This post is part of the Classic Movie History Project Blogathon being hosted by Movies Silently (1915-1926), Silver Screenings (1927-1938) and Once Upon a Screen (1939-1950).
Taking a look at the award winners and other lists of honored films from 1931 is mostly underwhelming. RKO's Cimarron not only won the Academy Award for Best Picture that year, it also comfortably topped the year-end Film Daily poll and took home Photoplay's Gold Medal Award for the year. While the retroactive favorite for the best film of 1931 is Chaplin's City Lights, you don't have to look much further than the trade ad to the right to see how Cimarron best scored with contemporary viewers and critics.
Cimarron didn't just talk, it swept across time to tell an epic story in a way that other talkies just weren't doing yet. While the first craze for musicals died out with the 1920s what made the films of 1931 stand-out over those of 1930 were all of the new stars. They weren't yet in the best films very often, but they usually put a lot of effort into elevating titles that might otherwise be forgotten. As Film Daily pointed out in a year-end summary published Christmas Eve of that year, Hollywood continued to raid Broadway, but now the movies were scooping up young unknown theatrical talent on the cheap. Some would become legends.
Film Daily and Photoplay information and images sourced from the Media History Digital Library.
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Along with that wealth of new talent Hollywood still boasted several holdovers, such as Beery, who had been on screen for years and had been stars of the Silent Screen. Beery was one of the most unlikely stars of the period, enjoying his greatest success in over a decade with MGM, a peak of stardom he shared with an even more unlikely stage and screen veteran, Marie Dressler. She spent 1931 alongside past co-star Polly Moran in another pair for MGM, Reducing and Politics.
What originally attracted me to 1931 were the various movie cycles that steamrolled across the calendar, each new release seemingly topping what came before it in terms of quality, especially quality of dialogue and just as often the improved pace of action. Perhaps no two movies are more associated with 1931 than Universal's twin horror classics, Dracula and Frankenstein, but after poring over all of the releases of that year they just didn't have a lot of company yet.
While it was a strong year for movies about the newspaper business, with entries such as Paramount's Scandal Sheet and Warner's Five Star Final, the top newspaper film was Lewis Milestone's production of The Front Page for United Artists. It wound up being one of the four nominated films that Cimarron beat out for that Academy Award, and it's the pick that most catches the eye when looking over those 1931 nominees today. Over at Film Daily, The Front Page finished just a couple of dozen votes ahead of Five Star Final for the year's sixth best film on their chart.
But it was the gangster cycle which roared through 1931 producing more high quality movies than the other groupings and claiming its own pair of classics, Little Caesar and The Public Enemy, in the process. Gangster movies had been popular long before talkies, though Warner Bros. latest pair more immediately spun from their own The Doorway to Hell the previous Fall. A sentimental favorite came in the Summer of '31 when Little Caesar's Edward G. Robinson starred in Smart Money for the studio with The Public Enemy's James Cagney cast as his underling. Walter Huston tried to put gangsters away in The Star Witness before doing his best to hide his true occupation of crime boss from daughter Loretta Young in The Ruling Voice, though his best gangster movie came early the following year, back on the side of law and order for MGM in The Beast of the City.
MGM tried to go big into organized crime with The Secret Six in 1931, but despite an all-star cast including old-timers Beery and Lewis Stone with newcomers Clark Gable and Jean Harlow, it just didn't measure up to anything coming from Warner Bros. Gable, a reporter in The Secret Six, fared better as a criminal himself in titles such as A Free Soul and as the bootlegger in Dance, Fools, Dance with Joan Crawford. Most menacing of all, perhaps, for Gable in 1931 was his Nick the chauffeur in Night Nurse--for William A. Wellman at Warner Bros., of all places.
Paramount contributed a gem to the genre with City Streets, which saw hayseed Gary Cooper join the mob after girlfriend Sylvia Sidney has to serve time for protecting sleazy step-father Guy Kibbee. Plenty of menace from a surprisingly nasty Paul Lukas and good stuff from Wynne Gibson as his moll as well. Rouben Mamoulian directed this one adapted from Dashiell Hammett.
A Film Daily headline in July claimed "Gangster and Sexy Pictures Washed Up," but despite this poll of a hundred leading exhibitor leaders and theater owners, the gangster and sexy pictures kept on coming.
