Peterson A.T., Hewitt V., Vaughan H., Kellogg A.T. The Greenwood Encyclopedia of Clothing through American History, 1900 to the Present. Volume 1: 1900-1949

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Films had a huge impact on both the industry and their audiences,

especially if they were epics made by Cecil B. de Mille or D. W. Griffith.

Erich von Stroheim’s Greed left a lasting impression, as did King Vidor’s

Big Parade. Foreign horror films such as The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari and

Nosferatu expanded audience’s imaginations and stretched actors’ skills.

Other famous films of this era include the futuristic Metropolis, the drama

Sunrise, Greta Garbo’s Anna Christie, and The Taming of the Shrew, star-

ring husband and wife team Douglas Fairbanks and Mary Pickford.

RADIO

During the 1920s, radio developed significantly as a medium. Before ra-

dio had been established, rural areas were more isolated and less aware of

national events and trends. In 1920, the first commercial radio station

(KDKA) was established by the Westinghouse Electric Company in Pitts-

burgh by Robert Conrad. Westinghouse planned to create demand for

their newly engineered commercial radio equipment through programs.

Initially, the sets were small, cheap crystal sets, but, as popularity grew,

large console sets were sold as living room furniture pieces. In 1920, the

first news station went on the air. By the end of 1921, there were ten ra-

dio stations, and, in 1922, ninety more went on the air. By 1925, 50 mil-

lion people were listening on these sets. By 1927, listeners across the

country had access to both local and national programming. Amazingly,

the first car radio had been designed by 1928, but its reception was too

poor and its design was too bulky to be commercially viable (Kyvig 2002;

Andrist 1970).

This larger audience necessitated greater governmental regulation and

control. In response, Congress established the Federal Radio Commission

(which later became the Federal Communications Commission) as a part

of the Radio Act of 1927. This act acknowledged that airwaves belonged

to the people and that the government must be responsible for managing

them in the common interest (Kyvig 2002).

Even in the ear ly twenties, radio helped to link urban and rural areas

with common information and entertainment. KDKA’s first program

reported that Warren G. Harding and Calvin Coolidge had won the pres-

idential election. The station’s earl y programs attracted more than 6,000

listeners by 1920, who tuned in for the vocal and musical broadcasts.

Their schedule also began to be printed in the local newspaper (Kyvig

2002).

As time went on, competition built, with NBC establishing a station

in 1926. With an estimated audience of 12 million, their first broadcast

ART AND ENTERTAINMENT

included performances by musical acts such as the New York Orchestra

and a soprano from Chicago, as well as comedian Will Rogers.

Generally, radio in the 1920s included a wide variety of programming,

including news and weather reports, religious programming, music, edu-

cational and children’s programming, as well as recorded music and live

performances. In general, some of the most popular programs included

‘‘Real Folks’’ with Agnes Moorehead, along with sportscasts by Graham

McNamee, the news with Floyd Gibbons, and comedian Jack Pearl. Edu-

cational programming included exercise instruction, auto repair, baby care,

and health care.

Sports broadcasts were especially popular and from the start had

drawn large audiences. The boxing match between the American Jack

Dempsey and the Frenchman Georges Carpentier was broadcast over ra-

dio in July 1921. It was heard by approximately 300,000 people, at least

100,000 of those gathered in New York’s Times Square to listen via loud-

speakers (Kyvig 2002).

Musical programming was also popular. Radio helped jazz and country

music to reach greater numbers and encouraged the establishment of more

local bands and orchestras. In 1925, the Grand Ole Opry began broad-

casting over the radio (Kyvig 2002).

Although some technological elements of television were in develop-

ment by the late 1920s, it was not commercially viable at this point.

THE

1930S

ART MOVEMENTS

Many artists and movements that began in the 1920s hit their stride in the

1930s. Although the art deco movement reached its zenith in the 1920s, its

influence remained visible through the 1930s. Although it began in the pre-

vious decade, surrealism became more widespread and well known to the

general population. Painters such as Pablo Picasso and Salvador Dali contin-

ued to create and shape the direction of surrealism. Andre Breton, who wrote

the surrealism manifesto in 1924, held major exhibitions in 1936 and 1938.

