Joe Dimaggio: The Great Depression

There have been many sports that were very well liked during The Great Depression such as baseball and horse racing. The sports were used to keep peoples minds off of all of the things that were wrong with the world. Many famous sports heros played there greatest games in the 1930s.

The movie Cinderella Man was about life in the Great Depression from a boxer's point of view. The focus of the movie was on the protagonist, James Braddock; a father who had to accept jobs on the docks and become a boxer again so he could earn money to buy food and pay the bills. The movie highlighted the conditions for the homeless, the trough in the economy, and the struggle to support a family. The movie was successful in being a true and accurate representation of the Great Depression.

The “Roaring Twenties” was a decade of American economy growth and consumerism following World War I. During this time period, Americans turned to sports as a form of entertainment and started to view athletes as stars. Among these athletes was a man named Lou Gehrig who played for the New York Yankees. Babe Ruth, a New York Yankee slugger, overshadowed Lou Gehrig for much of the twenties as he had a well known gift for hitting home runs. In addition, he best represented the ideology of the “Roaring Twenties” for he was a gambler, drinker, and partier (Evans 2016).

Franklin Roosevelt said, “When you come to the end of your rope, tie a knot and hang on,” and it directly relates to the Great Depression. People thought that because of this huge downturn that they would not survive but they had to “tie a knot in their rope,” and continue to try and survive. The great depression was a time of horror and failure. The giant Stock Market crashes of the 1930’s triggered this major blow to the nations economy. This major devastation also leads many families into terrible poverty. In the movie Cinderella Man the main character Jim Braddock went through a ton of devastating events in his family during this time. Jim is an easy person to relate to and we see in the movie what his life was like during this

Former President Calvin Coolidge said, “In other periods of depression, it has always been possible to see some things which were solid and upon which were solid and upon which you could base hope, but as I look about, I now see nothing to give ground to hope- nothing of man” and to some extent it was true. Americans lost all hope in life entering a deep dark tunnel with no light in the end. The Great Depression was not something that appeared out of thin air; it grew over time like a tumor and eventually plagued America with an excessive disease. No decade was more terrifying in the twentieth century than the 1930s. The stock market crashing, due to people buying stocks on load, the debts from WWI farmers and consumers in deep debt, and

The Great Depression had resulted in a lot of people suffering. The horrifying event lasted from 1929 to 1939. It was the worst economic downturn in history. The Great Depression happened in October 1929 when the stock market crashed. It had wiped out millions of investors and sent Wall Street into panic. In the movie “Cinderella Man,” it tells the story of James Braddock, a boxer, and his struggles throughout the depression. It shows him steady on his feet in the 1920’s, suffering from the outcome of the depression, and then how he got back on his feet. “Cinderella Man” portrays the struggles of the Great Depression through James Braddock’s harsh complications.

     Joseph Paul DiMaggio was born on November 25, 1914. His parents were Giuseppe Paolo DiMaggio and Rosalie DiMaggio. He had three brothers and three sisters. His brothers were Michael DiMaggio, Tom DiMaggio, and Vince DiMaggio. His sisters were Dominic, Nellie, and Marie DiMaggio. His father was a fisherman, and his family was poor. They lived in an old, small shack. Vince DiMaggio dropped out of high school and turned his back on fishing. He worked

Heroes and Villains changed a part of history from 1920 to 1940 in America. During that time baseball became a popular sport. One of the heroes that impacted baseball was Joe DiMaggio. We should all be like Joe he changed an event in life and also changed baseball history.

Over five thousand banks closed and huge numbers of businesses, unable to get money, closed too. Those that continued laid off employees and cut the wages of those who remained, again and again. Industrial production fell by 50 percent, and by 1933 perhaps 15 million...were out of work” (Zinn). This description by Howard Zinn really paints a picture of the turmoil that was occurring in the US during the depression. The depression caused people to be afraid of the future because of all the uncertainty that came with it. This was especially true for Joe Rantz. Joe came from an extremely poor family and had been hit hard by the depression. He knew that if he wanted to rise above the depression and the sad life he lived, he would have to make the cut for the University of Washington crew team. Joe knew all too well that “failing at this rowing business would mean, at best, returning to a small, bleak town on the Olympic Peninsula with nothing ahead of him but the prospect of living alone in a cold, empty, half‐built house” (Brown 13). It was this that motivated Joe and it was this that pushed him to succeed. The Great Depression sparked the fear of an uncertain future into Joe, which is demonstrated by Brown in the quote,”Whether you were a banker or a baker, a homemaker or homeless, it was with you night and day‐‐‐a terrible, unrelenting uncertainty about the future, a feeling that the ground could drop out from under you for good at

John Joseph Gotti, Jr. was born on October 27, 1940. He was the fifth child of eleven children. His parents were John J. Gotti Sr. and Fannie Gotti. John Gotti's father was believed to be a hardworking immigrant from the Neapolitan section of Italy, though Gotti would later describe his father as a New Jersey native who has never set foot in Italy and never worked a day in his life to provide for the family. The Gotti family grew up in the slums of the South Bronx. Although Gotti denies it, his father worked hard to move them out of the poor neighborhoods. John J. Gotti Sr., after much perseverance, later moved his family to the Sheepshead Bay neighborhood. However, after living in Sheepshead Bay for about a year, the Gotti

Joe DiMaggio was one of the most famous baseball player in the Yankees. DiMaggio had an outstanding 56 game hitting streak, in which it still stands. He was a three time MVP winner and an All-Star in all of hi 13 seasons. DiMaggio went to harvard. He enlisted on February 17, 1943. His parents and among others were named “enemy aliens”. Joe was married to Dorothy Arnold in 1939 and then Marilyn Monroe in 1954. DiMaggio made many achievements in his time playing baseball.

Cecchetti, Stephen G. "Understanding the Great Depression: Lessons for Current Policy ." Monetary Economics (1997): 1-26.

In 1929 the stock market crashes due to an unstable economy, over speculation and Government policies. Many people think that the stock crash was to blame for the Great Depression but that is not correct. Both the crash and depression were the result of problems with the economy that were still underneath society 's minds. The depression affected people in a series of ways: poverty is spreading causing farm distress, unemployment, health, family stresses and unfortunately, discrimination increases. America tended to blame Hoover for the depression and all the problems. When the 1932 election came people weren’t very fond of Hoover, but Roosevelt on the other hand introduced Happy Days and everyone loved that idea.

The world had faced two main economic problems. The first one was the Great Depression in the early of 20th Century. The second was the recent international financial crisis in 2008. The United States and Europe suffered severely for a long time from the great depression. The great depression was a great step and changed completely the economic policy making and the economic thoughts. It was not only an economic situation bit it was also miserable making, made people more attention and aggressive until they might lose their lives. All the society was frightened from losing money, work and stable. In America the housing market was the main factor of the great depression. A crisis of liquidity appeared in the banks forming a credit crunch. This period was influenced by over extended stock market shortage of water in the south and over trusting. The American government put down some regulations to control the productions which were essential for the war.

“personal assertion of existential meaning in a universe of potential cosmic meaninglessness” (Mast, 246). In the adventure films and Westerns, heroes are willing to challenge authority for their personal beliefs and feelings. They take actions based on individual beliefs, definitions of right and wrong, and the urge to complete their personal goals and dreams. The helpless antiheroes in screwball comedies present the situation during the Great Depression from another aspect. They cannot make choices themselves because of others’ intervention, and unfortunate things just happen to them. The denial of humanness is one feature of antiheroes. Powerlessness of antiheroes in the ridiculous world definitely reflects the desperate situation faced by the Americans during the Great Depression.