Switching to sex, no woman fell as hard or as often on screen as Barbara Stanwyck, who split her time between Warner Bros. and Columbia that year in Illicit, Ten Cents a Dance, Night Nurse and The Miracle Woman. Those last two films, Night Nurse for Warner Bros. and The Miracle Woman for Columbia, premiered a day apart on the calendar, August 7 and 8 that Summer. Is it possible to pack more of a wallop than that?
Constance Bennett and Helen Twelvetrees were playing similar parts at RKO, while Sally Eilers and Elissa Landi did so for Fox. Miriam Hopkins, Claudette Colbert, Kay Francis and Sylvia Sidney kept running into trouble for Paramount, as did Marlene Dietrich, who only appeared in one film that year, Dishonored for Josef von Sternberg. MGM boasted heavy-hitters Joan Crawford, Norma Shearer and Greta Garbo, who fell and rose right in the title of Susan Lenox (Her Fall and Rise) before finishing out the year as Mata Hari.
One and Done: Back to Broadway for Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne.
Another trend for 1931 that I did not immediately notice was a movement away from remakes, as studios had been doing over several bought and paid for properties that had previously been made as silent films. Instead, freshly purchased literary properties were adapted for the screen. Several of the movies already mentioned began as novels or theatrical properties: Cimarron, Dracula, Frankenstein, Little Caesar originated in book form, while The Front Page most famously came from Broadway, along with another huge screen hit of 1931, Street Scene from United Artists. According to Film Daily over 150 books, modern and classic, were adapted for the screen in 1931.
A favorite adaptation from 1931.
1931 stands as a true changing of the guard. Many silent stars survived: Garbo, Shearer, Crawford, Janet Gaynor, William Powell, Warner Baxter and Richard Dix, to name a handful. Others disappeared either into retirement or obscurity. Some of the holdovers would continue to have long careers, but they would share their fans and their billing with many of those newer names, such as Gable, Cagney and Tracy and Harlow, Stanwyck and Colbert.
This post is part of the Classic Movie History Project Blogathon being hosted by Movies Silently (1915-1926), Silver Screenings (1927-1938) and Once Upon a Screen (1939-1950).
Major Film Releases of 1931
Following is a list containing most of the key film releases by the major Hollywood studios for 1931. The date of release is typically the first date given on the IMDb with, for example, Dracula's February 12 New York premier taking precedence over its February 14 nationwide premier. The studio following each title in parenthesis is the distributing studio. For example, The Front Page was a Caddo Company production from Lewis Milestone that was released through United Artists. Most, but not all, First National films were released through parent company Warner Bros.
Sat, Jan 3 - REDUCING (MGM)
Sat, Jan 3 - THE CRIMINAL CODE (Columbia)
Sat, Jan 17 - OTHER MEN'S WOMEN (Warner Bros.)
Sat, Jan 17 - THE GANG BUSTER (Paramount)
Sun, Jan 25 - LITTLE CAESAR (First National)
Sat, Jan 31 - SCANDAL SHEET (Paramount)
Sat, Jan 31 - THE LAST PARADE (Columbia)
Sun, Feb 1 - FIGHTING CARAVANS (Paramount)
Mon, Feb 2 - RESURRECTION (Universal)
Sat, Feb 7 - DANCE, FOOLS, DANCE (MGM)
Sun, Feb 8 - MILLIE (RKO Radio)
Mon, Feb 9 - CIMARRON (RKO Radio)
Thu, Feb 12 - DRACULA (Universal)
Sat, Feb 14 - FIFTY MILLION FRENCHMEN (Warner Bros.)
Sat, Feb 14 - ILLICIT (Warner Bros.)
Sat, Feb 21 - STOLEN HEAVEN (Paramount)
Sat, Feb 21 - THE SOUTHERNER aka THE PRODIGAL (MGM)
Sun, Feb 22 - KEPT HUSBANDS (RKO Radio)
Sun, Feb 22 - LONELY WIVES (RKO-Pathe)
Sat, Feb 28 - PARLOR, BEDROOM AND BATH (MGM)
Sat, Feb 28 - SIT TIGHT (Warner Bros.)
