1932

Articles from 1932

‘Radio Here and Abroad” (Pathfinder Magazine, 1932)

During the early days of radio, as in the early days of the internet, there was much scrambling done all around in order to figure out a way to make the technology profitable. When this article was on the newsstand the pioneers of radio were getting closer to achieving this goal but they were not there yet. In Europe, by contrast, the concept of commercial radio was held askance by many; some nations barred all ads from the invisible wave, while others preferred that commercials only be heard during certain hours of the day.

Educational broadcasting is growing in popularity in Europe and is being extended into the afternoon school hours.


A good deal of column space explains how the Soviet Union used radio.

Read about the radio program that was produced by the WPA writers and actors branch in order to celebrate American diversity; click here.

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Motor City Takes It On The Chin (Pathfinder Magazine, 1932)

By August of 1932, the Great Depression had finally caught up with the American automobile industry:

For the first time in history auto production has fallen off. Last year’s output was 700,000 cars [fewer than the number produced just two years earlier.]


The research has shown that between the Fall of 1929 and 1932 American automobile manufacturing had decreased by 70%.

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The Foreign-Born Population in the Early ’30s (Pathfinder Magazine, 1932)

A brief notice from the 1930 Census reporting on that percentage of the United States population that was born on foreign shores. Within the confines of this small paragraph some details were provided as to how many arrived prior to 1900, how many between 1901 and 1910; 1911 and 1919; 1920 and 1930. Additional information appears concerning the assorted racial make-up of these new American and how many of them originated from both quota and non-quota nations.

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Cedric Gibbons: Production Designer (Creative Art Magazine, 1932)

Throughout film history there have been many men and women who have toiled in the Hollywood vineyards as art directors, but none have ever matched the level of high productivity as Cedric Gibbons (1893 – 1960). Indeed, he is remembered as the dean of art directors who stood head and shoulders above all others during Hollywood’s Golden Age; between 1912 and 1956 there were hundreds movies that bore his thumbprint – winning Oscars for 39 of them (he was also one of the aesthetes who designed that award).


Illustrated by four photographs of his sets from the early Thirties, the attached article appeared mid-way through his career:

At the Metro-Goldwyn studios in Culver City, just a few short miles from Hollywood, Mr. Gibbons rules supreme as art director. He is at the head of an intricately organized group of technical experts and artisans, numbering nearly two thousand individuals, and is responsible for the artistic investiture and pattern of some fifty or more feature films per annum.


Designs on Film: A Century of Hollywood Art Directionstyle=border:none

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