1920s Unit Module Six - Changing Culture of The 1920s
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Listen to "1920s Unit Module Six - Changing Culture of The 1929s" on Spreaker.
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The links below will help you with translating tools between English and Spanish.
The cover of the VERY FIRST Time Magazine
This video shows you pictures of women during the 1920s
doing different jobs
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The links below will help you with translating tools between English and Spanish.
1. Audio of a words in both English and Spanish. Will also translate phrases.
2. Google Search - Espana: The word can be typed in English, and the search finds results in Spanish, including images
3. Also Google Arabic is available.
2. Google Search - Espana: The word can be typed in English, and the search finds results in Spanish, including images
3. Also Google Arabic is available.
Changing Culture of 1920s
Mass Media and a Developing NATIONAL Culture
Remember, just a little bit earlier we said that the culture of a time period includes the things that are important to the people living at that time (music, artwork, poems, dances [Snakehips???]. Culture can change due to experiences that everyone experiences together.
One example of such a thing was World War One (WW I). Another example a thing that can cause GREAT (BIG) change in the culture of a country is change brought by growing industry. As we learned earlier in the year, when industry grows and gets really big people move to where they can get jobs, and cities explode (get really large) in size. They can no longer grow their own food because they are living in crowded cities. The growing industry produces exciting new products that people begin to want, or even feel they need. This move to buying lots of stuff changes the culture of a place and makes them focus more on buying, selling, and consuming (which means using).
This man is "consuming" a hamburger.
Do you think he is also really eating money,
or is that a symbol of something?
If it is a symbol, what is it pointing to???
In other words people are taking less time making the things they need for themselves, and more time working for somebody else and buying the things they need from somebody else. Soooooo, people who made the same type of things were competing with each other to sell to the people who needed to buy.
People were feeling pressure to buy, buy, buy. The question for people trying to sell things was how to get people to buy YOUR products before they bought from someone else?
Mass Media
The answer was MASS MEDIA. Media is what we use to send out information (The devices above are some ways messages have been shared through history). MASS means really, really, really BIG. So MASS MEDIA means media that sends a message to a LARGE audience.
See the large in-person audience? Millions were listening on the radio. One was Gordon Stevens, listening in his barn as he milked his cows.
Some examples of media that have been around from the beginning of The United States would include newspapers and magazines. One was a little information booklet (small book) named Poor Richards Almanac published by Ben Franklin. Ben Franklin also provided a service by printing sheets of adds. This was an early form of media (getting information out), and he used it to sell.
Poor Richard's Almanac Ads
Look at the block on the lower left. It looks like an ad for a fair.
How effective do you think these ads were???
However the effect these media sources could have was limited because they were pretty much read only be the people near to where they were produced. They were not yet mass (WIDE audience) media. That means their effect was limited to being a local effect.
Now with growing and improving (getting better) transportation and technology, and the availability of LOTS of electricity the ability to spread a message to a wide audience had arrived.
How did this device (a radio) spread messages???
Media that spreads a message over a wide place is called mass media. Tik Tok, Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, Instagram, e-mail, web pages are somewhat modern examples of MASS MEDIA. They have the ability to send messages over an unlimited distance. The interesting thing is that Facebook did not exist before 2004, and Twitter did not exist before 2006. Instagram started in 2010, and Snapchat was new in 2011. Things can change rapidly, and NO ONE can say that those examples of mass media have not changed our culture.
Masses of Mass Media
The new types of MASS MEDIA that started in the 1920s included radio, movies, and even magazines and newspapers. Radio and movies were obviously new, but how can it be said that newspapers and magazines are new?
What were the limits to where you could market the Baby Ruth bar with this ad???
It all has to do with transportation. Due to the growing amount of railroads a newspaper or magazine that was produced (made) in New York could be sold ANYWHERE around the country, even the world. They are now called MASS media because they can reach a LARGE
(MASSIVE) audience. It can help build a NATIONAL MARKET (This means you can sell your product all over the country.)
The cover of the VERY FIRST Time Magazine
Time Magazine started in 1923 as the FIRST magazine that was published (printed for people to read) every week, and sold over the entire nation. Now, Time ALSO exists as a web site that you can get to anywhere in the world.
There were over 2,000 daily newspapers in the 1920s. Together they had over 27,000,000 readers in 1920. By 1930 there were over 40,000,000 people who read newspapers each day. This is almost half of the total number of people in the country at that time.
It is true that these media did tell important information and news of all sorts. That is not the main reason why they were made. They were made so that they could ALSO have advertisements (ads) in them. This new MASS MEDIA was used to spread the word about products that companies had for people to buy.
The ads would create a desire to buy a product that you now thought you needed. Some ads told you that if you bought THEIR product everyone would think you were great.
I mean with eye shadow like that she MUST be better than everyone else
Others told how if you bought their product, you could avoid eating candy and would not get fat.
Smoking to stay healthy???
Still others said how easy it would be to feed your family if you only bought their product.
Again, certain ads said no one would like you due to your bad breath if you did not buy their product.
Halitosis was VERY bad breath.
They tried to use the ads to make everyone afraid of not having friends
They tried to use the ads to make everyone afraid of not having friends
With the new MASS MEDIA the messages could be sent to reach a BIG audience.
