The New Mass Culture

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The New Mass Culture

• Objectives
• Summarize how movies other vehicles of mass
  culture created a new national community.
• Describe how the new media of communication
  reshaped American culture in the 1920s.

2

• Currently
• What are the media sources influencing American
  culture?
• How does modern media influence American culture?

3

• 7-11) Describe how each of the following
  elements of mass media redefines the norms of
  American

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Social norms

• 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.

5
The Roaring 20s

• Movies, radio, journalism, recordings,
  advertising celebrities created a new national
  community.

6
The movie industry

• Reorganizes in Hollywood
• Large studios
• Paramount Fox MGM
• Universal Warner Brothers
• The three functions of the studio system
  Production, distribution exhibition
• Wall Street investment is required to fund big
  movie projects

7
The movie industry

• New themes for movies
• - Consumer culture, youthfulness, athleticism
• - Types - Musicals Gangster films Westerns
  Comedies Travelogues

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The TALKIESend the silent era in1927 The
Jazz Singer starring Al Jolson
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Greta Garbo Flesh and the Devil (1927)
Douglas FairbanksThe Mark of Zorro
Clara Bowhttp//www.youtube.com/watch?vzAxLb
XTZdnU
Mary PickfordAmericas Sweet
Hearthttp//www.youtube.com/watch?vFtrUdqvOBVY
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Charlie Chaplin The Little Tramphttp//www.you
tube.com/watch?vxoKbDNY0Zwg
Rudolph Valentino The Sheik
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Many Americans, particularly in rural areas and
small towns, worried about Hollywood's impact
on.
The sexual morality of our culture
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• 7) Summarize how motion pictures redefined the
  norms of American society

• Influences dress, hair styles language
• Liberal social themes in movies change
  traditional values
• Movies advocate a consumption oriented society

13
Radio Broadcasting

• In the early 1920s, radio was used to promote
  newspapers with news being read from the papers
  that sponsored time on the radio.

14
Radio Broadcasting

• Who paid for radio programs at first and how
  did it change?...
• What was America listening to on the radio?

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Households with Radios 1920-30

• 1920s... 1920. 20,00
• 1922. 60,000
• 1924. 1,250,000
• 1926. 4,500,000
• 1928 8,000,000
• 1930. 13,750,000
• 1930...
• 600 stations
• 40 of America with a radio

KDKA in Pittsburgh, PA was the first radio
station. The wireless
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What conclusions can you draw about the radio?
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The giants of radio broadcasting

• General Electric (GE)
• Westinghouse
• Radio Corp of America (RCA)
• American Telephone Telegraph (ATT)
• National Broadcast Comp. (NBC)
• Columbia Broadcast Comp. (CBS)

Radios first national hit
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• 8) Summarize how commercial radio broadcasting
  redefined the norms of American society

• Provides a link to the outside world
• Creates a national consumer culture
• Makes sports popular... Baseball college
  football
• Popularizes...Country western, blues jazz

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New Forms of Journalism

• Tabloid Newspapers
• New York Daily News
• LA Daily News
• Denver Rocky Mountain News
• The differences between tabloids other
  newspapers?
• -Tabloid topics Sensationalized news...
  scandal,
• sports sex
• -Tabloid readersPoorly educated, working class,
• city dwellers, commuters immigrants

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Sensationalism in tabloid journalism

•   The Ruth Snyder execution in...
• A Long Island housewife, convinced her lover
  that her husband was abusing her. The pair
  murdered him and their trial was a media frenzy.
  They were quickly found guilty and executed.

A photographer from the NY Daily News, had a
camera strapped to his ankle, and took picture of
her at the moment of death. The paper sold
250,000 extra copies.
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• 4) Summarize how tabloid journalism redefined the
  norms of American society

• Influences the national consumer culture
• Sensational news reporting

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Advertising Modernity

• New techniques affecting advertising
• Shifts in advertising
• Product examples

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Advertising in the 1920s

• Related to the efforts of the CPI in WW I
• The focus Needs, desires and anxieties
• Appeals to Nature, medical authority, personal
  freedom, vanity, physical emotional wellbeing
• 1.4 billion in 1919... 3 billion 1929

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Jan, 1923 - McClure's Magazine
Script NEW Kissproof the waterproof rouge...in
a startling jade green case. New! Different!
Exquisitely modern! Daintily thin! Never before
has a Compact Rouge been offered in such a
strikingly original case! Luxurious gold and
brilliant jade green! An Exclusive Compact Rouge
for Particular Women--yet costs but 50c! And its
genuine Kissproof!
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Jan, 1923 - McClure's Magazine

• Script
• The Supreme Achievement in Electric Washing
  Machines

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(No Transcript)
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Advertising Modern
The focus Needs, desires and anxieties
1922 100K in sales... 1927 4 million in sales
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(No Transcript)
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• 10) Summarize how advertising redefined the norms
  of American society

• CONSUMPTION!
• Creates a national consumer culture

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The Phonograph Record Industry

• The most popular types of music in the 1920s

http//www.youtube.com/watch?v2iqqAIZpp2c
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The Phonograph Record Industry

• Records transform
• popular culture
• 1921 100 million in record sales

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The Phonograph Record Industry

• What regional or ethnic markets were developed?

