Industrialization 1900s - Tipp City Exempted Village Schools

Industrialization 1900s
Questions to Consider
 How did the new technologies change entertainment
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and popular culture in the early decades of the 20th
century?
What did people do for entertainment?
How have these forms of entertainment changed
over the years?
Race?
Historical happenings?
What Was the World Like In 1900s and 1910s?
 Century starts out with Britain being a world leader
 By 1919 the United States was on the world stage
 World War I was on a scale not ever seen before
Key Themes of 1900s
 World War I
 Technology
 Immigration
 Rise of US as a world power
 Racism
 National identity
History
1900-1910
 Wright Brother first airplane
 T. Roosevelt – president
 Ford Motors was founded
 FBI was established
 T. Roosevelt leaves office and Wilson takes over
 What was life like:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qdrzTzlZnVM
Industrialization
 Through most of human history, the
masses were influenced by dogmatic
forms of rule and traditions dictated by local folk
culture.
 Most people were spread throughout small cities and
rural areas – conditions that were not conducive to a
‘popular’ culture.
 With the beginning of the Industrial era (late
eighteenth century), the rural masses began to
migrate to cities, leading to the urbanization of most
Western societies.
Industrialization
 Urbanization is a key ingredient in the formation of
popular culture.
 People who once lived in homogeneous small villages or
farms found themselves in crowded cities marked by
great cultural diversity.
 These diverse people would come to see themselves as a
‘collectivity’ as a result of common, or popular, forms of
expression.
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Thus, many scholars trace the beginning
of the popular culture phenomenon to
the rise of the middle class brought on by
the Industrial Revolution.
Industrialization
 Industrialization also brought with it mass production:
 developments in transportation, such as the steam
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locomotive and the steamship;
advancements in building technology;
increased literacy;
improvements in education and public health;
and the emergence of efficient forms of commercial
printing,
representing the first step in the formation of a mass
media (ex the penny press, magazines, and pamphlets).
All of these factors contributed to the blossoming of
popular culture.
Urbanization
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=loZ5XFGbd0Q
 Trolley Ride:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=954L9MpfCEo
Media At Start of 20th Century
 By the start of the twentieth century, the print
industry mass-produced illustrated newspapers and
periodicals, as well as serialized novels and detective
stories.
 Newspapers served as the best source of information
for a public with a growing interest in social and
economic affairs.
 The ideas expressed in print provided a
starting point for popular discourse on
all sorts of topics.
Media At Start of 20th Century
 Fueled by further technological growth, popular
culture was greatly impacted by the emerging forms
of mass media throughout the twentieth century.
Films, broadcast radio and television all had a
profound influence on culture.
 So urbanization, industrialization, the mass media
and the continuous growth in technology since the
late 1700s, have all been significant factors in the
formation of popular culture. These continue to be
factors shaping pop culture today.
Background Information – 1900s
 The average life expectancy for men in America was
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46 years, for women it was 47 years
An average worker made $12.78/week for 59 hours
of work
There were 115 recorded lynchings
Police had arrested a woman for smoking in public
Part of the “Second Industrial revolution”
1900s - Cost
 The average yearly wage was $432, and a steam-powered
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car cost $1,000. The average home in America sold for
approximately $5,000 in 1900.
In 1900, shoppers could buy a 5-pound bag of flour for 12
cents.
Round steak was 13 cents a pound, and bacon was a
penny more.
Eggs were 21 cents per dozen, milk sold for 14 cents per
half gallon and butter cost 26 cents per pound.
A 10-pound bag of potatoes was 14 cents, and a 5-pound
bag of sugar cost the relatively princely sum of 31 cents.
1900s - Cost
 Coffee often cost upwards of 35 cents a pound, and a
small tin of tea leaves ran between 50 to 75 cents.
 Chocolate was also relatively expensive, costing
around 34 cents per pound.
 A properly dressed gentleman in 1900 would have
spent between $7 and $16 on his suit, $1 on each of
his dress shirts, around $7 on his topcoat and 48
cents for a fine felt hat.
 Women's dresses cost between $10 and $12,
women's hats cost 35 cents and shoes for women
were approximately $2 to $3 per pair.
