The Great Depression of the 1930s put many Americans out of work and left people searching for hope. After his election, Roosevelt's New Deal programs began to help better the lives of many jobless people. Unfortunately, many of these programs never reached their ultimate goals, and some failed without anything having been accomplished. The Federal Theatre Project (FTP) was one of many programs that could not fulfill what it had intended. The FTP was short-lived and plagued by severe censorship, all while being a major target of the House Committee to Investigate Un American Activities (HUAC). The FTP, directed by Hallie Flanagan, was a government funded theatre program meant to give ¨free, adult, uncensored theatre¨ (Text 3). It employed thousands of workers and presented over 1,000 plays and musicals every month. Nearly one million people viewed these presentations, and according to Text 3, 78 percent of them were allowed in free of charge. The FTP reached 10 million more people thanks to its ¨Federal Theatre of the Air¨ radio programs. To the frustration of Mrs. Flanagan, however, assisting private businesses with federal …show more content…
is still discouraged today. Many Americans find it suppressing and feel as if it infringes on their right to free speech. These beliefs existed during the Great Depression, when many people only wanted hope. At first, the FTP seemed to be an excellent source. Text 3 states,¨The Federal Theatre Project produced over 1,200 plays in its four-year history, introducing 100 new playwrights.¨ The issue of federal funding, however, caused the FTP to have its productions scrutinized by the government. Six months after the FTP´s inception, the HUAC, headed by Martin Dies, began to set its sights on the project. A Living Newspaper production would be closed because the government disapproved of the impersonation of a foreign ruler. The incident would be the first of many cases of government censorship that would break down the
Previous to the New Deal was a decade that contained disaster and hardships called the Great Depression. Once Roosevelt took office in 1933 he implemented the New Deal. This deal was to return America expediently back to its economically, socially, and politically prosperous days. A good deal offers flexible but reasonable opportunities and solutions to direct the attention towards the nation’s struggles. The distinguishment between a successful deal and a non successful deal is the ability for the outcome to truly impact and fulfill the goal that it was set to do. Roosevelt’s New Deal appeared to be a good deal but the disadvantages outweighed the progression or improvement that it promised to provide. Collectively,
Throughout the late 1920's an important theatrical movement developed: The Workers' Theatre Movement. In the end, it diminished around the middle of the 1930's, and one of the developments aiding the decline of the Workers' Theatre Movement, was the creation of the Federal Theatre Project. The Federal Theatre Project was the largest and most motivated effort mounted by the Federal Government to organize and produce theater events. Once the government took on the duty of putting people to work, it was able to consider the movement. The Federal Theatre Project’s purpose was “to provide relief work for theatrical artists that utilized their talents and to make their work widely available to ordinary Americans, thus democratizing high culture.” (www.answers.com) Furthermore the FTP tried to present theatre that was relevant socially, politically, and had popular prices, such as free shows. The majority of its famous productions, although not all of them, came out of New York City. New York had many units, such as, a classical unit, Negro unit, units performing vaudeville, children’s plays, puppet shows, caravan productions, and the new plays unit. The Federal Theatre Project was “the only fully government-sponsored theatre ever in the United States”. (Witham 16)
Houchin, John H. Censorship of the American Theatre in the Twentieth Century. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge UP, 2003.
People have dreams of what they want to do or accomplish in life, but usually musical theatre is just pushed into the non-realistic void. It isn’t a dream for me. In the past four years, musical theatre has been clarified as my reality. Musical theatre has been the only thing I have seen myself wanting to do. My first love was The Phantom of the Opera, seeing how I watched it almost every day and it was one of the first shows I saw. Of course, I started doing all of those cute shows in middle school and making a huge deal about it to my family and friends, but I have never felt so passionate about something. The minute I get up on that stage I throw away Riley for two and a half hours and it’s the most amazing feeling! Being able to tell a story
During the 1920’s, America was a prosperous nation going through the “Big Boom” and loving every second of it. However, this fortune didn’t last long, because with the 1930’s came a period of serious economic recession, a period called the Great Depression. By 1933, a quarter of the nation’s workers (about 40 million) were without jobs. The weekly income rate dropped from $24.76 per week in 1929 to $16.65 per week in 1933 (McElvaine, 8). After President Hoover failed to rectify the recession situation, Franklin D. Roosevelt began his term with the hopeful New Deal. In two installments, Roosevelt hoped to relieve short term suffering with the first, and redistribution of money amongst the poor with the second. Throughout these years of the depression, many Americans spoke their minds through pen and paper. Many criticized Hoover’s policies of the early Depression and praised the Roosevelts’ efforts. Each opinion about the causes and solutions of the Great Depression are based upon economic, racial and social standing in America.
His New Deal programs caused a tranquil peace of mind among many Americans, considering the programs were designed to progress America’s situation after the Depression. However, several Americans opposed Roosevelt, and objected his New Deal laws. This group of Americans believed that the government was doing too much, and was taking away their personal freedom. Others believed that the government was not doing enough, and should have played an even greater role within the American society. Roosevelt’s New Deal not only brought prosperity to America after the Great Depression, but it also brought division among Americans. His New Deal had, and still does have, an impact on America, and it is still pondered today whether or not his New Deal laws were successful or
Fundings for the arts expanded skills in reading”. President Roosevelt changed the role of the presidency in American history by signing a law that limited the number of terms. The New Deal did not solve problems by creating new jobs. If it wasn’t for the new jobs, it would’ve been a decrease in the income. In today’s time, the New Deal would be a failure.
