Collector's Item: #12 America Her Life and Arts, 1900-1953

I just don't know sometimes I wonder which is rougher teaching these students of mine all semester long or composing a final exam for them you know when you consider all the progress that America is made from 1900 to 1950 then started trying to write an exam that can cover all that you've got really got a job that isn't easy so I guess my best bet is to consult an old Authority some old newspapers the journalism you know was coming into his own at the turn of the century really becoming an industrial giant and in the early 1900s papers were pretty faithfully echoing the country's cries for reform through muckraking and exposing bad goings-on and big business and so on I see if we can't find some headlines to demonstrate these things see foreign correspondents kept America pretty well-informed the progress the first world war although we've been reluctant to get into it once we were and we wanted to know what was going on then when it was over the newspapers really played it up look at the liberal use of pictures and eye catching appeal lay out newspapers also played their part in getting world opinion to America and they closely followed the progress of the League of Nations destined to rejection by America an ultimate failure here the ultimate outcome will be the triumphant acceptance of treaty and League I do not doubt the issue said mr. Wilson September 7th 1919 but it failed this failed failure reflected itself in what was happening in America during the 20s our slap-happy hectic frenetic Jazz Age that was the time when all we were interested in was the search for pleasure and new sensations and our newspapers changed to fit the times then in came the tabloid the small size paper that flared out headlines about crime and the private lives of personal people now the twenties were the time of prohibition - and of rum-running in waters just outside the legal limit now this is the tabloid size paper and the twenties ended with the great crash of 1929 and the worst depression America has ever known in when Franklin Delano Roosevelt was elected president in 1932 and started all of his alphabetical agencies he hoped to put the country back on its feet you would think that I but after his first few months in office the press didn't follow him I guess they sort of resented some of the restrictions on the in the newspaper cold there in the NRA agency but something something else filled their pages in 1941 after the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor by the Japanese we were at war once again here this one tell us the story war is declared by Congress heavy loss in Hawaii attacked December 8 1941 well I've got all kinds of headlines here about the coverage of the war but here's the one we were all looking for this one victory surrender is signed Monday May 7th 1945 we're have got some headlines here about the formation of the United Nations to the strikes and inflation in the shortages and communist scares it swept America after the war as well as our entry into the Korean War but that isn't getting my tests written besides I might as well admit it hate to face it these old bones just take don't take these hard chairs do what anymore hmm bang it's us weary old professors should have better upholstered furniture back well now that test I guess the architecture be a good place to start as anything now this pile here pictures I've selected from my files dealing entirely with architecture but you remember the passion we had in the early 1900s for progress industry Louis Sullivan Sullivan was meeting this passion with his skyscrapers he emphasized the fact that the form of the building should follow its use here is his carson pirie scott store in chicago and soon other architects were following Sullivan's lead and city skylines were broken by tall narrow buildings jutting high into the air to take up his little ground space as possible Frank Lloyd Wright a student of Sullivan's was making an impact with his theory of blending the building into its environment he also harmonized style materials and furnishings well the stock market crash after the booming prosperity of the twenties hit architecture with a bang came virtually to a standstill during the 30s people didn't want new homes they wanted money to pay their rent they didn't want a new office necessarily all they wanted was a job in any old office well with the Depression years however our slum areas increased and more and more families were addicted because they couldn't pay their rent and then for the first time in history the federal government undertook a program of slum clearance and low-cost housing to give everybody a chance at a decent living condition World War two brought us prefabricated houses homes with parts prepared separately and assembled quickly as an acute housing shortage sprang up around factories and army bases then after the war significant news a new shapes and designs were seen in the new building springing up all over the country and many of which were influenced by the work of such architects from war-torn Europe as Walter Gropius and Mies van der Rohe well I think these pictures are going to do just fine on that display board I'm fixing up for my class get them a little better organized here showing the more significant developments of course oh say I just thought I have some material on the theater I left it upstairs let's see if we can get extra to bring it down for us Oh Esther I learned some scripts and material on the theater up there lying on the coffee table in the living room would you bring them down please thank you you know we were talking not too long ago about the theater just after the turn of the century the plays didn't reflect the desire for change that was so prevalent in society then there were just a means of entertainment an escape but little later on about 1910 the play started pointing out the problems of the day then Along Came William Vaughn Moody who brought the poet into the theater indeed that's the end and you know I managed to find some subtext for that display you're right oh good thank you I'm gonna have to put them on a chewing-gum what's gonna be envelope Oshin material on the theater I do have here there's an old relic one of the First World War plays came out the 20s oh boy I thought you put this in the trunk with the rest of those old things from the 1920s please to look at the per middle object on the floor behind you oh the bad penny has returned not a lot without a lot of pulling and dragging on my part I can be sure well as long as you were dragging to get these plays with a 1920s I just think you'd have something of Eugene O'Neill well just between you and me and the trunk lid I have Oh can't forget how Eugene O'Neill was commenting on those bewildered Americans of that era and their their need for a newer meaning in life well now speaking of commenting on American lights then I hope you got something as next while Anderson Maxwell Anderson afraid I forgot him Oh God he was writing about the psycho fans any