Culture

Lecture One: Consumerism and Culture

The Consumer Culture

The 1920s witness the emergence of a full-blown consumer economy in the United States. As business retooled for production after World War I, many chose to produce consumer products. Many of these products were the products of new technology; likewise, new technology made the production of consumer goods cheaper and more efficient. (Machines making machines!) As more consumer goods rolled of the assembly line, businessmen hired advertisers to help convince Americans they needed these new products. They also convinced Americans to change basic cultural assumptions concerning buying, debt, and durability. Many of these patterns continue in some form or fashion to the present day.

Retooling the Economy

The end of the war brought cancellation of orders for wartime contracts, while simultaneously, large numbers of discharged servicemen swelled the ranks of job seekers. Such postwar conditions often bring on recession or depression. Such was not the case after World War I. No immediate economic collapse ensued. Given wartime shortages and the overtime pay earned by many Americans, people had saved up enough money to keep spending, eager to buy all the goods that had been unavailable during the war. This spending helped delay the postwar slump until 1920 and 1921. The gross domestic product (GDP) dropped by only 4.3 percent between 1919 and 1920, then fell by 8.6 percent between 1920 and 1921. In these years unemployment rose to five percent in 1920 and thirteen percent in 1921. Many employers cut back hours and wages. This unemployment, however, had a positive affect on the economy by bringing a halt to the wild inflation that had accompanied consumer spending. Consumer prices actually fell from 1920 to 1921, led by a twenty-four percent drop in the price of food.

The economy quickly rebounded. The GDP increased by more than fifteen percent between 1921 and 1922, a bigger jump than during the booming war years. Unemployment remained between two and five percent from 1923 to 1929, and prices for manufactured goods remained relatively stable. Thus many Americans seemed slightly better off by 1929 than in 1920; they earned more (at least in constant dollars) and paid somewhat less for necessities.

Automobiles

Henry Ford and the
Model T

Click on images below for larger view

Leading the way in the consumer economy was the manufacture and sales of automobiles. Perhaps no other product so radically changed the culture and economy of American life at every level. Cars offered a new level of freedom and mobility to nearly all segments of society. Cars also transformed the landscape, and not just with the construction of new roads: gas stations emerged to fuel the increasing number of cars on the roads; roadside businesses sprang up to sell goods to motorists (food, postcards, rest stations); auto repair and supply stores. Even cities morphed to the shape of the car. Perhaps more than any other city, Los Angeles reflected a lifestyle based on the automobile. Los Angeles was to the car as Chicago was to the railroad. Cars allowed Los Angeles residents to live away from urban centers, in suburbs, where they lived in single family homes. Shopping malls and supermarkets arose in these suburbs to serve shoppers who traveled by car. Such innovations set the pace for new urban development everywhere.

The individual responsible for making the automobile affordable for most Americans was Henry Ford. Early automobiles had been luxuries--expensive and complicated machines crafted by small manufacturer, beyond the reach of all but the very wealth. Ford, a former mechanic, saw a need for a more affordable and practical vehicle. He built his success around the Model T, introduced in 1908. The Model T would be a dream come true for many middle-class Americans who came to love their ungraceful but reliable "Tin Lizzies." By 1927, Ford had built more than 15 million of them, dominating the market by selling the largest possible number of cars at the lowest possible price. He was able to do accomplish this by radically changing production methods. He perfected the assembly line, whereby workers used machines to assemble the car in the fewest number of steps. By combining new advances in technology and higher worker productivity, Ford was able to reduce the price of a Model T to $290 by 1927 (the equivalent of $2,900 today). Cheap to buy, the Model T sacrificed style and comfort for durability, ease of maintenance, and the ability to handle almost any road.

Ford's advances in productivity, however, came at the expense of labor. The assembly line cut production costs, but it also dehumanized the labor involved. Ford workers were prohibited from smoking, talking, singing, sitting, or even whistling while working. They could not join unions. But Ford paid them enough to raise their standard of living so that they could afford the cars they helped manufacture. In short, auto workers came to enjoy some of the consumer buying previously restricted to middle- and upper-income groups.

Streamlined production alone did not maintain low prices for cars. Competition also helped keep prices low. Other companies challenged Ford's dominance, most notably General Motors (GM), founded by William Durant in 1908, and Chrysler Corporation, created by Walter Chrysler in 1925. GM and Chrysler adopted many of Ford's production techniques, but their cars offered more comfort and style than the Model T. Ford only ended production of the Model T in 1927, when Chevrolet passed Ford in sales. The next year, Ford offered a new model, the Model A, which incorporated some features touted by his competitors.

