A New City Culture
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Problems in the Cities
• Political Machine: Illegal gang that
influences enough votes to control a
government.
• Traded favors for votes – gave jobs, cash,
food to supporters
• Tammany Hall – most famous political
machine – stole lots of money from NYC
(led by William Marcy Tweed)
• Some did good: built parks, sewers,
schools, roads, and orphanages
• Helped immigrants find jobs/homes
Responses to Slums
Urban Reformers
Hull House
• Fought against
poverty & slums
• Settlement Houses:
help immigrants &
poor improve lives
• Offered daycare,
education, and
health care to needy
people in slums
• Founded by Jane
Addams, urban
reformer & suffrage
leader
• Chicago, founded
1889
• Became a model for
other settlement
houses.
The Popular Press
• EXTRA! EXTRA! READ ALL
ABOUT IT!!!!
• By 1880s newspapers became
entertainment
• Printed & sold by the thousands
• Circulation: number of readers
• Higher circulation = more
advertisements = more money
for papers
Newspaper Boys
Joseph Pulitzer
• Hungarian
immigrant, fought
in Civil War
• Created a
newspaper for the
poor of NYC
• Used simple
language &
human-interest
stories (women’s
section, sports,
comics)
Department Stores
• Advertised in newspapers –
very important
• Helped develop the
downtown
• Became a place for
everyone, not just business
people and rich people
Sports Become Popular
• Late 1800s, amateur (unpaid) &
professional sports became
popular – especially baseball
• First pro-baseball team =
Cincinnati Red Stockings (1869)
• 1876 – National League of
Professional Baseball Clubs
• Most large cities had a team
Sports cont.
• Baseball replaced horseracing
as America’s most popular sport
• Immigrants were baseball’s
biggest fans
“More often than not,…a trip to
the ball park tied people, city life,
and baseball together.”
More Sports…
• Mid 1800s – bowling became
popular sport in NYC
• 9-pin & 10-pin bowling became
illegal due to gambling problems
• German immigrants helped to
popularize the sport in Midwest
• American Bowling Congress
(ABC) helped make bowling
popular & respectable in early
1900s
Even more sports…
• 1870s – Americans turned
English game of rugby into
football
• 1891 – basketball invented in
Massachusetts to play indoors
during winter
• Some women also played games
like tennis and running races
Impact of Bicycles
• 1880s started a
craze for men &
women
• Bikes were
cheaper than
feeding & keeping
horses
• Fun & easy way to
get around
Vaudeville Theater
• Vaudeville – a variety show that
included songs, skits, dances,
comic routines, juggling, and
gymnastics
• Used both song and comedy to
explore human problems
• Anyone could attend the
Vaudeville – rich/poor, any
religion, any ethnicity
Early Movies
• First movies – shown during
vaudevilles with a projector (a
few moments of “moving
pictures”)
• Nickelodeons – 1900s people
started paying 5 cents to see
these short, silent films
• Soon movies were several reels
of film & more complex stories
Early Movie Stars…