“After the 1929 stock market crash, did investors really jump out of windows”

[raccoon]

"Well, they probably did, but they probably didn't, at least not on October 24 or the even more catastrophic Black Tuesday, October 29. No less an authority than economist John Kenneth Galbraith addressed the subject in his book The Great Crash, 1929, first published in 1955. Studying U.S. death statistics, Galbraith found that while the U.S. suicide rate increased steadily between 1925 and 1932, during October and November of 1929 the number of suicides was disappointingly low."

http://www.straightdope.com/columns/020830.html

I had to look this up, after hear Mr. Howell say on "Gilligan's Island" that his grandfather did that. :silly:

[Adsos Letter]

1. Hey raccoon...

...I think you are probably right in your analysis. I took a college course on the period 1919-1945 and I seem to recall our professor saying that the "people jumping from windows thing" was mostly myth. Lots of fortunes were wiped out, but the market actually regained ground before begining a long slow descent (I think the low point was reached around 1934, but I could be wrong...going from memory here).

Not to say that noone did it in '29, but I think the numbers are more the subject of urban legend.

:D :hi:

[fudge stripe cookays]

2. I'm surprised my grandpa didn't.

He and my grandma were doing OK. They had 4 or 5 kids, a decent place, relatively new car, etc. Then my grandpa lost his job. They had to move to an inner city Chicago slum (a place my dad always delighted in calling "Cockroach Boulevard.")

They were poor, but they were happy. Somehow they managed to hold it together. My aunts have told me about some of the programs for free vaccinations for the kids, and the cheap entertainment a kid could find in Chicago in the early 30s.

The irony is that their old slummy neighborhood on Winnebago Avenue is now pricy Bucktown real estate. My how the years do change!