Sun, Mar 1 - EAST LYNNE (Fox)
Fri, Mar 6 - TEN CENTS A DANCE (Columbia)
Sat, Mar 7 - CITY LIGHTS (United Artists)
Sat, Mar 7 - GENTLEMAN'S FATE (MGM)
Sat, Mar 7 - RANGO (Paramount)
Sat, Mar 14 - KIKI (United Artists)
Sat, Mar 14 - UNFAITHFUL (Paramount)
Sun, Mar 15 - BEHIND OFFICE DOORS (RKO Radio)
Thu, Mar 19 - TABU (Paramount)
Sat, Mar 28 - THE HOT HEIRESS (Warner Bros.)
Sun, Mar 29 - SEAS BENEATH (Fox)
Sun, Mar 29 - THE BAD SISTER (Universal)
Sat, Apr 4 - DIRIGIBLE (Columbia)
Sat, Apr 4 - DISHONORED (Paramount)
Sat, Apr 4 - STRANGERS MAY KISS (MGM)
Sat, Apr 4 - THE FRONT PAGE (United Artists)
Mon, Apr 6 - A CONNECTICUT YANKEE (Fox)
Sat, Apr 11 - IT'S A WISE CHILD (MGM)
Sat, Apr 11 - STEPPING OUT (MGM)
Sat, Apr 11 - THE FINGER POINTS (Warner Bros.)
Sun, Apr 12 - CHARLIE CHAN CARRIES ON (Fox)
Fri, Apr 17 - BORN TO LOVE (RKO Pathe)
Sat, Apr 18 - CITY STREETS (Paramount)
Sat, Apr 18 - CRACKED NUTS (RKO Radio)
Sat, Apr 18 - THE SECRET SIX (MGM)
Sat, Apr 18 - THE SIN SHIP (RKO Radio)
Thu, Apr 23 - THE PUBLIC ENEMY (Warner Bros.)
Sat, Apr 25 - SKIPPY (Paramount)
Fri, May 1 - MOTHER'S MILLIONS (Universal)
Fri, May 1 - THE MILLIONAIRE (Warner Bros.)
Sat, May 2 - TARNISHED LADY (Paramount)
Sun, May 3 - QUICK MILLIONS (Fox)
Sat, May 9 - LADIES' MAN (Paramount)
Thu, May 14 - MY PAST (Warner Bros.)
Thu, May 14 - SEED (Universal)
Sat, May 16 - INDISCREET (United Artists)
Fri, May 22 - SVENGALI (Warner Bros.)
Sat, May 23 - TRADER HORN (MGM)
Sun, May 24 - KICK IN (Paramount)
Sat, May 30 - LAUGHING SINNERS (MGM)
Sat, May 30 - THE VICE SQUAD (Paramount)
Fri, Jun 5 - DADDY LONG LEGS (Fox)
Sat, Jun 6 - PARTY HUSBAND (Warner Bros.)
Sat, Jun 6 - THE LAWYER'S SECRET (Paramount)
Sat, Jun 6 - YOUNG DONOVAN'S KID (RKO)
Sat, Jun 13 - FIVE AND TEN (MGM)
Sat, Jun 13 - THE MALTESE FALCON (Warner Bros.)
Thu, Jun 18 - GOLDIE (Fox)
Sat, Jun 20 - A FREE SOUL (MGM)
Sat, Jun 27 - I TAKE THIS WOMAN (Paramount)
Sat, Jun 27 - THE GIRL HABIT (Paramount)
Sun, Jul 5 - FORBIDDEN ADVENTURE aka NEWLY RICH (Paramount)
Fri, Jul 10 - SWEEPSTAKES (RKO Pathe)
Sat, Jul 11 - SMART MONEY (Warner Bros.)
Sat, Jul 18 - CHANCES (Warner Bros.)
Sat, Jul 18 - NIGHT ANGEL (Paramount)
Tue, Jul 21 - MURDER BY THE CLOCK (Paramount)
Fri, Jul 24 - THE COMMON LAW (RKO-Pathe)
Sat, Jul 25 - POLITICS (MGM)
Fri, Jul 31 - THE SECRET CALL (Paramount)
Sat, Aug 1 - BROADMINDED (First National)
Sat, Aug 1 - EAST OF BORNEO (Universal)
Sat, Aug 1 - SON OF INDIA (MGM)
Sat, Aug 1 - THE PUBLIC DEFENDER (RKO Radio)
Sat, Aug 1 - THE SMILING LIEUTENANT (Paramount)
Fri, Aug 7 - A WOMAN OF EXPERIENCE (RKO-Pathe)
Fri, Aug 7 - HUCKLEBERRY FINN (Paramount)
Fri, Aug 7 - THE MIRACLE WOMAN (Columbia)
Sat, Aug 8 - NIGHT NURSE (Warner Bros.)