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Louis Armstrong1901-1971
http//www.youtube.com/watch?vE2VCwBzGdPM
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• 11) Summarize how the record industry redefined
  the norms of American society

• Dances crazes... Fox trot, Tango, Grizzly bear,
  Charleston, Black bottom
• Creates a common understanding of popular music
  the role of music in social interaction

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• Sports Heroes Celebrities

Objective Summarize the significance of sport
and celebrity in the 1920s?
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Babe Ruth The Sultan of Swat1927- 60 HRs
Who was George Herman Ruth and how did he affect
the game of baseball?
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The Negro Leagues
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The Negro Leagues

• The NL played 11 World Series
• Biggest black sports attraction in the US
• East West All-Star game

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Josh Gibson
Satchel Paige

• Pitcher 1926-1950
• 1971 Hall of Fame
• Age 59, pitched 3 innings for the A's -oldest man
  to pitch in MLB

• Led NL in HRs for 10 years
• 75 HRs in 1931
• 585 ft. HR at Yankee Stadium
• Elected to MLB Hall of Fame in 1972

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Charles Lindbergh1927 -The Spirit of St. Louis
lands in Paris

• 1920 - First to fly solo across the Atlantic
  Ocean
• NY to Paris in 33 ½ hours
• A magnetic compass air speed indicator to guide
• 100,000 greet him in Paris

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Amelila Earhart

• 1928 1st woman (passenger) to cross Atlantic
• -20 hrs. 40 min.
• 1932 solo flight across Atlantic
• 1937 disappears trying to fly around world

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Gertrude Ederle In 1926, at the age of 19,
Ederle swam 35 miles across in the English
channel in 14 hrs 39 min."People said women
couldn't swim the Channel but I proved they
could" --Ederle
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BoxingJack DempseyHeavyweight Champ 1919-1926
TennisBill Tilden Battling Bill
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Golf Bobby Jones

• Considered the greatest amateur golfer of
  modern times.

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Red Grange The Galloping Ghost

• 1924 - Illinois v. Michigan
• -First 5 carries 5 TDs
• -First sports figure with manager

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Johnny Weissmuller "Greatest Aquatic Star ever
produced in America"
1932-1938 he stars in 12 Tarzan films

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

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Summarize how the celebrities of the 1920s
helped redefine the norms of American society?
48
Explain how the image of the flapper embodied
the changing values and attitudes of young women
in the 1920s. Identify the characteristics of a
flapper.
Objective.
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Women at the turn of the century
Women in the 1920s
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• Flappers What are the social and fashion
  characteristics that define a flapper.

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Flappers
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1920 Hair styles
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January, 1923How is the style of the 1920s
reflected in this magazine cover?
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• A New Morality
• 13) What was the image of the flapper and what
  was she in reality?

What promoted the image of the flapper? What
was the double standard applied to women?
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Anti-Flapper Laws

• Utah - Fine or imprisonment for wearing skirts
  higher than 3above the ankle
• Virginia - Woman cant wear shirts or evening
  gowns displaying more than 3 of throat
• Ohio - No neckline more than 2 in depth no
  garment composed of any transparent material to
  be sold

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Women being arrested in 1922 for wearing
revealing bathing suits
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(No Transcript)
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A New Morality

• 14) In what way was she (Flapper) a continuation
  from an earlier period and in what way was she
  new?
• 15) What sources were responsible for a more open
  treatment of sexuality in the 1920s?
• 16) What do sociological surveys from the time
  suggest?

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• The uniqueness of the flapper was that certain
  already existing cultural elements became normal
  for
• A) Big city, upper class, women
• B) Minority women
• C) White middleclass women
• D) Small isolated rural areas
• E) White, poor, rural women

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• Whether shopping, watching the movies,
  listening to radio or reading a newspaper,
  consumers in the 1920s were exposed to more
  things that
• A) Reflected local or regional qualities.
• B) Set them apart from the new immigrants.
• C) Were produced for a national market.
• D) Challenged them intellectually.

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Immigration Act of 1921
established a three-percent quota system based on
the number of foreign-born persons per
nationality already living in America at the time
of the 1910 census.In 1924, Congress further
restricted immigration with passage of the
Johnson-Reed Act, also known as theImmigration
Act of 1924 This act established the 1890 census
as the new quota baseline.A.

• PA Poem (American Protective Association)Come ye
  sons of Uncle Sam,Come join the gallant
  band,Come unite with us to fight our country's
  foe.For our God is with the right,We will
  conquer by His might,And the slick and wily
  Jesuit must go.Noble men are in our ranks --We
  are not a band of cranks --We are not a lot of
  bigots or of fools.But, ye Roman Catholic
  hordes,We will buckle on our swords,If you dare
  to meddle with our public schools