The stock market crash in 1929 ushered in the Great Depression of the 1930s. The U.S. economy tanked, but that didn’t stop Hollywood. The major movie studios churned out everything from screwball comedies and westerns to extravagant musicals, and fans paid 25 cents each to escape their troubles in front of the big screen. In this lecture, we explore—and see clips—of some of the greatest films. We also look beyond Hollywood to other aspects of the 1930s that impacted Angelenos. They include the growth of the Hispanic minority; the corruption in City Hall that led to the recall of Mayor Frank Shaw; and the fashions, food, and fads that caught the public’s attention.

Sharon Boorstin is a contributing writer for the Los Angeles Times, specializing in lifestyle, food and travel. In 2019 she won Visit California’s Eureka Award for Best Newspaper Travel Article. In the 1970s and ‘80s Sharon was the Restaurant Critic of the (late) Los Angeles Herald-Examiner, and in the ‘90s she edited the annual Gayot Guidebooks for Los Angeles and other cities. She also wrote for magazines including Bon Appetit, Smithsonian and Town & Country Travel. With her husband Paul, she wrote dozens of screenplays for feature films and television including Angel of Death (ABC) starring Jane Seymour. Her memoir/cookbook, “Let Us Eat Cake: Adventures in Food and Friendship” (Harper-Collins 2002), was a selection of the Pulpwood Queens Book Club. Raised in Seattle, Washington, Sharon moved to Los Angeles in 1966 after earning a California Lifetime Teaching credential at U.C. Berkeley. She taught high-school History, English and Social Studies in L.A. for 11 years.