Collector's Item: #6 The Dancer and the Babbit 1920 - 1928

I didn't realize I had so many of these things nothing more fun than old newspapers their headlines especially front pages from the 20s you know all you have to do is look at a few of them and you have a complete picture of life in America at that time after all what were the twenties just a hurry and a passion for newness anything as long as it was new very lively interesting crying and crudeness that just about covers the front pages as many of the newspapers there they were not only reflecting our lives but they were influencing just like all the other arts to do all my friends tell me that they keep kidding me about all this stuff I out here tell me that only a college professor could ever collect so much junk well I've had a lot of fun out of the things I collect just look at this headline rich this one certainly brings back some memories Dorothy out melon is hip Teapot Dome scandal checks the Harding administration games moves entertained inner circle dodge how that scandal hit the nation seemed as if there was nothing else in the newspapers for months when President Harding died in 1923 after barely three years in office the route from his funeral train from San Francisco where he died suddenly to Washington will just besieged with people waiting to pay their last respects I've got some pictures out of in here in my personality more yes here's a couple of them verax throwing out the ball in 1921 here's when he reviewed the troops at Annapolis while we're looking think of that one here Calvin Coolidge silent Carolee called there he is he fathered Harding to the presidency well at any rate I was telling you about these headlines you know part of partings great popularity was due to his hands off due to what you won't do I don't care a PK distrusted him too far shot right people were when some of the most ambitious most fantastic examples of governmental craft ever known were uncovered shortly after his death President Harding trusted people and his trust was betrayed he brought a lot of his friends in his cabinet and his friends as it turned out we're having a lot of fun and in 1924 the famous tea pot golden scandal was uncovered Albert Hall was Secretary of the Interior and he'd managed to talk to Secretary of the Navy into turning to oil reserves that had been set aside for use for the Navy into his depart well make a long story short out with all sold this land to private oil company well here he is he was sailing along undiscovered until people began to wonder how a man with a salary of $12,000 a year could suddenly be spending so much money he certainly had it for spent Paul personally there are many many other scandals were exposed to the public began to lose their confidence in the public officials it was rapidly going and so on who cares about anything way blaming people five of the officials or businessmen connected with him went to jail five more commit suicide and another one went to the insane asylum one of the few who escaped Terri Dorothy then Attorney General this is he now even though he wasn't convicted of anything in particular his reputation was greatly damaged well here let's see if we can find some more of these headlines concerning these scandals well well well at last you're going to remove some of those boxes of newspapers oh you think so but I pulled you there I'm just getting them an order I'm looking for some more of those fascinating headlines well let me get that wait I photograph papers away you know it just doesn't fit with the cult upstairs well that's understandable hey what a fun party the faculty had the other night I thought I'd die laughing at those 1925 I swear I don't know where they got all that stuff I think there were more moth holes in some of those dresses than there are people within the speakeasy door Morgan and his wife started that shimmy well it's a good thing you didn't you didn't have to bunch of room to spare in that costume of yours either not very spooky you might have taken a chance with it the Morgans were having a lot of fun you know they gave regular exhibitions a week black bottom and the shimmy and I thought they were doing right well well you can't blame the gal after all she talked dancing for a good number of years in some Eastern University talk modern dancing yes he started along in the mid-twenties I don't need her age no I mean the nineteen forties but you know I didn't realize that modern dancing went that far oh yes yes 1920s in fact were the beginning years of a great period in the modern American dancer Isadora Duncan was before at that time she was the one that we're so concerned with her inner personal experience yes that's true but nevertheless the leaders in the movements were quite swayed by her opinion ideas I suppose some of those early modern dancers are still popular Archer yeah some of them still writing the choreography for Broadway musicals some giving private recitals and lessons was she toyed with her group just a few years ago she was one of those who gave her titles in the nineteen twenties along with Doris Humphrey and Charles Whiteman well you see these dancers were trying to set dancing up as a as a creative art without their being in being an imitative agency up until that time they had imitated the Hindu goddess you know and butterflies and swung about their birth though was the dawn of their creative work in the same style no each one made their own separate contribution adores Humphrey for instance they used to stand for hours in front of a mirror and watch the effect of the motion on the muscles in effective gravity on them and so forth oh she was working out some new theories of theories of physics and motion in relation to the dance well now these other she managed in front did they contribute well not child Weidman did quite a bit to help introduce the male dancer