Unit III – A Modern Nation

1. Unit III – A Modern Nation Chapter 10 Section 3 A New Popular Culture is Born

2. 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?

3. Entertainment: The Movies, Radio, and Sports (06:30)

4. During the 1920s, the radio went from being a little-known novelty to being standard equipment in every American home. Radio Station Boom • The growing popularity of those simple broadcasts caught the attention of Westinghouse, a radio manufacturer. • In October 1920, Westinghouse started KDKA, the first radio station. • By 1922 the U.S. had 570 stations. • Technical improvements in sound and size helped popularity. • Americans now had a shared experience. Rise of the Radio • Guglielmo Marconi invented the radio in the late 1800s, and by the early 1900s the military and ships at sea used them. • In 1920, most Americans still didn’t own radios, and there was not any programming. • In 1920, a radio hobbyist near Pittsburgh started playing records over his radio, and people started listening. Radio Drives Popular Culture

5. Movies exploded in popularity during the 1920s for several reasons. Talkies and Cartoons • Another important innovation was the introduction of films with sound, or “talkies.” • In 1927 filmgoers were amazed by The Jazz Singer, a hugely successful movie that incorporated a few lines of dialogue and helped change the movie industry forever. • In 1928, the animated film Steamboat Willie introduced Mickey Mouse and cartoons. New Film Techniques • In early years movies were short, simple pieces. • During World War I, filmmaker D. W. Griffith produced The Birth of a Nation, a controversial film that some consider racist. • The film nonetheless introduced innovative movie techniques and helped establish film as an art form and widened its audience. • Woodrow Wilson, after seeing the movie, said, “it’s like writing history with lightning.” By the end of the 1920s, Americans bought 100 million movie tickets a week, though the entire U.S. population was about 123 million people. Movies

6. Film Star Heroes • The great popularity of movies in the 1920s gave rise to a new kind of celebrity—the 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 “America’s 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.

7. 1920’s Movies • Rudolph Valentino Janet Gaynor Fairbanks and Pickford Buster Keaton- The Great Stone Face Charlie Chaplin

8. 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).

9. Charles Lindbergh was a daredevil pilot who practiced his skills as an airline pilot, a dangerous, life-threatening job at the time. • Lindbergh heard about a $25,000 prize for the first aviator to fly a nonstop transatlantic flight, or a flight across the Atlantic Ocean, and wanted to win. • He rejected the idea that he needed a large plane with many engines, and developed a very light single-engine craft with room for only one pilot. • On May 21, 1927, Lindbergh succeeded by touching down in Paris, France after a thirty-three-and-a-half-hour flight from New York. • Lindbergh earned the name “Lucky Lindy” and became the most beloved American hero of the time. • A little over a year after Lindbergh’s flight, Amelia Earhart became the first woman to fly across the Atlantic, returning to the U.S. as a hero. • She went on to set numerous speed and distance records as a pilot. • In 1937 she was most of the way through a record-breaking flight around the world when she disappeared over the Pacific Ocean. Pilot Heroes of the Twenties Charles Lindbergh Amelia Earhart

11. Charles Lindbergh: Aviation Pioneer, International Celebrity, and Hero (02:27)

12. 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.

13. the first woman to fly across the Atlantic, returning to the U.S. as a hero. • numerous speed and distance records as a pilot. • In 1937. Amelia Earhart

14. Amelia Earhart: The World's Most Famous Female Aviator (02:49)

15. 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.

16. 1920’s 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.

17. 1920’s 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

18. 1920’s 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.

19. 1920’s 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.

20. Babe Ruth - 5:37 min.

21. 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 Barton’s novel compared Jesus to a modern business executive. • George Gershwin was a composer best known for Rhapsody in Blue—which showed the impact of jazz—as well as popular songs written with his brother Ira.