Gibb’s talk covers Great Depression, Nazism
The rise of Nazism had developed as a dark, threatening undercurrent
ART lecturer Barry Gibb presents a talk on “The 1930s the Gloom and the Glamour” at 7pm next Thursday at the Ann Bryant Art Gallery.
Gibb’s powerpoint lecture looks at the gloom – it was the decade of the Great Depression following the New York Stock Exchange crash in October 1929.
The job losses resulting from the domino effect of banks falling around the world, reached a peak in 1933.
This was the year Franklin D Roosevelt became President of America and Adolf Hitler became ruler of Germany.
But it was also the year of Buzby Berkeley’s first big Hollywood musical success; Broadway Melody of 1933 and, the time when Fred Astaire arrived in Hollywood from Broadway and went on to make 10 musical films with Ginger Rogers to become the most famous dancing couple the world has ever seen.
The rise of Nazism had developed as a dark, threatening undercurrent throughout the decade, exploding into the open in 1939 with the German/Russian invasion of Poland, which set off World War 2.
The 1930s stress on glamour appeared as an escape from a depressive reality. To this end, Hollywood produced its musicals, comedies and adventure films that took audiences away from the present into bygone ages. Edward G Robinson and James Cagney initiated the gangster film genre. In New York, it was the golden era of musical stage shows. So Hollywood’s debt to Broadway began when choreographer, Berkeley brought his talents to California to apply his Broadway magic to films.
It was during the 1930s that Pablo Picasso and Salvador Dali produced their greatest works. It was also when Frank Lloyd Wright produced a couple of his most iconic works.
The talk will take place on February 23 and entry is R40 with wine and fruit juice available for a small donation.