Art, Literature, Music:
We did already talk about art, literature (writing) and music in the 1920s. Remember the Harlem Renaissance??? However there were others, and you will meet them here, and see some of their work.
Georgia O'Keefe - Painter
What do you see in this image that points out she was a painter?
Art in all its form was popular during the 1920s and 1930s. There was painting, writing, and music. One of the most famous painters of the time was Georgia O’Keefe. She was known for painting:
flowers
See how it kind of draws you into it?
and desert scenes
Both the desert and something you would see in the desert
(the skull of a cow that died long ago)
F. Scott Fitzgerald - Writer
Many talented authors wrote at this time. One very popular one was F. Scott Fitzgerald. He wrote about the party life of the 1920s ( also known as the Jazz Age) . His most famous book was called The Great Gatsby. The main themes of that book were:
- Society and class
- Love
- Visions of America
- Wealth (LOTS of money) and how many wealthy people were emotionally empty
- Memory of the past
- Dissatisfaction (with many things in life)
- Morality (doing the right thing)
- And many more
Movies have been made of it several times. One was in 1974
Introduction to the movie in 1974
John Steinbeck - Writer
Original cover of the book.
These people had lost their farms and were traveling looking for work
These people had lost their farms and were traveling looking for work
Another author who was popular during this time was John Steinbeck. His most famous book was called The Grapes Of Wrath. It was about the poor migrant workers (people who moved from place to place looking for work) during the Dust Bowl time of the 1930s. He told people what life was like for lost their farms and were turned into migrant workers due to hard (no money $) times.
Aaron Copland - Music Composer (Writer) and Director
In music there were a great (large) number of people making a great many different types of music. One of them was a man named Aaron Copland . He made music for fancy concerts and for movies. His music became recognized as something different from styles of music that had come before in America.
It was a combination of modern music and old fashioned American music. One of his most famous songs was called “Fanfare For The Common Man.”
Listen to just a bit of the song to get an idea of what type of music
Aaron Copland made.
George Gershwin - Music Composer (Writer)
See how he writes his music while planning it out on a piano?
Another music composer (a person who writes music) was George Gershwin. He wrote music with his older brother Ira. Many of his songs were also used in plays and movies. He had many famous songs, one of them named “Rhapsody In Blue.”
Listen to a bit of this to get an idea about what Gershwin's music was like.
Cultural Climate of the 1920’s
The culture of a time period includes the things that are important to the people living at that time. This can include ideas, music, art, and writing.
Changing roles of women in society
Women were getting involved in the working outside of the home in new ways. Some young women began to act and dress in new ways. They were given the nickname " Flappers" because of the style of dancing they did when they danced the dance called "The Charleston" and because of the clothes they wore.
Before this time women usually did not wear their dresses or hair this short. They also did not pose in public. See how they are all showing you their ankles were not covered?
At one time it was not appropriate to show your bare ankles.
At one time it was not appropriate to show your bare ankles.
They wore shorter skirts than before, and cut their hair shorter than had been done before in a style that was called bobbed . They smoked in public, wore too much makeup , drank a lot of alcohol in Speakeasies, drove cars, and dated anyone just to have fun for THAT moment no matter how they really felt about the other person. In short they acted in ways that they hoped would shock people.
doing different jobs
Many more women continued to work outside of the home, as they had done during WW I. Many more women worked on and earned advanced college degrees ( Masters and PhDs.). Women started playing sports like:
Basketball
Archery
Tennis
and golf
The 1920’s also saw the first women elected as a governor of a state when
Nellie Ross in Wyoming
and Miriam Ferguson in Texas
Other Entertainment - Sports
All of the extra time and money helped to make sporting events very popular. The problem was that in the case of baseball it was still segregated, in that African Americans could not play on Major League teams. This meant they had the Major Leagues for non-African Americans, and the Negro Leagues for African Americans.
Baseball
Baseball, both the Major leagues
and the league where African Americans played (Known at the time as The Negro Leagues .)
developed into very popular entertainment events.
One very famous player in this League was Satchel Paige.
The Major Leagues also had very popular players. One was named Babe Ruth.
He hit 60 home runs in 1927:
and his 500th total in 1929. He started in 1914, so that was 500 in 15 years,
an average of 33 per year. :
Football - College
Red Grange
College and pro football started to become popular. One player, Red Grange , when just in his first year in college, scored four touchdowns in the first 12 minutes of a game ( 95, 67, 56, and 45 yards). However, boxing served as the most popular sport of the time.
Red Grange Playing
Football - Pro
There were many famous pro football players during the 1920s, including red Grange after going to University of Illinois, George Halas, and Curly Lambeau. However there was a man who started playing pro in 1915, and continued through 1928. Hi Name was Jim Thorpe. He was also a famous olympic athlete, winning gold medals in the 1912 pentathlon (5 track events) and decathlon (10 track events).
Boxing
Jack Dempsey is the boxer still standing
Two of the biggest boxing stars were Jack Dempsey , known as “The Manassa Mauler,” (where he was from) and his main competition Gene Tunney. Their first match had 130,000 spectators, and the second had 104, 000, with millions listening on the radio. Even farmers milking cows in the barn would listen to sporting events on the radio . They even made movies of the match.
Notice the radio on the table behind the farmer milking the cow