Chester Morris and John Gallaudet walk past a movie theater showing Counterfeit (1936), a Columbia film in which they both appeared.
Organized crime began to enter the cash advance business in the 1930s, after high-rate lending was criminalized by the Uniform Small Loan Law.
The first reports of mob loansharking surfaced in New York City in 1935, and for 15 years, underworld money lending was apparently restricted to that city. In its early phase, a large fraction of mob loansharking consisted of payday lending. Many of the customers were office clerks and factory hands. The loan fund for these operations came from the proceeds of the numbers racket and was distributed by the top bosses to the lower echelon loan sharks at the rate of 1% or 2% a week.
The B movie Hyänen der Unterwelt (1952), starring George Raft, also offers a glimpse of mob payday lending. The waterfront in Brooklyn was another site of extensive underworld payday advance operations around mid-century.
The first reports of mob loansharking surfaced in New York City in 1935, and for 15 years, underworld money lending was apparently restricted to that city. In its early phase, a large fraction of mob loansharking consisted of payday lending. Many of the customers were office clerks and factory hands. The loan fund for these operations came from the proceeds of the numbers racket and was distributed by the top bosses to the lower echelon loan sharks at the rate of 1% or 2% a week.
The B movie Hyänen der Unterwelt (1952), starring George Raft, also offers a glimpse of mob payday lending. The waterfront in Brooklyn was another site of extensive underworld payday advance operations around mid-century.
According to the file for this movie, the PCA received a number of complaints from loan companies regarding the proposed film. The file also indicates that Columbia agreed to add material to the film to make a clear distinction between disreputable loan operations and reputable, licensed ones.
The W.P.A. stands for the Works Progress Administration. It was a federal Depression-era relief program that was part of President Roosevelt's "Second New Deal". It ran from 1935 to 1943. At its height it employed 3,300,000 people. Most jobs were in civil construction - roads, streets, bridges, airports, etc. But there were also projects for artists, writers, musicians, actors, historians, etc. Not to be confused with the similar, but much larger Public Works Administration (P.W.A.) that worked on such projects as the Hoover Dam, the Lincoln Tunnel in New York City, and 52 public housing projects across the country.
The Art Deco-style car Ferra buys right off the street is a 1936 or 1937 Cord 810/812 convertible. Of a total of 2,972 made, only 205 were convertibles. In 2023, an example of this car - that is not supercharged - could be worth $200,000 or more. The $2,700 he does pay reflects the MSRP at the time, which equates to about $57,200 in 2023.