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US Society 1919-1941 Growth and influences of consumerism including…

- - - - Working week reduced from 48hrs, 6 days in 1920 to 40hrs, 5 days in 1926
      - In 1914 the national wage was $2.40 a day. Ford paid a minimum of $5 by 1926 and then he quadrupled the average wage to nearly $10
      - Ford Sociological Department ensured that employees were healthy and that employee’s houses were sanitary through spot checks
    - - Workers were under constant surveillance by plain-clothes inspectors
      - → Ford was against unionism and feared strikes that would disrupt productivity
- - - - Silent films had been around for many years, but during the 1920s, Hollywood, as an industry expanded – by 1930, the average weekly attendance at the movies was 100 million, up from 40 million in 1922.
      - American films useful in understanding aspects of people and their time
      - It did more than record the times, it moulded them – Hollywood influenced values and attitudes
      - Globally, Hollywood has symbolised America to millions of people
      - Early silent films a popular source of cheap entertainment
      - The revolution gained added impetus in 1927 with ‘talking pictures’: the revolution of sound.
      - Aimed for mass appeal providing harmless entertainment that offended no-one which equates to profit
    - - The mass production of radio sets led to commercial broadcasting. Following the success of the first station, KDKA, in Pittsburgh, others followed, and by 1924 there were over 500 radio stations. By 1929, $852 million worth of radio sets were sold, up from $60 million in 1922. Consider the effect this had on the stock market
      - Within a decade the radio and movies nationalised American popular culture, projecting the same performers and the same stereotypes in every section of the country
    - - Originated in African-American communities in the south
      - It became prominent when they migrated to industrial cities of the north
      - New Orleans, Chicago, New York, Detroit became the meccas of the jazz scene
      - Jazz clubs eg Cotton Club in Harlem sprang up in major cities, open to all races
      - Jazz challenged mainstream American values on several levels:
      - Producers and stars predominantly African-American eg Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Bessie Smith
      - Songs often contained lyrics that conflicted with traditional values, particularly in relation to sexual morality
      - Jazz popularised dances such as the Charleston and the Black Bottom (for many white American Protestants dancing was taboo)
      - ↳ Mass entertainment through Hollywood, radio and Jazz influenced the growth of consumerism in American society due to people expending money for these forms of entertainment