THE AMERICAN WOMAN IN THE 20th CENTURY

[Music] reward a bygone age summed up by Emily post remember long ago when I myself was no more than a child we suspected a certain Aunt of ours of using Rouge it was wicked oh Aunt cousin br roues oh yes she does and we stooped around in her room looking for a Rouge box or something and we found finally some red roses very cheap red roses in a top buau drawer we pinched them and the color came off and we said she roues she roues and it was wicked that was the idea of wickedness long [Applause] ago standards May alter slightly times change innocently gradually she has changed the moral of a Nation without even being aware perhaps that she was doing it she may be mother or movie queen debutant or college dean housewife or working girl but whatever her title she is the world's most varied puzzling and exciting creature the American woman in the 20th century [Music] Thou shalt bring forth children and God said unto them be fruitful and multiply and replenish the Earth this is the pride and sole province of Womanhood when from their triumphant moment of pain comes [Music] life he [Applause] is open [Music] up if she was a girl squalling ball of life has entered a puzzling world the rules that shaped her mother's life will change in the course of hers as they have without stop for more than 60 years since the turn of the century when a woman held sway over half the world England's awesome pillar of respectability Queen Victoria sets the standard for an age of elaborate manners and high-minded morality but in 191 the 20th century begins Victoria dies Victoria's rigid code of behavior will give way to a sophisticated morality epitomized by England's new King Edward iith a Playboy prince in America Society of the day is known for its gential respectability her specifications for propriety are rigid especially for a woman she may not smoke and her strongest drink is a sip of wine she can never discuss human anatomy and blushes At The Mention Of A Kiss in short a good woman is expected to be brainless spineless sexless as the Edwardian Spirit takes hold however Young American Girls cautiously begin to defy convention expanding bit by bit the cramped confines of their tightly corseted world the eligible young lady of 195 has a readymade prototype created by a magazine illustration the Gibson Girl She captures the essence of what the American woman wants to be fresh willowy beautiful and capable of reducing her suitors to manageable size with ready wits and sharp tongue shall we talk or Dance I'm so tired Let's Dance I sometimes wonder whether all those things you said to me were true what difference does it make we both believe them young man have you been trying to kiss my daughter no sir I've been trying not to you're so awkward in your love making that sometimes I'm suspicious of what that you may be sincere when the Gibson Girl marries looks forward to a bright future magazine ads of 195 Proclaim that housework is no longer drudgery gas stoves do away with that messy Smoky wood burner the revolving wheel all steam metal washer allows you to do other work while the clothes are being washed the American woman finds herself inundated by work saving gadgetry and the products of a new technology leisure time is an unfamiliar luxury but now the machine makes possible a break in her routine of all the inventions none excites the American housewife as much as the Nickelodeon where she finds a stimulating world of entertainment for just 5 cents to a steinway's modland clutter the flickering screen becomes a crystal mirror of the Fashions manners and morals of the day writes one moralist men want a girl who has not rubbed off the peach blossom of Innocence a woman Mary pford is the first big movie star she's the personification of Purity and goodness the image a nation desires for its girls America's sweetheart The Perennial child on screen is in reality a shrewd businesswoman the Delight of feminists who claim that American women should be independent financially morally and spiritually but to women limited by custom to careers as teachers if they have the background or social workers if they have the stamina or nurses if they can obtain the training Independence is a puzzling and vaguely disturbing concept for the poor there are jobs but not Independence in 195 1 million women work in factories for $8 a week or less their labor is demeaning the hour is incredibly long and factory conditions are dangerous the nation's social conscience is finally pricked by a tragedy the triangle factory fire the dead are lined up on crude stretches in the streets 100 146 victims most of them women outrage triggers a wave of protest organizations like the literary teacups of Fargo The Thursday morning Club of Denver suddenly change character they take up causes instead of books women's suffrage wom's right to vote Gest to plead their cause Teddy Roosevelt gives the usus suffrage as a republican campaign issue in 19 16 sret demonstrations disrupt the election camp and Lead former president Grover Cleveland to say sensible women do not want to vote relative positions to be assumed by man and woman were assigned Long Ago by an intelligence higher than ours in 1917 the suffragette movement is sidetracked when America plunges into World War I War writes reporter Vera Britain is essentially the expression of masculine names and methods it is hostile to women's social and biological values but nevertheless Mary pford sells war bonds and America's sweetheart in her own way symbolizes the re World of War private domain of men 8 and2 million women are employed in America's war effort in a letter to a doughboy overseas a young factory worker writes I know it seems funny but I like the job I'm doing even though it's dirty work and hard I never earned my keep but now that I do I feel a little more important than I ever have before the assumption