1933 Annual History Facts

1933 Annual History Facts

  • Politics: Twentieth Amendment to the US Constitution changes the date a new President, Vice President, and Congress take office, thus shortening the time between Election Day and the beginning of Presidential, Vice Presidential, and Congressional terms. The Twenty-first Amendment repealed the Eighteenth Amendment and returned the regulation of alcohol to the states.
  • Influential Songs include Stormy Weather by Ethel Waters, Sophisticated Lady by Duke Ellington, and Pop Standard April in Paris
  • The Big Movies included King Kong, 42nd Street and Cavalcade
  • Price of Boy’s knickers (pants) in 1933: 95 cents
  • The World Population was ~ 2,184,000,000
  • Richard M. Hollingshead created the first (homemade) drive-in in Camden, NJ.
  • And… The German Reichstag voted to give Hitler absolute control. One person spoke against it: Social Democratic leader Otto Wels, who spoke the last free words in the Reichstag: “You can take our lives & our freedom, but you cannot take our honor. We are defenseless but not honorless.”

World Series Champions

New York Giants

NFL Champions

Chicago Bears

Stanley Cup Champions

New York Rangers

US Open Golf

Johnny Goodman

US Open Tennis (Men Ladies)

Fred Perry/ Helen H. Jacobs

Wimbledon (Men/Women)

Jack Crawford/Helen Moody

NCAA Football Champions

Michigan

Bowl Game

Rose Bowl: January 2, 1933 – USC over Pittsburgh

Kentucky Derby

Brokers Tip

Westminster Kennel Best in Show Dog

Warland Protector of Shelterock

Time Magazine’s Man of the Year

Hugh Samuel Johnson

Miss America

Marian Bergeron (West Haven, Connecticut)

1933’s Fresh Faces and Top Celebrities

Josephine Baker, Joan Blondell, Claudette Colbert, Greta Garbo, Joan Crawford, Marion Davies, Marlene Dietrich, Kay Francis, Jean Harlow, Katharine Hepburn, Hedy Lamarr, Myrna Loy, Dolores Del Rio, Ginger Rogers, Barbara Stanwyck, Thelma Todd, Raquel Torres, Mae West, Fay Wray

“The Quotes”

“The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.”
– Franklin Delano Roosevelt

“Oh, no, it wasn’t the airplanes. It was Beauty killed the Beast.
– Robert Armstrong, in King Kong

“Well, here’s another nice mess you’ve gotten me into!”
– Oliver Hardy, in Sons of the Desert

“When I’m good, I’m very very good, but when I’m bad, I’m better.”
– Mae West, in I’m No Angel

“Why don’t you come up sometime and see me?”
– Mae West, in She Done Him Wrong

“Sawyer, you’re going out a youngster, but you’ve got to come back a star!”
– Warner Baxter, in 42nd Street

Both co-directors of King Kong appeared in the 1933 film as the pilots who finally killed him, because “We should kill the sonofabitch ourselves.”

Anton Cermak, a Czech immigrant and mayor of Chicago, was shot and killed during an apparent assassination attempt on President FDR. His last words to FDR before he passed: “I’m glad it was me instead of you.”

1933 Pop Culture History

After the Empire State Building opened in New York City in 1931, much of its office space went unrented. It was nicknamed the “Empty State Building” by New Yorkers and didn’t become profitable until 1950.

An expedition led by W. Douglas Burden to Komodo Island in 1926 yielded 12 preserved and 2 live Komodo Dragon specimens. This expedition is what inspired the 1933 movie King Kong. King Kong was the first over-the-top Sci-Fi Blockbuster Movie.

During prohibition, an exemption was made for whiskey prescribed by a doctor and sold through a pharmacy. The Walgreens pharmacy chain grew from 20 retail stores to almost 400 during this period, from 1920 to 1933.

The first soap box derby started in Dayton, Ohio.

The Eighteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution was repealed, allowing the sale and consumption of alcoholic drinks, and ending Prohibition. The 18th Amendment was the first (and only) constitutional amendment withheld a right from American citizens – the Constitution has traditionally protected individual rights.

Until 1933, Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade balloons were released into the air after the parade and would stay airborne above the city for as long as a week. A return address was stitched in some, and people who returned them received a $100 reward.

Executive Order 6102, a presidential executive order, was signed on April 5, 1933, by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, forbidding the American public from owning gold and forcing them to sell it to the government, effectively ending the feasibility of the gold standard.

