Prosperity & Consumerism in the 1920s
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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.