Modernizing Main Street

A New Form of Credit: The State Promotes Home Improvement, 1934–1954

“…slides, accompanied by a 16-inch record), "Better Housing News Flashes, " which were shown on thousands of cinema screens and supposedly seen by forty million people by 1936, and extensive advertising in consumer magazines and on the radio. 74 In Riverside, California, for example, the Chamber of Commerce helped mount a "Better Housing Campaign" that was piggy-backed onto a house-to-house property inventory. 67 Th e Better Housing campaign was launched on air by Administrator Moff att on August 15, 1934, and within about six months 45,000 radio broadcasts on 609 stations had carried the message everywhere.…”

“…slides, accompanied by a 16-inch record), "Better Housing News Flashes, " which were shown on thousands of cinema screens and supposedly seen by forty million people by 1936, and extensive advertising in consumer magazines and on the radio. 66 Radio was an especially eff ective medium since, in a nation where "thirty percent of us are unable to read a newspaper, " it delivered the widest cross section of the population: ownership of radio sets was booming from 32 percent of all households in 1929 to 82 percent by 1938, when more than 40 percent of families tuned in for evening broadcasts. 67 Th e Better Housing campaign was launched on air by Administrator Moff att on August 15, 1934, and within about six months 45,000 radio broadcasts on 609 stations had carried the message everywhere.…”

“…Th ey organized cavalcades to generate publicity, rented storefronts that became de facto "one-stop shopping center[s]" in order to pull in pedestrian traffi c, and rounded up dozens (and sometimes hundreds) of people to canvass. 74 In Riverside, California, for example, the Chamber of Commerce helped mount a "Better Housing Campaign" that was piggy-backed onto a house-to-house property inventory. It attracted "enormous publicity" in the local newspaper as canvassers noted conditions, distributed information about Title I loans, and urged householders to complete "pledge cards" that were to be sent to a "clearinghouse" that was fi nanced by local lumber and building companies.…”