WHILE TECHNICALLY not a Halloween photo, our Throwback Thursday Editor deemed this one sufficiently macabre to serve the purpose. The photo was taken on Walton Field during “Old Home Week” in 1934, at the height of the Great Depression. The photo depicts the climax of a skit in which “D.E. Pression” (played by Denton Locke) is placed in a coffin by “P.R. Osperity” (played by William Bliss) and a team of men representing Depression-era government relief agencies like the Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA), the Works Progress Administration (WPA) and the National Recovery Administration (NRA). Playing the roles of the relief agencies were Clark Sawyer, Samuel Warner, Roland Bliss, Charles Seavey and Donald Winkler. “The feature was unusual in its makeup,” the Item observed at the time, “but once the drama got underway there was no doubt as to its purpose and the little sketch added a novel note to the afternoon’s program.”
