{"id":867,"date":"2024-01-26T16:11:55","date_gmt":"2024-01-26T21:11:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.early1900s.org\/notes\/?p=867"},"modified":"2024-01-26T17:25:01","modified_gmt":"2024-01-26T22:25:01","slug":"can-ya-spare-a-dime-3-songs-about-the-great-depression-1930-1933","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.early1900s.org\/notes\/2024\/01\/26\/can-ya-spare-a-dime-3-songs-about-the-great-depression-1930-1933\/","title":{"rendered":"Can Ya’ Spare A Dime? – 3 Songs About The Great Depression 1930-1933"},"content":{"rendered":"

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“Brother Can You Spare A Dime”
\nCharlie Palloy & His Orchestra; Charlie Palloy, vocal
\n(Crown 3392-A mx 1878)\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 October 1932<\/p>\n

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“Cheer Up (Good Times Are Comin’)”
\n“Leo Reisman And His Orchestra; Lew Conrad, vocal
\n(Victor 2245- A)\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 June 11, 1930<\/p>\nhttps:\/\/www.early1900s.org\/notes\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/Leo-Reisman-And-His-Orchestra-Cheer-Up.mp3<\/a><\/audio>\n

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“The Gold Diggers’ Song (We’re In The Money Now)”
\nJack Berger And His Hotel Astor Orchestra; Ted Holt, vocal
\n(Bluebird B 5054-A)\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0May 5, 1933<\/p>\nhttps:\/\/www.early1900s.org\/notes\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/Jack-Berger-And-His-Hotel-Astor-Orchestra-The-Gold-Diggers-Song.mp3<\/a><\/audio>\n

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Here are three topical recordings, courtesy of Matt From College Station’s collection, about the Great Depression.<\/p>\n

Most of the period’s popular songs about the Depression were upbeat with lyrics that emphasized optimism or, at the very least, a “glass is half-full” perspective.\u00a0 “Brother Can You Spare A Dime,” which debuted in the 1932 revival of the musical revue Americana<\/em><\/a>,\u00a0 <\/em>was a definite exception.<\/p>\n

Bing Crosby and Rudy Vallee made the most famous recordings of the song.\u00a0 The Charley Palloy version here, which Matt played on Radio Dismuke’s recent New Year’s broadcast, was not as well-known.\u00a0 The recording was issued on Crown<\/a>, a short-lived low-price label that was distributed through the F. W. Woolworth<\/a> dime store chain.\u00a0 A detailed profile of Palloy and his career can be found at this link<\/a>.<\/p>\n

“Cheer Up (Good Times Are Comin’)” is a much more typical Depression-themed recording.\u00a0 A lot of bands besides Leo Reisman<\/a> and His Orchestra recorded the song, including Ben Selvin<\/a> And His Orchestra, Phil Spitalny’s<\/a> Music,\u00a0 Roger Wolfe Kahn<\/a> And His Orchestra as well as Jack Albin’s<\/a> Hotel Pennsylvania Music.<\/p>\n

“The Gold Diggers’ Song (We’re In The Money)” was introduced by Ginger Rogers<\/a> in the opening segment of the film Gold Diggers of 1933<\/em><\/a>.\u00a0 <\/em>The song remains well-known and sometimes finds its way into films, television programs and, more frequently, commercials.\u00a0 Bandleader Jack Berger is mostly forgotten today but, in the early 1930s, he was well-known through national radio broadcasts and his band was a fixture for several years at New York’s Hotel Astor<\/a>.\u00a0 More information about Jack Berger can be found at this link<\/a>.<\/p>\n

About the image<\/strong> – Every time I have posted the above image I have received questions about it.\u00a0 I stumbled across it several years ago on the Library of Congress website<\/a>.\u00a0 It is from July 1939 and is one of several on the website taken by photographer Lee Russell that feature a family from rural Oklahoma as they begin their cross-country journey in an old truck in search of new opportunities in California.<\/p>\n

There was something about the photo that I found particularly captivating and I became curious as to where it was taken.\u00a0 Unfortunately, the only information provided on the Library’s website is: “Migrant family’s car stalled in main street of small town near Henrietta [i.e., Henryetta,] Oklahoma.<\/em>”<\/p>\n

After a lot of playing around in Google Maps, I eventually was able to identify the location as being Morris, Oklahoma.\u00a0 Sadly, the town was hit by a deadly tornado on April 26, 1984 that destroyed 85 percent of its structures, including any in the photo that might have remained. Here is a Google Streets view<\/a> of approximately the same spot today.\u00a0 The buildings that now line the cross-street are of very plain modern construction and my guess is they are replacements that the insurance companies were willing to pay for when the originals were destroyed.<\/p>\n

– Dismuke<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  “Brother Can You Spare A Dime” Charlie Palloy & His Orchestra; Charlie Palloy, vocal (Crown 3392-A mx 1878)\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 October 1932   “Cheer Up (Good Times Are Comin’)” … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":868,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"iawp_total_views":265,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-867","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.early1900s.org\/notes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/867","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.early1900s.org\/notes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.early1900s.org\/notes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.early1900s.org\/notes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.early1900s.org\/notes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=867"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.early1900s.org\/notes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/867\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":879,"href":"https:\/\/www.early1900s.org\/notes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/867\/revisions\/879"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.early1900s.org\/notes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/868"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.early1900s.org\/notes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=867"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.early1900s.org\/notes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=867"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.early1900s.org\/notes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=867"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}