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The Crusade against Heart Balm

Chapter Two traces representations of gold diggers during the Great Depression. Distress about alimony persisted, but “heart balm” lawsuits, particularly actions for breach of promise, garnered massive media coverage. High-profile news accounts featured wealthy men in the entertainment or business worlds who faced lawsuits by women far below their social station. These stories generated a public image of gold diggers engaged in out-of-control litigation. Stories of breach of promise litigation, in both white and African American newspapers, cultivated the notion that heart balm litigation was widespread, grossly unfair, and a public hazard. By the mid-1930s, several states moved to repeal heart balm statutes. During those same years, major film studios produced a bumper crop of movies related to gold diggers and gold digging, often with plots that revolved around women using the law and the threat of lawsuits to extract money from hapless men. Chapter Two examines how state-wide campaigns against heart balm laws drew strength from sensationalized news coverage of breach of promise lawsuits and overlapped with the major themes and plots of early 1930s gold digger films.