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See all the wonderful things Alexis Labellarte has made

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See all the wonderful things Alexis Labellarte has made

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The Development of Consumer Culture in the 1920s

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The Development of Consumer Culture in the 1920s

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Originating in the 1920s was a new idea of materialism for many Americans. After WWI, America peaked with prosperity and found itself advancing industriously and technologically, and hence forth mass produced products for people to buy. Automobiles like the Ford Model T were mass produced and were often the single most purchased item, using installment plans. Several other electrical home appliances such as refrigerators, radios, and vacuums contributed to the consumerist state America was in. However, the consumer culture did not affect everyone, since over 65% of American families could not afford such luxuries yet, but this was the start to America becoming a materialistic and consumerist country. This culture arose after WWI, and it helped many Americans disguise the terrors and damage that it left behind.

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These so called heroes
defined the era and were the role models for the people of this time
period. They brought on hope and enlightenment after the horrific
times that they had gone through with the depression and the war. Charles Lindbergh and Henry Ford were held highly because they aided the image of wealth produced by the roaring 20s and made it affordable for more people. The main heroes however came from a booming leisure activity at the the time which were sports to name some, George Herman
Ruth, Jack Dempsey, Johnny Weissmuller, Steve Donoghue, Harold Edward
Grange, Helen Newington Wills, and William Tilden. Heroes were so popular because it let them see that not everything was so bad, that they could escape the great depression.

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In the early stages of the roaring 20s, the local radios united the nation and eventually nationwide broadcasting stations were built. These national broadcasting stations distributed information and promoted mass produced products improving the economy even further. The radio was also used in places where people gathered to listen to music and other leisure activities. The radio was used to listen in on sports such as boxing matches, baseball games, and other things. The radio impacted the cultural side of the United States by changing the sources of information. With the ease that came with listening instead of having to read and being able to listen from home made many look to the radio as their main source of information. With the mass production of things the radio also became an essential part of a household, further extending the impact that the radio had on American culture.

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Radio in the 1920s

Emergence of Radio in the 1920s and its Cultural Significance

Most radio historians asert that radio broadcasting began in 1920 with the historic broadcast of KDKA. Few people actually heard the voices and music which were produced because of the dearth of radio receivers at that time. The public, however, was overcome by a radio craze after the initial broadcast. Radio became a product of the mass market. Manufacturers were overwhelmed by the demand for receivers, as customers stood in line to complete order forms for radios after dealers had sold out. Between 1923 and 1930, 60 percent of American families purchased radios. Families gathered around their radios for night-time entertainment. As radio ownership increased, so did the number of radio stations. In 1920, KDKA was not actually the only operating radio station, but it remains a benchmark in most accounts. And by 1922, 600 radio stations had sprung up around the United States. Chicago's first radio station, KYW, begun in 1921 by Westinghouse Electric and Manufacturing Company, was the first specialized radio station, broadcasting exclusively opera six days a week. The radio station experienced immediate popularity and continued to be a favorite in Chicago. After the opera season ended, the station owners saw the need to diversify their programming. They began broadcasting things like popular music, classical music, sporting events, lectures, fictional stories, newscasts, weather reports, market updates, and political commentary. Radio stations like KYW enhanced a sense of community among different ethnic groups as each group could listen to programming suited to their interests and needs. However, the advance of radio technology also created a tension between modernity and the traditions and habits of Americans.
The rapid spread of radio listeners and programs lead to inevitable confusion and disruption. Radio waves were up for grabs, as stations competed with one another for time and listeners. Many programs overlapped. Listeners of one program were frequently interrupted by overlapping programs. In addition, the public, the government, and emerging radio corporations viewed radio as a means of public service, rarely as a vehicle for personal profit. Radio manufacturers alone experienced financial gain from the radio boom. Radio announcers, deejays, and stations worked on a non-profit basis. Advertising was not introduced until later in the 1920s, changing the public service face of radio, to one of private gain.
The federal government hesitated to regulate the airwaves. Radio stations, listeners, and emerging broadcasting corporations all asked the government for some sort of intervention to end the free-for-all that radio had become. The government responded slowly, gradually passing laws to govern the radio. The Federal Radio Commission was set up in 1926; the Radio Act of 1927 organized the Federal Radio Commission. This Act became the basis for the Communications Act passed after the rise of television. As the government spent more time investigating radio stations, apportioning time to different groups and programs, and monitoring the growth of the radio industry, they became more and more comfortable with the responsibilities of regulation. These federal bodies eventually ceased to doubt their right to regulate.