The automobile came to symbolize not only the ability of many Americans to acquire material goods but also technology, progress, and the freedom of the open road. The industry worked hard to promote this image through advertising. The auto industry pioneered new sales techniques. Installment buying became so widespread that by 1927 two-thirds of all American automobiles were sold on credit. GM sold new models every year, This practice enticed owners to trade in their cars just to keep up with fashion. Dozens of smaller car makers, unable to compete, folded. Chrysler, Ford, and GM became known as The Big Three, controlling over 83 percent of car manufacturing in America. The industry had become an oligopoly. (1)

Changes in Banking and Business

The process of installment buying in the auto industry illustrates a huge sea change in American attitudes towards buying and credit. Heretofore, debt had been viewed as a sign of bad character. Now, auto makers (and other businessmen) used advertising to convince Americans that buying on credit was good for business, and therefore good for America. It was patriotic!

To help serve the growing need for money and credit, bankers also engaged in innovative techniques. A. P. Giannini, and Italian-American from San Francisco, helped revolutionize banking. Until Giannini, most banks had only one location, in the center of the city, and limited their services to businesses and substantial citizens with hefty accounts. Giannini not only based his bank on dealings with ordinary people but also opened branches throughout California, near people's homes and workplaces. Called the greatest innovator in twentieth-century American banking, Giannini broadened the base of banking by encouraging working people not only to open small accounts but also to borrow for such investments as car purchases.

Radio

Like automobiles, radios also became more affordable and widely available in the 1920s. First developed in 1879, the first radios were bulky, noisy, and had poor reception. With the advent of improved technologies such as vacuum tubes and rectifiers, the radio was honed into the interesting little device that made it into such a craze during the 1920s.

Once radio signals could be transmitted and received with improved clarity around 1920, the idea of public radio began to take hold in America. The first public radio broadcasting station opened in Pittsburgh, 1922. It was an instant success; listeners would sit around the radio listening to everything that was broadcasted. As a result many more radio stations popped up during the 1920s, some even over night.

Radio provided a cheap and convenient way of conveying information and ideas. The first broadcasts consisted of primarily news and world affairs. Later in the decade, radios were used to broadcast everything from concerts and sermons to "Red Menace" ideas. (2)

The radio was certainly one of the most important inventions of the 1920s, because it not only brought the nation together, but it brought a whole new way for people to communicate and interact.

In the beginning, radio stations reflected the local community and its interests. In Chicago, for example, different ethnic groups would often operate stations, broadcasting in Polish, Yiddish, Russian, and many other languages. However, as in the auto industry, a few major corporations came to dominate broadcasting. They used their financial and political influence to shut down the smaller stations by controlling the licensing procedures.

And driving all this concentration were the ubiquitous advertisements. The large radio networks provided entertainment, but only in the service of selling produces. Every radio shop endlessly hyped its sponsors products. The "Pepsodent Hour" featured a new "emcee," Bob Hope, and even after Hope's popularity and name recognition grew, with his program broadcast coast-to-coast plugs for Pepsodent remained a key feature of every broadcast.

Motion Pictures

Rudolph Valentino

Theda Bara

Attendance at movies increased in the 1920s. The Twenties were the era of the "Silent" films--before technology managed to marry picture with sound to produce "Talkies." By 1929, a weekly average of 80 million Americans attended the movies--or two-thirds of the entire population. The rapid spread of movie theaters created a new category of fame: the movie star. Comedian Charlie Chaplin and his "Little Tramp" series charmed millions, as did the comic antics of Buster Keaton and Harold Lloyd. Cowboy stars like Tom Mix helped introduce the rugged western genre to the screen. Sex, too, sold tickets. Rudolph Valentino soared to fame as a male sex symbol with his most famous film, "The Sheik," set in a fanciful Arabian desert. (When Valentino died suddenly in 1929, many women committed suicide, unable to live without their heart's desire. Many others made a shrine of his grave--an early predecessor of the Elvis shrine at Graceland.) Theda Bara was "the vamp," and Clara Bow was the "It" girl, symbolizing sexuality for a generation. Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., starred as the swashbuckling hero of action films, and Mary Pickford played the girl next door, sweet and innocent. (In an early example of a marriage made in Hollywood, Fairbanks and Pickford married and lived in a legendary Hollywood mansion, "Pickfair." Magazines, fed photos and stories by the movie studios, fed Americans endless stories of the glamorous couple, like "Ben and J. Lo." And, like so many other celebrity marriages, this one ended badly, in divorce.)

Homogenization of Culture

The combination of radio and film, together with national magazines, effectively homogenized culture--that is, made in uniform by breaking down cultural differences based on region or ethnicity. In the cultural vacuum, Americans increasingly searched for their role models and heroes from these media sources rather than from their own communities. This helps to explain, in part, the emergence of celebrity mania in the 1920s. Another partial explanation was the emptiness of cultural content from the media. Interested primarily in selling Americans consumer goods, the media industry wanted to reach the broadest possible audience, and aimed at entertainment rather than education or information. Americans didn't care. The more they received, the more they wanted.