Modernism in general continued its upswing, and, in the 1930s, Constantin

Brancusi, a Roman sculptor who worked in Paris, garnered more attention in

the art world with his abstract egg- and bird-shaped sculptures.

Alongside art deco, the ‘‘machine aesthetic’’ became popular, in part

because of the Machine Age Exhibition held in 1934 at the Museum of

The 1930s

Modern Art in New York. The film Metropolis (1927) reflects this style,

as did the modernist architecture of Charles Edouard Jeaneret-Gris, who

was also known as Le Corbusier. His work was ‘‘ like a Cubist painting,

the house is a precise, rational, abstract statement about materials and

forms and their interrelationships’’ (Cole and Gealt 1989).

Architect Frank Lloyd Wright, who was 60 in the 1930s, was by

now generally accepted as the leader of modern architecture (Timeline of

Art History: Frank Lloyd Wright, n.d.). His work continued to emphasize

the relationship between landscape and design. One of his most famous

houses, Fallingwater, was constructed in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, from

1935 to 1939. During this period, he also designed the first of his

‘‘Usonian’’ houses, simple house designs that were aimed at middle-class

clients. These houses set the design for future suburban houses.

New art movements of the 1930s wielded great influence over the arts

and artists. Neo-classicism and an interest in Greek simplicity greatly

influenced the fine and visual arts during this decade. The Great Depres-

sion focused many American artists on ‘‘regionalism,’’ realism, and every-

day life in rural and urban America. Examples include Grant Wood’s

‘‘American Gothic,’’ Georgia O’Keeffe’s southwestern themed paintings,

and photographer Dorthea Lange’s documentary-style realism.

Murals, often supported by the Federal Works Projects, rose in popu-

larity during this time as well. Two of the most well-known muralists

were Mexican Americans Diego Rivera and Jose Clemente Orozco. Rivera

was especially controversial because of his apparent connection to Lenin

and his depictions of laborers.

In terms of new architectural movements, skyscrapers were considered

modern marvels and had increasing influence on visual culture and design

in general. The Empire State Building, Chrysler Building, and Rockefel-

ler Center were built during this decade. This style of architecture was

sleek and aerodynamic in appearance; it influenced everything from indus-

trial design to commercial design.

In addition to the Great Depression, other historical events that

affected the arts included Hitler’s 1933 appointment as chancellor of Ger-

many, after which some 60,000 artists, writers, actors, and musicians

began leaving Europe. Many relocated to the United States, helping to

make it the ‘‘new artistic center of the West’’ (Cole and Gealt 1989).

The influence of these various art movements on fashion design was

especially evident with art deco-style orientalism and surrealism. Baby

clothes in particular reflected the earlier interest in orientalism. Season

collections frequently showed little kimonos, or kimono sleeve details, of-

ten in silk and cotton (Bevans 1930). In adult fashions, it was the mixing

ART AND ENTERTAINMENT

of Chinese designs with art deco that influenced printed silks and detail-

ing. Valentina, Mainbocher, and Molyneux in particular focused on these

tactics in the mid to late 1930s and often included brightly colored gar-

ments with mandarin collars, kimono sleeves, narrow tube skirts, and

forked trains in their collections.

Surrealist art strongly influenced the world of fashion in the mid to

late 1930s. Schiaparelli worked directly with several surrealist artists,

including S alvador Dali, Christian Berard, and Jean Cocteau. To capital-

ize on the new movement, fashion marketers used surrealist imagery in

advertising and window displays to lure potential shoppers inside (Mendes

and De La Haye 1999).

Modernist fashion photographers such as Steichen and Hoyningen-

Huene enjoyed continued success in the 1930s, as did the surrealist

photographer Man Ray. Newcomers included Horst P. Horst and realist

photographers such as Martin Mankasci and Toni Frissell. Surrealist pho-

tography remained a favored style in fashion magazines into the early 1940s.

