If the post-2008 depression throws us back to the 1930s, will we get to wear the clothes and watch the same class of movie? Things in the real world may have been dire then but in popular culture it was a thrilling age of escapism. Comedies and musicals were the staple fare of Hollywood's golden age. The Grapes of Wrath , John Ford's searing film of John Steinbeck's Depression novel, did not come along until 1940.

In 1933, when Franklin Roosevelt was giving his "the only thing we have to fear is fear itself" inauguration speech, the most popular films included two Mae West comedies, I'm No Angel ("When I'm good I'm very good, but when I'm bad I'm better") and She Done Him Wrong , along with two musicals, Roman Scandals and 42nd Street . It was also the year of King Kong .