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The 1930s were a decade of great political and economic turmoil. After the Wall Street Crash of 1929, the entire world was consumed by an economic downfall called the Great Depression, which led to widespread unemployment and poverty. As a result, authoritarian political movements emerged in several countries in South America and Europe. Notorious among them was Adolf Hitler's Third Reich in Germany, whose expansionist policy resulted in the outbreak of World War II a few months before the end of the decade. In between, Gandhi walked to the Arabian Sea in the Salt March, a civil war established an authoritarian dictatorship in Spain, the Hindenburg exploded over New Jersey, Amelia Earhart became the first female aviator to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean, and the Empire of Japan invaded China. (from left to right) Gandhi and his followers during the Salt March (March-April 1930); Japanese troops entering Manchuria (September 1931); the Hindenburg disaster (May 1937); German troo...

This week on "Film Friday" I bring you a cutesy little film that paired my favorite classic actress with one of the most dashing leading men of the Old Hollywood era. Theatrical release poster Directed by Alfred Santell, Having Wonderful Time (1938) tells the story of Teddy Shaw (Ginger Rogers), a hard-working office girl from the Bronx who consta ntly imagines herself as a sophisticated, well-read woman of the world. To escape the busy city life and the advances of her faithful but dull admirer, Emil Beatty (Jack Carson), whose interest in her is no longer returned, Teddy decides to take a vacation at a summer resort in the Catskill Mountains called Camp Kare-Free. Upon her arrival, she is offered a ride by Chick Kirkland (Douglas Fairbanks Jr.), a handsome law school graduate employed there as a waiter. Although he's polite, they get off to a bumpy start (and quite literally, too) after she scolds him for accidentally dropping her suitcase. Once at camp, Ted...