The Great Depression: The day the banks closed

KATHERINE YAMADA

Most ordinary Americans weren’t concerned when the stock market

crashed in 1929. After all, Wall Street was a whole continent away.

But, unlike the earlier panic of 1893, when California was just a

young state with a young economy, California now had close economic

ties to the rest of the nation. Soon, the Great Depression made its

way to California and to Glendale.

In March 1933, when President Franklin D. Roosevelt ordered the

nation’s banks to close their doors, Glendale came to a halt.

Sam Hobrecker was working for the Glendale Times the day the banks

closed and recalls those days vividly in his recently published book,

“Hobo’s Odyssey.”

Hobrecker had gone to a restaurant he regularly frequented and was

ready to order when he was told that checks would no longer be

accepted. Looking around, he realized that the restaurant was almost

empty on what would normally be a busy Monday. He left immediately,

in a hurry to get back to the newspaper office in Glendale.

“The next few days were spent in kind of a blur,” he wrote. “There

were many rumors and alleged factors to sort out for each edition.”

Most people reacted to the news with disbelief. Hobrecker came

across crowds standing in stunned silence in front of their bank,

reading the words posted across the front of the door: “Closed by

order of the President of the United States.”

At first, he continued, many stayed near their bank, waiting and

hoping that the doors would miraculously open and they could withdraw

their savings.

Business came to a halt and cash became almost nonexistent.

Men, many dressed in three-piece suits and ties, stood on street

corners and shook hands with anyone passing by, asking the question

on everyone’s lips, “Have you heard any news?”

Churches were crowded during that time of great worry, Hobrecker

remembered, as people gathered to pray and gain strength from each

other.

One of Hobrecker’s assignments during the Depression was to

interview the out-of-work who had lost their homes and taken refuge

in Glendale’s Hooverville near the Los Angeles River and the city

dump.

“Each Hooverville had their own mayor and governing officials, a

little town. Glendale’s was between the railroad and the river, just

below the end of the air field.”

Hobrecker would walk or drive down Broadway and cross over the

railroad tracks into the Jessup dairy. Next to the dairy was the dump

and Hooverville.

Once in the community, he would ask people for their opinions on

what caused the Depression.

“Everyone was so desperate. They wanted to find someone

responsible. One person claimed it was sunspots.”

The economy did not fully revive until the United States entered

World War II.

Hobrecker’s book, an account of his trek across the U.S. as a

young man, is available by special order at Borders or Barnes & Noble

or via the Internet on Amazon.com.

* KATHERINE YAMADA’S column runs every other Saturday. To contact

her, call features editor Joyce Rudolph at 637-3241. For more

information on Glendale’s history visit the Glendale Historical

Society’s web page: www.glendale historical.org; call the reference

desk at the Central Library at 548-2027; or visit the Special

Collections Room at Central (open by appointment only).