Historical Timeline
 http://americasbesthistory.com/abhtimeline1900.ht
ml
Imperialism
 Turn of century, British empire was at
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its height Great Britain was imperializing
around the world – India, Canada,
New Zealand, Australia and South Africa
Great Britain is a strong global influence
What was popular in Great Britain would be popular
world wide
Global influence of the US began to get stronger
“American Century” was beginning
Manufacturing power would overtake the European
industrial powers
World War I
 8.5 million people killed
 More than 21 million wounded
 First industrial war
 Technological advances and mass production made
WWI the one of most brutal and horrific the world
has ever seen
 War changed how people thought
 Social restrictions prior to war seemed less
important
 General public wanted to be freer from these
restrictions
Suffrage
 Women around the world fighting to vote
 United States and United Kingdom primarily
 New Zealand – granted right in 1893
 Australia in 1902
 Finland in 1906
 Norway 1913
Suffrage
 Demonstrations
 Militant actions in order to draw attention to their
plight
 United Kingdom – campaigners chained themselves
to railings, refused to pay taxes, went on hunger
strikes if they were imprisoned
 Women did many jobs of men during WWI
Travel
 Before this time travel was for the very rich
 Transportation becoming more affordable
 More travel options – subway systems, trains
 Ocean travel became faster
 Air travel was “taking flight”
Travel
 Increase in prosperity meant that people had more
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time available for leisure activities
Vacations
Railways made it possible for people to travel longer
distances in shorter time
Trends traveled too
Example: Riverboats of Mississippi River helped
popularity of ragtime and jazz spread up from New
Orleans
Travel
 Urban and suburban areas linked by trains
 Faster travel
 People could commute from suburbs to the city for
work
 New York City had a subway by 1904
Titanic
 “Unsinkable”
 April 1912
 Hit iceberg and sank
 Killed 1,490 people
 Led to new regulations on lifeboats
 Stories, movies, songs, works of art
 Story fascinates people even today
Air Travel
 1903
 Orville and Wilbur Wright
 June 14/15, 1919 – John Alcock and Arthur Whitten
Brown made first Atlantic flight
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16 hours and 27 minutes from Canada to Clifden, Ireland
 Aircraft in World War I
 Commercial flights later in 20th century
Car
 Rich could only afford at first
 1903 Ford Motor Company sold its first cars
 1908 Ford released Model T
 1913 assembly line – Michigan
 Goods made cheaply and affordable to the masses
Car
 Initially they were not popular
 Noisy and dangerous
 1903- Britain – Motor Car Act – top speed of 20
miles per hour
Car
 Car changed society
 Made people more mobile and gave them freedom to
go where they wanted
 Created need for roads and changed approaches to
towns and cities
 People could live farther away from jobs
 Ford made car affordable for all
Immigrants
 Large numbers of European immigrants came to the
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United States
2 million Italians
1.5 million Jews
.5 million Slavs
Added to American culture and brought popular
culture
Film
 Movies became very popular
 People started following careers of favorite stars and
even wanted to look like them
 Movies were accessible to a large part of the
population
Films
 Films in this period were very cheap and short, they
played at nickelodeons which cost 5 cents. Theses
were extremely popular and sometimes played
naughty films. One film that was widely known was
“The Great Train Robbery,” because it was rather
long (7 minutes) and it used a lot of innovative
techniques.
Early Beginnings to Film
 1896 – available to public
 Vaudeville/Circus Shows – short films were part of these
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music hall shows
1902 – LA, California – shop opened
only showing motion pictures
– very popular
Movie houses opened across
the country
1905 – Pittsburg, PA – first movie house
Nickel – knows as nickelodeon
First appealed to working class and grew to appeal to
middle class too
Early Film Industry
 World War I changed things
 Increase in demand for film because people wanted
to escape horrors of war
 US took lead and became foremost film making
country in the world
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With WWI Europe couldn’t meet the demand
 First US cities of film – New York and Chicago
Hollywood
 Film companies wanted to film year round
 New York and Chicago were not ideal
 Warmer climate and clearer skies
 LA suburb
 Hollywood
 Popular culture has changed as a concept throughout the
decades, often because of how different technologies and
fields reinvent it.
