25 Things from the 1930s You’ll Never See Today | The Strange History Podcast

0:00 Speaker 1: Hello, dear listeners, and welcome back to where we shine

0:03 Speaker 1: a warm lamp on the cobwebbed corners of the past.

0:06 Speaker 1: I'm Amy, part tour guide, part gossip columnist for history,

0:11 Speaker 1: and today we're slipping into the nineteen thirties. Sure, it

0:15 Speaker 1: was the decade of soup kitchens and sit down strikes,

0:18 Speaker 1: but also of ice block deliveries, clanging milk wagons, and

0:22 Speaker 1: the occasional monkey collecting pennies on a street corner. Together,

0:26 Speaker 1: we'll visit twenty five everyday sights from the thirties that

0:29 Speaker 1: would leave us wide eyed today.

0:32 Speaker 2: Milkmen with horse drawn wagons.

0:34 Speaker 1: Horse drawn milk wagons were more than a quaint site.

0:38 Speaker 1: They were an essential link in the food chain before

0:40 Speaker 1: widespread refrigeration. In cities like New York, Cleveland, and Philadelphia,

0:46 Speaker 1: dairies employed thousands of drivers, often Irish or Italian immigrants,

0:50 Speaker 1: who started before dawn to deliver bottles still cold from

0:54 Speaker 1: the creamery. Horses were so reliable that some companies resisted

0:58 Speaker 1: switching to trucks until the early nineteen forties. Urban archives

1:03 Speaker 1: even show license records for the animals. As cities taxed

1:07 Speaker 1: dairy horses the way they did motor vehicles. The practice

1:10 Speaker 1: dated to the nineteenth century, but in the nineteen thirties

1:13 Speaker 1: it still thrived Because homes lacked reliable fridges, Customers left

1:18 Speaker 1: coins or milk tickets on their stoops, and wagons sometimes

1:23 Speaker 1: carried butter and eggs too. When electrification and household refrigerators

1:28 Speaker 1: became common in the late thirties, the trade dwindled, but

1:32 Speaker 1: not before leaving behind tales like Duke the Horse who

1:35 Speaker 1: completed his Manhattan Root unaccompanied radio nights. By the early thirties,

1:41 Speaker 1: radio ownership in the US had jumped from just twelve

1:44 Speaker 1: million households in nineteen thirty to more than twenty eight

1:48 Speaker 1: million by nineteen thirty nine. The medium knit the country

1:52 Speaker 1: together during the depression. Soap operas debuted painted dreams in

1:56 Speaker 1: nineteen thirty sports found new audiences, and Franklin Roosevelt's fireside chats,

2:02 Speaker 1: which starting March of nineteen thirty three, comforted millions. Families

2:08 Speaker 1: arranged parlors around the radio, creating what historians call the

2:11 Speaker 1: hearth of modernity. Shows like The Shadow, Lights Out, and

2:16 Speaker 1: Amos and Andy dominated evenings. Even rural families far from

2:21 Speaker 1: movie theaters could keep up with national events. Radio also

2:25 Speaker 1: helped spread jazz and swing, with live broadcasts from Harlem's

2:29 Speaker 1: Savoy Ballroom, giving small towns a soundtrack for Saturday nights.

2:33 Speaker 2: Refrigerators and safety warnings.

2:37 Speaker 1: Refrigeration technology was in flux in the nineteen thirties. The

2:40 Speaker 1: kelvinator and general electric monitor top were popular, but used

2:44 Speaker 1: toxic gases such as sulfur dioxide and methyl chloride. Accidents,

2:49 Speaker 1: though rare, made headlines and kept salesmen busy reassuring customers.

2:55 Speaker 1: By mid decade, free On R. Twelve replaced these risky chemicals,

3:00 Speaker 1: making refrigerators safer and accelerating their adoption. Before fridges, many

3:05 Speaker 1: homes relied on ice boxes, which demanded regular deliveries and

3:09 Speaker 1: created a lively trade in block ice. The arrival of

3:14 Speaker 1: the electric refrigerator reshaped diets. Perishables like lettuce or dairy

3:19 Speaker 1: could now last days, and desserts such as molded gelatin

3:22 Speaker 1: salads became fashionable.

3:25 Speaker 2: Dust bowl masks.