MUSIC AND LITERATURE

The 1930s saw a continued interest in the musical forms and artists of the

previous decade, with new artists and genres contributing to the mix.

Thanks to technological innovation in recorded music and radio, music as

a whole gained a wider audience. Aaron Copland, George Gershwin, and

Roy Harris contributed significantly to the cultural landscape, as did the

Russian emigre Sergei Rachmaninoff. Additionally, ‘‘The Star Spangled

Banner’’ was declared the official U.S. national anthem on March 3, 1931.

As white America accepted jazz as a genre, the style began to change.

Big bands rose in popularity, including those led by Tommy and Jimmy

Dorsey, as well as Guy L ombardo. These big bands often highlighted

high-profile singers such as Bing Crosby and the four Mills Brothers.

Country stars remained popular on many radio programs, and ‘‘foreign’’ or

‘‘ethnic’’ music saw a slight rise in popularity. On the whole, however, the

Depression stifled record sales.

The major literary figures of the thirties included authors with vastly

different styles and intentions. W illiam Faulkner, John Steinbeck, and

Harlem Renaissance authors emerged at the forefront. Nobel Prize-winner

William Faulkner published the Sound and the Fury in 1929, continuing

with A Light in August, Sanctuary, and others into the thirties. Steinbeck,

focusing on the plight of dispossessed California migrant farm workers,

published The Grapes of Wrath in 1939, for which he later received the

Pulitzer Prize. The Harlem Renaissance was in full swing, highlighting

The 1930s

African-American writers and poets such as

Langston Hughes, Countee Cullen, Zora

Neale Hurston, and Claude McKay.

Other novelists of the era included

Thomas Wolfe and W. Somerset Maug-

ham. Thomas Wolfe was interested primar-

ily with ‘‘America na,’’ in both Look

Homeward, Angel,andOf Time and the

River. Maugham’s Of Human Bondage is

considered on e of the best books to emerge

from the twentieth century (Richardson

1982). Nathanael West wrote surrealist and

fantasy social commentaries su ch as Miss

Lonelyhearts and The Day of the Locust.

Another notab le book to come out of the

thirties was th e bestselling How to Win

Friends and Influence People by Dale Carne-

gie. Especially popular with the newly

emerging teen and young-adult market was

the Nancy Drew series, which got its start

in 1930.

THEATER AND MOVIES

Despite the increasing success of Hollywood films and the rising toll of

the Great Depression, the theatrical world remained vibrant. The Works

Projects Administration’s Federal Theater Project provided much-needed

work for many of the theater’s unemployed. In December 1932, Radio

City Music Hall opened, and, at the time, it was the largest indoor thea-

ter in the world, with seating for 6,200 (Andrist 1970).

Some of Broadway’s most successful plays, playwrights, and composers

established themselves in the thirties. In the early years, Green Pastures

and Of Thee I Sing were hits, as was The Barretts of Wimpole Street. Many

of the plays produced during this period later became some of Holly-

wood’s best-known feature films, including The Man Who Came to Dinner.

Other notables include Life with Father, Pins and Needles, Our Town, Of

Mice and Men, and George White’s Scandals. Eugene O’Neil, Bernard

Shaw, Clifford Odets, and Thornton Wilder all had hits on the Great

White Way. Composers and librettists such as Cole Porter, George

Gershwin, and the team of Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart first came

Joan Crawford in the 1932 film Letty Lynton. [Courtesy

of Photofest]

ART AND ENTERTAINMENT

to the fore. Actors such as Laurence Olivier, Noel Coward, Preston

Sturges, Lynn Fontanne, Beatrice Lillie, and Hope Williams all had noted

roles on the stage.

