Academy Awards

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gible for the outstanding picture award because it Academy Awards was considered unfair competition for films without synchronized sound that contained written inserts The first awards ceremony held by the Motion Picture Academy (or “titles”). Otherwise, films opening between Au- of Arts and Sciences took place in 1929, a mere two years after gust 1, 1927, and July 31, 1928, were eligible for con- the first “talking” pictures were released, providing both pres- sideration. tige and publicity for the already rapidly expanding film- Almost one thousand nominations were received, making industry. and a list of the ten candidates with the most votes in each category was compiled. Boards of judges In the wake of a 1926 union agreement between film representing the five disciplines—acting, writing, studios and technicians, Louis B. Mayer, the produc- directing, producing, and technical production— tion chief of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) and one assembled a short list of three selections in each cat- of the most powerful people in Hollywood, sought to egory. A Central Board of Judges then made the final strengthen the position of the studios in future union selections, joined by Mayer. The winners were an- negotiations. In January 1927, Mayer and two col- nounced in mid-February 1929, right after the selec- leagues invited more than thirty industry executives tion meeting, and the awards were presented at the to a banquet, where they introduced their proposal Academy’s second-anniversary dinner in Los Angeles for the formation of the International Academy of on May 16, 1929. Sculptor George Stanley had been Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. The word “Interna- paid $500 to cast a small bronze statuette (eventually tional” was soon dropped, and the state of California called the “Oscar”), finished with 24-karat gold plate, granted a charter giving it nonprofit status as a legal to be given to the twelve winners of the Academy corporation in May 1927, with the distinguished actor Award of Merit. Douglas Fairbanks, Sr., as its first president. Member- ship in the organization was available for $100, and The First Academy Awards 231 people accepted an invitation to join. Among As an acknowledgment of the importance of syn- other goals, academy founders wanted to establish chronized sound, the first Academy Awards cere- “awards of merit for distinctive achievement,” and by mony began with a demonstration of the newly devel- 1928, a committee had developed a system through oped Western Electric projection device for showing which each member would cast a vote for a nomina- talking pictures. The film clip showed Douglas Fair- tion in his or her discipline. The nominations would banks presenting the outstanding picture award for be tallied, and a panel of judges with one member Wings to Paramount Pictures president Adolph from each discipline would choose the winners. Zuckor in Paramount’s New York studio. F. W. Mur- nau’s Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans won the artistic Establishing the Categories production award over King Vidor’s The Crowd, partly In July, 1928, the awards committee announced there due to Mayer’s active support for a film that he felt would be prizes in twelve categories: actor, actress, would lend prestige to the industry. (Mayer’s own dramatic director, comedy director, cinematography, studio, MGM, had produced Vidor’s film, which art direction, engineering effects, outstanding pic- Mayer considered too bleak to represent the in- ture, artistic production, original story, adapted dustry.) Janet Gaynor (Seventh Heaven) and Emil Jan- story, and title writing. The release of The Jazz Singer nings (The Last Command and The Way of All Flesh) in 1927, the first “talking picture,” or “talkie,” had were named best actress and best actor, respectively. such an impact on the industry that it was ruled ineli- Frank Borzage was named best dramatic director for 2  A. C. Nielsen Company The Twenties in America

