Vintage Photographs of New Yorkers Selling Apples During the Great Depression
“I know that people don’t really consider farming to be the most ‘respectable’ of professions, but when I found out today that Papa had tried to sell apples on the corner for 5 cents each, I felt really ashamed. We used to be fairly respectable corn farmers, and now we were practically begging for money. I didn’t say any of that, of course, I know it would make everything worse. Papa said that there were hundreds of other men that he saw selling apples too. I guess everyone is just struggling to survive in these horrible times.”
Back in the 1930s, for many people, the humble apple saved their lives in more ways than that. Thanks to the Great Depression, unemployment was at an all time high. Not only did this affect household incomes — it also spiked a rise in shame and self-loathing felt by men no longer able to be the breadwinners of the family.
The solution to that? The apple industry. With a surplus of apples available, the Apple Shippers’ Association decided to pitch in and help unemployed by selling crates of apples to them at low prices. These new apple vendors would then take to the streets and hawk their fruit at a marginal profit. That image eventually became an iconic portrait of the Depression, displaying the unexpectedly creative ways in which they countered it. Hurstville, being set during that same era, invites you to come find your version of that. It may not come in the form of an apple, but look hard enough or seek help from the right people, and the answer will come to you.
20 Amazing Vintage Photographs of Tent Camper Trailers in the 1920s
The modern mobile home came immediately after the first automobile was introduced. People had been carrying their homes around with them for centuries in the form of carriages, covered wagons, and vargos so it was only natural that these concepts be modified for automobile travel.
When a history-changing invention like the automobile is made it takes a few years before supporting industries pop up and that was certainly the case for mobile homes. 15 years after the first automobile was produced, they only company that was mass-producing anything resembling a ‘mobile home’ only offered a simple tent-in-a-box. If you wanted more than that, you build it yourself and many did just that.
The tent-in-a-box design was simple. A small wooden box, typically 2-3 foot in width and length, sat upon a single axle (usually from a salvaged car) and held a canvas tent and camping gear. It was crudely attached to the rear of the car and was cumbersome, to say the least.
Traveling long distances in a short time opened up a whole new world. The only problem was a lack of roadside amenities because it took a few years for that industry to catch on as well. In order to travel comfortably and securely, one had to have a place to sleep and that simple need is how the mobile home, as we know it, began.
14 Historical Photos That Show the Evolution of Television From the 1920s Through the 1970s
Despite its status as a device that defines the modern age, the television has its roots in the 19th century, when scientists found ways to transmit images and sound. Even the word “television,” combining Greek and Latin roots to mean “far-sight,” stems from the 1900 world’s fair.
Perhaps more than any other medium, TV has captured the hearts of people since first becoming available in the late 1920s. And while the power of television has only increased over time, its evolution over the past 80 years clearly illustrates how technology influences consumer behavior, while this change in consumption drives the TV industry to take on new forms that radically alter the way we experience the medium.
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| Dr E. F. Alexanderson of GE and RCA and inventor of the radio television process where a listener can see as well as listen to the broadcast, operating his 3 inch screen home television set, Schenectady, New York, January 14, 1928. (Photo by Underwood Archives/Getty Images) |
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| People watching a television set at Waterloo station, London, August 1936. (Photo by Fox Photos/Getty Images) |
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| Undated (circa 1940s) early family television time. (Photo by Archive Photos/Getty Images) |
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| Early days of television in Sweden, 1953. The aerial is mounted by two men in white coats. From the Landskrona Museum Collection. (Photo by IBL Bildbyra/Heritage Images/Getty Images) |
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| A family watching television in their home, circa 1955. (Photo by Archive Photos/Getty Images) |
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| A couple watching a portable TV in the living room. USA, circa 1960s. (Photo by H. Armstrong Roberts/Retrofile/Getty Images) |
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| Gina Lollobrigida watchers President Kennedy on a television set in her Rome villa, July 23, 1962 during live telecast from the U.S. to Europe via the Telstar satellite. The Italian actress left the set of her present movie to watch the program which included a portion of the President’s news conference, in Washington. (Photo by Jim Pringle/AP Photo) |
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| The first transmission with six monitors to Europe of television programmes from America via the Telstar satellite. 23rd July 1962. (Photo by Midge Aylward/Keystone/Getty Images) |
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| The Telstar satellite, designed by Bell Telephone Laboratories for relaying telephone calls, data messages and television signals, is shown in 1962. (Photo by AP Photo) |
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| With the start of pay television close in California, John Garrott installs a program selector unit on a television set in Los Angeles, California, July 23, 1964. (Photo by Don Brinn/AP Photo) |
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| Prototype VCR shown in the U.K. in 1968. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images) |
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| The new EVR system which allows the recording of television programmes which can then be watched at the owner’s discretion. The new Teleplayer has been produced in partnership with Rank Bush Murphy Ltd and EVR and has enormous potential. 21st September 1970. (Photo by Central Press/Getty Images) |
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| Roy H. Pollack, vice president and general manager of RCA Corporation consumer electronics, demonstrates a new video tape machine Introduced in New York, August 23, 1977. The recorder, intended for home use, will be priced at $1,000, and will be capable of handling cassettes that can record up to four hours of television programs. Cassettes now available record up to two hours. (Photo by AP Photo) |
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Bert Jett proudly stands in the yard of his home near Blue Creek, where he and his two brothers have installed a $7,800 satellite receiving dish so they can get better TV reception in Elkview, W.Va., July 14, 1981. The Jetts said they now can get nearly 60 stations around the globe and have their choice of four separate movie channels, as well as several Christian networks and most of the big city TV stations in this country. (Photo by AP Photo)
20 Vintage Photos Capture Daily Life at the Drive-In Theater, a Vanishing American PastimeIt’s been 80 years since a New Jersey auto-parts store manager named Richard Hollingshead Jr. hit upon the idea of a drive-in theater. The wonder of Hollingshead’s concept, of course — as with all of the world’s greatest, most inspired, most life-affirming inventions — is that, despite how obvious it seems in retrospect, no one had thought of it before. Or, if anyone did think of it before, they hadn’t bothered to get a patent on the idea, as Hollingshead did on May 16, 1933. And no one had the wherewithal to actually envision, build and then open to the public this modern marvel, as Hollingshead and three other investors did when they cut the ribbon on the world’s first drive-in movie theater in Camden, New Jersey, on June 6, 1933. Here, a series of photos from LIFE magazine celebrating the ingenious confluence of two of America’s abiding obsessions: movies and cars. At the height of their popularity in the 1950s and ’60s, there were roughly 4,000 drive-in theaters across the U.S.; today, that number is closer to 400, with more closing every year.
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