that women are fit only for the home is being dispelled a way of life is crumbling the war is over the Yanks are home and the one shy Gibson Girl greets her soldier with a boisterous Rapture she's never displayed before to the surprise Doughboy the words of a popular song have a new and startling meaning how you going to keep them down on the farm women are back on the streets pleading their suffrage cause and for the first time they have sentiment going their way President Wilson tells Congress we cannot reject this measure in ignorant Defiance of what a new age has brought forth with suffa jets lining the capital steps the suffrage amendment is signed on June 4th 1919 born out of a hunger for recognition and Independence nurtured by two chaotic Decades of change the movement had grown into an Unstoppable Force for the followers of Carri Chapman cot and Harriet Stanton blch Susan banthony and Lita Stokes Adams the battle is [Music] done the 1920 presidential elections the American woman possesses the right to cast her ballot Express her opinion on the Affairs of the nation and as she does she marks the end of an era women have planted themselves firmly in a world once reserved for men never again will she be ordered to leave the table when Brandy is served and retire for a round of woman talk never again will a husband say that's not for a woman to think about how long will it be many Wonder before women might even be seen in public smoking [Music] cigarettes March March March you army of the Lord smash The Swinging Doors and crush the curse of barley corn the American woman in 1920 Tak takes on another Crusade poition and car Nation couldn't ask for anything more morality triumphs on July 16th 1920 Temperance becomes the law and Demon rum is vanished from the land prohibition PE peace prosperity are keywords for 1920 America the best years it is said are yet to come but the Fashions and manners of a Nation are quietly subtly changing the direct result of prohibition and prosperity in the mainstream of American life however the optimistic calm remains unbroken among the first who sense the new era are the girls who flood the country's colleges a president of Yale once declared women were mentally unfit for higher education now in the 20s of every seven doctorates is earned by a [Music] woman tomorrow they will be the flappers the Jazz babies the Flaming youth they will read of themselves in the pages of F Scott Fitzgerald and know that the world into which they will graduate is Theirs to shake the Jazz Age has suddenly arrived and the American woman caught in a crumbling morality stages a deliberate Revolt neck Becomes Her new's verb the petting party her number one Indoor Sport she's a flapper now and flap she does women Express their Defiance in a variety of ways sane and insane all unmistakable celebrations of their new found Freedom no part of man's domain remains sacred restraint is out of style the emancipated woman is everywhere it is an epidemic of frivolity and those who succumb see seem determined to Mark every tradition including modesty and good [Music] taste less foolish and more significant is the rise of women in sports already man's rival in Sex and Society the female athlete carries woman's challenge to the playing fields of a nation and serious competitors such as the young babe Dixon become proud new symbols of woman's freedom always a barometer of Change the World of fashion quickly reflects the American woman's Revolt camouflage is suddenly out of style and the corset all but disappears skirts shoot up stockings are silk women are Slimmer breasts are flatter rayon Andi is the order of the day woolies a thing of the past the boyish Bob now becomes the badge of Freedom young everyone Cuts their hair even Mary pford whose curls were symbols of innocence for 20 years Falls victim to the Temple of a chain America but Mary's brand of puppy love is p movie goers seek a new excitement and find it in a Bry young star named Clara B the girl with it it the it girl is the image of her time alive young sexually free she has that indefinable something may walk wrote another song and then he gave Mary Louise Cecilia Gyan has it she calls herself Texas calls her customers suckers and holds Court in her Manhattan Speak Easy I'll wave and swear and tear my hair CU I want to kill that boss let vote that song entitled CIA Peach's Browning has it too and at 15 her daddy makes her the darling of the tabloids it is also the Bittersweet verse of Edna St Vincent theay burning her candle at both ends and the effortless form of Helen Wills who captivates the public and earns 10 world titles there is zigfield star Fanny Bryce who ages in Reverse as the unforgettable baby snookes expatriate author gerud Stein whose phrase The Lost Generation becomes the epap of the Jazz Age the most famous pair of leg Broadway those of Marilyn Miller are lovely proof that Gentlemen Prefer Blondes but marry brunettes like on a sullen August morning and 14 and 1/2 hours later becomes the first woman to swim the English Channel almost 2 hours faster than any man her triumphal homecoming is one of the wildest parties in New York's history the city gives her its heart and discovers that welcoming heroins is fun Ruth Elders attempt to fly the Atlantic fails but hero Happy New York mounts a parade in her honor lady evangelist Amy simple mcferson survives a conspicuous kidnapping and Vanity Fair magazine nominates her for Oblivion but Sister Amy Remains the idol of the faithful God bless you one and all won't you sing one of your temple choruses for me [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] of them all no one has more it than exotic polri and she has Valentino millions of American women avidly follow the brief summer of their well publicized romance to the public Valentino's Frank love making fulfills their need for an idol whose passion can match