case then well why did you call me down here I just thought maybe you'd help me it'd help me arrange some of this stuff on the theater you you've got a background there throw the help hmm I see where my theater training comes in handy again well now what do you have hard for these later here well give me suggestion well let's see now for the 1930s you must have material on the federal theater and how it helps the acting profession it's got a picture of one of the plays right here oh oh that should be fun you know there were other social plays on social protest in that time too and now for the 1940 Howard don't forget all those the wonderful warplanes and the neuticals the king mouthing oh you bet not for those we've got winged victory and this is the army and Oklahoma oh yes we were talking about those just the other day they're the ones with the wonderful stones and the dancers and let me take you out in the Surrey with the fringe on top we'll just drive your Surrey right over here by the desk and we're looking to enjoy that guy well you've been writing style in 1900 oh well not for long don't remember the horseless carriages yes and don't forget the dip we're looking for some tombs for these eras too now here look at these photos that I have selected here to put on a display board that doesn't look like anything only just known airplane my goodness that's the Wright brothers first flight and the tuner selected to go with it come Josephine in my flying machine well maybe this one will be a little closer it's deep here my merry Oldsmobile well that would get a passing grade but here's what I really had in mind get out he had to get out and get under the fixes Altima Thanks hey are those all the songs though you're going to have on that display boy oh no but I am I'm a little short on original pictures and material up until the music of the first world war well besides the musical shows like Merry Widow we can't forget 1912 and Irving Berlin rode Alexander's ragtime band oh no ragtime and the Blues came out about them to me and here's a here's a stack of that music the First World War I throw something real old tires I think they ought to make a good picture on this in place well you do you expect to get all these on that display ball oh yes we've got more coming - we haven't covered the roaring 1920s jazz age you know well what are you doing used for that uh I'll show you no no how about that I'm representing a collegiate than that and although songs of the Roaring Twenties the Charleston all those oh well there isn't room for me I'll hang a picture of Rudy Vallee instead back to the raccoons follow me but now we must pick up some more music and pictures here ah let's see the 1930s during the Depression we could use a brother can you spare a dime and then we would walk happy days are here again for the FDR era and then you want full swing tunes and war songs and tunes from the popular Broadway musical yes all of which brings us around very meekly to where we started right but now listen our don't you dare forget the classical music oh no no we have some very nice material on madhavi's hoppers the music of Copeland and Gershwin and the symphony orchestras - oh good but you know what all right you know I think that you should only put the important things on that display kneeboard you're not going to have enough loom oh you mean just kind of hit the highlights of each rock for you alright now you take the dance Princeton now that's closely related to music and if you put all about the things on that board you're not going to have room and you're going to have a lot of education well not maybe you've got a point there mm-hmm I think you mention it just for fun let's take a look at the dance fever Hey just the highlights of course oh yeah failure justice a game now uh that gives me an idea now we could use a little contrast here now say for instance we take just the important developments and changes in ballroom dancing the ball should come first it I think you're right we go back to the nineteen hundreds and pick up Walter me around again Willie for a starting point yes and and then all the crazy dancers you know the bridge the bear Turkey Trot buzzing all those and then comes the the child fill of a jazz in it and then swing in the Jitterbugs say let's look at a few of the pictures here look at those old Walters funny how many memories can one picture can bring back isn't it and you know yeah you have a vivid imagination I do now what about dancers other than ball of them other than ball well to make a long but concise speech only college professors can do that well I think I would organize him about in this order let's take first Isadora Duncan she broke all the dance traditions by dancing according to her inner personal experiences number two might be Martha Graham who in the late 1920s with others began to make dancing a creative art rather than just imitative number three will be a few members of the Ballet Theatre which started in the early 1940s and here we have a picture of a scene from one of the Broadway stage musicals carousel I think that was very mercifully done darling now are you going to be able to do as well on literature well with those words of praise to spur me on how could I do less well instead of asking them to trace the history of literature as they usually do I think I'll ask for specific examples of literature changing the life of the country in some way would be a hard one oh I don't know among other examples who might take the jungle by upton sinclair around the turn of the century yes I know about that now that that exposed the bad conditions in the meatpacking industry and eventually it led to a government investigation didn't it very good you do quite well with a broad hint force well now listen I know another one and without benefit of hints broader of Allah will pray enlighten me John Steinbeck's Grapes of Wrath very good very good and that was so much read and discussed when it came out in 1939 and that government help to to the people living in the great dust bowls in the Middle West oh yes almost all of the writings of the thirties were social protest like Steinbeck's worth it well that's true I had been true of our literature pretty much from the beginning what we'd always had a romanticist both the literature and the theatre the seems like there was always somebody around who was commenting strongly on the time yes now take a question on that after the rebirth of poetry in about 1912 what were the poets like frost and Sandburg writing about oh I know the strength and dignity of a common loon they're good and they use the American scene for the content and developed an entirely new style you know how I like this theme of yours literature reflecting the time is missing tells me we've got a break little Jam about to emerge right or wrong what's the writing of the Twiggy's reflecting the disillusion of the times or was it not I think you're absolutely right now your question what were the three representative writers of the 1920s Ernest Hemingway very good paranoid he