Unit III A Modern Nation

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Unit III A Modern Nation

• Chapter 10 Section 3
• A New Popular Culture is Born

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A New Popular Culture is Born

• The Main Idea
• New technologies helped produce a new mass
  culture in the 1920s.
• Reading Focus
• How did mass entertainment change in the 1920s?
• Who were the cultural heroes of the 1920s?
• How was the culture of the 1920s reflected in the
  arts and literature of the era?

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Entertainment The Movies, Radio, and Sports
(0630)
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Radio Drives Popular Culture
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Movies
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Film Star Heroes

• The great popularity of movies in the 1920s gave
  rise to a new kind of celebritythe movie star.
• One of the brightest stars of the 1920s was
  Charlie Chaplin, a comedian whose signature
  character was a tramp in a derby hat and ragged
  clothes.
• Rudolph Valentino, a dashing leading man of
  romantic films, was such a big star that his
  unexpected death in 1926 drew tens of thousands
  of women to the funeral home where his body lay.
• Clara Bow was a movie star nicknamed the It
  Girl.
• Mary Pickford was considered Americas
  Sweetheart and was married to Douglas Fairbanks
  Jr., a major star of action films.
• Their home, called Pickfair, was in Hollywood,
  the center of the motion picture industry.

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1920s Movies
Janet Gaynor
Fairbanks and Pickford

• Rudolph Valentino

Buster Keaton- The Great Stone Face
Charlie Chaplin
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Films really blossomed in the 1920s, expanding
upon the foundations of film from earlier years.
Most US film production at the start of the
decade occurred in or near Hollywood on the West
Coast, although some films were still being made
in New Jersey and in Astoria on Long Island
(Paramount). By the mid-20s, movies were big
business (with a capital investment totaling over
2 billion) with some theatres offering double
features. By the end of the decade, there were 20
Hollywood studios, and the demand for films was
greater than ever. Most people are unaware that
the greatest output of feature films in the US
occurred in the 1920s and 1930s (averaging about
800 film releases in a year) - nowadays, it is
remarkable when production exceeds 500 films in a
year. Throughout most of the decade, silent
films were the predominant product of the film
industry, having evolved from vaudevillian roots.
But the films were becoming bigger, costlier, and
more polished. They were being manufactured,
assembly-line style, in Hollywood's
'entertainment factories,' in which production
was broken down and organized into its various
components (writing, costuming, makeup,
directing, etc.). The major emphasis was on
swashbucklers, historical extravaganzas, and
melodramas, although all kinds of films were
being produced throughout the decade. Films
varied from sexy melodramas and biblical epics by
Cecil B. DeMille, to westerns (such as Cruze's
The Covered Wagon (1923)), horror films,
gangster/crime films, war films, the first
feature documentary (Robert Flaherty's Nanook of
the North (1922)), romances, mysteries, and
comedies (from the silent comic masters Chaplin,
Keaton, and Lloyd).
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Pilot Heroes of the Twenties
Charles Lindbergh
Amelia Earhart
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Charles Lindbergh Aviation Pioneer,
International Celebrity, and Hero (0227)
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Charles Lindbergh

• Lindbergh Does It! To Paris in 33 1/2 Hours
  Flies 1,000 Miles Through Snow and Sleet
  Cheering French Carry Him Off FieldNew York
  Times, May 21, 1927
• Lindbergh, Charles Augustus (1902-1974), an
  American aviator, made the first solo nonstop
  flight across the Atlantic Ocean on May 20-21,
  1927. Other pilots had crossed the Atlantic
  before him. But Lindbergh was the first person to
  do it alone nonstop.
• Lindbergh's feat gained him immediate,
  international fame. The press named him "Lucky
  Lindy" and the "Lone Eagle." Americans and
  Europeans idolized the shy, slim young man and
  showered him with honors.
• Before Japan attacked Pearl Harbor in 1941,
  Lindbergh campaigned against voluntary American
  involvement in World War II. Many Americans
  criticized him for his noninvolvement beliefs.
  After the war, he avoided publicity until the
  late 1960's, when he spoke out for the
  conservation of natural resources. Lindbergh
  served as an adviser in the aviation industry
  from the days of wood and wire airplanes to
  supersonic jets.

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Amelia Earhart
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Amelia Earhart The World's Most Famous Female
Aviator (0249)
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Sports Heroes

• Radio helped inflame the public passion for
  sports, and millions of Americans tuned in to
  broadcasts of ballgames and prize fights
  featuring their favorite athletes.

