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Objectives 1.Explain how movies & other vehicles of mass culture created a new national community. 2.Describe how the new media of communication reshaped American culture in the 1920s.

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Roaring Twenties captured the explosion of sound and images in the era. Connects Americans to the new culture of consumption. Celebrity emerges and redefines normal and the ideal of the good life for all of America.

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A belief or value that is common to members of a particular culture. Social norms are often referred to as the way we do things around here and are the standards for appropriate social behaviors. The established norms within a society maybe reflected in dress, language and social habits culture.

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Nickelodeons Industry moves to Hollywood Big studios produce longer, more expensive feature films Founded and controlled by European immigrants The studio system based on the industrial principles Combined production, distribution, and exhibition

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New themes Musicals Gangster films Comedies Wall Street Investment

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The cult of celebrity Studio publicity, fan magazines, & gossip columns Mansions, cars, parties, and escapades liberated social themes celebrating youth, athleticism, and consumption Influenced dress, hairstyle, speech, and romance

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Threat to traditional sexual morality Attacked Hollywoods permissiveness Censorship boards grow Hollywood counters

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President of the Motion Picture Producers & Distributors of America Midwestern Republican with Protestant respectability What did Will Hays say about movies and the consumer culture?

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Hays understood the relationship between Hollywood and the growth of consumerism. Hollywood is the stimulant to trade Hollywoods Effect

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Radio Broadcasting

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November 1920 Presidential election returns KDKA begins nightly broadcasts Sale of cheap WWI radios By 1923, 600 stations and 600,000 radios sold Live music, college lectures, church services, and news and weather reports Links rural America with the larger national community of consumption.

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Radio equipment manufacturers Newspapers Department stores State universities Cities Ethnic societies Labor unions Churches

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By the end of the 20s, commercial, or toll, broadcasting emerges GE Westinghouse RCA (Radio Corporation of America) AT&T (American Telephone & Telegraph) Advertisers pay, consumers listen AT&T leases its lines to create radio networks 1926 NBC (National Broadcasting Co.) 1928 CBS (Columbia Broadcasting System)

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What was America listening to on the radio? Variety shows hosted by vaudeville comedians Blackface minstrel entertainment of The Amos n Andy Show (1928) American music C&W, blues, & jazz Baseball & college football 1930 = 600 stations = 12 m homes (40%)

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Tabloid NY Daily News Convenient to read Photos & illustrations Terse, lively style emphasizing sex, scandal & sports

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Spread across US to Chicago, Denver, & LA Audience of millions Poorly educated Working-class, city dwellers 1 st or 2 nd generation immigrants Gossip column Walter Winchell Secret lives of famous people

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Chains Hearst, Gannett, & Scripps-Howard 1930, Hearst controls 14% 1 in 4 Sunday papers is owned by Hearst Standardization contributes to the growth of the national consumer community

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Reflects and encourages growing importance of consumerism Follows the success of the CPI Total ad volume jumps $1.4 billion in 1919 to $3 billion in 1929 Scientific approach using market research and language of psychology Focus becomes the needs, desires and anxieties of consumer vs. quality of the product

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Advertising celebrated consumption as a positive good! Therapeutic Physical Psychic Emotional well-being Other popular strategies Appeals to nature, medical authority or personal freedom

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Convenient, permanently grooved disc recordings transformed the popular music business and became a major source of music in the home. Dance crazes like the Charleston 1921 = 200 companies = 2 million records produced = annual sales over $100 million Radio competes for listeners Radio discovers regional and ethnic markets

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Americans begin to hear musical styles and performers who were previously isolated from the national limelight. The combo of records and radio started an extraordinary cross-fertilization of American musical styles that continues today.

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Athletes join movie stars in defining the new culture of celebrity. Rich, famous, glamorous, and sometimes rebellious Sports enter a new corporate phase Biggest was baseball Black Sox scandal Hero of baseball is Babe Ruth 1920 Boston Red Sox trade him to NY Yankees The Sultan of Swat

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Bigger than life on and off the field Product endorsement 1927 = 60 HRs 1930 = $80,000.00 salary

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1922 Supreme Court rules in favor of owners in anti-trust lawsuit giving them absolute control over their players. 1890s gentlemans agreement among owners excludes African Americans from the major leagues.

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1920 - First to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean NY to Paris in 33 hours A magnetic compass & air speed indicator to guide 100,000 greet him in Paris

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1932 solo flight across Atlantic 1937 disappears trying to fly around world

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Considered the greatest amateur golfer of modern times.

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1924 Ill v. Mich: First 5 carries/ 5 TDs First sport figure with manager

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1924-28 Olympic Swimmer & Water Polo Player 5 gold medals 1 bronze (Polo)

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Between 1932-1938 he stars in 12 Tarzan films

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Enduring image of the flapper Young, sexual, bobbed hair, heavy make-up, and short skirt Loved dancing to jazz, smoking cigarettes, and drinking bootleg liquor

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The flapper was neither as new nor as popular as the image suggests Existed in subcultures on the fringe of society Bohemian person with artistic or literary interests who disregards conventional standards of behavior. 1920s activities become norm for growing middle-class, whites College campuses spread the behaviors quickly

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WWI soldiers exposed to sex education New psychological and social theories stress the positive, central role of sex in human experience, i.e., Sigmund Freud Margaret Sanger educates women about birth control Advertisers use sex appeal to sell products

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Middle-class women using contraception and describing intimate relations in positive terms. Women born after 1900, twice as likely to have premarital sex as those born before 1900. By 1920s, male and female morals were becoming more alike.