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TEACHING AMERICAN HISTORY PROJECT Lesson Title – A Comparative Study of 1920s and 1930s Culture

From Kimberly Weber Grade – 11 Length of class period – 60 minutes Inquiry – How and why did popular culture, the arts, and literature change in the 1920s and the 1930s? Objectives: -Students will be able to work cooperatively individually and in groups to analyze primary sources. -Students will be able to compare and contrast American culture in the 1920s and 1930s. Materials – Attached Note guide Primary source chart: 20s 30s 1. Literature Fitzgerald: Great Gatsby

T.S. Eliot: Poem Steinbeck: Grapes of Wrath

2. Art “How to do the Charleston”

American Gothic Migrant Mother

3. Sports “KY vs Univ. of Tennessee at Knoxville”

“Franklin Roosevelt ready to throw baseball from stands”

4. Music “Puttin’ on the Ritz” “Brother Can you Spare a Dime”

5. Movies The Jazz Singer “Steamboat Willie”

Mr. Smith Goes to Washington “Mickey Mouse and Friends”

Activities

• Students, with a partner, work at five learning stations. They work for approximately eleven minutes and then switch, eventually getting to all five stations.

• Students complete a note guide to scaffold their learning. The teacher collects the note guide for a classwork grade.

• The five learning stations include: literature, art, music, sports, and movies. Assessment Students complete a note guide that the teacher collects and assesses the students’ learning, counting the assessment as a classwork grade.

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Connecticut Framework Performance Standards – 1.1 Significant events and themes in United States history.

1. Apply chronological thinking to examine relationships among events and explain causes and effects of events.

12. Analyze how the arts, architecture, music and literature of the United States reflect its history and cultural heterogeneity (e.g. New Orleans, Jazz, Harlem Renaissance, Frank Lloyd Wright, Maya Angelou, rock ‘n’ roll).

1.13 – The characteristics of and interactions among culture, social systems and institutions.

59. Demonstrate the importance of viewing a culture through a variety of perspectives. 2.2 – Interpret information from a variety of primary and secondary sources, including electronic media (maps, charts, graphs, images, artifacts, recordings and text)

6. Determine the central ideas of and be able to summarize information from primary and secondary sources.

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Materials Table of Contents

Note Guide……………………………………………………………4-6 Literature……………………………………………………………...7-9 Art …………………………………………………………………10-11 Sports ………………………………………………………………12-13 Music ………………………………………………………………14-16 Movies…………………………………………………………………17

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A Comparative Study of 20s and 30s Culture ~ Note Guide ~

Literature, art, music, sports, movies and radio, newspapers

1920s Literature 1930s Literature

1920s Art 1930s Art

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1920s Music 1930s Music

1920s Sports 1930s Sports

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1920s Music 1930s Music

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Excerpt from “The Hollow Men” (1925) By T.S. Eliot We are the hollow men We are the stuffed men Leaning together Headpiece filled with straw. Alas! Our dried voices, when We whisper together Are quiet and meaningless As wind in dry grass Or rats' feet over broken glass In our dry cellar Shape without form, shade without colour, Paralysed force, gesture without motion; Those who have crossed With direct eyes, to death's other Kingdom Remember us - if at all - not as lost Violent souls, but only As the hollow men The stuffed men.

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Excerpt from The Great Gatsby (1925) By F. Scott Fitzgerald “They were careless people, Tom and Daisy–they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness or whatever it was that kept them together, and let other people clean up the mess they had made…I shook hands with him; it seemed silly not to, for I felt suddenly as though I were talking to a child. Then he went into the jewelry store to buy a pearl necklace–or perhaps only a pair of cuff buttons–rid of my provincial squeamishness forever.”