Seventh Heaven, Lewis Milestone won best comedy di- Further Reading rector for Two Arabian Knights, and Charles Rosher Holden, Anthony. Behind the Oscar: The Secret History of and Karl Struss shared the cinematography award for the Academy Awards. New York: Simon and Schuster, their innovative work on Sunrise. Though ineligible 1993. A witty, incisive, and readable history of for outstanding picture, The Jazz Singer was nomi- more than six decades of Oscars. nated for engineering effects (won by Wings) and for Levy, Emanuel. All About Oscar: The History and Politics adapted story writing (won by Seventh Heaven), and of the Academy Awards. New York: Continuum, Warner Bros. received a special award for producing 2003. A thorough scholarly study, reliable and au- The Jazz Singer. thoritative. Osborne, Robert. 80 Years of the Oscar: The Official His- The Evolution of the Awards tory of the Academy Awards. New York: Abbeyville, Shifts in the number of nominees in each category 2008. A comprehensive and complete history by and the names of the categories for the second and an expert. third Academy Awards ceremonies reflected changes Wiley, Mason, Damien Bona, and Gail MacColl. Inside in which elements the academy considered most Oscar: The Unofficial History of the Academy Awards. worthy of recognition. Because of changes in timing 5th ed. New York: Ballantine, 1996. An enter- and scheduling, both of these ceremonies were held taining, informative, and irreverent account. in 1930: The second Academy Awards, honoring films made in 1928 and 1929, took place on April 3, See also: Fairbanks, Douglas, Sr.; Film; Jannings, 1930; the third, honoring films from 1929 and 1930, Emil; Jazz Singer, The; Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM); took place on November 5. Pickford, Mary; Talking motion pictures; Vidor, Of the twelve initial award categories, only seven King were retained for the second (1928/1929) Academy Awards ceremony. There were five nominees each for outstanding picture, actor, art direction, and cin- A. C. Nielsen Company ematography, and six for actress, director, and writing. Among the winners were the 1929 musical Identification: U.S. market research firm The Broadway Melody (best picture), Frank Lloyd Date: Established in 1923 (best director, The Divine Lady), Warner Baxter (best actor, In Old Arizona), and Mary Pickford (best ac- The A. C. Nielsen Company began as a firm that used scien- tress, Coquette). tific methods to conduct product research for corporate cli- The third (1929/1930) Academy Awards expanded ents, mainly manufacturers of industrial machinery and the categories to eight, adding an award for best goods. This early work set the stage for the company to de- sound recording, captured by The Big House and its velop new methods of consumer research, which would in sound director Douglas Shearer. Lewis Milestone was turn lead them to create Nielsen ratings, the primary source named best director for All Quiet on the Western Front, of television viewership information throughout the world. which was also named outstanding (best) picture, beginning the common practice of pairing these two The A. C. Nielsen Company was founded in Chicago, awards with the same film. Also for the first time, Illinois, in 1923 by twenty-six-year-old Arthur C. nominations were voted on by all of the members of Nielsen, who had graduated in 1918 from the Univer- each discipline, and the entire membership of the sity of Wisconsin-Madison as a top student in engi- academy voted on the final ballot. neering. After working as an engineer for several years, Nielsen borrowed $45,000 in seed money from a Impact few of his fraternity brothers to start his own company. A tradition born in the late 1920s with the advent of The initial purpose of the Nielsen Company was to sound films, the Academy Awards have become one conduct what Nielsen called “performance surveys.” of the most important honors in popular culture, These surveys were independent economic and en- capturing a worldwide audience and considerably gineering analyses of the performance of industrial enhancing the reputation of its winners. products in factories, the results of which could be Leon Lewis used by the product manufacturers to minimize The Twenties in America Adams, Franklin P.  3 wasteful spending and increase sales. By the early Adams, Franklin P. 1930s, the A. C. Nielsen Company had conducted performance surveys for over three hundred corpo- Identification: American newspaper columnist and rate clients. poet The company was not profitable in its first decade Born: November 15, 1881, Chicago, Illinois of existence. Although the Nielsen surveys proved ef- Died: March 23, 1960, New York, New York fective at increasing sales, market research was a relatively unknown practice at the time, and the high Franklin Pierce Adams was one of the most popular writers cost of the surveys deterred many potential clients. of light verse in the 1920s, best known for his New York After the stock market crash of 1929, clients became Tribune column “The Conning Tower.” even scarcer, despite Nielsen’s assurance that investing in product research to bolster sales was even more One of New York City’s most influential columnists of crucial in a difficult market. the 1920s, Adams was born Franklin Leopold Adams A change of direction that would improve the A. in Chicago in 1881. At the age of thirteen, he began C. Nielsen Company’s fortune came when two of using his Bar Mitzvah name “Pierce” (after U.S. Presi- Nielsen’s clients, DuPont and General Electric, com- dent Franklin Pierce) as his middle name. After one missioned him to conduct market surveys based on year at the University of Michigan, Adams worked in interviews with current and prospective customers. the insurance industry before breaking into jour- These interview-based surveys proved much more nalism. He began writing for the Chicago Journal in marketable than the highly technical performance 1903. After moving to New York City a year later, surveys, and in the early 1930s, the company shifted Adams launched the daily humor column “Always in its focus to the manufacturers of consumer goods. Good Humor” at the New York Evening Mail, where he supplemented his anecdotes and poems with reader Impact Although the company remained in the red throughout the 1920s, the development of new consumer-based market research techniques proved to be its eventual ticket to profitability. In 1933, the A. C. Nielsen Company introduced its pioneering Nielsen Drug Index and Nielsen Food Index, which were used by the manufacturers of consumer products to track sales and guide marketing efforts. After experiencing a dramatic increase in profits during the middle part of the 1930s, the company invested in technology to measure radio listenership, which paved the way for the establishment of the Nielsen television ratings in 1950. Jane E. Turk

