywood’s most glorious decade and find out more, come to the talk!

The Hastings Centre, The Ridge, (Opposite the Conquest Hospital) Hastings TN34 2SA