 The current understanding of popular culture as
synonymous with mass culture can be traced back to the
Industrial Revolution and its expansive middle class.
 It has long been thought that studying what is popular,
especially popular forms of art and communication,
reveals a great deal about general cultural practices and
the people who make use of them.
Silent Movies
 Early movies very different than today
 Short, silent
 Comedies, dramas, documentaries
 Music was played live – piano
 In between scenes title cards would pop up
explaining what was happening
 The Great Train Robbery
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Un1BqZptleM
Silent Movies
 Movies were only a few minutes long – kind of like
commercials today
 1903 – Edwin S. Porter revolutionized filmmaking
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Made movies to tell stories in different locations
 1903 Life of an American Fireman
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ym7-
QW_GWo
 1st US Documentary – scenes from an actual fire
1st Blockbuster
 D.W. Griffith’s 1915 The Birth of a Nation
 Most profitable movie of its time
 About American Civil War
 Admired for technical and dramatic innovations
 Condemned for racism it contained in the story
 Cost $100,000 to make
 Successful – made millions in profit
Movie Stars
 We didn’t always recognize movie stars
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and celebrities
1909 movie producer Carl Laemmle introduced the
star system
Promoted actress Florence Lawrence
Before this actors/actresses were not known by name
“Biograph Girl with the Curls” – actress Mary
Pickford
Music Hall and Vaudeville
 Vaudeville in the US
 Music Halls in Britain
 Variety shows
 Light entertainment
 Singers, dancers, jugglers, magicians, acrobats,
comedians, trained animals
Origins of Vaudeville
 Started in 1850s/1860s in beer halls
 Aimed mainly at men
 Late 19th century became more respected, held in
theaters and was family entertainment
 Mid 1890s – 1930s
Vaudeville Stars
 W.C. Fields – juggler and comedian
 Harry Houdini – escape artist
 Buster Keaton – silent film star – acrobat in
vaudeville
 Movies edged out vaudeville by about 1927
Jewish Influence
 Many Europeans emigrating to the US
 Escaping persecution and poverty
 Brought own cultures with them
 Jewish immigrants settled in American’s northeast –
New York and Boston
 Jewish immigrants got involved in all forms of
entertainment industry and influenced pop culture
Anti-Semitism
 A lot of negative feelings toward Jewish people
 Many Jewish performers made their religion a part
of their act in a humorous way
 Helped bring an understanding of Jewish culture to
the audience and soften anti-Semitic attitudes
Music
 Claude Debussy
 Gustav Mahler
 Richard Strauss
 Igor Stravinsky
 Caruso and Nelly Melba – opera singers
Music
 African Americans couldn’t make it big because of
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skin color
Ragtime
Blues
Jazz
These styles would become a big influence around
the world
Broadway and Music
 During the 1900’s Broadway musicals flourished, Irving
Berlin and George M. Cohan produced many spectacular
shows.
 During this time many memorable Vaudeville songs were
preformed. (Vaudeville was a type of entertainment that
consisted of acts and performances that were completely
unrelated, but were grouped together on a common bill.)
 One very famous song was, “A Bird in a Gilded Cage,”
recorded by Harry MacDonough. Also, songs were sung
such as “Bill Bailey Won’t You Please Come Home,” that
symbolised racial prejudice in the decade.