Two of the most famous dancers to come out of the thir ties were

Martha Graham and Serge Lifar. Graham, a native New Yorker, was an

interpretive dancer and choreographer. Lifar was a Russian dancer and

choreographer, who had danced with Diaghilev in the twenties. A self-

taught artist, she made her American debut in 1933.

In part because of the amount of nudity present in the films of the

early thirties, the Catholic Legion of Decency (also known as the Hayes

Department) was formed in 1933 and began pressuring the industry to

enforce the Production Code, a plan for self-censorship that had been

instituted in the twenties that had been all but ignored. In 1934, the film

industry succumbed to the pressure and began censoring films for nudity,

sex, and violence.

Despite the new censorship, the public still went in droves to the mov-

ies, primarily to escape the dregs of the Depression. In answer to this,

many films had a fantastical, elaborate, inflated atmosphere meant to help

everyday people forget their troubles. Gangster and horror movies were

especially popular, as were romances, dramas, and musicals.

Many call this era the ‘‘Golden Age of Hollywood,’’ a time when stars

were their brightest and films their most impressive. Stars such as Norma

Shearer, Jean Harlow, Joan Crawford, Marlene Dietrich, Bette Davis,

Carol Lombard, and Mae West had huge followings, as did male stars

such as Cary Grant, Gary Cooper, Clark Gable, James Stewart, and

Claude Rains. The most popular comedies featured the Marx Brothers

and W. C. Fields. Pre-code musicals choreographed by Busby Berkeley

featured huge numbers of chorus girls in various states of undress. William

Powell was featured in an extremely popular detective series, beginning

with The Thin Man.

Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire danced into the hearts of their ador-

ing public. Although not dancers, other couples such as Joan Blondell and

James Cagney or Katharine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy were repeatedly

paired to great success and box office receipts. Child star Shirley Temple

won the hearts of thousands with her tap-dancing skills and professional

cuteness.

The most memorable films of the decade, however, all seem to have

been produced the same year. Moviegoers were able to see The Wizard of

Oz; Gone with the Wind; Young Mr. Lincoln; Dark Victory ; Goodbye, Mr.

Chips; and Another Thin Man in 1939 alone. Others produced during that

The 1930s

decade included the Marx Brothers’ Animal Crackers, Charlie Chaplin’s

City Lights, Joseph Von Sternberg’s Blue Angel and Morocco, and George

Cukor’s The Women and Marie Antoinette.

During the 1930s, the costume designer became more well known to

the general public. Because of the emphasis on the lavish, fantastical, and

glamorous, designers such as Edith Head, Adrian, and Travis Banton

became known to the general public. These costume designers held mas-

sive influence not only over the costumes used in movies but the everyday

fashion trends of the 1930s as well. From the Mata Hari hat, to platinum

blond hair, to Victorian-style evening capes, these designers unintention-

ally skewed the fashion world.

RADIO

The majority of the necessary technology for commercial radio was devel-

oped in the previous decade. Government continued to reevaluate the way

radio was controlled, and, in 1934, the Federal Communications Com-

mission took over from the Federal Radio Commission that had been

established in 1927.

Programming in general became more refined and stable. By the mid-

thirties, there were regular news broadcasts with substantial news pro-

grams. The standard morning programming included the weather, talk,

and recorded music. When FDR became president in 1933, he instituted

a radio series called fireside chats in which he explained his plans for relief

from the Great Depression.

Advertisers and marketers more aggressively targeted radio audiences

by associating various products with specific programs. Broadway and

Hollywood performers and famous newscasters used their popularity to

sell any number of commercial products. Sponsored serial dramas or ‘‘soap

operas’’ including The Romance of Helen Trent and Ma Perkins drew audi-

ences week after week.

Some popular entertainment programs included vaudeville-like per-

formers such as F ibber McGee and Molly, George Burns and Gracie

Allen, Char lie McCarthy (with ventriloquist Edgar Bergen), Jack Benny,

and Kate Smith. Amos n’ Andy was a series about two black men from the

country who were continually confused by city life. It began as a local

Chicago program in the late 1920s, became a national NBC program in

1929, and peaked in popularity in the early 1930s at 40 million people

(Kyvig 2002). Other entertainment programs featured on the radio

included the quiz show Information Please, One Man’s Family featuring

typical family chatter, and the WLS Barn Dance.

