Great Depression Comedy and WWII Newsreels in Film
This paper examines the relationship between two pivotal moments in American history and the entertainment industry. It investigates how the Great Depression gave rise to screwball comedy in the 1930s, replacing the capable cinematic hero with a comically inept antihero and offering audiences escapist glimpses of upper-class life. The paper also explores the role of newsreels during World War II, analyzing how they kept the public informed while operating under self-censorship, and how their romanticized portrayal of combat subsequently shaped the aesthetics and ideology of fictional war films produced during the same era.
- Introduction: History and entertainment industry influence each other
- The Great Depression and American Comedy: Depression drove demand for comedic escapism
- The Rise of Screwball Comedy: Screwball genre emerged from Depression-era social shifts
- Newsreels During World War II: Newsreels informed and emotionally moved wartime audiences
- Combat Films and the Newsreel Influence: Newsreel censorship shaped romanticized war film depictions
- Conclusion: Both history events reshaped American film genres
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What makes this paper effective
- The paper draws clear causal connections between historical events and shifts in popular entertainment, grounding its claims in specific examples such as It Happened One Night and the Hindenburg newsreel footage.
- It uses a parallel structure, examining two separate historical periods (the Depression and WWII) in a balanced way, making the argument easy to follow.
- Quoted evidence from named scholarly and journalistic sources supports each major claim without overwhelming the paper's own analytical voice.
Key academic technique demonstrated
The paper demonstrates the use of integrated quotation — embedding short, attributed quotes within the student's own sentences to support claims, rather than dropping long block quotes without commentary. Each quoted passage is followed by brief contextual analysis that connects it back to the paper's central argument about history and entertainment influencing each other.
Structure breakdown
The paper opens with a framing introduction, then divides into two main subject areas: the Great Depression's effect on comedy (with a dedicated subsection on screwball comedy) and WWII newsreels (with a subsection on combat films). A brief conclusion synthesizes both threads. This two-part thematic structure, each anchored by a historical event, gives the paper clear organization suited to a comparative historical analysis.
Introduction
Some events in history and various aspects of the entertainment industry have been known to affect each other. It is worth examining whether the Great Depression affected American comedy, why newsreels were important during World War II, and how those newsreels influenced fictional combat film.
The Great Depression and American Comedy
When the Great Depression occurred, many Americans went from living in comfortable homes with plenty to eat to living on the streets and begging for money and food on corners. These people did not have many reasons to laugh, and therefore it was important for the entertainment industry to find ways to take their minds off their troubles.
The Rise of Screwball Comedy
Since the earliest days of cinema, clown comedy has existed; however, the screwball variety arose during the Great Depression. One might liken it to an innovative brand of farce, where the old boy-meets-girl formula was turned on its ear, producing free-spirited heroines who gave as good as they got (Gehring).
Two of the first screwball comedies were It Happened One Night and Twentieth Century, both released in 1934. These movies, and screwball comedy in general, were predicated upon several developments then taking place in 1930s America. First, the genre was tied to a period of transition in American humor that had gained great momentum by 1934 (Gehring). The capable hero who had previously appeared in movies was now replaced with one who was comically hopeless and inept. It is surmised that this transition occurred because of the Depression. "In a world that seemed more irrational by the day, the antihero suddenly was more relevant than the omniscient philosopher type" (Gehring).
Screwball comedy was also able to embrace the Depression-era fascination with the upper classes. Escapism by movie audiences is hardly limited to any one period, yet viewers of the 1930s were so taken with opulent film backdrops that period Wall Street analysts labeled the movies of the day "Depression-proof" (Gehring).
The Great Depression also impacted American comedies through the birth of talking pictures, which encouraged an army of wordsmiths to descend upon Hollywood. Journalists, playwrights, novelists, humorists, and every other kind of writer found at least a temporary California home as the film capital scrambled over the sudden importance of dialogue. All this talent helped usher in a golden age of dialogue comedy (Gehring).
Newsreels During World War II
Newsreels played an important role during World War II by keeping the country informed and by influencing the fictional combat film. Many people today look upon them as corny, pointing out that the cameras were so bulky that most stories were set-ups — publicity stunts or horse races, the kind of events that could be scheduled far in advance. Even real news events — hurricanes, invasions, and train wrecks — were presented with dramatic music and breathless narration (Levins). Most newsreels covered five or six stories over a six-minute span, with most stories considered fluff.
While occasionally the cameras would catch something truly eventful — such as the explosion of the Hindenburg in 1937 — in the days of newsreels, truly historic footage tended to be a matter of luck (Levins). One reason newsreels were so popular was that they fell outside the film industry's code of self-censorship regarding certain content, including depictions of sex (Levins).
Despite their limitations, newsreels allowed people to gather information about the war, functioning much like today's evening news. Newsreels produced a very emotional atmosphere in most movie houses, prompting many people to cry or shout when images of Hitler or the Japanese appeared on screen.
Conclusion
The Great Depression had a major effect on American comedy. It ushered in the screwball comedy, which not only provided an unlikely antihero but gave audiences a glimpse of different social classes and an escape from their daily hardships. Newsreels provided audiences with information about World War II while also offering relief through lighter feature stories. The newsreel's culture of self-censorship influenced fictional combat films by presenting an unrealistic view of death in battle, while scenes from actual combat shown in newsreels were sometimes later recreated in Hollywood war pictures.
Works Cited
Bresler, Robert J. "The Death of Hollywood's Golden Age and the Changing American Character." USA Today, 01 March 1997.
Gehring, Wes D. "Screwballs of the Silver Screen: A Treasured Comedy Genre Turns 70: The 1934 Releases of 'It Happened One Night' and 'Twentieth Century' Launched Hollywood into an Era of Madcap Zaniness That Endures to This Day." USA Today Magazine, 01 March 2004.
King, Torey L. "Twentieth Anniversary Issue: Annotated Index to Volumes 1–20." Journal of Popular Film and Television, 01 January 1993.
Levins, Harry. "Newsreels on Video: A Historical Romp." St. Louis Post-Dispatch, 25 November 1996.
The Rural World War II Homefront in Homer, Illinois. Accessed 19 March 2005.
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