sociology

Transcript: 1920s Consumer Culture In the decade after World War one the spread of new technology increased American engagement with the world. American business also became more international than ever before. People around the globe bought American products and watched American-made movies. At the same time many Americans tried to isolate the country from the rest of the world. Hostility to outsiders led to harsh restrictions on immigration. Parts of the American and the world economy thrived, but the widening gap between rich and poor and the unhealthy economic legacy of the war eventually led to a long depression. Modern advertising encouraged demand for newly available goods and Americans borrowed billions of dollars to buy modern marvels such as cars radios and electrical appliances all made available through mass production. Many Americans reveled in this new consumer culture and were proud that people around the globe sought to emulate it. Others however decried modern mass consumption as boorish, hollow, and vapid.

Wireless Communication Radio developed into one of the most popular modes of communications in the 1920s. By the end of World War I the technology and corporate structure were in place for a revolution in communication that would allow listeners easy access to information and entertainment created halfway around the globe. Early radios were sold as kits assembled at home and often modified and improved by builders. These radios quickly captured the imagination of inventive Americans eager to tinker with the shoebox-sized contraptions. Commercial radio broadcasting started on the night of November 2, 1920. A small audience of wireless enthusiasts in the Northeast tuned into hear East Pittsburgh's new station, KDKA, broadcast the Warren Harding/James Cox presidential election returns. Two years later there were 500 radio stations around the country with radios, in 3 million American homes and President Harding's office. The hobby of the few had become a national obsession and a 60 million dollar a year business. Radio broadcast quickly spread worldwide. Countries in the Western Hemisphere heavily influenced by US stations established privately owned stations, while in Europe government set up broadcasting operations. American companies battled each other over patent rights engaged in a heated rivalry with British allies over who would control the airwaves. Woodrow Wilson deemed American supremacy and radio technology important enough to help convince

General Electric to reassign patent rights and established the Radio Corporation of America. The rapidly evolving technology spawned a powerful communications industry, and RCA emerged as the dominant company By 1922, the radio was the most sought-after consumer product in the nation, and radio broadcasts were the most significant form of mass culture. By the end of the decade, the radio had profoundly altered patterns of daily life as families reorganized their habits to catch favorite shows. Radio changed the way people thought and bought. As radios became increasingly elaborate and expensive, consumers often had to buy their sets on credit, and for rural Americans the radio provided a vital link to the broader civic and cultural life of the nation writ large, which helped justify the purchase. Some traditionally minded critics disapproved of the open access of the airwaves fearing that it fostered immorality. Like other popular media of the 1920s, radio openly expressed the sexual desires of the age. Songs like “Burning Kisses,” “I Need Lovin’,” and “Hot Lips” floated on the air easily accessible to young people who gravitated to the new technology with a fervor that frightened many religious and community leaders. For African Americans, radio perpetuated nationalized old stereotypes through wildly popular shows like “Amos and Andy” in which white actors portrayed black characters as good-natured, submissive fools. Radio also popularized jazz and other forms of regional music created in their culture.

Car Culture Along with the radio, the growth of the automobile industry had a profound effect on American society in the 1920s. Henry Ford adopted mass production techniques with the introduction of the moving assembly line in 1903. This method allowed Ford to manufacture his Model T quickly, efficiently, and cheaply in his Highland Park Michigan plant. With the Model T, automobiles for the first time became affordable, versatile, and relatively reliable. Sales of Ford's Tin Lizzie soared. Car purchases from General Motors and the third of the big three, Chrysler, multiplied as well. Vehicle registration more than doubled from three million in the early 1920s to 8.25 million by 1927. By 1930, Los Angeles, with a population of under 2 million, contained more cars than did all of Asia with its more than 800 million population. Cars changed the way Americans viewed consumption in fundamental ways. In the mid- 1920s, Alfred P. Sloan, chairman of GM, attacked Ford's dominant market position by introducing new GM models every year. Sloan's notion of planned obsolescence boosted sales, luring consumers into purchasing new cars before their old ones wore out. GM also increased sales by offering installment purchasing and promoting the

idea of a product ladder with different grades of cars pegged to different incomes, and by 1927 two-thirds of car buyers used the installment plan as they sometimes spent above their means to participate in the car craze. In late 1927, Ford responded to GM's innovations. Their roll-out of the more comfortable Model A to replace the Model T resulted in a frenzy of interest from the media and the public. Cars revolutionized mobility. Farmers and their families could now easily travel to town to shop, eat, and enjoy other recreational opportunities. Urban families took leisurely Sunday drives through the countryside. Some grabbed food at the new drive-in restaurants. Closed cars served as mobile bedrooms for teens and young adults who wished to escape their parents’ watchful eyes. Car owners embarked on long-distance vacations on which they could stay at an auto camp or one of the new motels popping up along the highways. Along the way, drivers could fill up at one of the new gas stations or to stop at one of the tourist attractions that dotted the roads. Cars and better roads also facilitated the rapid growth of suburban communities on the outskirts of the nation's major cities. The population of Grosse Pointe outside of Detroit increased 724 percent throughout the 1920s. Shaker Heights near Cleveland grew a thousand percent. In the Los Angeles suburb of Beverly Hills swelled by two 2,485percent. Open spaces and comfortable homes attracted middle-class families to the new residential communities. By the mid-1920s, automobile manufacturing was the country's fastest growing industry and provided much of the decades’ labor growth and prosperity. One out of every five dollars spent by consumers went towards automobiles. By 192,9 the industry employed almost 13% of all manufacturers. The financial health of other industries such as petroleum, steel, glass, and rubber also relied heavily on the auto industry. Industrialists such as Ford branched out globally in an ultimately futile effort to find a cheap and stable source of natural rubber for tires. Ford carved out a vast plantation called “Fordlandia” in the Amazon rainforest in Brazil. Tire manufacturer Harvey Firestone built more successful rubber plants in Liberia. Automakers also sold their products abroad modifying their cars for foreign tastes, establishing subsidiaries, and building plants outside the US By 1928, American multinational firms in France and Germany outpaced production of domestic auto industries in both countries. By the mid-1930s, Ford and GM had manufacturing operations in nearly every major market worldwide. US production plants popped up in Australia, Japan, and even in the Communist Soviet Union.

Advertising for Mass Consumption In the 1920s, advertising took on new importance as mass consumption drove the American economy. American business, perfecting methods to make people

believe that they needed new goods, created sophisticated campaigns in print and on radio airwaves. Ads seem to show how a product could reshape a consumers’ image and even enhance their social standing. They frequently employed movie stars and other popular personalities to endorse some mundane products. By gargling the same brand of mouthwash as movie Idol Rudolph Valentino, consumers were promised a new status and even happiness as the result of a simple purchase. Cigarette makers encouraged women to “Reach for a Lucky instead of a sweet.” Ads also heightened demand for amazing new home appliances such as electric washers, stoves, refrigerators, and vacuum cleaners. Ad men of the 1920s perfected new methods that drawn insights from psychology and anthropology to shift Americans away from traditional values of thrift toward borrowing and spending on non-essential personal items. Edward Bernays, a nephew of the newly popular psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud, pushed for explicitly sexual appeals in ads. Ads in magazines and newspapers, on roadside billboards, and on the radio raised awareness of personal health, hygiene, and appearance. Dramatic ads warning Americans of the shame of bad breath and the dangers of bad manners generated remarkable sales for products as different as mouthwash and Elbert Hubbard’s Scrap Book: A Guide to Self-improvement. By 1927 American corporations spent more than 1.5 billion dollars per year on advertising.