Hooverville

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jump to: navigation, search
Hooverville near Portland, Oregon

A Hooverville was the popular name for shanty towns built by homeless men during the Great Depression. They were named after the President at the time, Herbert Hoover, because he allegedly let the nation slide into depression. The term was coined by Charles Michelson, publicity chief of the Democratic National Committee.[1] The name Hooverville has also been used to describe the tent cities commonly found in modern-day America.

Homelessness was present before the Great Depression, and hobos and tramps were common sights in the 1920s, but the economic downturn increased their numbers and concentrated them in urban settlements close to soup kitchens run by charities. These settlements were often formed on empty land and consisted of jury rigged shacks and tents. Authorities did not officially recognize these Hoovervilles and occasionally removed the occupants for technically trespassing on private lands, but they were frequently tolerated out of necessity. The New Deal had special relief programs aimed at the homeless, the Federal Transient Service (FTS), which operated 1933-35.

Some of the men who were forced to live in these conditions possessed building skills and were able to build their houses out of stone. Most people, however, resorted to building their residences out of box wood, cardboard, and any scraps of metal they could find, together with a stove, bedding and some cooking utensils.

Most of these unemployed residents of the Hoovervilles used public charities or begged for food from those who had housing during this era. Democrats coined other terms, such as "Hoover blanket" (old newspaper used as blanketing) and "Hoover flag" (an empty pocket turned inside out). "Hoover leather" was cardboard used to line a shoe with the sole worn through. A "Hoover wagon" was an automobile with horses tied to it because the owner could not afford gasoline; in Canada, these were known as Bennett buggies, after the Prime Minister.

Contents

[edit] Notable Hoovervilles

[edit] In popular culture

  • In Sullivan's Travels, a 1941 comedy film written and directed by Preston Sturges, John L. Sullivan, a wanderlust movie director, played by Joel McCrea, visits a Hooverville and accidentally becomes a genuine tramp.
  • In the musical Annie, there is a song called "We'd Like to Thank You, Herbert Hoover," which takes place in a Hooverville beneath the 59th Street Bridge. In the song, the chorus sings of the hardships they now suffer because of the Great Depression and their contempt for the former president.
  • In 1987 the Liverpool group The Christians had a British hit with the song "Hooverville (And They Promised Us The World)" .
  • During a temporary housing crisis[9], the comic strip Piled Higher and Deeper referred to a fictional solution to the resulting housing crisis at Stanford University as "Hooverville" due to its proximity to Stanford's Hoover Tower.[10]
  • The 2005 movie Cinderella Man also referenced the Central Park encampment.
  • In the 2005 version of King Kong, directed by Peter Jackson, the Hooverville in New York's Central Park is depicted at the beginning of the film.
  • Two episodes of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who depicted the Central Park Hooverville. The episodes, "Daleks in Manhattan" and "Evolution of the Daleks," were broadcast on April 21 and April 28, 2007. The most commonly used motto of its inhabitants was "This is as far as a man can fall."
  • The novel Bud, Not Buddy is set in the Great Depression, and an early scene involves a Hooverville being dismantled by the police. Bud calls it "Hooperville."
  • In the 1988 movie They Live, Nada, played by Roddy Piper settled into a Hooverville.
  • In John Steinbeck's famous novel The Grapes of Wrath, the Joad family settles into a Hooverville in California.
  • On the faux-news website Fark, a new term was coined, "Shruburb", a reference to George W. Bush.

[edit] Bibliography

  • Anderson, Nels. On Hobos and Homelessness (1st ed. 1923, reprint 1998) on the 1920s
  • Crouse, Joan M. The Homeless Transient in the Great Depression: New York State, 1929–1941. (1986).
  • Gold, Christina Anne Sheehan. Hoovervilles: Homelessness and Squatting in California during the Great Depression, PhD dissertation U. of California, Los Angeles 1998 59(2): 596-A. DA9823494 373p.
  • Kusmer, Kenneth L. Down and Out, On the Road: The Homeless in American History. 2002.
  • Reed, Ellery F. "Federal Transient Program: An Evaluative Survey, May to July 1934." 1934.
  • Wickenden, Elizabeth "Reminiscences of the Program for Transients and Homeless in the Thirties." in On Being Homeless: Historical Perspectives, edited by Rick Beard. 1987.

[edit] External links

[edit] Notes and references

  1. ^ Hans Kaltenborn, It Seems Like Yesterday (1956) p. 88
  2. ^ Martin G. Towey, "Hooverville: St. Louis Had the Largest." Gateway Heritage 1980 1(2): 2-11
  3. ^ Streetscapes: Central Park's 'Hooverville'; Life Along 'Depression Street'
  4. ^ Marching on History
  5. ^ Butler, Smedley (2003) [1935]. War is a Racket. Feral House. ISBN 978-0922915866. 
  6. ^ Hoovervilles in Seattle
  7. ^ Cities Deal With a Surge in Shantytowns
  8. ^ Sacramento gets its own shantytown
  9. ^ Home Improvement
  10. ^ Housing - Hooverville

[edit] External links

Personal tools