Copyright by Benjamin Dylan Lisle 2010
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Copyright by Benjamin Dylan Lisle 2010 The Dissertation Committee for Benjamin Dylan Lisle certifies that this is the approved version of the following dissertation: “‘You’ve Got to Have Tangibles to Sell Intangibles’: Ideologies of the Modern American Stadium, 1948-1982” Committee: ____________________________ Jeffrey Meikle, Supervisor ____________________________ Janet Davis ____________________________ Steven Hoelscher ____________________________ Michael Kackman ____________________________ Janice Todd “‘You’ve Got to Have Tangibles to Sell Intangibles’: Ideologies of the Modern American Stadium, 1948-1982” by Benjamin Dylan Lisle, B.A.; M.A. Dissertation Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School of The University of Texas at Austin in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy The University of Texas at Austin May 2010 Dedication In memory of Madge Lisle, who stoked my interest in the world of things. Acknowledgements Thank you to all who have played their part in the realization of this study. The network of family, friends, colleagues, students, and mentors who have inspired, supported, challenged, and refined it is broad. There are, of course, countless people who have influenced it in subtle ways. But there are also many who have influenced it much more directly. Most immediately were those on my dissertation committee. Jeff Meikle has long provided me an intellectual model of how American Studies can unlock and energize our understanding of the past. His close reading of my work—from my first year at Texas to the final word of my dissertation—was invaluable. I can hardly express how grateful I am for that. I was further blessed by the influence of others at the university, as examples of both committed teaching and vibrant scholarship. Steve Hoelscher formally introduced me to geographic approaches to the study of culture. Needless to say, my project would be wholly different, and wholly anemic, had I not entered his gravitational pull. I could never replicate Janet Davis’s constant and inspiring enthusiasm for ideas; I am deeply grateful to her for her example and generosity in my years at Texas. Jan Todd has also been very generous with her time and command of the world of sports studies. Michael Kackman brought important perspectives to my work, supporting it and challenging it instructively. I was fortunate to have such a committee. The American Studies department at the University of Texas has been a very gratifying place to develop as a scholar and teacher. Ella Schwartz was instrumental to my graduation, v helping me clear the proper administrative hurdles from my remote location. Cynthia Frese, Valeri Nichols-Keller, and Lisa Jaskolka also met my procedural ignorance with patience. I thank Julia Mickenberg, Nhi Lieu, Mark Smith, and Elizabeth Engelhardt for their example and advice. The graduate student community has been collegial and inspiring. Its members are too numerous to list, though I am particularly fond of the Illinois eccentrics. Jason Mellard and Amy Ware have repeatedly helped me hone my writing and clarify my ideas. Matt Hedstrom, elder statesman, was always more than generous with his accrued wisdom. I appreciate most of all the companionship—intellectual, gastronomical, and humdrum—of Tracy Wuster. He often reminded me of what my main arguments were and was always willing to read and respond to my work. Beyond Texas, I owe a debt to Alan Howard at the University of Virginia for selling me on the prospects of American Studies in the first place. My project relied on research assistance from a variety of sources. I thank the librarians at the Center for American History at the University of Texas at Austin, the Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas at Austin, the A. Bartlett Giamatti Research Center at the National Baseball Hall of Fame, the George Washington University special collections, the New York Public Library Manuscripts and Archives Division, and the Minnesota History Center. Bill Hancock generously provided me with a treasure trove of old Houston programs and scorecards. Many have sent me links to or clippings of newspaper articles on stadiums and ballparks. To those anonymous many: thank you. I am further indebted to Meredith Kelley, Mike Foley, and Jenn Jefferson and Tracy Wuster for their generous hospitality, housing me during research trips and conferences. Finally, I would like to express my appreciation for the writing of Roger Angell and Michael Oriard. They are the star vi witnesses, and without their work—particularly regarding the Houston Astrodome—I don’t know if this project would have ever been pursued, much less completed. On a more personal level, I have been