into the picture and Martha Graham she approached the dance very independently created many new patterns I mean I have some pictures of her like to take a peek see oh yeah she's quite striking very well suppose to me is know there was a lot of action in the twenties were there any more important figures well there was one other important pioneer dancer Alan to Maris and she believed that we should never forget the age in which we're living that our dancing should be free and spontaneous dynamic caliber but I agree with you it was spontaneous where do you suppose she'll start at that dancing group she's always to the start that group among the students hasn't there been some talked about modern dance classes yes pending faculty approval you can you know what that means I remember one dancing first came into the College Brown advancing was first recognized in education about a 1923 and Margaret Dobler set up a dance major for the University of Wisconsin well I can imagine was even there it's a good deal good many years but after accepted it really wasn't so you know how faculty members are apt to react well speaking of faculty members hard acquaintances are coming over tonight so I'd better get on upstairs and tighten up that maybe I'll take care of those newspapers do you know these papers are mighty fascinating to me they're mostly all the tabloid site no they're small sized papers they're full of pictures and special columns concentrating on crime sensational stories the 20s was quite an era for the tabloids admittedly they were sensational but so are the times the sensational pictures and the emphasis on the personal lives of great people answered the same appeal to produce the speakeasies in the bobbed hair pocket flashed short skirts women smoking and every other one of the aspects of a free morality well here's Al Capone crime news was under the biggest drawing card to the tabloids there was play of it to report Al Capone was ruling Chicago with his bootlegging and attract its and every other type of crime Leopold and gold murdered case in Chicago shocked the country pretty widely agreed that this murder was done just for the thrill of it and here are some reproductions are those tabloid front pages you can see how the pictures were used and what type of story was most popular now most of these are the New York Times The Daily News the country's first tabloid the others are from Bern a McFadden's and graphic this went out of existence quite some time ago it really was just a newspaper version of true confessions magazine which he started about 1919 and that in itself started a whole new trend - but here are some of those early tabloid front pages there has been a lot of criticism in the tabloid much of it Valley the fact remains that more on how the other newspapers upstairs oh well thank you Esther I was reading some of some courses works remember that literary discussion we had at the party how could I forget it if I hadn't dragged you over to that punch bowl right you'd stood there all night discussing the literary critics well everything was going alright until George had to get critter he doesn't think much of the 1920 novels you know Howard I just can't understand thought well I don't either because those those works did something that no works had done up until that time they found an audience for a serious book and they started an entirely new tradition too in representing and recording America just as it was and just as it existed you know I still carry a Sinclair I should say Lewis described America so we're of it well he didn't even forget a wrinkle on her face or a scratch on the pile of furniture or even a stupid remark from a stupid conversation he really pros right and another thing too he contributed a lot of new words to the language barratry is now common for suggesting the smugness of a respectable middle-class we have hard that's what I mean when I say how he could hurt you know he wrote Main Street means he wrote Main Street first and that just tore the small town and it's smugness all to pieces and then it turned the knife and wrote back and how that nice good cut say right nice little lecture would you like to give it to my class well anyway you're right when batter came out it just split things wide open something after the manner of what your dress was threatening to do with the party seriously though he just tore into the small town boosters criticism was devastating he he he tore down this complacent type of person who delayed so much emphasis on money and 2055 there must have been around people who resented him so how did he become so popular but you amaze me after this dissertation you just gave me it's really quite simple to answer you see he was attacking the American middle class just as it was falling apart and that just fit right into the mood of the country at the time or at least with the youth of the country well Howard you know I think you're right they were so disillusioned about everything and then to see somewhere I'm tearing down these traditions vote it just was right in line with the way they thought yeah and anything - here we go that was analyzing a specific situation and that fit right in with this ad for psychology that was going around not only a Malloy you know everyone was going around repeating his phrase every day in every way I remember I use that psychology on my cell phone to get my courage up when I applied for my first teaching job let me know yes yeah what I've seen Clara Lewis and his wife sitting in the car on a typical Main Street and there's one of f scott Fitzgerald his wife and daughter Charles no he really represented at the Jazz said he didn't do much not only News works in his life as well see his works depicted so clarity sophistication of the flapper and the easies in the well maybe he didn't possibly he did he's the Great Gatsby was quite the