Radios in the 1920s

Crystal radios, like the one at left, were among the first radios to be used and manufactured. These radios used a piece of lead galena crystal and a cat whisker to find the radio signal. Crystal radios allowed many people to join the radio craze in the 1920s because they were easy to make from home. xMany boys' magazines encouraged young boys to make their own radios, and included step-by-step instructions for the crystal radio. All necessary supplies could be purchased for as little as six dollars. However, the sound in the earphones was very weak and often interrupted by static. Early radio's, including crystal radios, needed antennas to operate well. The most frequently used antenna was the inverted L. For more information on this and other antenna, clickHERE. While manufacturers tried to improve the crystal radio, one inventive young man, Edwin Armstrong, worked at improving the radio all together. He worked to implement the De Forest Audion tube into the radio. This was also known as a vacuum tube. Eventually, vacuum tubes replaced the crystal. Armstrong's first model of a radio using vacuum tubes was called the Radiola Superheterodyne. After companies succeeded in finding an inexpensive method of producing these tubes, they introduced a vacuum tube radio to the market in 1924. Sounds came through more clearly even over great distances. The additional innovation of the transistor allowed radios to become small and portable.

This radio, using a 250 watt spark transmitter, was built by Moe Smith VE1XG. Smith's innovation paved the way for radio manufacturers Pilot, Federal, Patterson, and more. It was one of the first radios to use peanut tubes but was incredibly loud to use. For more information on peanut tubes and radio technology in Canada, clickHERE. Overwhelming volume was a consistent problem with early radio. Even after the antenna was used to decrease radio static, listeners were still often "blasted" by noise when they switched stations; the switch from a distant frequency to a nearby station resulted in a dramatic increase in volume. The invention of the automatic loudspeaker in 1928 improved this problem immensely.
This is a Roger's Batteryless Receiver Model 130, built in 1925. It is typical of radios in the twenties in that it is battery operated and has three dials and five identical tubes. The move to battery powered radios resulted in an enormous upsurge in public popularity of the radio. Radios could more easily be incorporated into the decor of private homes. It furthered the mass consumption of the radio, producing new demands for this technology. This radio is very similar to the Stewart Warner 300, of 1925, seen below.

This radio is crafted in the cathedral style. Other radios were made in the tombstone style or in the crystal radio style, shown before. Radios were made in either plastic, wood, or metal.
For further examples of each, click HERE.

Are you interested in buying, selling, collecting, or just browsing for other early radios?

Radio Advertisements of the 1920s
; HERE. To return to the Main Page of the Chicago Radio Show, click HERE.

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Radio in the 1920s Emergence of Radio in the 1920s and its Cultural Significance Most radio historians asert that radio broadcasting began in 1920 with the historic broadcast of KDKA. Few people actually heard the voices and music which were produced because of the dearth of radio receivers at that time.

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The Influence of Fashion and Music Trends of the 1920s

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The Influence of Fashion and Music Trends of the 1920s

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Actors and actresses in moving pictures and silent films often set and portrayed the trends that existed during the 1920s. Clara Bow, famously known as the first woman to be labeled as a Flapper, popularized the wearing of short dresses, heels, makeup, sporting short hairstyles, and smoking, drinking, and dancing. This represented the built-up "angst" or resilience that women had suppressed for so long, but due to their recent suffrage, women emergence in the prosperous era became more widespread. Women now established an attitude that displayed their courage and independence based on their wardrobe and behavior. Jazz and blues were the face of the music scene during the 1920s. Often improvised and played in dance halls, jazz was upbeat and was epitomized by African American culture. African American men and women contributed into singing the blues, and women often sang about the resilient attitude they carried despite their oppression. Both genres represented the carefree yet determined attitude of the generation and oftentimes helped to mask the gloom that WWI left behind.

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The Development of National Culture in the 1920s

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The Development of National Culture in the 1920s

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With the combination of the newfound Consumer and Automobile culture of the 1920s, this produced an American National Culture, composed of mass production/consumption, the emergence of more leisurely time and less work hours, and more entertainment and connection through mass media and the development of highways and automobiles. Adopting a National Culture in America during the 1920s was almost a reassurance/comfort to American citizens after the terrors and destruction left behind from WWI.

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The Roaring Twenties

The 1920s was a time of profound change. So significant was this change that the decade is commonly called the ' Roaring Twenties.' World War I ended in 1918, and Americans were eager for a return to normalcy. Following the Great War (another name for World War I), the United States emerged as the new world superpower. Within a few years, the U.S. economy was booming.

