Weird and Wacky Facts About the 1930s
- Catherine Moscatt
- Oct 9, 2025
- 2 min read
During the Great Depression, unemployment surged to 23%. Comparatively, the recession of 2008 which hit some of us pretty hard had an unemployment rate of 1%.
This next tidbit will excite my boyfriend. His favorite hero, Superman, was invented. He continues to be the “most financially successful comic book character in American history” Personally I prefer Batman. He has the better villains. But I really did like Nicholas Hoult as Lex Luther in the latest Superman movie.
Some inventions included the ballpoint pen, photocopier, polaroid and nylon. I bet a photocopier from the thirties works better than the photocopier that we have now. Ruth Wakefield of Toll House Inn invented the chocolate chip cookie.
During this time The Little Engine That Could was published. I loved that book as a kid.
On April 18, 1930, the BBC announced that there was no news and played music instead. Can you imagine a world in which there is no news of any kind- political, celebrity, sports? Another question would we be better in a world without so much excess news? Although I don’t think playing music instead is really the answer.
Apparently there were identical quadruplets (Genain Qudruplets) and they all developed schizophrenia which indicated to doctors genetics are involved in some forms of mental illness (my grandmother had bipolar disorder and so do I)
When asked about the fact that he made more than in the President in 1930, baseball star Babe Ruth said “I know, but I had a better year”
The first Nancy Drew came out (“The Secret of The Old Clock”)
A popular fad for boys was who could sit in tree branches the longest. It doesn’t sound very fun or amusing but I guess i kept them occupied from other mischief until several boys fell out of trees and one broke his neck.
A woman (Mabel Wolf) showed up to a hospital complaining of pain in her stomach and her x-ray yielded some interesting and explanatory results. Apparently she had an engested an entire hardware while working there several years earlier. There was no less than 1,023 pieces of hardware in her stomach. I guess no one noticed she was essentially stealing from her place of employment.
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