Roaring Twenties and the Depression
The postwar era of Prohibition and speakeasies was a time of new hairstyles, nightclubs, flappers, jazz, and fun. The arts flourished during the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s, and Harlem became the hub of jazz in the city.
Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong, and Paul Whiteman and his 30-piece band, the Kings of Jazz, drew crowds uptown. Establishments like the Cotton Club (still operating), Roseland (also alive and well), and the Savoy Ballroom flourished.
Broadway shows were all the rage, and the classic Showboat opened in 1927. The New York Yankees were the talk of the world, with a newfound hero, Babe Ruth, picked up from the rival Boston Red Sox. The Yankees won 25 world championships through-out the century, far more than any other major league baseball team.
FAST FACT
Very quietly, without any great fanfare, a small experimental television station, the world's first — W2XAB — was set up in 1928.
Bottomed Out
The fun, dancing, and revelry that marked the Roaring Twenties came to a crashing halt with the stock market crash of 1929. The city fell into the Great Depression. The government funded public projects that required lots of workers. As a result, the 1930s saw another construction boom.
When the Empire State Building was completed on April 11, 1931, it was the world's biggest office building. Soon after, work began on Rockefeller Center and the Waldorf-Astoria.
However, while the city surged in some areas, such as development, it was still losing money. By 1932, New York was nearly $2 billion in arrears, a debt not matched by the rest of the country put together. Some 164 bread lines were not enough to feed the troubled city's hungry.
Mayor LaGuardia Steps In
The city needed a take-charge mayor, and in 1934, cuddly, unorthodox Fiorello LaGuardia (known as “Little Flower”) stepped into the office he would hold for 11 years. Despite his appearance, he was tough and ready to turn around the city he loved.
LaGuardia inherited a $30 million deficit, with only $31 million left from a federal government loan that was set to run out just eight months after he took the office. LaGuardia instituted sales tax and utility tax programs, the first of a series of measures that would pull the city out of its financial crisis over the coming years. He also cracked down on crime, starting with the arrest of the city's most notorious mobster, Lucky Luciano.
LaGuardia cleaned up the city and put welfare recipients to work. LaGuardia Airport is fittingly named after the man who argued for a commercial airport within the city limits. A statue of LaGuardia stands sentinel over a street in Greenwich Village that also bears his name.
RAINY DAY FUN
E. L. Doctorow, a Pulitzer Prize — winning author and native New Yorker, wrote a novel about New York titled World's Fair. Robert Caro's classic tale of New York politics, The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the Fall of New York, details the career of New York's legendary parks commissioner.
Construction Projects Continued
Despite the financial difficulties of the early 1930s, construction never stopped. Thousands of families moved into new housing projects, the subway lines expanded, and construction of New York City Municipal Airport, later renamed LaGuardia, began.
Helping to build the city was the ever-aggressive and highly controversial Robert Moses, a parks commissioner with a mission. Moses drew criticism for ousting tenants from their land to build 5,000 acres worth of parks, and he set up more than 250 playgrounds. One of the parks, Flushing Meadows in Corona, Queens, was created from a garbage dump for the fabulous 1939 World's Fair.
To help make Queens and the World's Fair more easily accessible, the Triborough Bridge and Midtown Tunnel were constructed, and New York City Municipal Airport opened. The fair was a huge economic boon for the city.