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1920s Sports

• Up until 1922, no swimmer, male or female, had
  been able to swim the 100 meters in under a
  minute's time. American Johnny Weissmuller (1904
  - 1984), an exception to the record books, broke
  the record with 58.6 seconds swimming freestyle
  on July 9. This, however, was not Weissmuller's
  only feat. He went on to win three gold medals at
  the 1924 Olympics in Paris, France, and two gold
  medals at the 1928 Olympics in Amsterdam. In his
  career, he claimed 52 U.S. titles and 28 world
  distance records. 1st Tarzan in the movies.
• Gertrude Ederle (1906 - ), who was born on
  October 23, 1906, was a superb swimmer. Not only
  did she win three Olympic medallions and break
  several records, but to top it all off, she went
  on to become the first woman to swim across the
  English Channel. When she swam the 21 miles on
  August 6, 1926, Ederle was only nineteen. Her
  time 14 hours and 31 minutes - good enough to
  beat the previously set men's record.
• George Herman Ruth (1895 - 1948), often known to
  his fans as Babe Ruth, hit a total of 60 home
  runs in 1927. This record-breaker would remain a
  record itself until 1961, when Roger Eugene Maris
  (1934 - 85) hit 61 home runs. Babe Ruth, who
  earned more than 2 million in his career, was
  known by several other names as well. These
  included the Bambino, the Behemoth of Bust, the
  Blunderbuss, the Colossus of Clout, the Mammoth
  of Maul, the Mauling Mastodon, the Mauling
  Monarch, the Prince of Powders, the Rajah of Rap,
  the Sultan of Swat, and the Wazir of Wham. Among
  all of his other accomplishments, this southpaw
  pitcher was inducted into the Baseball Hall of
  Fame in 1936.

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1920s Sports

• Like Babe Ruth is to baseball so is Man O' War is
  to horse racing. The horse they called Big Red
  burst onto the scene as a two year old and would
  win 20 of 21 races. As a three-year-old he did
  not lose when he did race he often gave 30 pounds
  to his rivals. Although he did not win the Triple
  Crown it was only because he did not race in the
  Kentucky Derby.
• Legendary Notre Dame Football coach Knute Rockne
  in 1924 featured one of the greatest backfields
  in college football history. They were Harry
  Stuhldreher, Jim Crowley, Don Miller and Elmer
  Layden. They got their nickname the four horseman
  by sports writer Grantland Rice who compared them
  to those of biblical fame. " Outlined against a
  blue-gray October sky the four horseman rode
  again
• Red Grange became a household name when he scored
  5 touchdowns against Michigan. However his
  biggest accomplishment was probably establishing
  the pro game. Up to that point the NFL was in the
  same category as monster truck shows are today.
  Well that changed when Red Grange decided to go
  pro after his final college game. Galloping
  Ghost
• Jack Dempsey was not just the greatest
  heavyweight of the decade but usually makes
  anyone short list for the best of all-time. He
  was a fierce fighter and usually awarded boxing
  fans with exciting fights. This made him very
  popular figure of the day, along with Babe Ruth
  he was probably the most well known sportsmen of
  his time. He also took par in one of the most
  famous fights in boxing history " The Long Count
  fight in a rematch with Gene Tunney.

Man O War
The four Horsemen
Red Grange
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1920s Fads

• His name was Alvin Kelly but he was best known as
  "Shipwreck" Kelly. Employed as a professional
  stuntman in Hollywood, Kelly decided to attempt
  to sit on a flagpole in response to a dare from a
  Hollywood friend. He sat upon the pole for 13
  hours and 13 minutes and began a national
  spectacle.
• Kelly's stunt occurred in 1924 and within weeks
  hundreds of people were trying to call themselves
  the "King of the Pole." One man sat for 12 days,
  another for 17 and another for 21 days. Public
  fascination was phenomenal as huge crowds would
  gather to watch the participant. With such a
  large audience, the publicity-hungry Kelly
  decided that he must once again be King. In
  Atlantic City, New Jersey, Kelly sat atop a
  flagpole for a record 49 days in front of an
  audience of 20,000 admirers.

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1920s Fads

• In the early 1930s, during the height of The
  Depression, young people across America gathered
  to participate in Dance Marathons. These
  endurance contests offered the unemployed hopes
  of temporary fame, small fortune, and the
  opportunity to dance their cares away. Prizes
  ranged anywhere between 1000 to 5000, but many
  contestants participated solely for the promise
  of food and shelter. Serious competitors danced
  for days, even weeks at a time. The record stands
  at 5,148 hours and 28.5 minutes. The contestants
  were usually allowed a mere 15 minutes of rest
  for every hour of dancing. Success came to those
  who had the ability to keep their partner moving
  at all times style was irrelevant.
• Hot toys included the erector set, tinker toys,
  and lincoln logs. The Ouija Board became popular.
  Sales of this game soared.

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Babe Ruth - 537 min.
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Arts of the 1920s

• The great economic and social changes of the
  1920s offered novelists a rich source of
  materials.
• F. Scott Fitzgerald helped create the flapper
  image, coined the term the Jazz Age, and
  explored the lives of the wealthy in The Great
  Gatsby and other novels and stories.
• Sinclair Lewis wrote about the emptiness of
  middle-class life.
• Edna St. Vincent Millay wrote poems on topics
  ranging from celebrations of youth to leading
  social causes of the day.
• Willa Cather and Edith Wharton produced notable
  works of literature.
• Ernest Hemingway and John Dos Passos were war
  veterans and, as part of the so-called Lost
  Generation, wrote about war experiences.
• Gertrude Stein invented the term Lost Generation,
  referring to a group of writers who chose to live
  in Europe after World War I.
• Bruce Bartons novel compared Jesus to a modern
  business executive.
• George Gershwin was a composer best known for
  Rhapsody in Bluewhich showed the impact of
  jazzas well as popular songs written with his
  brother Ira.

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