The Mass Media and the Working Class

Warren Harding and Normalcy

• in 1920 ran for President promising a “return to normalcy”

• exact phrase: "America's present need is not heroics but healing; not nostrums but normalcy; not revolution but restoration; . . . not surgery but serenity."

• some say he invented the word

• in fact, “normalcy” is first known to be used in 1857, originally as a mathematical term; normality was first used in 1849.

Salaries and Prices in the 1920s

• average US annual salary: $1,236 (approx. $24.00 per week)

• industrial worker $35.00 per week

• store clerk $8.00 per week

• higher salaries but also higher cost of living:

• $8.00 could by only $3.93 worth of 1914 goods.

• Ford Model T car: $290

• Coney Island roller coaster ride: 15-25 cents (beach was free)

• movie ticket: 25 cents (up from 5 cents in 1910s)

• radio set: $50-$100 (making your own was much cheaper)

Recreation > Fatty Arbuckle at Coney Island (1917)

Recreation > Coney Island Roller Coaster, 1927

Recreation > Coney Island Beach, 1924

Movies > Postcard of Chicago Theater, 1930

Movies > Rudolph Valentino in The Sheik, 1921

Movies > Buster Keaton

Movies > Harold Lloyd

Movies > Charlie Chaplin

Movies > Charlie Chaplin, The Rink (1916)

• excerpts shown in class - Chaplin as a waiter at a restaurant and on a skating rink

• example of slapstick comedy

• appealed to working-class viewers

Radio > Stations and Set Ownership

Radio > Farmer listening to the radio, 1920s

Radio > People on a New York sidewalk listening to a football game, 1923

Radio > Charles Correl and Freeman Gosden, 1929

Radio > Movie Theater Poster Announcing Amos’n’Andy

Radio > Amos’n’Andy on Presidential Elections, 1928

Amos: Andy, tell me one thing. Is you a Democrat or is you a Republican?Andy: Well, I was a Democrat . . .Amos: Uh-huh.Andy: But I believe I’ve done switched over to the Republicans now.Amos: Uh, who is the men that is running against each other this here election time. Explain that to me.Andy: Herbert Hoover [inaudible] Al Smith.Amos: Herbert Hoover [inaudible] Smith, huh?Andy: Yeah.Amos: And another thing I wanna ask you. What is the difference between a Democrat and a Republican?Andy: Well, one of ‘em is a mule and the other one is a elephant. That’s the way I get it.Amos: Uh-huh. I don’t know if I was gonna be a Democrat or a Republican, you know?Andy: Well, what was your ancestors?Amos: My aunt didn’t have no sisters.Andy: Oh no, not your aunt’s sisters, your ancestors. I mean, how did your old man vote?Amos: What my papa, you mean?Andy: Yeah, that’s it.Amos: My papa used to always vote for the Democrats.Andy: Yeah, then if I was in your place, I would vote for the Republicans.