Further Reading Buzzard, Karen. Chains of Gold: Marketing the Ratings and Rating the Markets. Metuchen, N.J.: Scarecrow Press, 1990. Webster, James G., Patricia F. Phalen, and Lawrence W. Lichty. Ratings Analysis: The Theory and Practice of Audience Research. 3d ed. Mahwah, N.J.: L. Erl- baum Associates, 2006. Franklin P. Adams. (AP Photo) See also: Stock market crash 4  Adding Machine, The The Twenties in America contributions. He also started a Saturday column See also: Algonquin Round Table; New Yorker, The; written in imitation of late-seventeenth-century dia- Parker, Dorothy; Ross, Harold rist Samuel Pepys. In 1914, Adams moved his column to the New York Tribune, calling it “The Conning Tower,” a name it re- Adding Machine, The tained throughout the 1920s. Nearly every weekday of the 1920s, Adams could be found lunching in the Identification: Play about the emptiness of modern Rose Room of the Algonquin Hotel. There, he and industrial life other influential writers and artists met to discuss a Author: Elmer Rice variety of topics. The group came to be known as the Date: 1923 “Algonquin Round Table.” Ideas exchanged among this group often found their way into Adams’s col- During the 1920s, changes in technology and industry umns. The humor and witticisms bandied about the sparked anxieties about the role of the individual in the table contributed to the founding of the New Yorker workplace. The Adding Machine explored this concept, magazine in 1925, since its founder, Harold Ross, was raising the issues faced by a man whose job has become re- among that group. dundant—replaced by a machine. The Adding Machine Adams’s humorous writing set the style for light marked a significant break from the traditions of earlier verse in the 1920s. He had a knack for crafting short American theater and brought more experimental modernist poems about everyday irritations and annoyances. As drama to the American stage. a keen observer of the socioeconomic and political conditions in New York City, Adams’s verse occasion- The Adding Machine is a seven-scene play that centers ally bordered on the dark or heavy. Serious thoughts on a man named Mr. Zero, a low-level accountant in underlay even his lighter poems, endearing Adams a department store who methodically totals numbers not only to the general public but among those in each day. He lives with a dissatisfied and nagging wife more intellectual circles. who resents their meager circumstances, has friends Adams was also respected for his critical appraisal identified only by numbers, and yearns for excite- of other writers’ works. The publication of a writer’s ment or advancement. When he is fired and replaced work in his column could launch a literary career. by an adding machine after twenty-five years of ser- Writers James Thurber and Dorothy Parker attrib- vice, Zero is overcome by an uncharacteristic surge of uted part of their success to being featured in Ad- anger and murders his boss. He is convicted of the ams’s column. Adams was also one of the first to rec- crime by a jury of his nameless friends and is exe- ommend playwright Eugene O’Neill and essayist cuted. E. B. White. Zero goes on to wander through the afterlife in search of meaning, but when he meets a former col- Impact league, Daisy Diana Dorothea Devore, who had killed Adams launched the careers of many of the best herself at the news of his execution, he rejects her American writers of the 1920s. Books mentioned in offer of love and consolation. Instead, he returns to his column became best sellers. His own writing, par- the mechanical work of number-crunching, unable ticularly his humorous verse, was widely read. Despite to stop himself. As his name suggests, Zero is an his tremendous influence as a columnist during the empty drone who knows nothing but work and rou- 1920s, he is virtually unknown today. tine. In the afterlife, he is told that he has been a slave John R. Holmes in every life he has lived, and his fate is inescapable. At the end of The Adding Machine, Zero is reincar- Further Reading nated as a drone once more. Adams, Franklin P. Column Book of FPA. Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, Doran, 1928. Impact Ashley, Sally. FPA: The Life and Times of Franklin P. Rice emerged as a major talent in the 1920s with the Adams. New York: Beaufort Books, 1986. production of The Adding Machine. Along with the White, E. B. Here Is New York. New York: Harper & works of fellow playwrights Eugene O’Neill and Clif- Brothers, 1949. ford Odets, Rice’s play signaled a turn in American The Twenties in America Adkins v. Children’s Hospital  5 theater toward serious drama. While many earlier American plays served purely to entertain or display Felix Frankfurter the talents of the actors rather than investigate serious literary or philosophical themes, The Adding Harvard Law School professor Felix Frankfurter Machine, as a product of the combined influences of (1882–1965) argued the case before the Supreme European expressionism and realism, explored a Court in collaboration with the National Con- timely topic through an experimental lens. In this sumers League (Frankfurter would later take a way, The Adding Machine and plays like it exemplified seat on the Court as an associate justice in 1939). the social and intellectual ferment of the 1920s and In his argument, Frankfurter stressed that fed- the decade’s break with tradition in arts and culture. eral minimum wage legislation had not harmed David W. Madden local industry or reduced the level of employment and, in fact, had improved the welfare of Further Reading the district’s women and children. He and his Durham, Frank. Elmer Rice. New York: Twayne Pub- supporters submitted a large volume of docu- lishers, 1970. mentary evidence to support these arguments, Hogan, Robert Goode. The Independence of Elmer Rice. but they ultimately failed to convince the Court Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, that minimum wage legislation was valid. 1965. Vanden Heuvel, Michael. Elmer Rice: A Research and Production Sourcebook. Westport, Conn.: Green- the board’s actions, these women lost their jobs. The wood Press, 1996. hospital sued to prevent enforcement of the minimum wage law so the women could keep their jobs See also: Literature in the United States; Theater in at mutually acceptable wages. the United States By a vote of five to three, the Supreme Court invalidated the act (Justice Louis Brandeis recused himself because his daughter was a member of the Adkins v. Children’s Hospital board). Justice George Sutherland’s majority opinion held that the act unconstitutionally interfered with The Case: U.S. Supreme Court ruling on the consti- an individual’s right to contract for labor, a freedom tutionality of the District of Columbia’s Minimum protected by the Fifth Amendment’s due process Wage Act of 1918 clause. The Court noted that freedom of contract is Date: Decided on April 9, 1923 not absolute, but that freedom is the general rule and its restraint is the exception. Congressional re- A minimum wage law established in the District of Co- strictions can only be justified by “exceptional cir- lumbia was invalidated as an unconstitutional infringe- cumstances,” and the Court found no such excep- ment on the freedom of contract guaranteed by the Fifth tional circumstances to exist in Adkins. Amendment’s due process clause. According to the law, the board was to set minimum wages based on its presumption of what was The Minimum Wage Act of 1918 created a three- necessary to earn a living and to preserve an employ- member Minimum Wage Board in Washington, D.C. ee’s health and morals; however, this statutory stan- The board was authorized to investigate the wages of dard was deemed too vague for practical application. minors and women and to set minimum wages in the Further, the wage had no relation to the abilities of District of Columbia at a level the board determined the employee, the hours worked, or the work environ- to be adequate to maintain workers in “good health,” ment. In addition, Sutherland observed that the law to “protect their morals,” and to meet the cost of failed to recognize employers’ interests, as they were living. required to pay the minimum wage to all employees, The Children’s Hospital of the District of Columbia regardless of the quality of their performance. Lastly, employed some women at less than the board-man- the Court concluded that if statutory power were held dated minimum wage. The women were satisfied with to justify the fixing of this minimum wage, it might their working conditions and wages, but as a result of also be invoked to justify a maximum wage. 6  Advertising in Canada The Twenties in America