Sat, Aug 8 - SPORTING BLOOD (MGM)
Thu, Aug 13 - BAD GIRL (Fox)
Sat, Aug 15 - PARDON US (MGM)
Sat, Aug 15 - THE RECKLESS HOUR (First National)
Sat, Aug 15 - TRAVELING HUSBANDS (RKO Radio)
Thu, Aug 20 - TRANSATLANTIC (Fox)
Sat, Aug 22 - AN AMERICAN TRAGEDY (Paramount)
Sat, Aug 22 - BOUGHT! (Warner Bros.)
Sat, Aug 22 - GUILTY HANDS (MGM)
Polled 4th in Film Daily's Ten Best of 1931
Sun, Aug 23 - YOUNG AS YOU FEEL (Fox)
Sat, Aug 29 - SILENCE (Paramount)
Sat, Aug 29 - THE LAST FLIGHT (First National)
Sat, Aug 29 - THIS MODERN AGE (MGM)
Tue, Sep 1 - WATERLOO BRIDGE (Universal)
Sat, Sep 5 - SECRETS OF A SECRETARY (Paramount)
Sat, Sep 5 - STREET SCENE (United Artists)
Sat, Sep 5 - THE BARGAIN aka FAME (Warner Bros.)
Sat, Sep 5 - THE SQUAW MAN (MGM)
Sun, Sep 6 - MERELY MARY ANN (Fox)
Sat, Sep 12 - ALEXANDER HAMILTON (Warner Bros.)
Sat, Sep 12 - I LIKE YOUR NERVE (First National)
Sat, Sep 12 - SMART WOMAN (RKO Radio)
Sat, Sep 12 - THE PHANTOM OF PARIS (MGM)
Fri, Sep 18 - THE MAD PARADE (Paramount)
Sat, Sep 19 - MONKEY BUSINESS (Paramount)
Fri, Sep 25 - DEVOTION (RKO-Pathe)
Sat, Sep 26 - FIVE STAR FINAL (Warner Bros.)
Another unlikely movie star
Sat, Oct 3 - MY SIN (PARAMOUNT)
Sat, Oct 3 - PALMY DAYS (United Artists)
Sun, Oct 4 - WICKED (Fox)
Sat, Oct 10 - 24 HOURS (Paramount)
Sat, Oct 10 - SUSAN LENOX: HER FALL AND RISE (MGM)
Sat, Oct 10 - THE ROAD TO SINGAPORE (Warner Bros.)
Tue, Oct 13 - THE SPIRIT OF NOTRE DAME (Universal)
Fri, Oct 16 - THE TIP-OFF (RKO-Pathe)
Sat, Oct 17 - HONOR OF THE FAMILY (Warner Bros.)
Sat, Oct 24 - EXPENSIVE WOMEN (Warner Bros.)
Sat, Oct 24 - THE SIN OF MADELON CLAUDET (MGM)
Thu, Oct 29 - HELL DIVERS (MGM)
Sat, Oct 31 - PLATINUM BLONDE (Columbia)
Sat, Oct 31 - THE RULING VOICE (First National)
Sat, Nov 7 - GIRLS ABOUT TOWN (Paramount)
Sat, Nov 7 - ONCE A LADY (Paramount)
Sat, Nov 7 - THE GUARDSMAN (MGM)Sat, Nov 7 - THE MAD GENIUS (Warner Bros.)
Sun, Nov 8 - BAD COMPANY (RKO Pathe)
Sat, Nov 14 - ARE THESE OUR CHILDREN? (RKO Radio)
Sat, Nov 14 - BLONDE CRAZY (Warner Bros.)