3:27 Speaker 1: The dust bowl nineteen thirty to nineteen thirty nine devastated

3:31 Speaker 1: the Southern Plains after overplowing combined with drought to strip

3:36 Speaker 1: the land of topsoil. April fourteenth, nineteen thirty five, Black

3:42 Speaker 1: Sunday saw winds whip up three hundred million tons of

3:45 Speaker 1: dust turning day to night across Oklahoma and Kansas. Local

3:51 Speaker 1: newspapers described rolling walls of dirt miles high. Masks weren't

3:56 Speaker 1: a fad, but a necessity. People wrapped handkerchief or flower

4:00 Speaker 1: sacks over their faces, and schools sometimes closed when grit

4:04 Speaker 1: piled against doors. Many families fled west along Route sixty six,

4:10 Speaker 1: becoming Oakis in California labor camps. The disasters spurred new

4:15 Speaker 1: federal policies, like the Soil Conservation Service nineteen thirty five,

4:19 Speaker 1: teaching contour plowing and windbreak planting, lessons that still guide

4:24 Speaker 1: sustainable farming.

4:25 Speaker 2: Flapper holdouts.

4:27 Speaker 1: The Great Depression dulled the sparkle of the Roaring twenties,

4:31 Speaker 1: but a stubborn fringe clung to the era's freedoms. Jazz

4:35 Speaker 1: clubs in New York, Chicago, and Kansas City kept swinging,

4:39 Speaker 1: often hiring musicians laid off by big orchestras. Women who

4:43 Speaker 1: tasted independence in the twenties sometimes resisted a return to

4:47 Speaker 1: proper skirts, wearing sequins to neighborhood dances or clandestine gin joints.

4:54 Speaker 1: These late era flappers bridged two worlds, the emancipated new

4:59 Speaker 1: women of the t twenties and the practical homemaker of

5:02 Speaker 1: depression advertising. Their persistence helped keep jazz cocktails and daringham

5:08 Speaker 1: lines alive long enough for Hollywood musicals and later wartime

5:12 Speaker 1: USO shows to revive the.

5:14 Speaker 2: Sparkle automat cafeterias.

5:18 Speaker 1: Automats, pioneered by Horn and hard Art in Philadelphia nineteen

5:22 Speaker 1: oh two and New York nineteen twelve, hit their stride

5:26 Speaker 1: during the Depression. By the nineteen thirties, they were affordable

5:30 Speaker 1: havens where Nichols bought steaming macaroni, baked beans, or lemon

5:36 Speaker 1: pie behind polished glass doors. Their gleaming interiors offered democratic dining.

5:42 Speaker 1: Bankers and seamstresses sat elbow to elbow, no tipping required.

5:47 Speaker 1: Automats were also architectural marvels, with Art Deco brass and

5:52 Speaker 1: marble floors. The format appealed to city dwellers because food

5:56 Speaker 1: stayed hot under clever steam tables while patrons serve themselves.

6:01 Speaker 1: Even as lunch counters gained traction. Automats remained icons of

6:05 Speaker 1: efficiency until fast foods rise in the nineteen fifties. Pushed

6:09 Speaker 1: them into nostalgia.

6:11 Speaker 2: Suitcase sized car radios.

6:14 Speaker 1: Car radios arrived in nineteen thirty with the Motorola short

6:18 Speaker 1: for motor plus Victrola. Early sets cost nearly a week's

6:22 Speaker 1: wages and required bulky vacuum tubes hidden under seats, antennas

6:27 Speaker 1: stretched like fishing poles, and static often accompanied each bump

6:31 Speaker 1: in the road. Despite the cost, radios turned cars into

6:36 Speaker 1: rolling dance halls. Bing Crosby Kate Smith and breaking news

6:40 Speaker 1: kept Traveler's Company on dusty highways. The craze was so

6:44 Speaker 1: strong that by nineteen thirty six most major automakers offered

6:49 Speaker 1: factory installed radios, helping music and talk programs become a

6:53 Speaker 1: national soundtrack.

6:55 Speaker 2: Nickers and argyle socks.

