OUR LIVELY ARTS: AMERICAN CULTURE AS THEATRICAL CULTURE, 1922-1931 DISSERTATION Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of The Ohio State University By Jennifer Schlueter, M.A. ***** The Ohio State University 2007 Dissertation Committee: Approved by Professor Thomas Postlewait, Adviser Professor Lesley Ferris Adviser Associate Professor Alan Woods Graduate Program in Theatre Copyright by Jennifer Schlueter c. 2007 ABSTRACT In the first decades of the twentieth century, critics like H.L. Mencken and Van Wyck Brooks vociferously expounded a deep and profound disenchantment with American art and culture. At a time when American popular entertainments were expanding exponentially, and at a time when European high modernism was in full flower, American culture appeared to these critics to be at best a quagmire of philistinism and at worst an oxymoron. Today there is still general agreement that American arts “came of age” or “arrived” in the 1920s, thanks in part to this flogging criticism, but also because of the powerful influence of European modernism. Yet, this assessment was not, at the time, unanimous, and its conclusions should not, I argue, be taken as foregone. In this dissertation, I present crucial case studies of Constance Rourke (1885-1941) and Gilbert Seldes (1893-1970), two astute but understudied cultural critics who saw the same popular culture denigrated by Brooks or Mencken as vibrant evidence of exactly the modern American culture they were seeking. In their writings of the 1920s and 1930s, Rourke and Seldes argued that our “lively arts” (Seldes’ formulation) of performance—vaudeville, minstrelsy, burlesque, jazz, radio, and film—contained both the roots of our own unique culture as well as the seeds of a burgeoning modernism. In their analysis, Rourke and Seldes stood against easy conceptual categories (especially “highbrow vs. lowbrow”) that did not account for the ii richness of American culture. Both resisted the tendency to evaluate American art by the standards of European modernism. And by foregrounding matters of race and ethnic identity (even when they dealt imperfectly with them), they showed popular entertainment to be a matter of national significance. Most importantly, the American culture they defined was, above all, theatrical; it craved performance, it was performance. My research project, therefore, finds its mission in relation to two primary developments: (1) the growth of American modernist arts and (2) the growth of cultural criticism of those arts. My argument, however, cuts a path between—and often in opposition to—the standard explanations for both of these developments. Indeed, against the received wisdom that modern American culture depends upon the pervasive spread of European modernism, I argue that American popular performance itself is the necessary foundation for our modern culture. iii For my parents. iv ACKNOWLEDGMENTS To the library staff at The Ohio State University. In a time of transition during major building construction, the libraries have elected to provide a new service to all patrons: staff will pull any article (both in their own collection and from other sources) and scan it for researcher use. In light of the extreme productivity of my major figures in newspapers, magazines, and journals in the period, I benefited immensely by this amazing service. To all the anonymous work study students who scanned through reels of microfilm for me, my profound thanks. To other librarians and archivists who made this work possible: Vincent Fitzpatrick at the Enoch Pratt Free Library, Brooke Hubner at the MacDowell Colony, Valerie Hawkins at the American Library Association, Polly Armstrong at the Stanford University Libraries, Dean M. Rogers at Vassar College, Naomi Saito at Yale University’s Beinecke Library, and Suzanne Eggleston Lovejoy at Yale University’s Irving Gilmore Library. Thanks also to the able staffs at the Library of Congress, the New York Public Library, and the University of Pennsylvania Annenberg Rare Book and Manuscript Library. To Dan O’Brien and Jeannie Anderson, for hospitality during research trips. To Keith Doubt, for his 1993 course on the American social character, my first push into the subject matter. v To Joan Shelley Rubin and Michael Kammen, impeccable scholars both, who cleared the way for study of Rourke and Seldes. Both generously entertained my queries. To Tom Postlewait, whose patience, good humor, and incisiveness have made me a better writer and thinker. Not only did he challenge me to think more deeply about American culture, he wielded the editorial pen with certain grace. To Lesley Ferris and Alan Woods, for their insights, and for their questions. To Margo Jefferson, for good conversation. To Rich Riley, for comic relief. To the For/Word Company, for creative respite. To Brad and Henry, for the rest. This work was supported by an Alumni Grant in Graduate Research and Scholarship and an Ohio State University Presidential Fellowship. vi VITA September 1, 1973 ................................Born—St. Louis, Missouri 1995.......................................................B.A., Theatre. Truman State University. 2003.......................................................M.A., Theatre History, Literature, and Criticism. The Ohio State University. Columbus, Ohio 2000-2005 .............................................Graduate Teaching Assistant Department of Theatre, The Ohio State University 2006.......................................................Lecturer and Theatre 100 Administrator Department of Theatre, The Ohio State University 2007.......................................................Presidential Fellow The Ohio State University PUBLICATIONS 1. Schlueter, Jennifer. “Patronage and Playwriting: Richard B. and Jeanne Donovan Fisher's Support of Charles L. Mee.” Angels in American Theatre. Ed. Robert Schanke. Carbondale, IL: Southern Illinois University Press, 2007. 2. Schlueter, Jennifer. “Review of Heather Woodbury’s What Ever.” Theatre Journal. December 2004. vii 3. Schlueter, Jennifer. “Review of Redmoon Theatre’s The Cabinet.” Theatre Journal. May 2006. 4. Schlueter, Jennifer. “Staging Versailles: Charles L. Mee and the Re-Presentation of History.” Journal of American Theatre and Drama. 17.3. Fall 2005. FIELDS OF STUDY Major Field: Theatre viii TABLE OF CONTENTS Page Abstract.............................................................................................................................ii Dedication........................................................................................................................iv Acknowledgments............................................................................................................. v Vita..................................................................................................................................vii List of Illustrations...........................................................................................................xi Chapters: 1. Introduction .......................................................................................................... 1 1.1 Opening............................................................................................ 1 1.2 Introducing Rourke.......................................................................... 6 1.3 Introducing Seldes......................................................................... 10 1.4 On the popular, for the people ....................................................... 14 1.5 Conclusion..................................................................................... 20 Chapter 1 Endnotes........................................................................ 22 2. Approaching American Modernism................................................................... 26 2.1 The literary fallacy......................................................................... 26 2.2 Realism and its discontents............................................................ 34 2.3 Passionate pessimism: Brooks and the Beloved Community........ 39 2.4 Debunking: H.L. Mencken’s American......................................... 46 2.5 Civilization in the United States .................................................... 50 2.6 Expatriation.................................................................................... 53 2.7 Rourke and Seldes against the grain .............................................. 55 Chapter 2 Endnotes........................................................................ 59 3. Constance Rourke and American Performance, 1885-1931 .............................. 62 3.1 Introduction.................................................................................... 63 3.2 First publications............................................................................ 68 3.3 A foot in the door........................................................................... 71 3.4 Retreat: The MacDowell Colony................................................... 75 3.5 Trumpets, Troupers, and a Character............................................ 78 3.6 Trumpets of Jubilee........................................................................ 82 ix 3.7 Troupers of the Gold Coast............................................................ 90 3.8 American Humor............................................................................ 99 3.9 Conclusion..................................................................................