Impact on fences, the sides of buildings, and other outdoor The case reaffirmed that freedom of contract is pro- spaces. tected by the Fifth Amendment’s due process clause. This liberty was invoked to bar Congress and states Advertising Methods from establishing minimum wages and effecting Newspaper and magazine advertising was typically other labor regulations. The due process clause of the purview of a small handful of advertising agen- the Fifth Amendment was used in cases involving the cies such as Norris-Patterson, Ltd., the F. W. Hunt Ad- federal government, while the Fourteenth Amend- vertising Service, or the William Findlay Company. ment’s due process clause was used in cases chal- Unlike the major British advertising agencies from lenging state regulations. Adkins was overruled in which they developed, these companies operated 1937 by West Coast Hotel v. Parrish. under a model that served newspapers and maga- Joseph A. Melusky zines by focusing on selling space in urban newspapers such as Montreal’s La Presse and the Toronto Tele- Further Reading gram, and in nationally circulated magazines such as Abraham, Henry Julian, and Barbara A. Perry. MacLean’s, Jack Canuck, and Chatelaine. In this model, Freedom and the Court: Civil Rights and Liberties in the advertising agencies considered publishers their cli- United States. 8th ed. Lawrence: University Press of ents, rather than product makers, distributors, or re- Kansas, 2003. tailers. Although this model was dominant during Hart, Vivien. Bound by Our Constitution: Women, Workers, the 1920s, advertising agencies shifted to a product- and the Minimum Wage. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton and service-driven industry in later years with the University Press, 1994. emergence of “full-service” advertising firms. Canada’s first radio broadcasting station, owned See also: Income and wages; Supreme Court, U.S.; by the Marconi Wireless Telegraph Company, broad- Women in the workforce cast out of Montreal and was later identified by its call letters, CFCF. Many believe it was responsible for North America’s first radio broadcast in December Advertising in Canada 1919. Several years passed before Canadians heard advertisements on the airwaves, however. For the first Canada’s advertising and marketing industry developed in half of the decade, almost all media advertising was the 1920s, when mass production of products, the rise of in print form. In 1925, Canadian radio began airing major industrial corporations and retailers, and intense eco- advertisements for the first time, and by 1928, all of nomic growth fueled competition for consumer dollars. The the country’s sixty privately-owned radio stations advent of radio and thriving newspapers and magazines were broadcasting advertisements. As the production allowed the advertising industry to flourish. and infrastructure costs necessary to broadcast radio programs increased, radio stations began relying By 1920, Canadians were becoming accustomed to more heavily on the underwriting support of outside seeing advertising in public spaces and, increas- funding sources. In these early days of radio, most ingly, in newspapers and magazines. At this time, a external funding came in the form of sponsorship. great deal of advertising was still accomplished “in Companies such as Imperial Oil would pay to sponsor house,” with large companies and organizations a program, and in exchange, they would receive a controlling the creative component of advertising public acknowledgment of the corporate sponsor- by designing their own logos, posters, and placards. ship during a given broadcast. The ubiquitous “spot However, smaller entities (primarily retailers) often commercial” that interrupts our radio and television contracted out to other small companies involved programs today did not exist in the 1920s. in what was then called “bill posting.” Informed by a British model, these companies handled almost Advertising Agencies and Cultural Identity all aspects of outdoor advertising. Their responsi- At the beginning of the decade, there were fewer bilities included securing creative design business than forty advertising agencies in Canada, almost all contracts and, as the name implies, physically posting of which were located in Toronto, Montreal, or Van- (or, in some instances, painting) standard-size posters couver. Of these, roughly a dozen were subsidiaries The Twenties in America Advertising in the United States  7 of American companies. Canadian advertising re- more than seventy Canadian-owned and Canadian- flected the United States’ growing economic and cul- operated advertising agencies. Advertisements had tural influence on Canada, with American products become an increasingly normalized and substantial (Ford automobiles and Lucky Strike cigarettes) fea- part of Canadian media culture. turing nearly as prominently as their Canadian coun- terparts (Bourassa automobiles and Macdonald ciga- Impact rettes). Some Canadian manufacturers even began Beginning in the early 1920s, advertising in Canada contracting work to advertising agencies located in began to undergo a shift that heralded its current in- New York City and Chicago. carnation. This shift was tied to broad economic However, a growing sense of national identity and forces that made the production and distribution of surging economic nationalism soon led to a backlash consumer goods easier than at any other time in his- against the influence of U.S. advertisers in Canada. tory. However, it was also culturally driven: As themes In a 1922 editorial, Canada’s top industry magazine, of nationalism, identity, and lifestyle permeated the Marketing, condemned what it termed the “meaning- advertisements, advertising became a vital tool in the less Yankeeism” of U.S. advertisements intended for development and communication of Canadian cul- Canadian audiences. Citing numerous high-profile tural identity. examples of Americanized spelling (“labor” instead Stephen L. Muzzatti of “labour”), prominent U.S. iconography (eagles or stars), and references to American holidays that are Further Reading not observed in Canada, such as Memorial Day, Mar- Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. Chronology of Net- keting encouraged Canadian businesses and adver- work Broadcasting in Canada, 1901–1961. Toronto, ON: tisers to emphasize national identity and culture in Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, 1961. Com- their advertising campaigns. prehensive history of radio and television broadcasting in Canada from the turn of the century. Growth and Direction Ewen, Stuart. Captains of Consciousness: Advertising and By the middle of the decade it was clear that the in- the Social Roots of Consumer Culture. Toronto, ON: dustry had responded to Marketing’s call. The move- McGraw-Hill Book Company, 1977. A sociological ment toward Canadian nationalism in advertising examination of the origins of the advertising and was evident in advertisements by the government of consumerism. Canada and Canadian Crown corporations (com- Johnston, Russell. Selling Themselves: The Emergence of panies belonging to the federal government of Canadian Advertising. Toronto, ON: University of Canada), as well as in advertisements by private Toronto Press, 2001. Cultural analysis of the birth companies. For example, the Department of Trade of the advertising industry between the 1880s and and Commerce “branded” apples as Canada’s “na- 1930s. tional fruit,” with their magazine and newspaper ad- Stephenson, H. E. and Carlton McNaught. The Story vertisements proclaiming “Canadians! Enjoy Cana- of Advertising in Canada: A Chronicle of Fifty Years. da’s National Fruit.” The Canadian Pacific Railway Toronto, ON: Ryerson Press, 1940. An overview of promoted the slogan “Holidays in Canada: Riding, fifty tears of advertising history in Canada, begin- Mountaineering, Fishing!” while Molson Breweries ning in the late nineteenth century. publicized their “Perfect Canadian Beer.” As Canadian identity further coalesced and adver- See also: Advertising in the United States; Canadian tising agencies moved toward a “full-service” para- nationalism digm, a number of U.S. and British companies such as Fleischman’s, General Motors, and Lipton began utilizing Canadian advertising firms to reach Cana- Advertising in the United dian audiences. In 1929, Canadian advertising company Cockfield, Brown & Company employed Cana- States da’s first full-time market researcher, foreshadowing the Canadian economy’s future commercial focus on The 1920s were a watershed decade for American adver- advertising. As the 1920s came to a close, there were tising. 8  Advertising in the United States The Twenties in America

