1930s

Behind the Scenes: Gone With the Wind (1939)

Behind the Scenes: Gone With the Wind (1939)

Gone with the Wind is a 1939 American epic historical romance film adapted from Margaret Mitchell’s Pulitzer-winning 1936 novel. Set in the 19th-century American South, the film tells the story of Scarlett O’Hara, the strong-willed daughter of a Georgia plantation owner, from her romantic pursuit of Ashley Wilkes, who is married to his cousin, Melanie Hamilton, to her marriage to…
City life in Belgium (1934)

City life in Belgium (1934)

Berit Wallenberg (1902–1995) was a Swedish archaeologist and art historian. She began photographing as a teenager and she always brought her camera on the many travels she made in Sweden and abroad, sometimes with her family or with other students, sometimes on her own and under modest conditions. The main purpose of her travels was to study art, architecture and…
Werewolf of London (1935)

Werewolf of London (1935)

Werewolf of London is a 1935 Horror film starring Henry Hull and produced by Universal Pictures. This movie represents the first attempt by Hollywood to bring werewolf mythology to the big screen. Mannered and stylized, it contains some intriguing ideas about the nature of hybridization – and a very simian werewolf. It’s most significant for the way in which it…
Vintage: Mug Shots of Al Capone (1930s)

Vintage: Mug Shots of Al Capone (1930s)

On March 27, 1929, as Al Capone left a Chicago courtroom after testifying to a grand jury investigating violations of federal prohibition laws, Capone was arrested by FBI agents on charges of having committed contempt of court by feigning illness to avoid an earlier appearance. In May 1929, Capone was sentenced to a prison term in Philadelphia, having been convicted…
Manchuria / Northeast Asia in 1930s

Manchuria / Northeast Asia in 1930s

Manchuria is a modern name given to a large geographic region in Northeast Asia. Depending on the definition of its extent, Manchuria usually falls entirely within China, or is sometimes divided between China and Russia. The region is now usually referred to as Northeast China.
London in the Blackout (1939)

London in the Blackout (1939)

Even before World War II began, the British Air Ministry had predicted that the United Kingdom would be bombed at night by German air forces. One of the very few precautions the nation could take was the elimination of man-made light. In July 1939 – two months before the declaration of war – the British government distributed Public Information Leaflet…
The 1934 floods in Los Angeles

The 1934 floods in Los Angeles

The Montrose flood, as the calamity soon came to be called, took at least 45 lives, destroyed about 100 homes and turned the little community into a mud-filled, barren landscape, said local historian Art Cobery, who has become an expert on the catastrophe and its aftermath. via LA Times
Vintage: King Kong (1933)

Vintage: King Kong (1933)

Merian C Cooper, the visionary behind the chest-thumping giant gorilla atop the Empire State, was a remarkable man. An old school adventurer, he could list World War I flying ace, POW, journalist, explorer, airline owner and Oscar-nominated documentary-maker on his resume before he came to make King Kong, and he continued his adventuresome ways until his death in 1973. He…
Vintage: Poland during Interwar period (1918-1939)

Vintage: Poland during Interwar period (1918-1939)

The History of interwar Poland comprises the period from the re-recreation of the independent Polish state in 1918, until the joint Invasion of Poland by Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union in 1939 at the onset of World War II. The two decades of Poland’s sovereignty between the world wars are known as the Interbellum.
Vintage: Moscow Subway Construction (1930s)

Vintage: Moscow Subway Construction (1930s)

In 1932 the plan for the first line was approved, and on March 21, 1933 the Soviet government approved a plan for 10 lines with a total route length of 80 km. They were working 40 meters deep under the ground to make a huge palace with big and spacious halls, wide corridors. New methods and equipment, previously unknown, were applied…
Vintage: Dracula (1931)

Vintage: Dracula (1931)

Dracula is a 1931 vampire-horror film directed by Tod Browning and starring Bela Lugosi as the title character. The concept of Dracula is taken from the stageplay as opposed to the novel, and the results are highly theatrical. Lugosi laughs evilly throughout; no wonder, his depiction of the Count-as-seducer is aeons removed from the feral creature represented in Nosferatu and…
Tod Browning’s Freaks (1932)

Tod Browning’s Freaks (1932)

Freaks is a rarity, a horror film that horrifies rather than frightens. It was slated on its release in 1932, has been blamed for the downhill career trajectories thereafter of the key players, and was banned in many countries for more than thirty years. Yet in 1994 it was selected for the National Film Registry’s archives, and now enjoys both…
Shanghai postcards from 1930s

Shanghai postcards from 1930s

For centuries a major administrative, shipping, and trading town, Shanghai grew in importance in the 19th century due to European recognition of its favorable port location and economic potential. The city was one of five opened to foreign trade following the British victory over China in the First Opium War while the subsequent 1842 Treaty of Nanking and 1844 Treaty…
Swedish life in the 1930s

Swedish life in the 1930s

Einar Erici was a skilful amateur photographer. His main motifs were churches and church organs, according to his field of science. The photos were taken during the first half of the 20th century on his travels across Sweden. Most of them are from the provinces of Gotland and Uppland. However, main focus of the set will be on another and…