Bergman, Andrew Laurence. Depression America and Its Movies. University of Wisconsin: University of
Michigan Microfilms Inc, 1970.

Bergman offers a survey of how the film industry was affected by the Great Depression in
American history. He describes the changes that Hollywood underwent as a result of economic
crisis following the stock market crash in 1929. In addition to details of how general film-
making and production had to adjust to harder times during the Great Depression, Bergman
also notes the impact that the Great Depression had on the American public. For example,
the author explains how despite having less income to spend on leisurely pursuits, many
Americans started attending films in greater numbers during the Great Depression. This was in
no small part to the shifting cultural sentiments and attitudes of the time. Economic
hardship had a tremendous effect on how films were made and on who came to theaters to see
these movies.

Bergman's description of the movies produced during the years of the Great Depression
help to understand the immediate historical context that "The Philadelphia Story" was born
of. This perspective can be applied to how the film was influences by changes in the industry
as well as what was then popular with American audiences. In 1940 the United States was still
feeling the residual effects of the Great Depression and the movie industry could still
remember the harder times it had come across only a few years previous. Bergman explains that
1932 may have been the lowest point in Hollywood during the entire Great Depression; studios,
such as MGM were keenly aware of the financial risk that was taken with the production of
each film. This is an anxiety that should be kept in mind as an undercurrent that most likely
would have permeated behind the scenes in shooting "The Philadelphia Story". More importantly
perhaps is the statement that Americans wanted to see escapist films during this era. The
deprived public relished having a glimpse into the lives of the American over-privileged during
the Great Depression; the allure of the clothing, manner of speech, and general opulence of
the lives portrayed on-screen offered a temporary vacation from the dreary reality of the
unemployment lines. A chapter of Bergman's volume is titled "Federal Benevolence,
the Search for Authority, The Return of the Law, and Social Realism"; it reaffirms that
Americans were looking to have their values restored and moral codes re-validated during
this period. Watching members of the glamorous Philadelphia gentry celebrate a happy occasion
like a wedding would have offered an hour-and-a-half of escape from everyday life and a confirmation
that Americans were living a sound life.