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Quotes from Grapes of Wrath (1939) by John Steinbeck

They breathe profits; they eat the interest on money. If they don't get it, they die the way you die without air, without side-meat. [referring to the banks] The Grapes of Wrath Chapter 5 The bank is something more than men, I tell you. It's the monster. Men made it, but they can't control it. The Grapes of Wrath Chapter 5 It ain't that big. The whole United States ain't that big. It ain't that big. It ain't big enough. There ain't room enough for you an' me, for your kind an' my kind, for rich and poor together all in one country, for thieves and honest men. For hunger and fat. The Grapes of Wrath Chapter 12 Man, unlike any other thing organic or inorganic in the universe, grows beyond his work, walks up the stairs of his concepts, emerges ahead of his accomplishments. The Grapes of Wrath Chapter 14

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Cover of Life, 2/18/1926 Illustration by John Held “How to do the Charleston” (Available on the Library of Congress site loc.gov)

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American Gothic, by Grant Wood,1930 (Available on http://www.artic.edu/aic/collections/artwork/6565) Photographer: Dorothea Lange Migrant Mother, 1936 (Available on loc.gov)

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“KY vs Univ. of Tennessee at Knoxville” by Abe Thompson, 1921

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“Franklin Roosevelt ready to throw baseball from stands, for first game of the year at Griffith Stadium, Washington, DC” 1935 (Available on the Library of Congress site loc.gov)

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Music 1. “Puttin’ on the Ritz” by Irving Berlin

a. Link options i. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BAZhHXsknd8

ii. http://www.archive.org/details/PuttinOnTheRitz1930 2. “Brother Can you Spare a Dime?” by E. Y. “Yip” Harburg

a. Link options i. http://www.authentichistory.com/1930-1939/3-music/19321027-

Brother_Can_You_Spare_a_Dime-Rudy_Vallee.html ii. http://www.archive.org/details/AlJolson-BrotherCanYouSpareADime

iii. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eih67rlGNhU Songs also featured on iTunes. Print out lyrics featured below.

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1920s “Puttin’ on the Ritz” Lyrics by Irving Berlin Have you seen the well-to-do Up and down park avenue On that famous thoroughfare With their noses in the air High hats and Arrow collars White spats and lots of dollars Spending every dime For a wonderful time Now, if youre blue And you dont know where to go to Why dont you go where fashion sits Puttin on the ritz Different types who wear a daycoat Pants with stripes and cutaway coat Perfect fits Puttin on the ritz Dressed up like a million dollar trooper Trying hard to look like gary cooper Super-duper Come, lets mix where rockefellers Walk with sticks or umberellas In their mitts Puttin on the ritz ------ short instrumental break ------ Tips his hat just like an english chappie To a lady with a wealthy pappy Very snappy Youll declare its simply topping To be there and hear them swapping Smart tidbits Puttin on the ritz

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1930s “Brother Can you Spare a Dime?” Lyrics by Yip Harburg (1931) They used to tell me I was building a dream And so I followed the mob When there was earth to plow or guns to bear I was always there right on the job They used to tell me I was building a dream With peace and glory ahead Why should I be standing in line Just waiting for bread? Once I built a railroad, I made it run Made it race against time Once I built a railroad, now it's done Brother, can you spare a dime? Once I built a tower up to the sun Brick and rivet and lime Once I built a tower, now it's done Brother, can you spare a dime? Once in khaki suits, gee we looked swell Full of that Yankee-Doodly-dum Half a million boots went sloggin' through Hell And I was the kid with the drum Say, don't you remember, they called me "Al" It was "Al" all the time Why don't you remember, I'm your pal Say buddy, can you spare a dime? Once in khaki suits, ah gee we looked swell Full of that Yankee-Doodly-dum Half a million boots went sloggin' through Hell And I was the kid with the drum Oh, say, don't you remember, they called me "Al" It was "Al" all the time Say, don't you remember, I'm your pal Buddy, can you spare a dime?

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Movies (clips) 1. The Jazz Singer (1927), director Alan Crosland Available at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bkyvstNrkHo&feature=related 2. “Steamboat Willie” (1928), director Ub Iwerks Available at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BBgghnQF6E4 3. “Mickey Mouse & Friends” (1935), director Walt Disney http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IErXg5kBXXg&feature=related 4. Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939), director Frank Capra Available at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zWyEc7FAMTg