READ ALL ABOUT IT: With "the
tape" running hours late, this anxious crowd outside the New York Stock
Exchange learned details of the market's severe drop in the evening
newspaper
Oct. 29, 1929
Wall Street's Bad, Bad Fall
By Daniel Kadlec
Reports of
suicides have been grossly overstated. But it was a day that shredded
fortunes. The preceding week had already seen such huge waves of panic
selling that Police Commissioner Grover Whalen stationed an extra 500
cops on the increasingly rowdy streets of New York City's financial
district. On Oct. 29, the panic that had possessed speculators and
individuals was joined at the opening bell by traders for giant
institutions. Blue chips like Standard Oil and Westinghouse gapped lower
on massive trading volume. On a whim, a messenger bid for 100 shares of
White Sewing Machine at $1—and in the absence of any other buyers,
got it. The stock had been as high as $48 some months earlier. The heads
of New York's biggest banks had pledged $20 million each to support
prices. But at a noonday meeting, they concluded that they could not
stop the declines. In fact, one of the bankers, Albert Wiggin of Chase
Bank, in a personal account had quietly sold the market short. The Dow
would ultimately fall 89%—12% the day of the crash—ushering in
the Great Depression.
TIME Cover
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