Citizens in these days provided most of their own recreation. Their favorite parlor games were mahjong and checkers. If one enjoyed dancing or swimming, the Red Car was taken to Redondo which was quite a tourish attraction because of its salt water swimming pool and dance hall. It was a time when people would gather at each other's homes for parties and if anyone was affluent enough to own a piano or play a musical instrument of any kind, the popular songs of the day were "Sweet Adeline", "Down by the old Mill Stream", "Toot Toot Tootsie Good-bye", "Barney Google", "The Lost Chord", "The End of a Perfect Day", and "The World is Waiting for the Sunrise". Baseball fans had their idol in Babe Ruth, the Sultan of Swat, whose home runs for the New York Yankees made national headlines. Bill Tilden was the star of the tennis set, Johnny Weissmuller was the idol of swimmers and Jack Dempsey was the undisputed heavyweight boxing champion of the world. For months before he won the title from Jess Willard in 1919, sports columns were filled with articles debating whether a good little man could defeat a good big man. Dempsey weighed 187 pounds and Jess Willard weighed 245 pounds.

Silent movies were also a recreational diversion. Hawthorne had two movie houses, the Rex on Broadway and the Plaza located on Hawthorne Circle, one and a half blocks south of the Plaza. When the Rex Theatre was in existence, admission was 30 cents for adults, 10 cents for children. Featured were such films as "The Three Musketeers," starring Douglas Fairbanks, Betty Compson in "The Green Temptation", little Jackie Coogan in "Trouble", and the matinee idol of the time, Rudolph Valentino, in "The Sheik".

An ad in the September, 1932 edition of the "Shopper" advertised the personal appearance of movie star Richard Arlen in the film, "Guilty as Hell". Presentations in the following weeks starred Jack Holt and Lila Lee in "War Correspondent", Frank Buck in "Bring 'Em Back Alive", and Ann Dvorak in "The Crooner". Each of these presentations included a newsreel of world and national events, several vaudeville acts and a stage bank.

Cost of living remained fairly stable during the first ten years of incorporation. Ads in the 1931 newspaper featured bedsteads and gas ranges at $3.00 each at the Community Store at 343 North Hawthorne Boulevard. Home-to-Home ice service was available at 127 West El Segundo from 6am until 9:30pm, every day of the week. Anderson's Shoe Shop, 109 East Broadway, offered oxfords at $2.50; Cleopha's Department Store, 325 North Hawthorne Boulevard, offered women's sweaters for $1.00 and high school dresses for $1.25. Woodman Bros. at Hawthorne Boulevard and 114th Street advertised coffee at 18 cents a pound, soup at 9 cents a can, leg of lamb at 15 cents a pound, grapefruit at 1 cent each and honeydew melons at 3 for 10 cents. The Forrest Market at the corner of El Segundo and Hawthorne Boulevards was not to be outdone. Their ad featured pork roast at 7½ cents a pound, short ribs at 3½ cents a pound, and 8 pounds of apples for 25 cents. Jordan's Auto Electric, at the northwest corner of El Segundo and Hawthorne Boulevards, offered gasoline at 12 cents a gallon and rebuilt tires for $2.80 each. Cash and Carry Hardware and Paint Market, 303 North Hawthorne Boulevard, had a special sale on light bulbs at 7 cents each and bamboo rakes at 14 cents each. Several real estate firms advertised homes for a monthly payment of $10.00.