during the war people were thrifty but people are going to stop saving and start spending. what is...
TRANSCRIPT
Increasing Consumerism
During the war people were thrifty but people are going to stop saving and start spending.
What is thrifty?to save; Selective spending; “penny pinching”
Personal prosperity – which means?people had more $$ - cost of living had dropped 10%
Consumer spending – which means?buying based on wants instead of needs – led by advertising
1. New products are going to mass marketedIncluding: Ford’s Model T & Model A
Vacuum cleanersRefrigeratorsElectric irons & fans, etc.
And other more inexpensive items such as wrist watches, cigarette lighters and hand held cameras.
2. Advertising - Designed to convince people instead of saving for the future they should spend!!!- no longer focused on the product itself but appealed to peoples needs, frustrations and anxieties
Advertising examples:
CARS: Talked about freedom, excitement & adventureNOT engine size or brakes or MPG
LISTERINE:Pledged to save
lonely people from bad breath
Palmolive soap: urged women to keep the school girl complexion – stay young forever
3. Installment plan (credit)Credit ~Buy now - pay later
With installment plans people could buy things they normally could not afford.
Ex. Phonograph that was $43.50 $5 down - $5 a month
PEOPLE LIVED BEYOND THEIR MEANS!
Harlem Renaissance
Langston Hughes, expressed the feeling of the Harlem Renaissance with this:
“We younger Negro artists who create now intend to express our individual dark-skinned selves without fear or shame. If white people are pleased we are glad. If they are not, it doesn’t matter. We know we are beautiful.”What does he mean by this?
Started in New Orleans and then moved with the migration of African Americans to Chicago and New York.
Some of the most popular jazz musicians were:
Louis Armstrong (Satchmo) who played the trumpet.
Duke Ellington – an artist turned pianist, composer and band leader
JAZZ
JAZZ MUSICIANS WOWED AUDIENCES OF ALL
RACES!
Louis Armstrong http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kmfeKUNDDYs
The Harlem Renaissance was more than just a musical awakening.
▪ Poets such as Langston Hughes became a spokesman for African-Americans▪ He is known for his black pride poems, stories of
lowly walks of life, novels, experimental theatre pieces, an autobiography
Writers/Poets
Artists▪ Focused on the culture and history of black
americans▪ Laura Wheeler Waring – painted scenes of upper class
African Americans▪ Edward A. Harleston – focused on African American servants,
soldiers and hired hands▪ Aaron Douglas – his goal in his arts was to portray the
spiritual identity and African roots of blacks in the U.S.
Literary, artistic, musical awakening of the African American community
So overall the Harlem Renaissance is:
Answer in your notes….. What do YOU think?
Prohibition-The outlawing of alcohol sales and consumption
Led by activists in the temperance movement because they believed that alcohol led to violence, unemployment and economic and moral bankruptcy.
“No power on earth…has such influence to terrorize and make cowards of men as the liquor power. Satan could not have fallen on a more potent instrument with which to thrall the world!!!!”
---- Eliza Stewart
Congress agrees with Eliza and passes the 18th Amendment: outlawed the “manufacture, sale, or transportation of intoxicating liquors” within the United States not illegal to buy, possess, or consume
Many people found ways AROUND this amendment:
Drinking surged as people found ingenious ways to get around the law▪ Gave alcohol nicknames such as giggle
water or hooch▪ Bootleggers
▪ Hid liquor in boots/concealed in flask▪ Made liquor with household products▪ Got liquor from church wine producers/for
medicinal purposes▪ Smuggled from Bahamas/Canada
▪ Speak-Easies▪ Concealed purposes with false business fronts▪ Membership cards and passwords used to get in
What is this called?