Dagwood Bumstead from the comic Blondie was the heir to millions. He was disinherited when he married Blondie Boopadoop, a poor girl.

As someone who actively avoided any kind of attention, Paul Dirac wanted to refuse the Nobel Prize in 1933 to avoid publicity. He accepted it only when advised that, as the first person to refuse a Nobel Prize, the publicity would be even greater.

The Gallo (Ernest & Julio) Winery opened.

President Roosevelt named Frances Perkins secretary of labor, the first US female cabinet member.

The Thomas E. Wilson Company (later called Wilson Sporting Goods) introduced the R-90 sand wedge golf club.

1933 was the first time you could buy a ‘Betty Crocker’ cookbook.

Silent cinema star, Roscoe “Fatty” Arbuckle made a comeback deal after his scandal. He was signed by Warner Bros. to make a feature-length film, and said: “This is the best day of my life.” Later that night, he suffered a heart attack and died.

Richard Hollingshead opened the first movie, Drive-In in Camden, NJ.

Two kids from Cleveland, Ohio, Jerome Siegel and Joseph Shuster, had a little self-published science fiction fanzine called ‘Science Fiction’, and in issue #3, they had a story about a super-powered telepath who attempted to take over the world. A few years later, they evolved the Super-Man idea and brought it to National Allied Publications, which later became DC Comics. The character named Superman became the most popular fictional character of all time.

RIP, Scandals, Sad and Odd News

The song Gloomy Sunday, published by a Hungarian, Rezso Seress, in 1933, became known as the ‘Hungarian suicide song’ and was banned from radio when over 19 suicides were attributed to the song, including the composer himself. Of course, this may be an urban legend.

Rep. Wesley Lloyd proposed a constitutional amendment limiting personal wealth to $1,000,000.

Kiyoko Matsumoto committed suicide by jumping into a volcanic crater on the island of Oshima. Japan. This started a trend in Japan, and in the year after her death 944 other people (804 men and 140 women) leaped into the same crater

The USSR passed the Law of Three Spikelets during the 1932-33 famine to prosecute people for stealing even the smallest amount of food. A starving person with just 3 specks of grain in their pocket during the famine qualified as a thief of state-owned food, eligible for execution.

The Girl In Blue” – a mysterious, friendly visitor in Willoughby, Ohio, walked in front of a moving train on Dec. 24, 1933-despite not knowing who she was, the town donated funds to give her a head stone, and 3,000 locals came out to say goodbye.

The Reichstag Fire Decree was issued in 1933 and nullified many key civil liberties of German citizens, including free of expression, public assembly, and secrecy of the post & telephone. This decree remained in force during the Nazi era, allowing Hitler to rule under martial law.

The first ‘Nude Scene’ in a mainstream film is often credited to Hedy Lamarr in Extase (Ecstasy).

America’s most senior, decorated Marine, General Smedley Butler, told the House of Representatives that wealthy businessmen tried to recruit him to overthrow President Roosevelt in a coup and install a fascist government.

Firsts

U.S. News and World Report (1933-2010)

Newsweek began publication

The Habit

Reading Anthony Adverse by Hervey Allen

Popular Music Artists

The Biggest Pop Artists of 1933 include:
Don Bestor & His Orchestra, Bing Crosby, Eddy Duchin and His Orchestra, Duke Ellingon, Jan Garber and His Orchestra, Glen Gray and the Casa Loma Orchestra, Hal Kemp and His Orchestra, Wayne King and His Orchestra, Ted Lewis and His Band, Guy Lombardo and His Royal Canadians, Freddy Martin and His Orchestra , Clyde McCoy & His Orchestra, George Olsen and His Orchestra, Ray Noble and His Orchestra, Don Redman & His Orchestra, Leo Reisman and His Orchestra, Rudy Vallée & His Connecticut Yankees, Ethel Waters, Paul Whiteman & His Orchestra, Victor Young & His Orchestra

Charts based on Billboard music charts.

Popular Movies

42nd Street, The Bitter Tea of General Yen, Bombshell, Cavalcade, Dinner at Eight, Duck Soup, Footlight Parade, Gold Diggers of 1933, I’m No Angel, The Invisible Man, King Kong, Land Without Bread, Little Women, Morning Glory, The Private Life of Henry VIII, Queen Christina, She Done Him Wrong, Sons of the Desert
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