legend at the time we seen just like he himself Fitzgerald was the historian of the period Hemingway oh he was a literary rebel he said you're gonna pack up and go to Paris or he could write one honest novel in an atmosphere without Puritan inhibitions first the Sun Also Rises and that depicted so clearly the deep sense of disillusionment and the sense of loss of values that were so typical in his generation Hemingway who first coined that term the last generation I believe that was Martin Stein they were quite friends in Paris when he was over there and one day she said to him yours he's the last generation that's top started you know she was quite right that generation did do a lot of strange things well strange things were being done by a lot of people at that time take the Ku Klux Klan bracelet that is really imitating in the twenties when you know Howard it it's just amazing how a thing of that kind could flourish in America you have any pictures yes you know I just wasn't sure that they took pictures of the Klan well the organization was secret enough but its activity certainly we're not how uncanny you know what the Klan was a Ames were so an American oh yes they definitely were see they pushed for pure white Americanism and so forth it wouldn't tolerate Catholics Jews Negroes anything like that they would murder in they'd Lynch in part in order to prove their point pretty sordid picture in our papers of yours there's a lot of stories about the Klan to do that oh I suppose it's Jimmy he's coming over to look for at some sporting films I told him about well outdoor power to see yes it is Jimmy this praise for spectator sports was really spreading in the 20s hi there young huh how come you've in so long where you been what you do get lost screen set up here and you'll have a look at those sport films out to tell you about it I remember all these things happened back in the 1920s oh yeah Babe Ruth's picture oh sure and Jack Dempsey and gene Tunney and some football pictures too you know sports were pretty popular in those days sounds like it and Esther told me that you used to box in college she said that yeah did you the gloves on watch in a while maybe let's look at some real boxers this movie is a Jack Dempsey fighting just work as Dempsey of the White House imps became champion and an overnight national hero his mic but later he lost his championship and gene Tunney now here's Dempsey he's fighting honey Dempsey's in the black trunks now in this fight he tried to gain back his championship from tummy but anyone by a decision oh here we go with some baseball here's a Cleveland Indians New York Yankees Babe Ruth is with him see there's the old mauler himself right there can't strike yes sir now watch it watch it you can make more home runs and though one game and I've been it in three years you'd bet you you and me too hey and here's some football there's there's blue Rockne and he's Notre Dame team you know what they won 105 games normally lost 12 during the 12 years he was their coach well yes maybe it is these feelings are kind of hard to get you know well thanks for the movies what you're leaving so soon yeah I've got a ball game to play myself oh well I haven't say don't miss that bye Jimmy that boy don't stay in one place three minutes there he isn't so far different than a lot of other people let's see we were talking about the twenties how the times were restless how people were all for sensationalism yes and those were the times when people were experimenting in all facets of life the restless experimental spirit of the 1920s seemed to be reflected in the works of the architects of the era during these booming years American business grew and there was a rise in the construction industry bigger and better office buildings were needed new apartment houses had to be provided so real estate became a favorite form of speculation they were large realized real estate wounds California and Florida didn't last too long though diminished by the mid twenties and the chain stores were having a heyday of expansion Woolworths five-and-dime EMP stores expanded was soon known throughout a great part of us but for the most part the bungalow became the accepted style for the private low-cost building well that was the general type house being built but there were other instances where true architectural art was being laid in 2008 bright developed a different type of construction precast concrete rocks with reinforcements in the joints and his designs were still far ahead of many of the architects at the time numerous architects were following the modernist trend though in the late twenties the Chicago Tribune Tower was designed here it is the designers were John Mead Howells and Raymond hood this building displayed the popular modernist trend of using impressive perpendicular lines once enjoyed the soaring idea the architects plans for this building when a worldwide architectural contest another architect who submitted designs for the chicago tribune tower building was Alliance Arlen this effectively classical structure influenced architects for years to come this is one of Saarinen's designs the Cranbrook Academy in Bloomfield Hills Michigan and the art of City Planning was closely related to architecture it along with the general building trends made great progress during the twenties many cities were zoned ordinances restricted the type of building that could be erected in certain districts there was much community planning of towns and cities were arranged so that houses and apartments were convenient to go through traffic streets each town had a community center with schools and stores recreation areas facilities for sewage and water supply well I'm just running on and on here history's gonna murder me if I don't get these things to put away better get after with newspapers the part of Jimmy was played by Tommy Tim you