An economic boom—higher wages, lower prices, food, clothing, appliances, and other domestic prod- pro-business government, and the introduction of ucts were primarily aimed at females. Not only were exciting new products—combined with increased women the usual decision makers for such purchases, mobility, improved communications, and the emer but they had also become a growing influence on the ging power of women to help manufacturers and market since obtaining the right to vote in 1920. their ad agencies usher in an age of rampant con- The proliferation of such products, and the need sumerism. to distinguish competitive advantages in the consum- After World War I, America entered a decade of er’s mind, led to the development of full-service ad- unprecedented prosperity. Factories that had rolled vertising agencies. Formerly relegated to negotiating out military armaments were soon retooled to pro- favorable placement rates in print publications, duce consumer goods, and a “buy American” attitude agencies began to take on additional responsibilities. was instituted through the imposition of high tariffs Research and demographic studies, campaign cre- on imports. Hordes of workers, including returning ation (concept, copy, artwork, layout, production), veterans, failed farmers, and African Americans mi- and follow-up effectiveness studies encouraged con- grating from the South, were hired at relatively good sumption, helped fine-tune advertisers’ messages, salaries. Employees with disposable income were eager and increased profits for manufacturer and agency to spend, and manufacturers were happy to oblige. alike. As a result of farm surpluses and mass-production techniques, affordable canned and packaged food- Advertising Takes to the Air stuffs were turned out in great abundance and found A major contributor to the upsurge in consumerism a ready market. Brand names, reinforced via print during the 1920s was the advent of radio. The first ads, posters, and billboards extolling their virtues, es- commercially licensed radio station was KDKA in tablished loyal audiences and generated repeat busi- Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, which began broadcasting ness. Such comestibles as Planters Peanuts, Kool-Aid, in 1920. At the time, there were just sixty thousand Jell-O, Kellogg’s Corn Flakes, Oscar Mayer hot dogs, radio receiving sets throughout the United States, Del Monte and Green Giant canned vegetables, many of them inexpensive do-it-yourself crystal sets Cracker Jack, and Cream of Wheat flourished during that delivered only faint, static-laced reception via the decade. Nonfood items, such as ready-made earphones. By 1925, however, radio had become a clothing in standardized sizes and inexpensive syn- national obsession, and some four million Americans thetic fabrics such as rayon, also became popular owned manufactured radios. Hundreds of stations during the 1920s, spurring the growth of chain stores were broadcasting music, news, election results, and mail-order businesses. sporting events, religious services, and comedy shows The rapid spread of electrification—more than 75 to homes across the nation. percent of American homes were connected by the Early radio broadcasts were labors of love, staffed end of the decade—had a considerable effect on the by unpaid volunteers serving as electrical engineers overall economic climate. The availability of elec- and announcers. Within a short period of time, sta- tricity to most average citizens resulted in the cre- tions turned to advertising to finance their opera- ation or perfection of numerous plug-in appliances, tions. The first true radio commercial, broadcast in and vigorous competition for customers sprang up 1922 from New York City, was a ten-minute pitch for a among makers of vacuum cleaners, washing ma- real estate company. The inexpensive, adaptable new chines and spin dryers, phonographs, sewing ma- medium proved to be an effective marketing tool, chines, electric razors, curling irons, and heating and by 1925, radio advertising had topped $500 mil- pads. The home kitchen was changed forever with lion, representing about one-eighth of national ex- the introduction of electric refrigerators, which penditures for advertising. made frozen food storage and easier meal prepara- At first, typical radio advertising consisted of simply tion possible. Other electrical innovations, such as paying a fee to sponsor a program, with regular brief pop-up toasters, mixers, percolators, corn poppers, reminders of who was providing the entertainment and ranges that were safer and cleaner than gas-, for listeners. Later radio marketing incorporated full- wood-, or coal-fired models, further transformed fledged agency-written commercials that presented a American eating habits. Significantly, most ads for social problem (for example, halitosis, a term for bad The Twenties in America Advertising in the United States  9

major dramatic series, The Collier Hour, premiered in 1927 as a vehicle to promote Collier’s magazine.

America Goes Mobile Another influential contributor to the rise of advertising and consumerism during the 1920s was the automobile. First mass- produced around the beginning of the twentieth century, autos were initially slow, clumsy, undependable novelties that only the wealthy could afford. Mechanical im- provements during the 1900s and 1910s increased reliability, but there were few paved roads and supplies of gasoline were not readily available, so only rabid enthusi- asts invested in automobiles. The situation improved dramatically in the mid-1910s with increased efficiency of production, which greatly reduced the pur- chase price of automobiles. Henry Ford’s motor company pioneered the modern as- sembly line in 1914, and by 1920, the cost of his no-frills Model T Ford, introduced in 1908 with a sticker price of $850, had been cut in half. Further refinements in manufacturing reduced the price even further. By the mid-1920s, a Model T cost just $290, about three months’ wages for the average consumer. By 1927, some fifteen million Model Ts had been sold. The automobile had become not just a toy but a necessity. General Motors (GM) did not want to An advertisement for chewing gum. (Getty Images) engage in a head-to-head price war with Ford; instead, they offered specific brand breath) and the advertiser’s solution (Listerine). names for different markets, and supported this These one- or two-minute spots were usually read strategy with extensive advertising campaigns in live but occasionally prerecorded, sometimes fea- print, radio, and outdoor media. For lower-income turing celebrity voices where available. Professionally families, there was the standard Chevrolet; for produced radio commercials, complete with music, middle-class buyers, the flashier Buick; and for the jingles, multiple voices, and sound effects, did not be- upper classes, the luxurious Cadillac. Ford and other come common until the 1930s. carmakers would soon emulate the General Motors Throughout the 1920s, a single company would concept, and within a few years there was a plethora sponsor an entire radio program, becoming closely of fancifully named models chugging along the na- identified with the show as a result. The first com- tion’s roads. In response to America’s sudden infatu- mercially sponsored variety program was The Eveready ation with the automobile, GM also offered a rainbow Hour (1924), and most early nationally sponsored of colors and a range of options, and changed styling radio consisted of musical and variety shows, such as annually to encourage car owners to trade in for The Clicquot Club Eskimos (1923), The Ipana Troubadors newer models. To aid affordability across the entire (1923), and The A&P Gypsies (1924). Radio’s first spectrum of buyers, General Motors instituted the 10  Advertising in the United States The Twenties in America

