Column: In the early ’30s, Hollywood’s ‘dictator craze’ offered a startling alternative to democracy

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Column: In the early ’30s, Hollywood’s ‘dictator craze’ offered a startling alternative to democracy

“The dictator craze,” they called it. In the worst of the Great Depression, a time of 25% unemployment, some called for an American-style dictatorship. Democracy wasn’t working very well, time for a change, argued the American Legion veteran’s organization: In a 1932 resolution, it declared the “present situation” too threatening for “existing political methods.” Some in the media echoed the sentiment. Barron’s magazine acknowledged the paradox …