...ts have been brought to millions of American citizens of the economic system generally described as underprivileged'" (Burg, 296). Though it was very short-lived, the Federal Theatre Project was helpful to thousands of Americans during the 1930s. To those involved in theatre, it was able to give the unemployed jobs and for those who were not involved in theatre, it was a wonderful form of public entertainment that helped boost American morale during the Great Depression. The Negro Theatre Project gave black Americans an equal opportunity in theatre as well. Though Living Newspapers caused conflicts, they were still a good way to combine the powers of entertainment and enlightenment for the public. Even if it was a very controversial project, the Federal Theatre Project had a large impact on society in the 1930s and was the most important of the Federal Arts Projects.
The stock market crash of October 1929 brought the economic prosperity of the 1920s to an abrupt halt. For the next ten years, the United States was thrown into a deep economic depression. By 1933, the unemployment rate had soared to 25%, up from 3% in 1929. Industrial production declined by approximately 50%, and international trade plunged 30%. This period in history is known as The Great Depression. The Great Depression plunged the American people into an economic crisis unlike anyone had ever experienced in history. Millions of hardworking individuals fell into poverty. Many lost their homes and lived on the street. Many more suffered from mass starvation. Overall, people lost their sense of pride and national spirit for America. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt took office in 1933, when the economy was in a time of complete failure. Right away, Roosevelt took to not only helping the economy but also reviving the American morale after this tough era. Roosevelt implemented a series of executive actions, creating programs and new Federal agencies to help revive the economy. Together this was called The New Deal. One of the agencies that was created was called The Works Progress Administration (WPA). The WPA was created in order to put millions of unemployed Americans to work through governmental projects. Over a period of 8 years, the WPA spent over 3.3 billion dollars on public projects, some of which are still used today. Simultaneously as the United States struggled valiantly to climb out of the Great Depression, the threat of another crisis, a World War, loomed over the US. In June of 1939, the United States army only had 185,000 men enlisted. The need for a stronger, m...
The New Deal, established by Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1933, was a series of programs put into affect to fix the Great Depression that the United States was currently in. Beginning with the crash of the stock market on October 29, 1929, America was plunged into its most severe economic downturn yet. Roosevelt developed this plan to save the country. At this time the people of America were in a huge economic unrest. Most in America were homeless or unemployed. Roosevelt created his programs to help these exact people from poverty. He assured the people of America that his programs would help the crumbling economy, mass unemployment, and low wages. This chain of programs raised both nationalism and national character throughout America for a few years. The author of this excerpt had a very negative view of FDR’s work and critiqued every program within the New Deal. Roosevelt’s programs have many long-term consequences, some of which are still in effect today. Most of the programs still in action were modified in the 1960’s, these are the present day welfare programs that most people are accustomed to. While the New Deal was not entirely successful, Franklin D. Roosevelt did the best he could with the time and circumstances given.
... H. Argersinger, Virginia Andreson, William L. Barney, Jo Ann E. Argersinger, and Robert M. Weir. "The Great Depression and the New Deal 1929 – 1939.” The American Journey. 5th ed. Vol. 2. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education, 2009. 693-723. Print.
The Depression hit and there was a rise in cinemas. The commercial theater advocates kept trying to gain government back for money. FTP were being sponsored by having artwork and performances in hospitals, schools, CCC camps, etc. Although there was some support, there was still controversy between the people who wanted the social service theory of dramatics and professional theater people. Hallie Flanagan spoke in Text two, “The project that eventually emerged, however, was far from the vision.” The project started failing because more problems were being created. The theater people’s goals differed from the government sponsored theater programs. They were worried the government would try and make it their way and ignore the real
From the years 1929 to 1941, total government debt increased by 27.1 billion dollars (3). In 1929 it was 16.9 billion, and by 1941 it got to 44 billion dollars. This proves that the New Deal was not a success because it shows that the programs did billions of dollars worth of damage through relief programs instead of reforming the initial issues. As shown in the political cartoon (4) Doctor FDR’s “New Deal Remedies,” being the programs, did not help poor Uncle Sam to feel any better. Despite the countless medicines, the U.S. did not heal. This mocking cartoon proves the New Deal to be flop because the various programs still do not fix the country. One example of a direct relief program is Social Security (8). While the program helps the elderly and poor, no money goes back into the government, thus causing debt for the federal government, further proving the New Deal to be a failure.
In the present day, Americans have had to realize what the word “freedom” means. Whether it is recognizing our freedom as American citizens and defending ourselves against a growing threat of terrorism, or protesting war as we attempt to protect another country’s plea for freedom, all Americans have looked closer at the definition of freedom. In this heightened age of freedom and evaluating our constitutional rights, it is interesting that censorship is still a controversial issue. Perhaps the most significant examples of censorship take place in the arts. While the First Amendment considers censorship illegal, there are many ways that censorship still occurs in visual art, theatre, television, and film. Perhaps film has the most organized system of censorship found in the MPAA (Motion Picture Association of America). Chris Roth writes in his article “Three Decades of Film Censorship…right before your eyes”, that censorship by ratings is a serious First Amendment issue that deserves debate and action. The article poses many questions about the MPAA and the restrictions it places on director’s creativity. However, the most important issue it addresses is our freedom as American citizens to promote, protect, and view a diverse mosaic of ideas on screen.
My fellow Americans, I, Franklin Roosevelt, proudly declare to you all the successful achievements of the New Deal programs. Allow me to cordially inform you about our impacting programs such as, the Civilian Conservation Corps, the Works Progress Administration, the Home Owner’s Loan Corporation, and the Social Security Act. The Civilian Conservation Corps is recognized for prosperously creating jobs to the unemployed by constructing roads, building parks, and planting trees, all of which have contributed to the refinement of our nation. The Works Progress Administration is known for its accomplishments in employing over eight million people and offering opportunities to actors, musicians, artists, and writers so that they may express their