“buy now, pay later” installment plan, which was to buy products offered in the marketplace. In addi- quickly adopted throughout the automotive business tion, many foreigners coming to the United States and by a multitude of other industries. By 1930, learned to speak English by listening to the radio. enough cars had been sold to provide a vehicle for The new medium would continue to blossom as an every 4.6 citizens, or an average of one for each family entertainment and marketing option through the in the nation. decades, contributing to the consumerism trend that The propagation of automobiles had a profound exists to this day. Though it has been supplanted in effect on American lifestyles. With so many cars on popularity by television, radio continues to serve as a the road, the government was forced to build thou- viable part of the corporate advertising mix, offering sands of miles of new highways, plus bridges, inter- advantages such as affordability and immediacy. changes, tunnels, and other car-accommodating in- The automobile is likewise now a mainstay of frastructural elements. Whole new industries, such as American society. The infatuation of the 1920s has drive-in restaurants, service stations and petroleum become a lifelong love affair; in 2007, there were refineries, motels, shopping centers and supermar- more than 254 million registered passenger vehicles kets, tire stores, parts suppliers, and auto dealerships, in the United States, or almost one per person. burgeoned around an increasingly mobile society. Though advertising for autos has fluctuated over the The film business in particular benefited from the years in relation to the national economy in general, rise of the auto; rural residents suddenly had easy ac- and the availability of gasoline in particular, the auto- cess to urban movie theaters, where they could view motive market and aftermarket have been boons for the latest hairstyles, fashion statements, dance steps, agencies. In the twenty-first century, domestic auto- and other modern trends. Ultimately, owning an au- motive ad expenditures across all media exceeded tomobile meant increased independence. Workers $30 billion, representing more than 10 percent of all no longer had to live near their places of employ- advertising revenues in the United States. ment or rely on public transportation to get to their Jack Ewing jobs and began moving out of inner cities, initiating the growth of suburbs. Further Reading The auto-driven expansion of businesses pre- Best, Gary Dean. The Dollar Decade: Mammon and the sented myriad possibilities for advertising, which Machine in 1920s America. Santa Barbara, Calif.: took full advantage of the opportunity. Neon signs, Praeger, 2003. Explores the multitude of innova- visible for great distances, lit up the night sky; the first tions introduced during the 1920s and their im- in the United States was erected at a Los Angeles pact on American culture. Packard dealership in 1923. Illuminated billboards Davis, Simone Weil. Living Up to the Ads: Gender Fic- attracted travelers to food, lodging, and tourist desti- tions of the 1920’s. Durham, N.C.: Duke University nations. Luggage labels and travel decals began deco- Press, 2000. An illustrated study of the relation- rating car windows, and trucks became moving ads ship between the perception as presented in ad- for numerous businesses. The mass production of vertising and the reality of American life during car radios began in 1927, allowing drivers and pas- the decade. sengers to be entertained and persuaded to buy Heimann, Jim, ed. All-American Ads of the 20s. Cologne: products or services, even as they rode. Taschen Books, 2004. A compendium of print ads from across all market segments. Impact Marchand, Roland. Creating the Corporate Soul: The Prior to the 1920s, the primary form of advertising in Rise of Public Relations and Corporate Imagery in Amer- the United States was through printed magazines ican Big Business. Berkeley: University of California and newspapers, which excluded the illiterate. Early Press, 2001. An overview of the rise of the influ- in the twentieth century, more than 10 percent of the ence of advertising agencies and public relations American population could not read, and illiteracy firms and their effect on domestic business during rates among blacks and immigrants were particularly the early twentieth century. high. The introduction of radio was a great equalizer, Olney, Martha L. Buy Now, Pay Later: Advertising, Credit, allowing listeners at all levels of education to be en- and Consumer Durables in the 1920s. Chapel Hill: tertained, obtain vital information, and be convinced University of North Carolina Press, 1991. Examines The Twenties in America African Americans  11

the introduction of the installment plan and the effects of buying on credit on American society.

See also: Automobiles and auto manufacturing; Chain stores; Electrification; Federal Radio Commis- sion (FRC); Income and wages; Installment plans; Radio; Radio Act of 1927

African Americans During the 1920s, thousands of African Americans mi- grated to urban centers in the North, but the majority stayed in the rural South. They and many in the cities were impoverished and imprisoned by segregation. During this time, the artists and writers of the Harlem Renaissance provided cultural inspiration for a new national organizing effort to win equality.

New York City’s Harlem was a center of African American social and cultural aspiration during the 1920s. By the beginning of the decade, Marcus Garvey and the Universal Negro Improvement Asso- ciation (UNIA) had energized the working and middle classes there. The magazines The Crisis, edited by W. E. B. Du Bois for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), and Opportunity, edited by Charles S. Johnson for the An African American family during the 1920s. (Getty Images) National Urban League (NUL), were outlets for the artists of what would become known as the Harlem Renaissance. All three organizations—the UNIA, In 1924, Charles Johnson organized a dinner at NAACP, and NUL—helped to popularize the idea of New York’s Civic Club, the first of many such interra- the New Negro, a self-reliant African American who cial gatherings he would sponsor to promote the remained dignified but outspoken in the face of dis- young writers and artists of the Harlem Renaissance crimination. to potential publishers and employers. Among the guest speakers at the event was James Weldon Cultural and Demographic Changes Johnson, who had been elected the first African Harlem was a symbol of the Roaring Twenties. Musi- American general secretary of the NAACP in 1920, in cians such as Louis Armstrong established themselves which capacity he employed a corps of field secre- in Harlem clubs, where white flappers and mobsters taries to organize branches around the United States. flocked to dance and drink bootlegged liquor, and The field secretaries responded to appeals for the the people of Harlem could not enter until after NAACP’s help from small cities and towns, teaching hours. Residents held “rent parties,” in which impov- people how to organize for their causes and establish erished intelligentsia and working-class families NAACP branches. The NUL, with Eugene Kinckle earned money for rent by throwing parties in their Jones as executive secretary, helped thousands of mi- apartments, often with musicians, and selling drinks grants from the South to adjust to city life through to the guests. Salons, masked balls, street vendors, vocational training. Pan-African activist Marcus and 125th Street at midnight offered kaleidoscopic Garvey, with his first wife, Amy Ashwood, and later entertainment that bolstered Harlem’s reputation as his second wife, Amy Jacques, oversaw UNIA pro- a bohemian enclave. grams of business and professional enhancement for 12  African Americans The Twenties in America

