Prosperity & Consumerism in the 1920s



Prosperity & Consumerism in the 1920s

KEY THEMES & ISSUES

1. Signs of Prosperity

2. The Jazz Controversy

3. The Underside of Prosperity

The Triumph of Business

Faith in Big Business as guarantor, not threat, to liberty & well-being

Faith in Republican party’s ‘business knows best’ attitude

Fear of Big Govt.

Anti-radical/Bolshevik context

Calvin Coolidge

“This is a business country, it wants a business government”

Alfred Sloan, (pres of GM)

“What is good for General Motors is good for America”

Signs of Prosperity, 1

Unemployment

Wages

Labor

Welfare Capitalism

Gross National Product

Speculative Frenzy

New Boom Industries

Petro-chemicals/Oil

Synthetic Fibers

Electricity

Lumber/Construction

Consumer Goods

Signs of Prosperity, 2

Signs of Prosperity, 3

Retail Innovations

Advertising

J. Walter Thompson

Madison Avenue

Credit (Hire Purchase)

Supermarkets

A&P

Mail Order

Marshall Ward

Signs of Prosperity, 4

Tourism

Carson Robinson & the Pioneers,

“The West Ain’t What it Used to Be”

“Instead of grassy lands, there’s classy hot dog stands…”

“The old corral is now a parking place, for 50c you rent a tiny space…”

“For all the cowboys that we know are crooning on the radio…” (eg: Gene Autry)

“No more the good old time saloon, with sawdust on the floor & brass spitoons. In valleys, hills & mountains they’ve changed to soda fountains, and the only things get stewed are the prunes.”

Mass Popular Culture

Movies

Radio

Recordings

Pro-Sports

Jack Dempsey

Red Grange

Babe Ruth

The Jazz Age, 1

White Popularizers

“Livery Stable Blues”,

Original Dixieland Jass

Band, 1917

“Whispering,”

Paul Whiteman, 1920

“Rhapsody in Blue,

George Gershwin” 1924

The Jazz Age, 2

New Orleans Black Roots

Buddy Bolden

Freddie Keppard

Migration (Chicago & NY)

Joe ‘King’ Oliver, “Canal Street Blues,” 1923

Louis Armstrong, “West End Blues,” 1928

Fletcher Henderson

Duke Ellington

Swing

The Jazz Controversy

A Paradox:

1. Some whites opposed jazz because it was risque, taboo, sensual, passionate, drawn from black culture & represented a challenge to mainstream values and practices.

But,

2. Some whites loved jazz because it was risque, taboo, sensual, passionate, drawn from black culture & represented a challenge to mainstream values and practices.

The Underside of Prosperity

Uneven distribution of

wealth

Agrarian distress

Some old heavy

industries in

relative decline

Uncontrolled use

of non-renewable

fuels

Conclusions

1. The 1920s saw a boom in many sections of the economy.

2. The benefits of that boom were unevenly distributed and in some sections of America -- particularly in the agricultural sector -- hardly registered at all.

3. The mass media and popular culture industries became major forces in American life, both shaping and reflecting important social, moral and economic trends.

4. The decade witnessed continuing tensions between the forces advocating change and those clinging to the past.

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