Ragtime
 1899-1917
 Forerunner of jazz
 Emerged from various forms of African American
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music
Influenced by folk and brass band music as well as
black and white minstrel shows
Piano – main instrument
Based on “honky-tonk” piano playing
Right hand beat is syncopated which means the
strong beat gets weaker and the weak beat gets
stronger
Music Spreads
 Leisure time was increasing for people
 Spread of sheet music
 Popular to have piano in many homes
 Entertainment and status symbol
 Ragtime was African American music that
transferred easily to the white mainstream because it
was instrumental
 Scott Joplin
 Maple Leaf Rag
 Scott Joplin
 Published 1899
 Sold 75,000 copies in the first year
Jazz
 Developed in southern US in early 20th century
 Started with African American musicians and its
appeal quickly spread to large sections of society
 Popular to listen to and dance to in bars and saloons
 Still popular today
Jazz
 Informal sound
 Up tempo rhythm
 Combination of West African rhythms with elements
of ragtime, brass bands, blues and work songs
 Work songs – songs sung by slaves and workers to
relieve the boredom of a repetitive task
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Were often spiritual in nature
Jazz
 Brass Band music – New Orleans marching bands,
important part of jazz
 Improvised tunes – key element
 Do not play from written sheet music
 Music of 1900s:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GvbhvX6VJgI&
list=PLoG3qbRnUFHGE3WMHm96Jyhkh-z7k-v1v
Blues
 Also emerged from the South
 African American work songs with white folk music
 First record published in 1912
 “Memphis Blues” by W. C. Handy
Dance
 As ragtime grew so did dance
 Cakewalk – couples form a square with men on the
inside
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Couples strut around square to the music
Judges evaluate dancers on elegance, grace and
inventiveness – eliminating couples who
were not the best
Winning couple got a cake
 Scott Joplin’s “Swipesy Cakewalk”
– popular tune for this dance
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NC0pQtf3ABk
Dance
 Dances to ragtime were mainly the one-step
 Couple walked one step to each beat of the music
 Simple, everyone could do it – that’s why it was
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popular
Argentine tango
Hesitation waltz
Brazilian maxixe
Fox Trot
Dance
 In the 1900’s ball room dancing had replaced the
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traditional waltz, (although, the waltz was still popular
with the higher class).
Dances such as the Jitterbug were created and ragtime
dances were widely known.
Some popular ragtime dances included: the cake walk,
castle walk, and the One step.
Furthermore, during 1909 to the 1920’s the tango was
immensely popular, as was Russian ballet.
Anna Pavlova ran her own company during this time,
(she’s credited as one of the most famous ballerinas in
history.)
Music Business
 Most common way to get music was to buy sheet
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music
Recorded music was growing
Became in larger demand after World War I
Idea of radio growing as well
Started in 1916
Wasn’t until after WWI that commercial
broadcasting increased – around 1920
Fashion
 Fashion in this decade consisted of formal outfits
and flashy dresses, women wore long dresses and
men were clothed in suits.
 Ladies were corseted to achieve a fashionable Scurve, however, there were lingerie dresses worn in
hotter climates. These dresses were made of light
materials, like cotton, and adorned with simple
decorations.
 Large hats were worn by women and were stylized
with flowers, ribbons and/or stuffed birds (if one
could afford it.)
Fashion
 Men were attired in short hair, curled moustaches,
bow ties for the evening and ascot ties for less formal
functions.
 Blazers and lounge coats were also worn for casual
activities.
 Still, for the most formal occasions only the dark tail
coat and trousers would do.
 Men generally wore stiff bowler hats, but higher class
men preferred to adorn themselves in top hats.
Fashion
 People wanted to be like movie stars
 Functional – automobiles and bicycles – people had
to dress accordingly, especially women
 Increase in leisure time increased demand for
sportswear and swimwear
 Women’s rights increased demand for fashion as
women fought for equality
Fashion
 At turn of century women work uncomfortable and
complicated clothes – such as corsets
 Pulled in the waist and supported the chest
 French designers began making clothes that
supported women differently so they no longer
needed a corset
Fashion
 Fashionable men wore pants, waistcoat, coat with a
top hat
 After 1880, trend for beards passed
 Men were clean-shaven or wore just a mustache
Fashion
 Trend just beginning
 People more active in bike riding, horse riding,
tennis, sailing, archer
 Informal separates such as blouses, shirts, skirts and
shorts
Fashion
 Early swimsuits covered most of the body
 Modest
 Swimming was segregated
 By early 20th century men started wearing shorts
without a top
 In 1900 Australian swimmer introduced a loose one
piece for women – made of wool
Fashion Facts
 Around 1912 – it became acceptable to wear lipstick
in public
 Zipper started in 1914 – Swedish-born engineer
Gideon Sundback
 Used by US Army on the clothing and gear of the
WWI troops
Fashion
 Late 1880s – safety bicycle
 Women’s fashion impacted
 Women started to wear a kind of pants to ride their
bikes
 Bloomers
 Bicycles gave women freedom and helped them fight
for right to vote
Wartime Fashion
 Fashion had to become practical
 By 1916 hemlines jumped to mid-calf from ankle
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length
Pants for women were considered ugly but practical
for war work
Short hair was seen as sensible and safe for factory
work
Women involved in military war
efforts wore uniforms
This shaped fashionable dress
Wartime Fashion
 During the war there were shortages of many things
 Food and building materials
 Fabric and fabric dye
 Fashion used less material than they did before the
war
 Shortage of dye meant the
colors were limited
Relaxation of Rules
 Fashion didn’t seem so important during the war
 Neither did fashion rules
 Shorter skirts
 Women also wore heeled shoes and stockings
 No more corsets after the war – practical work did
not allow for this
 Plus needed steel from corsets for the war effort
 28,000 tons of steel during the war – enough for 2
battleships
Post War Fashion
 After the war people dressed more informally
 Sportswear became more popular
 Simpler fashion
 Practical fashion
Fashion
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZlMrQBRGS48
Fads and Slang
 In the 1900’s fads such as ping pong and speeding
existed.
