Entertainment (AQA A-Level History): Revision Notes

Entertainment

Introduction to entertainment in the 1920s

Entertainment expanded dramatically across multiple sectors during the 1920s. Sport, radio, cinema and music all experienced substantial growth. The decade saw Americans embrace new forms of leisure as labor-saving technology - such as washing machines - reduced domestic work and created more free time. Mass production lowered the cost of consumer goods, and many workers earned higher wages, providing disposable income for entertainment pursuits.

Sport

The 'Golden Age of Sport'

Sport became central to the lives of many Americans during the early 1920s. The decade earned the designation 'Golden Age of Sport', with baseball, football, horse racing and tennis capturing public imagination. Radio broadcasting amplified sport's popularity by bringing live events into people's homes. Spectators flocked to sporting events in unprecedented numbers. In 1924, 67,000 people watched the football match between Illinois and Michigan at Memorial Stadium in Baltimore, Maryland. In 1926, 145,000 spectators attended the boxing match between Jack Dempsey and Gene Tunney.

Baseball

Baseball dominated American sporting culture during the 1920s. The decade saw supremely talented players emerge, most notably Babe Ruth and his New York Yankees team-mate Lou Gehrig. Baseball had been accessible since the 1870s as it required minimal equipment and could be played on any available patch of land. During the 1920s, however, the game captured public imagination to an extent that enabled the construction of massive stadia, such as West Side Grounds in Chicago.

Historians debate the causes of baseball's transformation. Many attribute the sport's appeal to the charisma Babe Ruth brought to the game. Ruth's willingness to drink and smoke publicly influenced younger generations. On a technical level, the introduction of a cork-centred ball made hitting easier. This shifted emphasis away from pitchers toward hitters like Babe Ruth, generating fascination with spectacular home runs.

The radio

Growth and development

Radio experienced dramatic expansion from the establishment of the first commercial station. KDKA in Pittsburgh began operations in 1920. By 1922, 500 stations operated across the USA. The first national network, NBC, launched in 1926, with CBS following in 1927. Some critics expressed concerns that invisible energy travelling through the air posed dangers, citing dead birds as evidence. However, for most Americans, radio brought new worlds into their living rooms. An estimated 50 million people listened to the 1927 boxing match between Gene Tunney and Jack Dempsey. Families held 'radio parties' where friends and relatives gathered to listen together.

Cost and accessibility

Radios were expensive items. A typical model cost $150, usually purchased on credit. They often resembled large pieces of cabinet-like furniture. By 1927, 33 per cent of all money spent on furniture went toward radios. Between 1923 and 1930, 60 per cent of American families purchased one. Sales increased from $60 million in 1923 to $842 million six years later.

Programming and impact

Radio offered enormous potential for advertising and sponsorship, which often funded programmes. In August 1929, the toothpaste company Pepsodent began sponsoring the comedy series Amos 'n' Andy on NBC. Within a few years, the show's audience reached 40 million. Programming ranged across the spectrum, from comedies to westerns to detective serials to music and comedy. While some believed programme content should provide uplifting educational material, most people wanted entertainment - and accepted serialized content.

Radio's power to broadcast important sporting events should not be forgotten - it brought the nation together for the first time. Radio enabled Americans to listen to the same songs, laugh at the same jokes and experience the same sporting events simultaneously.

The cinema

Hollywood's emergence

Cinema held even greater cultural importance than radio. While moving picture shows had existed since the early years of the century, often as novelty features in variety shows, the 1920s witnessed their development as possibly the pre-eminent American contribution to world culture. By the 1920s, the cinema industry centred on Hollywood, Los Angeles, which ranked fourth largest in terms of capital investment. The industry employed more people than either Ford or General Motors.

The first film shot in the Hollywood area was In Old California in 1910. The following year, the first studio opened when the New Jersey-based Centaur Company sought to produce Western films in California. By 1915, the majority of American films were being made in the Los Angeles area. Four major film companies - Paramount, Warner Bros, RKO and Columbia - maintained studios in Hollywood. Five years later, 1 million people worked in the area making films.

Picture palaces and the cinema experience

Attending the cinema offered more than simple escapism. Films were shown in elaborate picture palaces capable of holding thousands of customers. On any given day, there could be as many as 10,000 people in excess of 20,000 attending. The most glamorous picture palaces operated on an epic scale. The Roxy in New York, which cost in the region of $7-10 million to build, featured three organs, a huge chandelier, a red carpet valued at $10,000 and a 118-piece orchestra.

Movie stars and genres

Films provided escape, excitement and opportunities to imagine oneself in different worlds peopled by heroes. Actors became huge stars - the first real celebrities. Movie stars themselves relocated to the Los Angeles area and began building luxury homes. For example, Gloria Swanson built a 22-room mansion in Beverly Hills. Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton both lived in the area.

Notable stars included:

• Clara Bow, the 'It girl' who symbolized the modern liberated woman
• Theda Bara, the 'vamp' exuding dangerous sexuality
• Action heroes like Douglas Fairbanks
• Comic geniuses such as Buster Keaton and Charlie Chaplin

The first sound film, The Jazz Singer, appeared in 1927, making cinema even more popular.

Jazz music

Origins and characteristics

The 1920s earned the designation 'Jazz Age' because jazz was the era's popular music. Jazz was not new. It originated with enslaved black people who were encouraged to sing to increase production. They used washboards, cans, pickaxes and percussion to produce their own distinctive musical form. The music received various names including 'blues', 'rag' or 'boogie-woogie'. Syncopation - the off-beat rhythms created by changing the beat and creating particular rhythms - characterized the style. These terms derived from black sexual slang and initially lacked popularity among white people due to sexual associations. The words were renamed Jazz.

Popularity and controversy

Jazz gained popularity with white middle-class youth, particularly the flappers of the 1920s, and was interpreted as another indicator of declining moral standards. For example, in 1921 the Ladies Home Journal published an article titled 'Does Jazz put the Sin in Syncopation?' Some cities, including New York and Cleveland, prohibited public jazz performances in dance halls. However, these bans only increased the music's appeal among the young. Jazz became the great attraction of nightclubs and speakeasies and entered homes through radio broadcasts.

Summary