Question

What was the appeal of movies and radio during the Depression?

Answer 1

Escapism.

Explanation:

Given the appalling poverty and deprivation suffered by tens of millions of Americans during the depression, both radio and the movies were a form of escapism from their problems. Movies in particular reflected this in films such as the series of Busby Berkeley Gold Diggers films and The Ziegfield Follies.

A good example is shown in Bonnie and Clyde, when, after a bank robbery which goes wrong and Clyde Barrow kills a man, they go into a cinema to watch a Gold Diggers film, contrasting the hardship of the Depression with banks going bust and farmers impoverished, in which the gangsters are portrayed as Robin Hood characters with the escapism of the American movies; with which, in the film,Bonnie Parker.