6:58 Speaker 1: Plus fours, so called because they extended four inches below

7:02 Speaker 1: the knee, were imported from British sporting fashion. They exploded

7:06 Speaker 1: in US popularity after the nineteen twenty four Prince of

7:09 Speaker 1: Wales's visit, and by the thirties they were a standard

7:11 Speaker 1: for golfers and college sheiks. Worn with bold argyle socks,

7:16 Speaker 1: ties and jaunty caps, they signaled youthful rebellion against staid

7:20 Speaker 1: three piece suits. Photographs from Ivy League campuses show rows

7:25 Speaker 1: of students practicing putts in dorm courtyards, a site that

7:29 Speaker 1: faded by World War II as utilitarian slacks replaced flare.

7:34 Speaker 2: W PA cruise.

7:36 Speaker 1: The Works Progress Administration nineteen thirty five to nineteen forty

7:40 Speaker 1: three was more than a jobs program. It reshaped America's landscape.

7:45 Speaker 1: Workers paved roads, built schools, planted millions of trees, and

7:49 Speaker 1: erected landmarks from the Blue Ridge Parkway to Timberline Lodge.

7:54 Speaker 1: Artists in the Federal Art Project created murals celebrating farmers, miners,

7:58 Speaker 1: and immigrants, many visible in post offices. Writers in the

8:02 Speaker 1: Federal Writers Project recorded oral histories from former enslaved people

8:07 Speaker 1: and regional storytellers, preserving voices that might have vanished. The

8:11 Speaker 1: WPA left behind sidewalks etched with nineteen thirty seven silent

8:16 Speaker 1: signatures of a nation rebuilding itself.

8:20 Speaker 3: Today's episode is funded by the WPA. Okay, not really,

8:24 Speaker 3: but if you see a mural with a hidden worker waving,

8:26 Speaker 3: say hello for US.

8:28 Speaker 2: Bootleg liquor hideaways.

8:31 Speaker 1: Even after prohibition ended in nineteen thirty three, people cherished

8:35 Speaker 1: their secret compartments basements concealed whiskey barrels, while floorboards hid

8:40 Speaker 1: dusty gin bottles. Builders who'd carved elaborate cachies didn't bother

8:44 Speaker 1: removing them, leaving easter eggs for future homeowners. In Chicago,

8:50 Speaker 1: workers renovating a townhouse in the nineteen seventies found a

8:53 Speaker 1: whole bar under the stairs, etched glasses, corked bottles, and

8:58 Speaker 1: a note reading for mediceonal emergencies. Only that mix of

9:02 Speaker 1: caution and merriment captures the era's stubborn love for clandestine spirits.

9:07 Speaker 2: Neon air conditioned signs.

9:11 Speaker 1: When Willis Carrier's technology entered retail spaces, merchants flaunted it

9:16 Speaker 1: Neon signs themselves. A nineteen tens French invention advertised refrigerated

9:22 Speaker 1: air or come in It's cool. Customers treated air conditioned

9:27 Speaker 1: theaters like spas, savoring relief from sticky city nights. Stores

9:32 Speaker 1: used cool interiors to lure shoppers, while restaurants boasted modern

9:37 Speaker 1: comfort as part of their menus. A sea also transformed

9:41 Speaker 1: movie palaces into summer havens, helping Hollywood's box office soar.

9:46 Speaker 1: Without those chilly oases, blockbusters might never have been born.

9:51 Speaker 2: Penny arcade fortune tellers.

9:54 Speaker 1: Arcades blossomed in boardwalk towns and amusement peers and fortune

9:58 Speaker 1: telling automata became their mascots. Figures like Madame Xandra or

10:03 Speaker 1: Professor Zoltan nodded ominously as gears, clanked cards dispensed predictions

10:09 Speaker 1: about love, business, or mysterious strangers. These machines blended vaudeville

10:14 Speaker 1: theatrics with early robotics. Their success owed much to a

10:19 Speaker 1: depression public hungry for cheap thrills and a sense of destiny.

10:24 Speaker 1: Even skeptics couldn't resist feeding a penny to see what

10:27 Speaker 1: fate or clever springs might say.

10:30 Speaker 2: Gas station bellhoses.