 Ping pong was mostly played by people who couldn’t
afford the luxury of lawn tennis.
 Speeding was a dangerous motoring sport that was
popular amongst males.
 Teddy bears were invented during this decade and
they soon became very big. Both Europe and
America claim to have first invented the teddy bear,
regardless the product was a huge success.
 A lot of the slang used in the 1900-1909’s is still used
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today. Here’s a list of popular expressions (that I at least)
use now a days:
I have “Butterflies in the stomach”
It’s “in the bag”
He’s a “bone head”
He got “screwed” by a crafty salesman
She’s so naive, it’s like she’s “just off the boat”
There is other slang that was used but this is just a small
sample of the colourful language people used to use.
Printed Word
 Mass production of books and print media was easier
 Literacy rates were rising
Pulp Magazines
 Printed on pulp paper
 Allowed price of magazines to drop – more
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affordable
The Golden Argosy – first pulp magazine
200 pages long and packed with fiction and poetry
Successful
Detective Story Magazine
New Buffalo Bill Weekly
Miscellany Periodicals
 Combination magazines
 Short stories
 Articles on travel
 Political events
 Technological oddities
 If you couldn’t travel, you could read about far away
places
 Short stories were good for commuters on the new
trains
Women’s Magazines
 Good Housekeeping – 1885
 Vogue -1892
 Harper’s Bazaar – 1867
 Vanity Fair - 1859
Comics
 1895-1905 Comics grew in popularity
 By 1910 the Sunday paper was in color
 Comics grew
 The Yellow Kid 1896
Government
 In America from 1901-1909 a president unlike none other was
elected, Theodore Roosevelt. He was the youngest president elected
at the time and was widely known as a soldier, a hunter, a
naturalist, as well as a politician. Theodore Roosevelt won a Nobel
Peace Prize and earned himself a Medal of Honour leading the
Rough Riders, (when the Spanish American war broke out.)
Theodore was a very influential person in the 1900’s for the United
States of America, almost like Barrack Obama is for us.
 Other parts of the world were also undergoing changes in their
popular culture due to the government. In China binding of
women’s feet was outlawed, this was decreed by the dowager
empress Tzu Hsi. London became the capital of the largest empire
in the world and transportation evolved. A tram system was
constructed thanks to the London City Council.
Art
 Art was undergoing a revolution at this time, Pablo
Picasso and Georges Braque were heading the new art
form Cubism. Cubism is an abstract form involving the
reconstruction of an analyzed subject.
 Fauvism began at the start of the decade. A work of art
that has strong colour over representational or real
values, it emphasizes painterly qualities. Some of the well
known artists of this art movement were Henri Matisse
and Andre Derain.
 Expressionism is artwork that are the artists perception
of the meaning of “being alive.” It’s a subjective type of
art that reflects emotional angst.
Inventions that Shook the World
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JszhyeW73Q4
World War I
 The Century: America’s Time – Shell Shock 1914-
1919
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1GBWDQ5cF_
U
World War I
 Crash Course:
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_XPZQ0LAlR4
 Hughes:
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GOq8iG20iuQ