blessed throughout my life by my associations. I’ve made great friends wherever I’ve lived; I am particularly thankful for the Okies, Minnesotans, Virginians, and Texans. A project of this length and intensity relied heavily on regular diversion. I couldn’t have made it without the camaraderie and competitive spirit of fellow participants in the Sloth soccer empire, the Machine in the Garden, the Ron Artests, the Church of the Hardwood, the I-35 American Association, the Heartland League of America, and the Texoklasota Basketball Union. When I came to Texas, I entered into a durable friendship with a young cat, Mookie Blaylock. In spite of his occasional efforts to sabotage my work, he has been a good listener and a net asset. My family has been unwaveringly supportive, emotionally and financially. My parents and grandparents never questioned what might have seemed an Ahabian pursuit of professional suicide, in fact encouraging me to chase the thing. For that, I am forever grateful. My only regret is that I didn’t finish this in time for my grandmother to read it; I dedicate it to her. Thanks too go to Carolyn, Liz, Jon, Anna, and the menagerie of animal characters. But no one had to suffer through the heavy lifting and the daily grind as Erin Murphy did. I am humbled by her willingness to read whatever was put in front of her, to listen to my endless monologues on the subway as I intellectually thrashed about, to endure my occasionally nihilistic moods in the dead of winter. I hope she can stand more of this, because I can’t imagine my life without her. vii “‘You’ve Got to Have Tangibles to Sell Intangibles’: Ideologies of the Modern American Stadium, 1948-1982” Benjamin Dylan Lisle, Ph.D. The University of Texas at Austin, 2010 Supervisor: Jeffrey Meikle This dissertation investigates the modern American stadium from the late 1940s to the early 1980s, examining the ideologies that shaped these monumental buildings and the meanings people affixed to them. Stadiums were significant components of the modern landscape, frequently hosting massive audiences, costing tens of millions of public dollars, and uniquely symbolizing cities and their citizens’ civic spirit. Through interpretations of these stadiums’ architectural expression, spatial constitution, discursive construction, and visual representation, this study explores the ideological landscape of the modern United States, expands understandings of modern space, and examines what it meant to be “modern” throughout this period. A response to the old stadiums they replaced—largely masculine, inter-class, inter-racial, rambunctious places locked into run-down neighborhoods—new stadiums eliminated traditional and iconic sites of urban diversity, reconstituting sports spaces as modern, suburban, and technological. They re-gendered stadium space, integrating women into it as consumers and service workers. They re-classed stadium space, outfitting it with exclusive restaurants and private luxury boxes. They technologized stadium space, conspicuously loading it with exploding scoreboards and massive video screens. They re-racialized stadium space, relocating it from old ballparks adjacent dense African-American neighborhoods to open sites along viii freeways convenient to booming white suburbs or as anchors to clean-sweep downtown redevelopment. They fundamentally altered stadium experience, shifting emphasis from games on the field to entertainments and consumption opportunities around it. In doing all these things, modern stadiums materialized an ideological apparatus privileging a range of values and practices including gender distinction in mixed-gender settings, socio-economic and racial segregation, technological scientism, and consumption-oriented stimulation. Roy Hofheinz, the force behind the iconic Houston Astrodome’s planning and execution, fully understood the relationship of the material and the ideological; as he put it, “You’ve got to have tangibles to sell intangibles.” To illustrate these points, this dissertation engages postwar plans for futuristic new stadiums from designers like Norman Bel Geddes and Buckminster Fuller; the construction of new stadiums in the mid-1960s in New York, Houston, and St. Louis; and the increasingly routinized modern stadium of the 1970s—a controversial expression of modern progress for some, modern artificiality for others. ix Table of Contents Introduction………………………………………………………………………………..1 Chapter One: Relocation and redesign: new landscapes for American sport………………20 Ebbets Field, Norman Bel Geddes, and early plans for a new Dodger Stadium…...22 A vision of the modern stadium: Bel Geddes’s design in Collier’s………………......38 Milwaukee’s County Stadium and the new sports geography……………………....44 Success in Milwaukee……………………………………………………………...49 The culture of Ebbets