The 1920s was a dynamic decade, characterized by prosperity, leisure, technological advances, consumerism and major shifts toward modern values. Modern values were particularly pronounced in urban locations. As more people relocated to large cities, like New York and Chicago, a way of life developed that was dramatically different from the rest of rural society. This urban culture became the hallmark of the entire decade.

Perhaps you have read the book or seen the movie The Great Gatsby. The Great Gatsby typifies urban culture during the 1920s. If you have read the book or seen the movie, you probably have a good idea of what 1920s urban culture was like. If you are not familiar with this classic, that's okay, because we are going to review several themes that were integral to urban culture during the 1920s.

Urbanization and Innovation

In the years leading up to the 1920s, and throughout the decade, urbanization took place at an extraordinary pace. What is urbanization? Urbanization is simply the process by which people move into urban areas and contribute to their growth. For just a moment, let's backtrack to the year 1800. This will help us put things in perspective.

In the year 1800, an estimated 5% of the American population lived in urban areas. By the year 1920, that figure jumped to 50%. It is commonly suggested that more people lived in urban areas than in rural areas throughout the 1920s.

Also during this time, more white-collar jobs became available. Blue-collar jobs, like mining, farming and other forms of physical labor, were by no means rare in the 1920s, but they were increasingly being replaced by white-collar jobs in fields such as law enforcement, public service, private business and the like.

The automobile played a crucial role in modernizing society during the 1920s. When the automobile was first invented, it was available only to the extremely wealthy. Henry Ford's affordable Model T helped change that. The Ford Model T and similar imitations opened up a whole new world of possibilities for the middle class.

Because of the automobile, people were traveling farther and more frequently. The popularity of this modern machine also helped birth a host of industries, including gas stations, hotels and automobile repair, just to name a few. The automobile created an entirely new, mobile way of life.

Social Issues

Alcohol consumption was an integral part of 1920s urban culture. Although Prohibition had gone into effect in 1920, alcoholic beverages were readily available at illegal bars called speakeasies and through other means, such as bootlegging. Prohibition was inconsistently enforced. In many cases, law enforcement officers were bribed to turn a blind eye to the production and consumption of alcohol. Prohibition is widely cited as a leading cause of organized crime during the 1920s.

Arguably, one of the most prolific symbols of the entire decade is the flapper. Flappers were young women who challenged traditional, Victorian standards of womanhood. They often smoked, drank and danced in public. Typically, they wore shorter hairstyles, gaudy jewelry and slinky, form-fitting clothing. Flappers typically embodied feminist ideals.

Feminism made tremendous strides during the 1920s. In 1920, the 19th Amendment granted women the right to vote and inaugurated a decade of feminist progress. In an age of political progressivism, homosexuality also gained increased acceptance.

Leisure and Entertainment

The technological advances and the economic prosperity of the 1920s allowed for unprecedented leisure opportunities. Moving pictures were relatively new and attending the cinema became a popular activity. Film stars, like Clara Bow, Joan Crawford, Charlie Chaplin and Rudolph Valentino, rose to become national (and sometimes international) celebrities. Baseball emerged as a national pastime during the 1920s, as athletes, like Babe Ruth, captivated sports fans. Advertising was an important component of the decade, as consumerism played an increasingly visible role in society.

The 1920s has also been called 'The Jazz Age.' Jazz music flourished during this time. With its emphasis on improvisation and rhythm, this bold new genre was decidedly modern. To traditionalists, it was downright threatening. Popular performers, like Armstrong and Duke Ellington, delighted crowds as they played in venues like New York's Cotton Club. Across the nation, dance fads like the Charleston became all the rage, much to the chagrin of social conservatives. Jazz music represented all that was modern, carefree and even reckless.

Centered in Harlem, New York, an African-American cultural movement, called the Harlem Renaissance, took place throughout the 1920s. This movement was primarily artistic and intellectual. Artists often used bold, abstract imagery to express the uniqueness of African-American culture. Langston Hughes, an African-American writer who pioneered experimental forms of poetry, emerged as a leading figure of the Harlem Renaissance.

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1920s american culture: city life & values - video & lesson transcript | study.com

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1920s American Culture: City Life & Values - Video & Lesson Transcript | Study.com

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The 1920s was a time of profound change. So significant was this change that the decade is commonly called the ' Roaring Twenties.' World War I ended in 1918, and Americans were eager for a return to normalcy. Following the Great War (another name for World War I), the United States emerged as the new world superpower.