wrecked oh well let's see now if scott Fitzgerald for that third book very good and those three gentlemen were really reflecting and commenting on the lost generation and we've already discussed the situation of the thirty that was when the phrase candid camera approach came into use because they were writing so realistically on the depression what about the forty so hard to me there were a lot of religious books came up in write again and there again the writers were answering the needs of the people this time for a need for a faith in a period of war you're so right and and the world books that came out in was they were a natural result to heard the doorbell I didn't hear a thing well I'm sure well there's someone up there better go up see who it is probably the mailman you wouldn't hear it because you're just listening to the growing your pupils over that tip but I'm sure I heard that two hours to write it well that display panel should prove to be quite interesting to the class would probably remind them of lots of points they can use in the test formulating some loulou's for questions they'd all be answered as a style of course and here I want to read you a couple of them see how you can do water keep movin here in my drawer let me know Olivia in my class let's see now trace the history of radio broadcasting and show its social influence Allegan right for a long time on that one well just so they hit a few of the salient points like Esther says now this pile of pictures here all on radio and right near the top here I want to show you a pic here a picture of a new microphone but a change in design from this the mics that were used in the early days of broadcasting of course others had been used during World War one but in the 20s radio began to grow to what it is now and those mics were used to give us music and the voices of some interesting personalities and then in the 1930s with the election of Franklin Roosevelt the people of America listen to the new president give them words of hope and security so first of all let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself if those microphones have been important things to Americans since the start of radio and who can deny the social force of broadcasting the whole broadcasting field when we think of the news reporting and all the music in the culture in the entertainment the radios brought to people remote from the heart of the large cities well as I say the students should have enough to talk about any question on radio I suppose then we look at another question about the another medium that has influenced the lives of Americans since its start and I'm referring to the motion picture industry now my question on that is give some specific example showing how the movies as an art have reflected our life and times as another broad question luckily the test lasts for two hours don't run away I'm not going to talk that long give you just a few general statements the moving picture industry more than any one other art medium has always commented on the social and political structure of our society and through the wars and during the depressions and in the time of labor unrest there have been screenplays about the time and in many instances they have taken sides on the issues well let's see how does that leave us with Oh an art and sculptor but I don't have this stuff very well organized fact about all I've done is spread out a few prints I have them over here on the couch but I think they will give us an idea of what we're talking about let's just look at a few of them now there were several different periods in American art from 1900 to 1950 the first came in nineteen eight when a group of painters that call themselves the eighth began painting so realistically now this one is a good example it's the Steelers by newest shows two little slum girls happy even in their sordid surroundings and next we have the introduction of European modern heart to America by way of the 1913 Armory Show Marcel Duchamp's new descending a staircase really astounded people now this kind of art influenced our Peters after the first war we saw all kinds of new styles and in the 1920s however we swung to painting the American scene and Charles birch field this is his old town Hammonds Ville Ohio is known as the father of the American scene movement and this was carried even farther in the 30s when regionalism came into being Grant Wood was one of the many painting about certain regions of America as in his American Gothic the 30s also saw works protesting social conditions as in discipline William droppers powerful satire the Senate and during the thirties the government stepped in with its WPA art project to sponsor and employ carcasses this tenement by George Biddle was produced during his WPA days and then in the 40s we saw a wave of abstract art the almost every possible style being explored Louis Gilliam is Odyssey for moderns is a very good example that type of work but I want to finish the questions on art I'll just have one more phase to cover sculptor there's so much to be said on that if I had the pictures of sculpting all pile up here on the desk we take a quick review well bear with me while we organize them just a little bit and I think we can find some that would show us what sculpting is doing I want to be sure and includes something of the work of Sam Gordon and Lorado Taft who were considered two of the leading sculptors of the early part of the century but let's see what we have here right at hand I want one that shows the sculptors commenting on the times here this one a war memorial by Paul Manship in honor of the men who fought during the First World War oh then here's a complete extreme but it gives us an idea about the desire to use new materials and the forms in the 1940s it's one of Alexander Calder's mobiles called black spray well I think they're just going to do fine and get them a little organized oh here comes the wife to rescue me but I see it what is the postman then ringing the doorbell and I just the liberty of opening the box I see well yeah but just save me going upstairs again with the wrapping paper yes of course I hope I didn't interrupt your trend I thought what were you doing oh just getting some notes together on sculpture and I wasn't really getting along too well so I was glad you came down what do you think we have in the box well I took the liberty of sneaking a little peek - oh you did all is forgiven I'll take the liberty of setting it over here on the deck and we'll explore its contents first that is an abstract form showing the use of building materials in the art field whoever don't you think there's more interesting things in here well drag him out I'll make sure to seize them well now their model of a jet airplane well now that I recognize isn't that something though well what else is in here that is besides Excelsior well they really pack them up tight in big well I hear another abstract form hmm well my dear it looks as though the old professor is off on another unit another era and I think it's going to be fun