LEISURE

Americans have always been of two minds about leisure: Too little leisure perhaps makes a dull person, but too much suggests laziness, a lack of purpose. The Depression caused people to question old attitudes about leisure because millions found themselves deprived of work and with time on their hands. Unemployment reached a high of 24.9 percent in 1933; the average workweek simultaneously declined from forty-eight to forty hours. Since women constituted only about one-third of the workforce, more men faced unemployment. Women who worked at home had long since learned to deal with leisure time, but newly unemployed men faced a new challenge. The New Deal attempted to reduce unemployment while at the same time providing outlets for the jobless by creating agencies to address this excess of leisure time. The National Recovery Administration (NRA) instituted employee work codes and fair practices. Despite good intentions, these moves reduced hours at the job, especially overtime. By 1935, two-thirds of NRA-protected employees worked fewer than forty hours a week and thus had increased free time on their hands.

In 1935, the Works Progress Administration (WPA) received the mandate to create meaningful jobs for unemployed citizens. To assist young people, the Roosevelt administration created the National Youth Administration (NYA), which employed thousands of young men and women across the nation. To provide leisure outlets, the government also built parks, playing fields, and recreational areas around the country. Many cities constructed municipal golf courses and softball became popular; late in the decade, five million Americans were playing softball regularly, and almost a quarter of them were women. Millions more attended as fans, and sports equipment manufacturers saw a sales upturn. Swing music, which peaked in popularity during the Depression, encouraged dancing. The jitterbug, along with a host of novelty dances and traditional steps, caused millions to try their skills in the country's many pavilions and dance halls.

Nevertheless, by the early 1930s over a million unemployed people—men and women, young and old—could be found wandering the country. Such roaming hardly qualified as recreational travel, but it resurrected the old frontier custom of moving on in search of something better. At the same time, many other Americans enjoyed jobs and the wherewithal to travel. Tourism prospered, whether by car, bus, train, plane, or luxurious ocean liner—a sharp contrast with the desperation shown by those not so fortunate. Traveling by trailer gained adherents, with thousands of families visiting autocamps and similar sites.

High unemployment and reduced working hours meant that hobbies of every description boomed. Municipalities sponsored hobby clubs, classes, and community garden plots on the theory that regular activities in a structured setting reinforced the work ethic for everyone, even the jobless. Leisure emerged as a form of substitute employment, and newspapers and magazines featured countless how-to columns. Such leisure time activities provided a sense of self-worth to participants, and working at a hobby proved fulfilling. Children who could not afford commercially made toys during the Depression found substitutes. Homemade playthings fashioned from such discarded items as crates, tin cans, old tires, and rope could be one-ofa-kind originals; children passed toy-making ideas on to friends, or found plans and designs in magazines.

Movies also rose in popularity during the Depression, and an average of over seventy-five million Americans, regardless of race or ethnicity, attended the movies every week, often as families. To keep audiences coming during difficult times, theaters cut prices and offered discount passes, premiums, and double features. In addition to movies, a marked rise in sedentary, solitary pastimes occurred. Radio, for example, attracted a growing audience. Approximately six hundred stations broadcast to some twelve million receivers in 1930; by decade's end over eight hundred stations filled the airwaves, and more than fifty-one million sets picked up their signals.

Reading also satisfied leisure needs. Books and magazines of all kinds sold well. By the late 1930s, over 1,200 weekly and some two thousand monthly periodicals vied for the public's attention, jointly circulating 150 million copies, a figure that exceeded the nation's population. In addition, virtually everyone read a daily newspaper, especially the "funnies." With wide distribution and a broad audience, comic strips and comic books constituted a new national literature. In addition, book clubs such as the Literary Guild and the Book-of-the-Month Club flourished. A theme of escapism runs through much of what people read during the Depression, since few wanted reminders of the troubles facing them. Hollywood produced many films based on best sellers, confident that screen images briefly helped audiences escape reality.

Games of every variety thrived. Jigsaw puzzles proved popular, and by 1933 people were buying some ten million a week. The game Pick Up Sticks, introduced in 1936, sold three million sets in less than a year. Board games also saw increased sales; Monopoly, the undisputed champion, made its debut in 1935. Card games, especially contract bridge, likewise rose in popularity; by 1931, over 500,000 individuals had enrolled in bridge lessons at YMCAs, parks, and other locales. Conservative estimates had twenty million people playing the game.

Gambling of various kinds appealed to many. Churches staged bingo in their parish halls, and slot machines, punchboards, and pinball machines gave Americans opportunities to win easy money. A 1939 poll claimed that one-third of the population admitted to occasional gambling.

The value and importance of steady work has long been stressed in American culture. The Great Depression challenged the jobless and the underemployed to deal with the stigma of being out of work, and forced them to learn to manage increased quantities of free time and to find leisure activities that carried meaning, reinforced self-esteem, and distanced them from idleness.

LEISURE

BIBLIOGRAPHY