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Before the invention of automobiles, transportation on land consisted of only trains and some kind of method powered by horses. With the mass production of all kinds of materials, purchasing cars was no longer something only the richest had, it became a kind of necessity; almost like having a fridge in a house. With a car, people could now travel to work using their automobiles, no need to live exactly next to their jobs, they could now drive there. People also did not have to live near the towns, they could live a decent ways away and still manage to live well off. The building of roads also shaped American culture because things were being built near roads to be accessible to automobiles, roads obviously built to accommodate cars.

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The Automobile's Imprint on the Landscape

There is little doubt that the widespread use of the automobile, especially after 1920, changed the rural and urban landscapes in America. It is overly simplistic to assume, however, that the automobile was the single driving force in the transformation of the countryside or the modernization of cities. In some ways automobile transport was a crucial agent for change, but in other cases it merely accelerated ongoing changes.

In several respects, the automobile made its impact felt first in rural areas where cars were used for touring and recreation on the weekends as opposed to replacing existing transit that brought people to and from work in urban areas. Some of the earliest paved roads were landscaped parkways along scenic routes. Of course, rural people were not always very pleased when urban drivers rutted unpaved roads, kicked up dust, and generally frightened or even injured livestock. Yet, cars potentially could help confront rural problems -isolation, the high cost of transporting farm products, and the labor of farm work. Although farmers may have resisted the automobile at first, by the 1920s per capita automobile ownership favored the rural family. Adoption was uneven in rural areas, however, depending on income, availability of cars, the continuing reliance on horses, and other factors. Automobile manufacturers did not lose sight of this market and courted potential customers with advertisements touting that cars were "Built for Country Roads" or promoting vehicles that would lead to "The Passing of the Horse."

Highway construction, also irregular in rural America, nonetheless influenced rural settlement patterns. Already in the post-World War I era, one might find fringe areas on the outskirts of cities that were neither rural nor urban. Settlements along the roads might be populated with farmers, people who lived in the country but worked in the city, and service areas with a variety of roadside business catering to automobile traffic.

An array of businesses trying to catch the attention of motorists began to spring up. Crudely built shacks beckoning tourists to spend the night made way for reasonably priced tourist courts, and ultimately the ubiquitous "motel" (a term likely coined in the mid-twenties as a play on the word "hotel"). Subsequent uniformity of style and service of motels-like in the case of Holiday Inns or Howard Johnson's-provided motorists with a clear expectation of what to expect if they stopped there, and how much they were likely to pay. Florida was an early leader in building accommodations for tourists with 178 tourist courts and camps operating by the mid-1920s. Complementing the tourist court was the roadside restaurant or eating establishment. Long before the chain restaurants like McDonald's or Denny's there were hundreds of "mom and pop" eateries serving anything from quick meals to full-course dinners.

Most important of all were filling stations for refueling, and ultimately garages and service stations to aid the traveler suffering an untimely breakdown. In the early days of the automobile-before pumping devices were invented-travel required careful planning. Gasoline had to be obtained at "bulk depots." These were located outside of the cities and the fuel was provided in cans or other containers. (Later gasoline for sale to motorists was transported in horsedrawn tank trucks by wholesalers to commercial customers in towns.) Sometimes the distances between the depots were too great for some motorcars, and a long walk or the help of a tow was necessary from a friendly soul with a horse. In 1905 the Automobile Gasoline Company in St. Louis employed a gravity-fed tank for fueling cars and opened the first "gas station."

As automobile sales increased, the demand for fuel led to a more systematic way of delivery, and in 1914 Standard Oil of California opened a chain of 34 standardized stations along the West Coast. Soon gasoline pumps were being installed not only at the new service stations, but in front of hardware stores, feed companies, livery stables, and a variety of other retailers. Curbside pumping, although common in cities, was less common in the countryside, where filling stations developed. Like early tourist camps, the first service stations could be converted barns, stables, or warehouses-a far cry from the multi-purpose facilities of today. Ultimately they came in a variety of designs-from the mundane to the ultramodern-literally creating an automobile-oriented landscape quite unique from what had come before. Outdoor advertising, especially the billboard, followed the roads into the countryside and hawked all manner of products and services, including the new roadside businesses themselves. As one architectural historian noted: "Speed blurs details, signs have to be big and bright." Automobile commercialism, not aesthetics or tastefulness, was the prime characteristic of the new advertising form. In the early 1930s, a survey was conducted along 47 miles of highway between Newark and Trenton, New Jersey. That stretch of highway included 300 gas stations, 472 billboards, and an additional 440 commercial uses. As much as creating changes in the rural landscape, the new roadside businesses had a major commercial impact beyond what anyone could have imagined.

