I Love the '30s! Episode I: 1930 -- Storm Clouds Gather. And Twinkies. Storm Clouds and Twinkies.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v335/gypsyfrocksbedlam/abhoover3.gif

1930: i lie in hibernation in god's hall of souls for another 40 yrs or so when i would arrive on earth in utero.

On March 12, Mahatma Gandhi leads 78 followers on the Salt March to Dandi, to protest the British salt tax (which made it illegal for anyone in India but the British government to produce or sell salt).

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v335/gypsyfrocksbedlam/saltmarch.jpg

Upon arriving at the seashore he spoke to a reporter: God be thanked for what may be termed the happy ending of the first stage in this, for me at least, the final struggle of freedom. I cannot withhold my compliments from the government for the policy of complete non interference adopted by them throughout the march .... I wish I could believe this non-interference was due to any real change of heart or policy. The wanton disregard shown by them to popular feeling in the Legislative Assembly and their high-handed action leave no room for doubt that the policy of heartless exploitation of India is to be persisted in at any cost, and so the only interpretation I can put upon this non-interference is that the British Government, powerful though it is, is sensitive to world opinion which will not tolerate repression of extreme political agitation which civil disobedience undoubtedly is, so long as disobedience remains civil and therefore necessarily non-violent.

1. No picture shall be produced that will lower the moral standards of those who see it. Hence the sympathy of the audience should never be thrown to the side of crime, wrongdoing, evil or sin.

2. Correct standards of life, subject only to the requirements of drama and entertainment, shall be presented.

It will not, however, be seriously enforced for four more years.)

3. Law, natural or human, shall not be ridiculed, nor shall sympathy be created for its violation.

*Correction: 59 years. Spy Magazine busted the Twinkie wide open in 1989. Turns out they have a disappointingly brief shelf life. Less than a week.

Also born 1930: Clint Eastwood, Ornette Coleman, Pat Robertson, Steve McQueen, Sandra Day O'Connor, Sean Connery and Lorraine Hansberry.

http://dosxx.colorado.edu/Pluto/pluto1.html

(how come I can't have a name like DR. VESTO SLIPHER!!!)

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v335/gypsyfrocksbedlam/lili1.gif

Betty Coed - Rudy Vallee (#4)
Body and Soul - Paul Whiteman (#1)
Dancing With Tears In My Eyes - Nat Shilkret (#1)
Embraceable You - Red Nichols (#2)
Happy Days Are Here Again - Benny Meroff (#1)
I Can Dream, Can't I? - Tommy Dorsey (#1)
I Still Get A Thrill (Thinking Of You) - Guy Lombardo (#5)
I'm Confessin' - Rudy Vallee (#4)
It Happened In Monterey - Paul Whiteman (#2)
Little White Lies - Fred Waring's Pennsylvanians (#1)
Moonlight On the Colorado - Ben Selvin (#7)
More Than You Know - Ruth Etting (#9)
My Baby Just Cares For Me - Ted Weems (#4)
On the Sunny Side Of the Street - Ted Lewis (#2)
The Stein Song (University Of Maine) - Rudy Vallee (#1)
Ten Cents A Dance - Ruth Etting (#5)
Three Little Words - Duke Ellington (#1)
Why Was I Born? - Helen Morgan (#8)
You're Driving Me Crazy (What Did I Do?) - Guy Lombardo (#1)

Betty Co-ed has lips of red for Harvard,
Betty Co-ed has eyes of Yale's deep blue,
Betty Co-ed's a golden haired for Princeton,
Her dress I guess is black for old Purdue!

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v335/gypsyfrocksbedlam/vallee.jpg

Betty Co-ed's a smile for Pennsylvania,
Her heart is Dartmouth's treasure, so 'tis said,
Betty Co-ed is loved by every college boy,
But I'm the one who's loved by Betty Co-ed!

She made a wreck of Carnegie Tech and all its engineers;
She did the same at old Notre Dame, her line is good for years;
Roguish eyes, telling lies, breathing sighs!

Betty Co-ed has lips of red for Cornell,
Betty Co-ed has eyes of Navy blue,
Betty Co-ed, the golden haired for Amherst,
Her dress I guess is white for Georgia, too!

Betty Co-ed's a smile for old Northwestern,
Her heart is Texas treasure, so 'tis said,
Betty Co-ed is loved by every college boy,
But I'm the one who's loved by Betty Co-ed!

WELCOME TO THE CLUB, PLUTO!

Sung by Edward Norton in that Woody Allen film 70 years later.

Hack Wilson!

In the spring of 1930, E. Lee Keyser, owner of the minor league Des Moines Demons, and J.L. "Wilky" Wilkinson, owner of the Kansas City Monarchs of the Negro National League, both devised ways to play games in the cool evenings, Bowman says.

Keyser, who had witnessed some of the universities in the Midwest playing evening football under floodlights, decided to light the stadium in Independence, Kan., home of the minor league Independence Producers. Independence was also close to the headquarters of the Western League of the National Association of Professional Baseball Leagues.

Keyser's lighting system for the stadium consisted of six towers rising 90 feet above the ballpark. Each tower contained 146 lights designed by General Electric Company.

On April 17, 1930, night baseball began in America as the Independence Producers won an exhibition game before 1,700 spectators. A few days later, Keyser installed lights at his own team's stadium in Des Moines.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v335/gypsyfrocksbedlam/1930-bugatti-1.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v335/gypsyfrocksbedlam/smoot.jpg http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v335/gypsyfrocksbedlam/hawley.jpg

(Smoot on the left, Hawley on the right)

FACTS about this decade.
Population: 123,188,000 in 48 states
Life Expectancy: Male, 58.1; Female, 61.6
Average salary: $1,368
Unemployment rises to 25%
Huey Long propses a guaranteed annual income of $2,500
Car Sales: 2,787,400
Food Prices: Milk, 14 cents a qt.; Bread, 9 cents a loaf; Round Steak, 42 cents a pound
Lynchings: 21

By the 1930s money was scarce because of the depression, so people did what they could to make their lives happy. Movies were hot, parlor games and board games were popular. People gathered around radios to listen to the Yankees. Young people danced to the big bands. Franklin Roosevelt influenced Americans with his Fireside Chats. The golden age of the mystery novel continued as people escaped into books, reading writers like Agatha Christie, Dashielle Hammett, and Raymond Chandler.