History 2301E Lecture Notes - Lecture 15: Rudolph Valentino, Boll Weevil, Duke Ellington
2 May 2018
School
Department
Course
Professor
Ford Motor Company
Henry Ford Controversies (a liberal pioneer)
- African Americans
o Same pay
o Promoted to higher positions
- Disabled Americans
o Many veterans coming back
o Was accessible
o Disability would not affect your ability to work at the company
- Pay
- Anti-Semitism
o Very vocal about his feelings against Jewish
o Made a newspaper – to warn about the Jewish
Economic Losers
- Labor
o Unions
▪ A fabric of the red scare
▪ Ford motor company workers not allowed to unionize – saw it as a
communist jewish plot
o Sick industries
▪ Leather
• By 1923 industry not doing well
• Because of cars, fewer people are walking
• Shoes are now lasting longer
▪ Lumber
• Growing cities were using steel to build skyscrapers instead of
wood because it caught on fire
▪ Cotton
• Boll weevil – bug that affected all the cotton plantations (1919)
o Killed king Cotton
• Synthetic fabrics
- Agriculture
o Ending of the war
▪ Lose their market in 1922
▪ Lasts until 1939
o European recovery, 1922
▪ Changing from battlefield to market so no longer need to import
o Prohibition, 1919
▪ All the brain used in whiskey and beer no longer needed
o Synthetics
▪ Rayon, polyester doesn’t need
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o Technological breakthroughs
▪ Producing more goods because there are able to mechanize
The Cult of Celebrity
- Hollywood is the U.S. biggest exporter
o More products sold than in any other industry
- Hollywood – 1920
o Charlie Chaplin
▪ A British actor
▪ Used film as social commentary – the power of comedy
• Would mock the mythology of the American Dream
• Mock industrialization
o Rudolph Valentino
▪ Appeal of sex to sell
• Young working women allowed an escapism
• Can go and fantasize
▪ Films raked in millions of dollars
- Scandals and the Hays Code
o A conservative backlash
▪ A series of divorces, pregnancies out of wedlock
o Hays Code: a moral code every actor, director and producer had to sign the
contract before they were hired
▪ Made it illegal to have a marry couple on screen to sleep on the same bed
▪ Could not make fun of clergy
▪ No kisses longer than 3 seconds
▪ Bad guys always had to be caught in the end – good had to win
▪ Do not want to offend those who are paying the tickets to see them
▪ Lasts until the 1970s
- Babe Ruth
o Brings the fans and excitement back to baseball
o Baseball used to be a pitchers game
o Brought in the focus on home runs
▪ Something you want to go and see
o Loved to buy fancy clothes, movie premieres
o Made it ok to be a consumer
- Charles Lindbergh
o Becomes famous in 1927 – first person to fly solo across the Atlantic
o Theme of rugged individualism
▪ One man can take on a fleet and be victorious
▪ Quintessential American individuality
o Technology in war was used for death and destruction
▪ Technology being used for exploration and excitement
▪ Is not evil
- Al Capone as the Anti-Hero
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Document Summary
African americans: same pay, promoted to higher positions. Disabled americans: many veterans coming back, was accessible, disability would not affect your ability to work at the company. Anti-semitism: very vocal about his feelings against jewish, made a newspaper to warn about the jewish. Hollywood is the u. s. biggest exporter: more products sold than in any other industry. Al capone as the anti-hero: larger than life italian gangster gives press conference, celebrating being an. Anti-hero: prohibition is about social control, was an italian immigrant, popular among youth and immigrant populations. Turned their back on political feminism see social feminism. Garvey the new negro and racial pride. Evolution of harlem: started as dutch, irish, great migration of ww1 see many southern aa settling. Racial pride: about celebrating being black and african american, celebrating african music, art, and traditions, no longer hiding it. Issues: disillusionment with war, many of the men had served in the war and saw the horror and devastation, ex.