Sat, Nov 14 - FLYING HIGH (MGM)
Sat, Nov 14 - THE CISCO KID (Fox)
Sun, Nov 15 - TOUCHDOWN (Paramount)
Thu, Nov 19 - THE GUILTY GENERATION (Columbia)
Fri, Nov 20 - SUICIDE FLEET (RKO-Pathe)
Sat, Nov 21 - CONSOLATION MARRIAGE (RKO Radio)
Sat, Nov 21 - FRANKENSTEIN (Universal)
Sat, Nov 21 - HIS WOMAN (Paramount)
Sat, Nov 21 - POSSESSED (MGM)
Sat, Nov 21 - THE CHAMP (MGM)
Sun, Nov 22 - AMBASSADOR BILL (Fox)
Fri, Nov 27 - LOCAL BOY MAKES GOOD (First National)
Sat, Nov 28 - CORSAIR (United Artists)Sat, Nov 28 - THE CHEAT (Paramount)
Sun, Nov 29 - OVER THE HILL (Fox)
Tue, Dec 1 - HEAVEN ON EARTH (Universal)
Sat, Dec 5 - THE CUBAN LOVE SONG (MGM)
Thu, Dec 10 - THE STRUGGLE (United Artists)
Sat, Dec 12 - AROUND THE WORLD IN EIGHTY MINUTES (United Artists)
Sat, Dec 12 - PRIVATE LIVES (MGM)
Sat, Dec 12 - SAFE IN HELL (First National)
Thu, Dec 17 - TONIGHT OR NEVER (United Artists)
Sat, Dec 26 - ARROWSMITH (United Artists)
Sat, Dec 26 - LADIES OF THE BIG HOUSE (Paramount)
Sat, Dec 26 - MATA HARI (MGM)
Sat, Dec 26 - STRICTLY DISHONORABLE (Universal)
Sun, Dec 27 - DELICIOUS (Fox)
Sun, Dec 27 - SOOKY (Paramount)
I want to dive into 1931s releases and enjoy all of that creativity and striving for quality. Fascinating history. I wonder if anyone in Hollywood had time to stop and draw a deep breath.
It’s a much stronger year than the lists of old award winners would have you think. While I like Cimarron myself, there are many better movies to represent this year. I was also surprised by the love for Skippy, which seemed pretty run-of-the-mill as I watched. Sometimes it seems that the less they tried, the better the movie plays today!
WOW! Cliff, thanks for this comprehensive look at 1931. You covered it all – the advances in filmmaking, the rise of gangster films, movie stars in transition from silent to sound, and the screen’s exploration of romance.
Thank you for such a fantastic contribution to our blogathon! 🙂
I immediately fell in love with this Blogathon idea, thanks so much for hosting it!
1931 was fun and had a few surprises for me. I knew Hollywood raided Broadway for talent, but never realized that they made a distinct move towards lesser-known (cheap!) talent. Boy, did that pay off! The number of literary adaptations was a surprise but especially the idea that there was a definite shift from remakes (silent to sound, makes sense) to stories that had never been filmed before was new to me. And just the overall quality of the releases throughout the year, again, not something that immediately jumps out when you look at the Academy Award nominees or Film Daily’s ten best.
Very nice and comprehensive look at 1931. I’m glad you mentioned Cimarron. While the film does have bad elements to it, I feel there is a lot to recommend with it’s pro-Native American stance (not very common at that time), it’s openness about religion, and just it’s over open mindedness (except in terms of African Americans, who are betrayed rather poorly in the film). Sadly, it falls about near the end.
I also like the comment about the wealth of adaptions. One of my series on my blog is reviewing every Best Picture winner. One thing I’ve noticed is out of the 14 Best Pictures I’ve reviewed so far, all but two (“Wings,” 1927, and “The Broadway Melody,” 1929) are base off a book, a stage play, a short story, and/or real life events. It’s really extraordinary how there are essentially no films with original screenplay that won in the 30s and early 40s.
I actually like Cimarron, but think it’s a poor representation of what reveals itself to be a much stronger overall year. It’s got a lot of the things wrong with it that people generally point to when picking on “old” movies, but at least it’s not stagey! A bit static, but not stagey.
There’s such a wealth of original fiction from that time. Beyond the books, the old magazines were packed with stories. A big part of my business used to be selling old magazines, and the movie fan in me would become very distracted when paging through and happening upon a familiar title. They very often did turn out to be the movie I was thinking of!
Agree with Cimarron. The early scene where a slew of horses and carriages race to be the first ones to settle Oklahoma is excellently shot and thrilling.
And I bet that scene really settled the 1931 theatergoer into their seat with anticipation of a wild ride! It must have made quite an impression.