Modern American cities also bear the imprint of automobiles and other motorized vehicles. In some cases, more than fifty percent of the ground area in the central business district of a city by the early 1960s was devoted to streets and parking spaces. While other forms of transportation before the automobile sometimes required even more street space, recent street and parking data often do not include the space necessary for businesses or services devoted in whole or in part to the automobile, such as gas and service stations, automobile dealerships, and automotive supply stores.

The " rise of the automobile city" or the retrofitting of cities to accommodate motorized vehicles must be understood within a rather broad historical context to be truly meaningful. As one social scientist has pointed out, "The majority of cities and towns have had the bulk of their urban fabric determined over many generations." There has been congestion in central cities due to pedestrians, horses, carriages, bicycles, and streetcars. Saying this does not dismiss the quite unique and profound physical impact of the automobile. It only reconfirms that it is not the only technology that has helped to make or remake cities. Yet, since World War II in particular, it is difficult to visualize cities, their suburbs, and the urban hinterland in the United States devoid of the car.

When we think about busy city life in the twentieth century, we inevitably think about traffic and congestion. While automobiles did not invent traffic snarls, they did create new problems in cities, especially with the glut of mass-produced automobiles. Cars and trucks occupy greater street area per capita than mass transit. The large numbers of cars and the myriad trips in those cars to and from home, work, places of recreation, grocery stores, and so forth made traffic a universal subject of discussion throughout the country. Inner-city traffic also raised frustrations over parking -not only about the availability and location of spaces, but also about increased congestion and the competition for land to develop. Individual motorists, merchants, property owners, commercial fleets, taxis, and mass transit all have a need and responsibility for adequate parking. Congestion problems in core cities and across metropolitan areas in the U.S. have worsened in many places rather than improved, with motor-vehicle use doubling between 1970 and 1990.

Congestion problems were a major reason for developing some type of traffic control, and, by the mid-twentieth century, extensive highway construction. Prior to 1903 there were no rules for driving in American cities, but traffic controls of some type began to appear after the introduction of mass-produced cars. Initially controls emphasized the behavior of motorists, pedestrians, and the police. Cleveland had the first permanent installation of a red and green traffic control light in 1914; Detroit added a yellow caution light in 1917. However, getting accustomed to the new signs proved difficult for drivers used to having their own way on the road. In several cases, more experience with traffic problems led to better utilization of the streets and traffic patterns, but the rising use of the automobile created new traffic and safety practices.

One of the truisms about problems of motorized vehicle congestion was that building streets failed to keep pace with traffic demands. The solution, however, was often more roads and highways. This process of increasing hard-surface streets began in the late-nineteenth century to serve the needs of bicycle-, wagon-, and carriage-transportation, and continued into the twentieth century, primarily serving the needs of automobiles. The use of the streets as gathering places was threatened and then superseded by the needs and priorities of vehicular traffic. The Bronx River Parkway in New York City became the first highway to be designed exclusively for the use of cars (completed in 1906, but only fully opened for traffic in 1924). In newer communities, pedestrian street activity sometimes was transferred to pedestrian precincts and paths or to shopping centers and malls.

The accommodation to the automobile through a remaking of the road system and the city in general came with a price, as had the introduction of the railroad and the streetcar before it. Building new roads and highways within cities damaged human and animal habitats; neighborhoods-especially those with little political clout-could be dislocated or even destroyed; and plant life and wildlife could be in endangered. Runoff from roads and highways-oil and grease, asphalt particles, rubber from tires, sand and salt from snow and ice buildup-all contribute to nonpoint pollution making its way into watercourses. Road building in general also increases runoff and limits the filtering capacity of soil. For their part, motorized vehicles proved to be a new safety risk as well as a health risk.

scenic routes

Frightened Livestock

Howard Johnson's

McDonald's

streets and parking spaces

automobiles did not invent traffic snarls

suburbs

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Automobile and the Environment in American History: The Automobile's Imprint on the Landscape

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The Automobile's Imprint on the Landscape There is little doubt that the widespread use of the automobile, especially after 1920, changed the rural and urban landscapes in America. It is overly simplistic to assume, however, that the automobile was the single driving force in the transformation of the countryside or the modernization of cities.