Variety’s headline after the Crash

The tremors that would eventually destroy this flimsy economic edifice made their first rumblings in September 1929. The market dropped sharply at the beginning of the month but rose again only to drop and rise again. The rollercoaster ride continued in October as the beginning of the month saw another drop followed by another burst of strength. Then came Black Thursday – October 24 – when a drop in stock prices triggered a burst of panic-selling so frantic that it overwhelmed the Stock Exchange’s ability to keep track of the transactions.

Wall Street financers were able to reverse the downward plunge only by buying as many shares of stock as they could over the next two days. It was a temporary victory. Monday’s opening bell unleashed a frenzy of selling that soon turned into an uncontrolled panic that continued for the rest of the trading day. The following day – Black Tuesday, October 29 – saw the previous day’s panic turn into bedlam on the trading floor.

According to one observer, traders hollered and screamed, they clawed at one another’s collars. It was like a bunch of crazy men. Every once in a while, when Radio or Steel or Auburn would take another tumble, you’d see some poor devil collapse and fall to the floor. This was the Crash, although few could see it at the time. The Market continued its decline but never as dramatic. Thirty billion dollars had been lost — more than twice the national debt. The nation reeled, and slipped into the depths of the Great Depression.

This was real panic.

Jonathan Leonard was a reporter who was on the scene as Wall Street tumbled. We join his story following Black Thursday.

That Saturday and Sunday Wall Street hummed with week-day activity. The great buildings were ablaze with lights all night as sleepy clerks fought desperately to get the accounts in shape for the Monday opening. Horrified brokers watched the selling orders accumulate. It wasn’t a flood; it was a deluge. Everybody wanted to sell-the man with five shares and the man with ten thousand. Evidently the week-end cheer barrage had not hit its mark.

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Monday was a rout for the banking pool, which was still supposed to be ‘on guard.’ If it did any net buying at all, which is doubtful, the market paid little attention. Leading stocks broke through the support levels as soon as trading started and kept sinking all day. Periodically the news would circulate that the banks were about to turn the tide as they had done on Thursday, but it didn’t happen. A certain cynicism developed in the board rooms as the day wore on. Obviously the big financial interests had abandoned the market to its fate, probably intending to pick up the fragments cheap when the wreck hit the final bottom. ‘Very well,’ said the little man, ‘I shall do the same.’

When the market finally closed, 9,212,800 shares had been sold. The Times index of 25 industrials fell from 367.42 to 318.29. The whole list showed alarming losses, and margin calls were on their way to those speculators who had not already sold out.