10:33 Speaker 1: Before self service gas stations were theater. Rolling over a

10:38 Speaker 1: rubber hose, rang a bell inside, summoning attendants who topped oil,

10:42 Speaker 1: checked tires, and polished windshields, all while cracking jokes. Stations

10:48 Speaker 1: also became community hubs, often with maps or free road guides.

10:53 Speaker 1: As car culture expanded, so did architecture. Whimsical teapot stations

10:58 Speaker 1: or tudor cottages popped up, turning a pit stop into

11:01 Speaker 1: roadside art.

11:02 Speaker 2: Stocking menders.

11:04 Speaker 1: Silk and rayon stockings were prized before nylon arrived in

11:08 Speaker 1: nineteen thirty nine. Repairing a snag called reweaving, required magnifiers

11:14 Speaker 1: and tiny hooks. Skilled mendresses worked at department stores or

11:18 Speaker 1: took piecework from home, saving women the cost of a

11:21 Speaker 1: new pair economic strain made thrift fashionable. A neat repair

11:27 Speaker 1: could extend stockings for months, proving elegance wasn't reserved for

11:31 Speaker 1: the wealthy, but for anyone with patients or a steady

11:35 Speaker 1: handed neighbor.

11:36 Speaker 2: Street organ monkeys.

11:39 Speaker 1: Organ grinders, often Italian immigrants, brought European street music to

11:43 Speaker 1: US cities. Their hand cranked barrel organs played jaunty tunes

11:48 Speaker 1: while trained monkeys collected coins. By the thirties, regulations began

11:53 Speaker 1: curbing the trade, citing sanitation and animal welfare, but not

11:57 Speaker 1: before characters like Tony and Boba became neighborhood fixtures. Stories

12:02 Speaker 1: from New York recall Bobo tipping his cap or mimicking

12:07 Speaker 1: passers by. Though charming, the practice faded as radios and

12:12 Speaker 1: recorded music replaced outdoor serenades.

12:15 Speaker 2: Nickel movies and newsreels.

12:18 Speaker 1: Movie houses offered depression audiences a cheap escape. For a

12:22 Speaker 1: nickel or dime, you got a cartoon, a sing along slide,

12:26 Speaker 1: two features, and newsreels chronicling events like Amelia Earhart's flights

12:31 Speaker 1: or FDR's speeches. By the late thirties, color films The

12:36 Speaker 1: Wizard of Oz nineteen thirty nine and innovations like surround

12:40 Speaker 1: sound began turning neighborhood theaters into magical palaces, shaping how

12:45 Speaker 1: people consumed both art and current affairs.

12:49 Speaker 2: Hand cranked everything.

12:51 Speaker 1: Automobile technology was still manual in the thirties. Electric starters existed,

12:57 Speaker 1: but bass models relied on hand cranks. Windows required muscle,

13:01 Speaker 1: and windshield wipers were powered by engine vacuum or a

13:05 Speaker 1: passenger's determination. Drivers grew adept at multitasking, steering with one

13:11 Speaker 1: arm while winding with the other. These small inconveniences created

13:15 Speaker 1: intimacy between motorists and their machines, a bond lost in

13:19 Speaker 1: today's push button cars. Ice delivery the iceman was a

13:25 Speaker 1: fixture before fridges spread widely in the late thirties. Teams

13:29 Speaker 1: harvested huge blocks from frozen lakes each winter, storing them

13:33 Speaker 1: in sawdust lined ice houses. Deliverymen used iron tongs to

13:37 Speaker 1: carry twenty five to one hundred pound blocks to kitchen

13:41 Speaker 1: ice boxes. Children trailed wagons in summer, savoring slivers shaved

13:46 Speaker 1: off for fun. The trade collapsed as home refrigeration became affordable,

13:51 Speaker 1: but for decades it was as steady a profession as

13:54 Speaker 1: milk delivery. Hoovervilles, named for President Hoover, whom many blamed

13:59 Speaker 1: for the Depression, These shantytowns dotted empty lots nationwide. Seattle's

14:05 Speaker 1: Hooverville had a mayor, postal service and strict cleanliness rules.

14:10 Speaker 1: Though fragile, they revealed resilience. Residents built churches, shared food,

14:16 Speaker 1: and even published newsletters. When World War II industry revived jobs,

14:21 Speaker 1: many Hoovervilles dissolved, leaving behind oral histories of dignity. Amid hardship.

