watch it: 1939 Chevrolet ad, in Technicolor!

This was made to be shown at the 1939 World's Fair, in the Chevrolet sponsored exhibit.

As to the way they're dressed, it's only a bit out of line. There's a famous photograph from that year of folks at a ball game at Yankee stadium, and 90% of the men were wearing suits and ties.

This is an ad, and the folks are dressed nice, but the style of the times were such that to go visiting, people would put on their Sunday best.

Also, by 1939, the worst of the Dust Bowl years was over. A tremendous amount of our images of the 30's are from the early years of that decade. 1939 was the year our industry started building up for WWII, explicitly building armaments either for our army and navy, or to send to the allies.

Though the really scary statistic was that the GNP rose 7.9 percent--and unemployment fell to 17.2 percent, down from the 24.9 percent it had been at its height, when FDR went into office.

http://www.huppi.com/kangaroo/Timeline.htm