match their own as no other man before or since he becomes the love object of his times says Valentino himself women do not love Rudolph Valentino they are infatuated with what he stands for they are in love with love on August 23rd 1926 Rudolph Valentino is dead tens of thousands line the streets of New York to pay homage but what begins as grief becomes a grotesque spectacle of public hysteria the bizarre scene captures the frenetic Spirit of the American woman in the 1920s shouting shoving screaming she caps the flapper age it's the morning after the decade before the party ended at precisely 3:30 p.m. on October 24th 1929 Black Thursday The Day That Wall Street collapsed the day the depression [Music] began the age of fun is finished there are 11 million unemployed for the families of a Nation the common terms food clothing shelter take on a new importance a feeling of apprehension even fear replaces the UN checked optimism Americans once felt and they began to search for reasons within themselves the flaer never walked a pcket line but now for the first time since suffrage and prohibition the American woman finds her social conscience exclusive women's clubs discovered that being frivolous is no longer fashionable with unaccustomed earnestness they take on the nation's problems as individuals they feel uneasy at having in an age of have nuts and so they devote their time to good works and charity they are symptomatic of a sobered America searching pathetically but earnestly for an answer to the country's dilemma Happy Days Are Here Again the skies above are clear again Franklin delanor Roosevelt rekindles America's optimism in 1933 he launches both the first 100 Days of the New Deal and the extraordinary career of Elanor rosar Franklin knew that life would be very uninteresting to me she says if I didn't feel I was accomplishing something she tours the nation on FDR's behalf reporting to him on condition she finds and in her own way she settled for American women in the [Music] 1930s a generation of career girls will model themselves on the energetic image of the nation's first lady my work she says is an opportunity for living life as fully and deeply as I possibly can after a particularly strenuous trip a reporter assigned to cover Elena Roosevelt writes please make Elena tired just for one day I Christen you New York fire while Elena Roosevelt Pioneers a new role as first lady other strong-minded women emerge as forceful representatives of their sex women as FDR's newly appointed Secretary of Labor Francis Perkins without high wage earner purchasing power in the United States we cannot maintain business or industry or our population in the way in which American Standards demand Mar Sanger outspoken advocate for birth control offers her cure for the depression every working man knows that it is far better and easier to bring two children into the world and provide for them decently on the average wage of $35 a week that it is to have eight or 10 children on the same wage reporter Dorothy Thompson warns of the dangers Brewing across the seas we've seen the entire structure of Europe start dark to topple down and we've seen it collapse not by the will or the decision of the people's concerned but on the order of a single man Goldman aing radical airs her views as well I will leave the country rather than deny my ideas I prefer to stick to my guns and then there is an arit of manners named Elsa Maxwell ladies and gentlemen the John poo religious addition to New York Society a New York Society is Cafe Society gossip columns report on their Antics and a nation vicariously enjoys their exploits meetings are held at the star Club Al Morocco or Jack and Charlie's 21 members are expected to have a flare for publicity a knowledge of the Big Apple and money lots of it Doris Duke has it $30 million and a sense of Independence Barbara Hutton has it and the self assurance of the richest girl in the world standard be for Cafe Society is debutant Brenda Frasier and her High Jinks make headlines she's Queen of the Season catch of the year and finally the beaming known as shipwreck the high life is a means of Escape for 1% of the people the other 99% go to the movies in the bleakness of depression Hollywood finds a market for nonsense set to [Music] music never [Applause] head movie queens of the 30s no longer project blatant sex but worldly sophistication instead in stars like John blandel John Crawford Barbara Stanwick gr Garbo cloudette Colbert Irene Dunn Loretta Young they are the goddesses of a fantasy world but a determined young girl from Kansas more closely resembles the ideal of the American woman in the 1930s Amelia Earhart is a bold ambitious Aviator whose exploits brighten the depression for men and women alike in 1931 she becomes the first woman to fly the Atlantic alone and her tumultuous welcome Spurs the eloquence of New York's mayor Jimmy Walker you remember that some 5 years before you took off when Colonel Lindberg made his solo flight across the Atlantic and coin the aeronautical weed that it remained of the masculine in gender and it seems to me as if you have at last cleaned up that aeronautical we and taken the sex out of it I the EIC power as a celebrity Amelia aart uses her Fame to promote the nation's interest in commercial aviation in 1937 she announces plan around the world flights and with her husband publisher George putam she takes a gentle poke at her own determination to succeed well how about taking me along well of course I think a great deal of you but 180 lbs of gasoline on a flight perhaps might be a little more valuable 180 or 180 lb person think you guessed right her ambitious flight is a brave gesture in an age that appreciates courage but somewhere in the reaches will disappear her flight in a way marks the passing of an era for women world the 1930s are coming the depression is ending [Music] [Applause]