14:26 Speaker 2: Mail order homes.

14:28 Speaker 1: Seers, Montgomery, Ward, and Aladdin sold entire houses via catalog

14:34 Speaker 1: Between nineteen oh eight and nineteen forty. Seers alone shipped

14:38 Speaker 1: more than seventy thousand kits. Families followed detailed plans, often

14:43 Speaker 1: erecting homes in days with friends lending tools. These bungalows

14:47 Speaker 1: were solid, some still stand cherished by preservationists. They embodied

14:53 Speaker 1: a democratic dream home ownership by mail. No architect required.

14:59 Speaker 2: Pocket cigarette cases.

15:01 Speaker 1: Smoking in the thirties was entwined with glamour helped by

15:04 Speaker 1: Hollywood idols. Cases came in silver, enamel, or even bake light,

15:09 Speaker 1: and etiquette books instructed smokers to offer cigarettes from a case,

15:13 Speaker 1: never from a crumpled pack. Such rituals reflected a slower,

15:18 Speaker 1: stylized pace of social life, far removed from today's quick

15:22 Speaker 1: drags outside office doors. Newsboys, paper boys, and paper girls

15:28 Speaker 1: were an urban soundtrack. Their sing song calls announced headlines

15:32 Speaker 1: from bank runs to boxing victories. Pulitzer and Hurst had

15:36 Speaker 1: used them to fuel circulation wars in the twenties. By

15:39 Speaker 1: the thirties, roots were still fiercely contested. Some papers sponsored

15:44 Speaker 1: news the Olympics, rewarding swift sellers for kids. The job

15:48 Speaker 1: offered not just income, but a stake in civic life.

15:52 Speaker 1: Delivery bikes merchants relied on sturdy bikes with massive baskets.

15:58 Speaker 1: Grocers hauled meat and eggs. Florists balanced bouquets while dodging

16:02 Speaker 1: trolley tracks. Companies like Schwinn marketed heavy duty models, advertising

16:07 Speaker 1: two wheels ten deliveries an hour. World War II scrap

16:12 Speaker 1: drives later claimed many of these frames, leaving only photographs

16:15 Speaker 1: of boys wobbling heroically under towering bread loaves.

16:20 Speaker 2: Dance marathons.

16:22 Speaker 1: Born as jazz age stunts. Marathons evolved during the depression

16:25 Speaker 1: into endurance contests with cash prizes. Organizers promised meals and

16:30 Speaker 1: shelter rare luxuries for the unemployed. Couples danced in shifts,

16:36 Speaker 1: sometimes sleeping upright as partners swayed. Audiences treated them as soap,

16:40 Speaker 1: opera and sport, combined, cheering favorites or placing bets. Critics

16:45 Speaker 1: called them exploitative, but for contestants they were sometimes the

16:49 Speaker 1: only paying job available.

16:52 Speaker 3: Fueled by perky Pete's coffee syrup. May not cure fatigue,

16:56 Speaker 3: but you won't notice for seventy two hours.

16:59 Speaker 1: Sunday visit without instant messaging. Calling on friends was a

17:04 Speaker 1: cornerstone of sociability. Families baked a company cake each weekend

17:09 Speaker 1: in case neighbors arrived unannounced. Visitors brought flowers or pie,

17:14 Speaker 1: and conversations drifted from farm prices to the latest radio drama.

17:19 Speaker 1: This ritual forged bonds and lean years, reminding communities that

17:23 Speaker 1: hospitality costs little more than time and maybe an extra

17:27 Speaker 1: slice of cake. And that's our grand tour. Through the

17:31 Speaker 1: nineteen thirties, a time of grit creativity, and occasional monkeys

17:36 Speaker 1: in tiny coats. From Duke the Milk Course to jitterbug champions,

17:41 Speaker 1: these everyday details remind us history isn't only big events,

17:45 Speaker 1: but small rituals that shaped how people lived. Thanks for

17:51 Speaker 1: traveling with me on the Strange History Podcast. If you

17:54 Speaker 1: enjoyed today's ride, leave a review, preferably typed on a

17:58 Speaker 1: vintage typewriter. Until next time time, keep your curiosity bright

18:02 Speaker 1: as a Neon air conditioned sign