Harlem and sent their message around the country dering at least twenty-five African Americans in Elaine, through their newspaper, Negro World. These groups and possibly as many as one to two hundred. Five worked separately to bring African Americans into a whites were also killed. Following the Elaine Mas- national network of mutual endeavor and support. sacre, as it came to be called, twelve African American The Department of Labor had sent five investiga- men were sentenced to death, and sixty-five others re- tors to southern states in 1917 to study the Great Mi- ceived long prison sentences. The death penalty cases gration, the exodus from South to North of over half were appealed as far as the U.S. Supreme Court, a million African Americans since the turn of the which set aside six of the sentences in the 1923 deci- century. The committee concluded that the main sion Moore v. Dempsey. The Arkansas governor issued reasons for the migration were the constant threat of furloughs to the Moore defendants in 1925, securing violence and lynching, unequal treatment under the their release, and the other six were eventually freed law, and poor employment and education opportuni- by the Arkansas Supreme Court. ties in the South; the lure of the cities in the North was decent schools, paying jobs, and comparative ra- African American Political Activism cial peace. As a result of this migration, by the 1920s When suffrage was extended to women upon passage Harlem had become the largest African American of the Nineteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitu- community in the United States. The Great Migra- tion in 1920, numerous black women attempted to tion would continue in phases into the 1960s, by register to vote in the South. Only in a few areas some estimates accounting for the relocation of over would white registrars take their names, mostly places five million people in total. where the population of black women posed no threat to the white majority. In Kentucky, for example, Race Relations in the South black women were vastly outnumbered by white Although there were some wealthy and middle-class women, and so faced little resistance. African Americans in the South, the majority of black Outside the South, women’s suffrage increased southerners were sharecroppers on white-owned the African American vote more significantly, and farmland, growing cotton and providing landowners the Republican Party—the “party of Lincoln”—wel- with a share of the crop as rent. The South’s single- comed the new black votes, which could tip an elec- crop economy meant that the region suffered during tion. Republican senator Leonidas Dyer introduced every dip in the cotton market, and cotton prices a bill in 1920 to make lynching a federal crime, and would remain low throughout the 1920s. Sharecrop- President Warren Harding called upon Congress to ping families were in constant debt. At harvest, the pass the law in 1922. That year, African American ac- cotton remaining after rent payment was assessed, tivist Mary Talbert and her women’s group, the Anti- and its value balanced against what the tenant had Lynching Crusaders, undertook a national speaking borrowed for seed and groceries. Creditors took and fund-raising campaign in support of the bill, their money off the top, and a typical family was left sponsored by the NAACP. The House of Representa- without cash for staple food until the following tives passed the bill, but a filibuster in the Senate pre- spring, when the cycle began again. If creditors or vented its final passage. Black women of Chicago suc- the landlord cheated, which was often the case, the cessfully campaigned for Oscar De Priest, the only sharecropping family was without recourse. Black African American elected to the House of Represen- children worked in the cotton fields with their par- tatives during the 1920s. In 1923, the government es- ents and attended school sporadically during winter. tablished a Negro Veterans’ Hospital at Tuskegee, Moves to organize against this system had resulted Alabama. Federal authorities maintained that the di- in a massacre of black men and women in Elaine, Ar- rector and staff of the hospital must be white; the kansas, in 1919. A sharecroppers’ union had attracted NAACP lobbied for the staff to be black. African the attention of local whites, and when a railroad se- American voters were important enough that the dis- curity officer and a deputy sheriff, both white, arrived putants compromised. at one of the meetings, a shootout ensued between In another instance, a petition campaign trumped them and the union’s armed guards, during which the United States Army. In 1917, police in Houston, the security officer was killed and the deputy sheriff Texas, had beaten and arrested a black woman and was wounded. White mobs rioted in response, mur- the two black soldiers who defended her. In response, The Twenties in America African Americans  13 soldiers from the all-black Third Battalion of the facilitate cross-cultural discussion and study among Twenty-Fourth Infantry Regiment had marched on black women. Houston with their weapons. They met the police Before the energy of the 1920s faded into the eco- and a group of armed locals on the edge of town, and nomic depression of the 1930s, agriculture in the a riot ensued. Four black soldiers, four white police South entered a crisis. The price of cotton dropped officers, and twelve white civilians were killed. Three precipitously in 1928, further impoverishing black courts-martial resulted in the execution of nineteen sharecroppers. Meanwhile, in the industrial centers black soldiers and the sentencing of dozens of others of the North, impoverished and racially segregated to life terms. In 1924, an NAACP delegation pre- ghettoes began to form, as a labor surplus created by sented a petition with 124,454 signatures calling for the Great Migration kept wages low. pardons to President Calvin Coolidge, who reduced all of the prisoners’ sentences, including commuting Impact ten more death sentences to life in prison. The Harlem Renaissance, which flowered in the 1920s The government’s pursuit of black nationalist ac- and into the 1930s, brought African American artists tivist and orator Marcus Garvey was one of many inci- and intellectuals into the mainstream of American dents that shook African Americans’ faith in the and indeed international culture, and had an en- United States government. Since 1919, the new Bu- during impact on both African Americans and the reau of Investigation (later the Federal Bureau of In- larger society into which they had yet to be integrated. vestigation) had spied extensively on Garvey, hoping Although the most dramatic and successful push for for a misstep that could end the UNIA. Former col- African American civil rights would not occur until leagues of Garvey provided the evidence. In 1923, the second half of the twentieth century, earlier de- Garvey was convicted of mail fraud and sentenced to cades, including the 1920s, saw the formation of na- five years in federal prison. President Coolidge com- tionally coordinated mass campaigns for democratic muted Garvey’s sentence in 1927, and he was de- rights among African Americans. Political advocacy by ported to his native Jamaica upon his release. groups such as the NAACP saw modest but notable Asa Philip Randolph flirted with the UNIA and so- successes; for example, despite the failure of the Dyer cialism, but he committed his life to trade unionism. anti-lynching bill, the publicity it created resulted in In 1925, he established the Brotherhood of Sleeping the number of lynchings dropping dramatically by the Car Porters, a union of men, mostly African Ameri- end of the decade. Furthermore, the Great Migration cans, employed by the Pullman Sleeping Car Com- and the Nineteenth Amendment enabled African pany. The Brotherhood was the first black-led union Americans to form significant voting blocs that local to be admitted to the American Federation of Labor, and national politicians would court. Thus, despite following the Democratic sweep of the national elec- ongoing social and political exclusion, a distinct Af- tions in 1932. rican American identity and consciousness continued W. E. B. Du Bois, one of the nation’s leading intel- to take shape and make itself known during the 1920s. lectuals, had organized the first Pan-African Con- Chrissy Lutz gress in Paris in 1919, and was involved in subsequent congresses in the 1920s. His idea was that leaders Further Reading from the global African diaspora should work to- Allen, Carol. Black Women Intellectuals: Strategies of Na- gether to advocate for improved conditions and tion, Family, and Neighborhood in the Works of Pauline self-determination in Africa, which remained sub- Hopkins, Jessie Fauset, and Marita Bonner. New York: ject to European colonial domination. In 1927, the Garland, 1998. A comparison of writers from three fourth congress moved from Europe to Harlem and generations who influenced the Harlem Renais- opened its plenary session to the public. The Wom- sance. en’s International Circle for Peace and Foreign Rela- Delany, Sarah L., A. Elizabeth Delany, and Amy H. tions, an organization of African American women, Hearth. Having Our Say: The Delany Sisters’ First 100 helped ensure that the Pan-African Congress met Years. New York: Delta, 1997. An oral history of the regularly during the 1920s. Some of the leaders of political and artistic activities that occupied Harlem the Circle had also established the International during the 1920s. Council of Women of the Darker Races in 1922 to Hughes, Langston. The Big Sea: An Autobiography. New 14  Age of Innocence, The The Twenties in America