A good summary of 1931. Good point about the rise of literary adaptions. I found WR Burnett’s novel Little Caesar in the library and read it. I think that was the first time I realized how much books got changed when they were adapted into movies.
Thanks, Joe. I had to settle for a summary approach because, wow, this could have turned into a book! As it is I think I really only missed what the comedians were doing, a shame, but honestly not my strength, so hopefully fans of the Marx Brothers and Wheeler & Woolsey forgive me!
I’m a voracious reader and trying to make a better effort to incorporate some of the original source material into my posts where appropriate. I’d love to read Burnett, but I’ve actually got Dark Hazard on my list ahead of Caesar. It’s wonderful to have some of these formerly impossible to find titles so readily available today from online booksellers, often with multiple price points (thanks to condition) to fit any budget!
Hi Cliff, this is amazing! I’ve loved reading your post. It is a veritable treasure trove of information that definitely does justice to the year 1931. So wonderfully comprehensive.
I was particularly fascinated to read the list of newcomers who became stars by the close of 1931. All those now-familiar names! It truly was a seminal year.
Some of my favourite flicks from 1931 are: “The Public Enemy”, “Little Caesar”, “Private Lives” and “A Free Soul”. 🙂
Thanks, Catherine! While I’m sure not all those newcomers made their film debuts in 1931 (probably not), it would be the year many of them began working regularly and really began putting the notches into their careers, whether they turned out legendary or simply commendable (exception: Bogart, who had a few stops and starts in Hollywood before anything big really happened).
But I tell you what, paging through the first volume of Photoplay 1931 over at the Media History Digital Library and spotting that grouping for January (Cagney, Bogart, Tracy) made me stop and rethink the planned course of this post! I was pretty disappointed by the time I reached the July issue and saw that Photoplay discontinued the feature!
While I’m not big on Private Lives, I’m a big fan of the other three that you mention.
What a year! 1931 really was the year that talkies won. Before that, the silent actors hung on, but there was no denying the newcommers and the new technology. Susan Lennox is a perfect example of that battle. Garbo is wonderful, but she is of the silents (no matter how she prospered in sound) and Gable is clearly the new breed. He wins. Great look at a great and important year.
Marsha, it really is an interesting time to track the actors. Film Daily also noted the explosion of character actors making a mark in support throughout ’31. It seems like a lot of the more forgotten silent stars were wrapping up the year before and being dropped once their contracts expired.
Wallace Beery is a great example of a winner from the old school. Paramount dropped him after an unsuccessful teaming with Raymond Hatton and MGM had the good fortune to pick him up and drop him into The Big House, which they had intended for the late Lon Chaney. After that they struck gold teaming him with Marie Dressler and also Jackie Cooper. Boom! Big talkie star!
1931 was a really good year. Yet I point out the horror and gangster classics, together with City Lights, there was much more. Your research with old magazines was great to enrich the post.
Don’t forget to read my contribution to the blogathon! 🙂
Greetings!
Thanks, Le. It’s funny, I originally went to the magazines simply for the images, but I’d stumble upon something fascinating every few dozen pages!
I’m a little behind on my reading at the moment, but hoping to get caught up this weekend. I’ll make sure to stop by your post.
hi Cliff
as you can see I’m still working my way around all these great posts, very fun reading yours, I’m impressed by the amount of adaptations! also by the sheer amount of good films, looking at that final list, I mean it’s unreal how much came out that’s lasting, classic to us… I would’ve spent all my money going to the cinema through the year with that schedule! Also enjoyed the snapshot of who was seen as new, rising, promising stars. I’m reminded I want to see An American Tragedy.
Great work!
Thanks, Kristina! I think you’ll love An American Tragedy. No shocker, but I prefer the earlier movie to A Place in the Sun, though I do like that one too. The movie really should have set Phillips Holmes on a better path, he’s every bit as good as Montgomery Clift in the Clyde Griffiths part. Plus I love anything with Sylvia Sidney.
Oh my! Even more movies to add to my bursting to-watch list! Thanks so much for the fabulous overview of the year and showing us both the famous classics and the forgotten gems. Yay for gangster films!
Thanks for co-hosting this one, Fritzi, great Blogathon! I think you guys should do it again next year, invite back the same group of writers and shuffle different years out to us all! Though I’d want dibs on 1932 next time.