People found it “glamorous” to break the law $ to be made
▪ $ 3.5 billion – illegal liquor trade Crime Lords emerged
▪ EX. Al Capone – headed a gang on the west side of Chicago ($ 40 million annual income; organization made $ 100 million annually)▪ Battled with rival gangs to control: illegal liquor trade, drugs, gambling,
prostitution, and paid protection for “speak-easies”
Enforcement of Prohibition proved difficult The # of Americans breaking the law was enormous 60% of Chicago police force making $ from trade 80% of Americans were in favor of repealing the law Not enough government money to support enforcement Lack of public support for policy “Dry Snoops” – prohibition agents ridiculed
▪ evil methods: smashing with axes, bursting into houses, sniffing for alcohol, arresting the innocent
Offered flexibility and united
Americans
More leisure time; Radios more affordable; staple in average American home
Popularity of Radio & Movies
Important Dates in Radio
1920 - First station in Pittsburgh (Presidential election results)
1922 – 3,000,000 Americans owned radios and could listen to 508 stations
1929 – National Broadcasting Company (NBC) was making $150 million per year
Live broadcasts instantly connected Americans to:▪ Nationwide events▪ Orchestra performances▪ Soloist concerts▪ Sports events▪ Politician’s speeches▪ Comedies▪ Dramatic Series featuring
Orson Wells (“The Shadow”)
• Radios more affordable; staple in average American home
Motion Picture Film IndustryPEOPLE ARE GOING TO THE MOVIES BECAUSE:
1.Escape from postwar recession
2.Enjoyed love/fight scenes, westerns
3.Escaped in fantasy world
4.Created jobs5.Promoted
advertising6.Politicians saw
opportunity to promote themselves
CRITICS OF THE MOVIES ARGUED:
1.Decreased church attendance
2.Increased materialism
3.Led to immorality
Big Industry Hundreds of films made 1922 – almost every community in
America had at least 100-seat theatre
10 cents to 75 cents per picture bigger city theatres featured
elaborate furnishings by 1929 movies, theatres, and
spectator sports brought in 21% of the nation’s total $4.3 billion in amusement revenues
Warner Brothers
Worshipped stars
Rudolph Valentino – played an Arab “sheik” who stole women into his tent
Mary Pickford/Douglas Fairbanks – married 1920 Clara Bow – showed legs in movies and was a
heartbreaker both in and out of her movies Charlie Chaplin – comedian (laugh/cry) Lillian Gish – “Broken Blossoms” Mickey Mouse – introduced in the first Disney
cartoon “Steamboat Willie” in 1927
Warner Brothers produced “The Jazz Singer” – 1st movie with sound (“talkies”), made $2 million
Steamboat Willie http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=REbZO82tkgw
Charlie Chaplin http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qNseEVlaCl4
Sports ManiaLaws limiting work hours = more leisure time, so let’s watch sports!!!
Sports stars became American heroes!
BASEBALL! – America’s pastime
Babe Ruth – New York Yankees; “home run king”
Barrel shaped body, spindly legs – not shaped like an athlete. Yankee Stadium: “The house that Ruth built”; increased
profits Jim Crow Laws made baseball be separated by race.
Negro Leagues:▪ Stars : Satchel Paige, James “Cool Papa” Bell, Josh Gibson▪ Large fan base but lacked equipment and $$
Football Not as popular as baseball initially Harold “Red” Grange – “Galloping Ghost”: had
power & speed▪ Running back for the University of Illinois▪ Four touchdown runs/263 yards in the 1st twelve minutes
of a game▪ First athlete to be on the cover of Time magazine
Age of Play
Boxing Once outlawed, now super
popular 2 prizefights – top of American
sports interest
Jack Dempsey/Gene Tunney – Philadelphia (1926) ~ 130,000 people; made $ 2 million
Rematch – Chicago (1927) ~ 145,000 people; 40 million people heard it on the radio; conspiracy with ref’s call; made $2.6 million 10 Americans died from heart
attacks in their living rooms
Minor Sports
Gertrude Ederle▪ 1st woman to swim the
English Channel (2 hours faster than the men’s time; 14:31)
▪ 1926 Olympian Bobby Jones
▪ Golfer – won many tournaments
William “Big Bill” Tilden▪ Tennis – 1st American to win
Wimbledon Helen Wills
▪ Tennis – won every match from 1927 - 1930
Improved Transportation
Automobile Henry Ford
-responsible for auto explosion (7 million by 1918)- Model T* assembly line production = cheaper cost ($260)* make time 14 hours93 minutes* by 1925 = new model every 10 seconds* Average American could use* big economic impact (biggest in country 1923)revolution in American way of life (mobile)
Road Improvements-created a spider-web across the country-1921 Federal Highway Act – 10,000 miles of highway-businesses grew along these new roadsgas stations, hot dog stands, restaurants,
campgrounds, motels -billboards became the newest method of advertising
Airplanes flying = object of national attention WWI had pushed development aviators from war though couldn’t get jobs
There were some pilots that wanted to keep flying Such as Amelia Earhart took up barnstorming-
touring and performing in small towns and rural areas
Charles Lindbergh 1927- left NewYork in single engine plane
headed over the Atlantic to France▪ 33 hours 30 minutes▪ Plane: Spirit of St. Louis▪ Made him a world hero▪ received $25,000 and parade
How did aviators
convince Americans
that flying was
fascinatin
g?
Changing Role Of Women
Due to WWI, women took traditionally male jobs such as: shipment collectors Accountants phone operators steel mill workers
This movement into new jobs motivated women to say: Hey! Treat us as
equals! Pay us the same!! AND grant us
suffrage! (which by the way happened in 1920 with the passage of the 19th amendment!)
Yeah~ for the right to vote! But some women thought politics were boring so
they moved their focus into social life!• Women’s fashion became an outlet for expression
• Less modest, shorter hemlines, short hair (“shingle bob”), cosmetics (rouge & lipstick)
• Danced the Charleston• Advertising made women more aware of their
image• Ex. - Smoking advertisements promoted sophistication
and weight loss• The number of women smoking doubled during the 20’s
• Women became more self-sufficient & independent