Themes in American History

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=79i84xYelZI

The video above shows an example of the type of silent movies viewed during this time period.

The 1920s are greatly known for the entertainment developed during the time period. People had more free time and began spending this time several different types of leisure activities. People began watching sports especially baseball as well as boxing. Some even became involved in sports such as tennis baseball and golf (Chudacoff & Smith 217). The movie business continued to expand as more and more people began too visit theaters. For example about 110 million people visited the movies in a week when the population of the U.S. was only about 120 million (Chudacoff & Smith 217). Music advanced and flourished as Jazz became increasingly popular (Chudacoff & Smith 218). Radio allowed listeners to hear a wide variety of things from music to the news to advertisements about retail products that convinced them to go out and buy them (Chudacoff & Smith 218). This modernized the city by making it a thriving entertainment center with a wide variety of things to do during peoples free time. These developments brought forth the technologies of entertainment in the future that lead to inventions such as the television.

Picture of Babe Ruth who was an important figure in baseball during the 1920s

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The city, not the farm, had become the place of national experience. By 1920, four-fifths of the country’s African Americans living outside the South lived in the cities. During the 1920s, urbanization took place on a wider front than ever before. Maturing industrial economies increased the populations of many areas, particularly steel, oil, and automobile centers. Social and cultural diversity continued to be a unique quality of urban life that distinguished cities most sharply from the relative homogeneity of rural and small-town social relations. Leisure activities were another type of consumption mostly supported by city dwellers. In 1923, 300,000 fans attended the six-game World series of baseball between the New York Yankees and the New York Giants. The increase of show business paralleled the rise of sports, maturing with the growth of cities. In the 1920s motion pictures also attracted huge crowds. During 1927-1929, weekly movie attendance reach an estimated 10 million people when at that time nations total population was just over 120 million and total weekly attendance to church was under 60 million. Movies helped to popularize urban culture as nation culture by showing scenes involving diverse city people. In 1920s radio also brought the new world of entertainment and advertising directly into urban homes.

Suburban expansion in the 1920s owed much to the automobile and its related industries. Real estate interests, the construction industry, the auto rubber, and oil industry joined automobile owners in pressing for new roads to facilitate high-speed travel. The building of expressways and parkways encouraged still more suburban migration. In 1920, the growth rate of suburbs exceeded that of the cities for the first time. Many were residential communities for the upper and the middle classes, and others were industrial and mixed-use suburbs where factory workers constituted a fifth or more of the population. 1920s was also witnessed the country’s first suburban shopping center. Due to all of these developments in the 1920s helped the cities to become modern.

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During the 1920’s one of the most innovative creations of the time was the radio. This invention transformed society overnight and brought forth many social gatherings to join in with a common interest. Channels would broadcast news reports, different sporting events, music stations and religious practices all available to those who could afford a receiver, which was relatively cheap. It brought people from much greater distances together within in the comfort of their own home. The invention of the radio gave way to many more modernized versions of it such as television and the internet, which have the same objectives and concepts, to connect the world to your home.

Considering its’ success, the radio enabled an access point into majority of American homes.  By doing so, it spawned many new jobs and created new ways to advertise products, which in turn leads to higher production. It also enabled society to stay current with news stories, but also gave them the option to enjoy an outlet of entertainment as well. The radio then is very much comparable to the television today, whereas people would come together for certain show programming or sporting events.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a6I52Of-po8

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