York: Knopf, 1940. A first-person account of cratic New York of her childhood, which she knew Hughes’s life, including his years as a Harlem Re- would be popular with her American readers. naissance writer. The Age of Innocence chronicles the story of New- Johnson, James Weldon. Along This Way: The Autobiog- land Archer, scion of one of New York’s leading fami- raphy of James Weldon Johnson. New York: Viking lies. Newland defines his life securely within the so- Press, 1933. Covers Johnson’s years with the NAACP cial conventions of upper-class New York. On the eve and his independent writing career. of announcing his engagement to May Welland, a Lewis, Davis Levering. W. E. B. Du Bois: The Fight for beautiful, proper debutante from another aristo- Equality and the American Century, 1919–1963. New cratic clan of New York, May’s cousin, Countess Ellen York: Henry Holt, 2000. Offers an account of the Olenska, arrives from Europe. Countess Olenska NAACP as it transformed itself into a branch orga- flouts convention, from her avant-garde lifestyle to nization. her decision to divorce her unfaithful husband, and ______. When Harlem Was in Vogue. New York: Knopf, satiates her intellectual curiosity. Newland finds 1981. Addresses the allure of Harlem during the himself attracted to Countess Olenska because of 1920s. these qualities. Despite being in love with Countess Rolinson, Mary G. Grassroots Garveyism: The Universal Olenska, Newland follows social convention by per- Negro Improvement Association in the Rural South, suading her against divorce and promptly marrying 1920–1927. Durham: University of North Carolina May. However, he starts to find May’s innocence un- Press, 2007. Explores the reception of Garveyism satisfying. He contacts Countess Olenska in Newport, among African Americans in the South, including Rhode Island, and encourages her to consummate the sharecroppers of Elaine, Arkansas. their relationship. May, suspecting the affair, tells Countess Olenska that she is pregnant. Her cousin See also: Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters; Du then decides to return to Europe, and Newland sacri- Bois, W. E. B.; Dyer antilynching bill; Garvey, Marcus; fices his love for Countess Olenska to honor his love- Great Migration; Harlem Renaissance; Johnson, less marriage. After May’s death, Newland and his James Weldon; Lynching; Moore v. Dempsey; National son visit Paris. Newland decides against seeing the Association for the Advancement of Colored People countess. Instead, he stares at her balcony to pre- (NAACP); Randolph, A. Philip; Universal Negro Im- serve her within the sanctuary of memory. The final provement Association (UNIA) scene fully captures the wistful, nostalgic mood of the novel, which so many readers found appealing.

Age of Innocence, The Impact The Age of Innocence simultaneously documented the Identification: Novel about a New York aristocrat who world of American aristocracy, which was rapidly dis- considers disrupting the social conventions of appearing after World War I, and critiqued the pat- marriage in pursuit of love. terns of this society. In ironic and ornate prose, Author: Edith Wharton Wharton’s novel subtly scrutinizes the proscriptive Date: 1920 conventions of 1870s New York society. The novel was praised for its precision in painting upper-class The Age of Innocence is a Pulitzer Prize–winning novel New York life, a world beginning to fade by the end that portrays and questions the constrictions of social con- of the nineteenth century. The novel also intro- vention in 1870s upper-class New York. duced questions surrounding marriage and divorce. Wharton won the Pulitzer Prize in 1921 for the Edith Wharton was a best-selling and critically ac- novel, the first female recipient of the award.The Age claimed author. She was raised in New York City, an of Innocence has continued to grow in critical acclaim heiress to great wealth. After finding success as an au- in the decades since and has been ranked among the thor, she moved to France and spent much of her Modern Library’s 100 greatest English-language novels wealth assisting the wounded of World War I. After of the twentieth century. the war, she decided to write a novel set in the aristo- Leah Bromberg