Sports

Celebrity and sports also merged in the 1920s. Thanks to the radio, spectator sports became a national obsession. Baseball had long been a popular sport, and with the radio to broadcast the games to a nation wide audience. A fan living in Boise could follow the careers of national stars like Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig of the New York Yankees. In turn, these sports starts promoted products as part of endorsement deals.

Other sports vied for national favor with baseball. Boxing created celebrities out of Jack Dempsey and Gene Tunney, while Bobby Jones, a golfer, also gained national prominence. Even athletes like Man o'War, the famous racehorse, became a celebrity. (Just go see the movie "Seabiscuit"....)

"Lucky Lindy"

Charles Lindbergh

The Spirit of St. Louis

Perhaps the greatest example of celebrity was the case of aviator Charles Lindbergh. For years, Americans had followed the efforts of aviators to set new records--first to fly non-stop across the U. S., then who could fy faster over the same route. The prize, however, was to fly alone over the Atlantic Ocean. A New York hotel owner offered a prize of $25,000 to the pilot of the first successful flight from New York to Paris--a distance of 3,500 miles. Lindbergh took up the challenge. He set out in is plane, The Spirit of St. Louis, a stripped-down, one-engine plane, on a 33 1/2 hour flight. He landed in Paris to a hero's welcome and was given a ticker-tape parade in New York City upon his return. He won the $25,000--and everlasting fame. For many, Lindbergh's acomplishment symbolized the fact that old-fashioned individualism, courage, and self-reliance could still triumph over odds and adversity. (3)

The unassuming Lindbergh became an icon. He earned a nickname, "Lucky Lindy," and people even named a dance after him, "The Lindy Hop." Lindbergh married poet Anne Morrow and tried to settle down to a quiet life on Long Island. Sadly, however, Lindbergh was thrust back into the spotlight in 1932 with the kidnaping of his baby son, Charles, Jr. The family received a ransom note, but police soon found the body of the dead child--he had apparently been killed accidentally during the kidnaping--and arrested a German immigrant and handyman, Richard Bruno Hauptman, and tried him for murder. A jury convicted Hauptman and sentenced him to death. The Lindberghs sought escape by temporarily moving to Europe.

Fads and Fashion

A flapper and her beau dance the "Charleston"

Radio, film, and newspapers also helped create and publicize national trends and fashions as Americans pursued one fad after another. After the opening of the fabulous tomb of Tutankhamen in 1922, Americans developed a fascination with all things Egyptian. In 1924, crossword puzzles captured the attention of many Americans, as did contract bridge and mah-jongg. Such fads created new markets for consumer goods, from Egyptian-style furniture to crossword dictionaries to folding card tables. (4)

Fashions for both women and men followed the lead of celebrities. For women, the ideal was the "flapper"--so called because of the flapping sound made by her unfastened galoshes--and the movie star was Louisie Brooks. The fashion ideal of the flapper rejected nearly every aspect of feminine fashion of the previous generation. (Indeed, with the flat-chested flapper, sometimes the ideal seemed to reject femininity altogether.) The ideal of the previous generation was epitomized by the "Gibson Girl" (after a drawing by Charles Gibson). She wore her long hair carefully coifed and upswept. The ideal figure was hourglass, and clothing tailored to accentuate curves. Her dress covered every inch of skin save her face and hands, and her shoes were high-button (and almost hidden by her dress. If she wore a hat (and she almost always did), it was broad brimmed and adorned with feathers, flowers, or a swatch of lace--a work of art. She wore no make up, didn't smoke, didn't drink, and certainly did not have sex (nor even know the word if popular ideals are to be believed). If she danced, it was at a chaperoned event (if she was single), and then something "tame" like a waltz.

By contrast, the flapper bobbed her hair short and hid it under a tiny little hat called a cloche, adorned only with a small, cheap brooch. Her dress was almost shapeless and hung on a stick-figure frame. The hem fell just below the knee, revealing bare flesh between the dress and ankle. (To add to the effect, the flapper rolled her stockings down to just below here knee to reveal even more flesh.) Sometimes her arms were also bare. She wore makeup, including rouge and lipstick, smoked, drank liquor, and talked about sex (though in reality, women couldn't risk engaging in sex without risking pregnancy). She danced to sexually suggestive jazz music and went out on dates unsupervised. Sometimes she held a job and made her own money.

For men, fashions were based on those of sports heroes such as golfers Bobby Jones and Walter Hagen, tennis plate Bill Tilden, and swimmer Johnny Weismuller provided youth with clothing styles. Football players such as Red Grange promoted the fashions of coats, such as the raccoon coats and the camel hair polo coat. Aviator Charles Lindbergh insured a craze for leather driving jackets. The Prince of Wales, with his easy charm and good taste in suits, also became a symbol of male fashion.

