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'''[[Image:Hoooverville williamette.jpg|thumb|right|270px|Hooverville near [[Portland, Oregon]]]]
'''[[Image:Hoooverville williamette.jpg|thumb|right|270px|Hooverville near [[Portland, Oregon]]]]
A ''''''Hooverville'''''' was the popular name for [[shanty town]]s built by homeless people during the [[Great Depression]]. They were named after the President of the United States 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]].<ref>Hans Kaltenborn, ''It Seems Like Yesterday'' (1956) p. 88</ref>
A ''''''john levkulic'''''' was the popular name for [[shanty town]]s built by homeless people during the [[Great Depression]]. They were named after the President of the United States 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]].<ref>Hans Kaltenborn, ''It Seems Like Yesterday'' (1956) p. 88</ref>


Homelessness was present before the Great Depression, and [[hobo]]s and [[tramp]]s were common sights in the 1920s, but the economic downturn increased their numbers and concentrated them in urban settlements close to [[soup kitchen]]s run by charities. These settlements were often formed on empty land and generally consisted of tents and small [[shack]]s. Authorities did not officially recognize these Hoovervilles and occasionally removed the occupants for [[trespass]]ing on private lands, but they were frequently tolerated or ignored out of necessity. The [[New Deal]] enacted special relief programs aimed at the homeless under the [[Federal Transient Service]] (FTS), which operated from 1933-35.
Homelessness was present before the Great Depression, and [[hobo]]s and [[tramp]]s were common sights in the 1920s, but the economic downturn increased their numbers and concentrated them in urban settlements close to [[soup kitchen]]s run by charities. These settlements were often formed on empty land and generally consisted of tents and small [[shack]]s. Authorities did not officially recognize these Hoovervilles and occasionally removed the occupants for [[trespass]]ing on private lands, but they were frequently tolerated or ignored out of necessity. The [[New Deal]] enacted special relief programs aimed at the homeless under the [[Federal Transient Service]] (FTS), which operated from 1933-35.

Revision as of 18:17, 16 November 2011

Hooverville near Portland, Oregon

A 'john levkulic' was the popular name for shanty towns built by homeless people during the Great Depression. They were named after the President of the United States 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]

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 generally consisted of tents and small shacks. Authorities did not officially recognize these Hoovervilles and occasionally removed the occupants for trespassing on private lands, but they were frequently tolerated or ignored out of necessity. The New Deal enacted special relief programs aimed at the homeless under the Federal Transient Service (FTS), which operated from 1933-35.

Some of the men who were forced to live in these conditions possessed construction skills and were able to build their houses out of stone. Most people, however, resorted to building their residences out of wood from crates, cardboard, scraps of metal, or whatever materials were available to them. They usually had a small stove, bedding and a couple of simple cooking implements.

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 hitched to it because the owner could not afford fuel; in Canada, these were known as Bennett buggies, after the Prime Minister at the time.

After 1940 the economy recovered, unemployment fell, and shanty eradication programs destroyed all the Hoovervilles.[2]

Sites

  • Central Park, New York City: Scores of homeless families camped out at the Great Lawn at Central Park, then an empty reservoir.[3]
  • Riverside Park, New York City: A shantytown occupied Riverside Park at 72nd Street during the depression.[4]

Hoovervilles have often features in the popular culture, and still appear in editorial cartoons.[5] Movies like My Man Godfrey (1936) and Sullivan's Travels (1941) sometimes sentimentalized Hooverville life.[6]

  • 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.[7]
  • The musical Annie, has 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.[8]
  • 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 version of King Kong, directed by Peter Jackson, depicts the Hooverville in New York's Central Park at the beginning of the film.
  • The 2005 movie Cinderella Man also referenced the Central Park encampment.
  • Two episodes ("Daleks in Manhattan" and "Evolution of the Daleks") of the 2007 British science fiction television series Doctor Who depicted the Central Park Hooverville.
  • In the novel Bud, Not Buddy, set during the Great Depression, an early scene involves the police dismantling a Hooverville. Bud calls it "Hooperville".[11]
  • In John Steinbeck's famous novel The Grapes of Wrath, the Joad family briefly settles into a Hooverville in California.[12]
  • In Harry Turtledove's "Timeline-191" series of books, the equivalent of Hoovervilles in the United States and Confederate States are called Blackfordburghs and Mitcheltowns, respectively, after fictional Presidents Hosea Blackford of the US and Burton Mitchel of the CS.

References

  1. ^ Hans Kaltenborn, It Seems Like Yesterday (1956) p. 88
  2. ^ Steven L. Danver, Revolts, protests, demonstrations, and rebellions in American History (2010) p. 839
  3. ^ Gray, Christopher (29 August 1993). "http://www.nytimes.com/1993/08/29/realestate/streetscapes-central-park-s-hooverville-life-along-depression-street.html?scp=1&sq=Hooverville&st=cse". The New York Times. {{cite news}}: External link in |title= (help)
  4. ^ Vitello, Paul. "Why Listen to the Substitute? At 81, He Tells History Firsthand". The New York Times.
  5. ^ Nathan Silver, Lost New York (2000) p 258
  6. ^ Mark Caldwell, New York Night: The Mystique and Its History (2005) p 255
  7. ^ Saverio Giovacchini, Hollywood modernism: film and politics in the age of the New Deal (2001) p. 135
  8. ^ Cecil Michener Smith and Glenn Litton, Musical comedy in America (1981) p. 314
  9. ^ Home Improvement
  10. ^ Housing - Hooverville
  11. ^ Catherine Caldwell, Bud, Not Buddy: Study Guide and Student Workbook (2002) p 61
  12. ^ Kevin Starr, Endangered Dreams: The Great Depression in California (1997) p. 261

See Also

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