The Great Depression in Cartoons,
Part 8: Christmas 1931

Posted on Saturday, February 21, 2009, at 11:50 am, by Cadwalader Crabtree.

Faced with declining sales, Life struggled to survive the disastrous downturn its cartoonists were so busy chronicling. In December 1931 the magazine switched from a weekly to a monthly format. Although individual issues were thicker, the net result of the change was to cut the annual page output of the magazine by approximately half. As the Depression continued, the publishers also attempted to cut costs by reducing the quality of the magazine’s paper stock (a sacrifice more lamentable today than it probably seemed at the time). 

The December issue naturally included a number of cartoons on the subject of Christmas. All of them seem pretty straightforward.

Unfortunately, the signature on the first is impossible to make out.

The next two, however, are both by Ralph Fuller.

Followed by this one from Courtney Dunkel.

And finally this one by Bill Holman.

Don’t miss our next exciting installment, as Life turns away from the problem in 1932.