the new mass culture part ii objectives… summarize how movies & other vehicles of mass culture...
TRANSCRIPT
The New Mass CulturePart II
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.
Currently…
• What are the media sources influencing modern American culture?
• How?
#7-11) Describe how each of the following elements of mass media redefines the norms of American
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.
The Roaring 20s
Movies, radio, journalism, recordings, advertising & celebrities created a new
national community.
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
The movie industry…
New themes for movies…
- Consumer culture, youthfulness, athleticism
- Types… - Musicals; Gangster films;
Westerns; Comedies; Travelogues
The “TALKIES”end the silent era
in1927
The Jazz Singer starring
Al Jolson
...The first film in which people speak to the
audience.
Greta Garbo – Flesh and the Devil
(1927)
Douglas FairbanksThe Mark of Zorro
Mary Pickford“America’s Sweet
Heart”http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FtrUdqvOBVY
Clara Bowhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zAxLbXTZdnU
Charlie Chaplin “The Little Tramp”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xoKbDNY0Zwg
Rudolph Valentino The Sheik
Many Americans, particularly in rural areas and small
towns, worried about Hollywood's impact on….
The potential decay of sexual morality in our culture
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” ... A
society in which people always seek the latest and greatest consumer goods. “Gotta have it” or my life is not complete.
Radio Broadcasting
In the early 1920s, radio was used to
promote newspapers by reading news
from the papers on the
air.
Radio Broadcasting
Who paid for radio programs at first and how did it change?...
What was America listening to on the radio?
Households with Radios 1920-30• 1920s... 1920…. 20,00
1922…. 60,0001924…. 1,250,0001926…. 4,500,000 1928… 8,000,0001930….13,750,000
• 1930...• 600 stations • 40% of America with a radio
KDKA in Pittsburgh, PA was the first radio station.
“The wireless”
What conclusions can you draw about the radio?
The giants of radio broadcasting…• General Electric (GE)• Westinghouse• Radio Corp of America (RCA)• American Telephone & Telegraph (AT&T)• National Broadcast Comp. (NBC)• Columbia Broadcast Comp. (CBS)
Radio’s first national hit…
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
New Forms of JournalismTabloid 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 readers…Poorly educated, working class, city dwellers, commuters & immigrants
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 her ankle, and took picture of her
at the moment of death. The paper sold 250,000 extra copies.
4) Summarize how tabloid journalism redefined the norms of American
society
• Influences the national consumer culture• Sensational news reporting
Advertising in the 1920s• Related to the efforts of the CPI in WW I... The
success of the WW I CPI brings new advertising techniques...
• 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
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!
Jan, 1923 - McClure's Magazine
Script: “The Supreme Achievement in Electric Washing Machines”
What consumer goods are now being mass produced?...
The auto, radios, washing machines, electric razors fans, vacuum cleaners phonographs and refrigerators.
Advertising Modern
The focus “Needs, desires
and anxieties”
1922: 100K in sales... 1927: 4 million in sales
10) Summarize how advertising redefined the norms of
American society.
• CONSUMPTION! ...Materialistic desire• Creates a national consumer culture
The Phonograph & Record Industry
The most popular types of music in the 1920s…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2iqqAIZpp2c
The Phonograph &Record Industry
Records transformpopular culture
1921: 100 million in record sales
Louis Armstrong
1901-1971
“Satchmo”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E2VCwBzGdPM
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
• Music has a role in social interaction
Sports Heroes & Celebrities
Objective…
Summarize the significance of sport & celebrity in the 1920s?
Babe Ruth “The Sultan of Swat”
1927- 60 HRs
Who was George Herman Ruth and how did he affect the game
of baseball?
The Negro Leagues
• The NL played 11 World Series
• Biggest black sports attraction in the US
Josh Gibson
• 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
Satchel Paige
• Pitcher 1926-1950• 1971 Hall of Fame• Age 59, pitched 3 innings
for the A's -oldest man to pitch in MLB
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
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
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
Boxing:Jack Dempsey
Heavyweight Champ 1919-1926
Tennis:Bill Tilden
“Battling Bill”
Golf: Bobby Jones
• Considered the greatest amateur golfer of modern times.
Red Grange “The Galloping Ghost”
• 1924 - Illinois v. Michigan… - First 5 carries & 5 TDs
- First sports figure with manager
Johnny Weissmuller "Greatest Aquatic Star ever produced in America"
• 1924-28 Olympic Swimmer & Water Polo Player
• 5 gold medals
• 1 bronze (Polo)
1932-1938 he stars in 12 Tarzan films
Summarize how the celebrities of the 1920s helped redefine the norms of American society.
• Modeling youthful athleticism• People became loyal spectators... Team identity• Role models outside of the sports arena... Rich,
famous, glamorous
Answer the following....
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.
Collaboratively write a Twenty Five Word Summary for the past section
- Identify the characteristics of a flapper.
- Explain how the image of the flapper embodied the changing values and attitudes of young women in the 1920s.
Objective….
A New Morality
Read pages 687-688... A New Morality14) 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?
Women at the turn of the century
Women in the 1920s
Flappers: What are the social and fashion characteristics that define a flapper.
Flappers
1920 Hair styles
January, 1923
How is the style of the 1920s
reflected in this magazine cover?
A New Morality13) 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?
Anti-Flapper LawsUtah - Fine or imprisonment for wearing skirts
higher than 3”above the ankle
Virginia - Woman can’t 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
Women being arrested in 1922 for wearing revealing bathing suits…
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 middle–class women
D) Small isolated rural areas
E) White, poor, rural women