While Americans were worshiping youthful sports heroes, the general dress of Americans was becoming more youthful looking. The worship of youth also generalized the fashions worn on college campuses. American men adopted the extraordinary pants from Oxford University, called "Oxford bags" because of their loose fit. Men abandoned the hefty-looking, broad-shouldered suits for skinnier, unpadded, more boyish looking jackets. Men's suit pants also underwent a major change. Creases appeared on the front and the sides while cuffs replaced flat hems. Pants were fastened by buttons or hooks, and belts started to replace suspenders as the device for holding up pants. (5)

"Flaming Youth"

As referenced in the commentaries on fashion in the 1920s, American culture witnessed a new emphasis on youth in this era. Indeed, for the first time in American history, America had a distinct "youth culture" distinct from culture, which, though distinct, nevertheless exerted a strong influence on the mainstream.

What factors contributed to the emergence of a youth culture at thus time? One of the leading causes was the growing number of Americans attending high school and college. Prior to the industrial age, most Americans had ended their education at the age of 12 or 13, as there had been no need in an agricultural economy for more knowledge than that of the basics of "reading, writing, and arithmetic." However, with the more complex demands of industry and technology, businesses needed a better-educated workforce to fill the "white-collar" jobs of management. Additionally, the social scientists of the Progressive movement (the most prominent of whom was John Dewey) advocated high school as a means of shaping youth through their environment as well as through education. High school curricula changed from an earlier emphasis on subjects such as Latin and rehtoric to more "practical" subjects, including natural science, higher math, history, and English. Students were socialized to be obedient, clean, punctual--in short, to be good citizens and good workers. Finally, the passage of child labor laws in the early twentieth century strongly influenced the popularity of high schools. Most children were now excluded from the work force and unable to contribute to the family economy, so high schools helped bridge the gap between childhood and adulthood by providing a place where society could "employ" its youth and better equip them for the future.

High schools inadvertently created an ideal environment for the proliferation of consumer-driven culture. During adolescence, most people begin searching for and constructing a new identity. Heretofore, this transition to adulthood had taken place rather quickly as youths became members of the workforce, with the responsiilities of adults. Surrounded by adults, they adopted the manners and ideals of their peers. With the extension of adolescence through high school, however, this transition to adulthood was interrupted. No longer children, but not yet adults, youths began constructing a new identity based on neither childhood nor adulthood. They looked to a new set of peers--each other--as role models. With the new hierarchical structure of high schools--freshmen, juniors, and seniors (most high schools did not add a fourth year until after World War II, so there was no need for a sophomore designation)--younger teens looked to older teens as their role models, and all teens looked to mass culture as a source of setting themselves apart and forming their own identity.

For advertisers, high schools were a dream come true. Marketers saw in youth the ideal demographic (a group defined by certain characteristics, such as age, occupation, income, etc.) for consumer goods. If youth were looking for their own unique identity, then the marketers of Madison Avenue would provide them with one. They created new magazines designed specifically for adolescents, and in them, they advertised products just for teens. Already in the Twenties, mass media sent youth a mixed message: on the one hand, they encouraged teens to be good citizens, but simultaneously appealed to their yearning for indendence by inadvertently giving them the means to consruct at least the appearance of rebellion (if not the actual thing) by encouraging them to adopt the latest fashions, ideas, and attitude. Unlike their parents, teens embracd change and technology as the route to the future, and in doing so left their parents behind. With their new fashions, new music, and new language--for then as now teens developed a "slang" that was often incomprehensible to their parents--youth set themselves apart.

Perhaps more than anything else, though, it was the automobile that gave youth a new independence from the influence of adults. With cars, teens could now escape from the ever-watchful eyes of adults. This contributed to a false sense of independence as teenagers could sneak off and attend parties or just get into mischief. Much of this activity involved aclohol. Prohibition made drinking taboo and risqué, so this naturally appealed to teens' desire to defy authority by drinking. Sex, too, became part of the youth culture. Many teens listened to the sexually suggestive lyrics of jazz music and danced new dances that defied conventions of propriety. They had "petting parties" and went "parking" in their new cars. Altough much of this behavior was substantially harmless, the image was of youth "out of control." Parents, teachers, minsiters, and other authorities looked with alarm at the behavior of young people and worried for the nation's future, which these young people represented.

Proceed to Next Lecture

Sources

(1) http://inventors.about.com/gi/dynamic/offsite.htm?site=http://www.hfmgv.org/exhibits/showroom/1908/model.t.html
(2) http://www.angelfire.com/co/pcst/radio.html
(3)http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/lindbergh/
(4) http://www.angelfire.com/co/pcst/fads.html
(5) http://www.angelfire.com/co/pcst/men.html

Other parts of this lecture derived in part from Chapter 23, "Prosperity Decade, 1920-1929," in Berkin, et al., Making America: A History of the United States, Volume II..