ART AND ENTERTAINMENT

Film Costume Designers and the Fashion

Industry. Although most costume design-

ers of the 1920s received little or no atten-

tion for their work on Hollywood films,

by the 1930s, these and many more

designers were beginning to be recognized

and valued by the industry as a necessary

component to a film’s success. Attributable

in part to the increasing interest of execu-

tives in gaining larger female audiences,

the costume designer became an integral

part of the publicity machine. This, in

turn, caused the fashion press to pay

greater attention to the ‘ ‘looks’’ that these

designers were creating for the screen,

looks that appealed to shoppers from all

walks of life.

Designers were frequent voices in fan

magazines such as Silver Screen, New

Movie, Screen Book Magazine, Screenland,

and the ever-popular Photoplay. They dis-

cussed trends, what their jobs were like,

and gossip from backstage. Reports in

these magazines were keen to note new

designs and highlight the designers’ indi-

vidual influences on the fashion industry.

Adrian, in particular, was often high-

lighted for his work with Greta Garbo,

Joan Crawford, and Norma Shearer.

Designers reacted to this newfound

appreciation and notoriety in diverse

ways. Many designers used the publicity

to further their careers within film, get-

ting increasingly more important projects.

Others used their success to gain celebrity

clientele, designing their personal ward-

robes. A select few attempted to make

the bridge from film design to fashion,

with mixed success. Designers such as

Edith Head, Orry-Kelly, Walter Plun-

kett, Travis Banton, and Howard Greer

ventured into fashion design with some

success. Adrian, however, had one of the

more successful cross-over careers into

fashion in the forties, in part because of

his continual appearance in film fan

magazines in the thirties and despite

having never been nominated for an

Academy Award.

The 1939 film The Women shows examples

of evening gowns with long, flared skirts.

[Courtesy of Photofest]

The 1930s

In 1937 and 1938, Fortune magazine conducted a survey that found

radio to be the most popular pastime in the nation. Because of the trust

listeners placed in radio broadcasts, one of the biggest broadcasting

debacles occurred on Halloween of 1938. A live performance of H. G.

Wells’ fictional tale of alien invasion, War of the Worlds, was produced by

Orson Welles and broadcast on CBS, causing a considerable panic among

listeners, who believed that the alien invasion was actually taking place.

Television was still in development in the 1930s, and an early incarna-

tion was taken by RCA engineers to the 1939 New York World’s Fair.

Neither programming nor commercial television sets were available to the

masses until the following decade.

THE

1940S

ART MOVEMENTS

As the world was transformed by WWII, the environment of the newly

global, technological society brought about a larger art movement called

Modernism. European artists fled their home countries and brought the

concept of Modernism to the United States with them. This was the sec-

ond generation of Modernism, a movement that emphasized the power of

human beings to create, shape, and improve their environment. Artists

achieved this power by reexamining everything and using scientific knowl-

edge, technology, and practical experimentation. By the 1940s, Modern-

ism was infused in all forms of American art: photography, sculpture,

paintings, literature, wearable art, furniture, and architecture.

Modernism spawned another movement called abstract expressionism,

which could be described as an attitude rather than a specific style. It was

characterized by individuality, spontaneous improvisation, and freedom of

expression. Jackson Pollock, Willem de Kooning, and Mark Rothko were

artists with very different styles, but they are all considered abstract expres-

sionists. This art was introspective, with artists and writers looking inter-

nally for their inspiration instead of looking out at the larger world. They

moved away from political themes and toward individual expression.

New York Cit y was full of ar tists who adopted characteristics of

abstract expressionism. Many of these artists had been introduced to each

other by the Federal Arts Project in the 1930s. American had seen an

influx of European artists since the beginning of the war, and these

emigrants tutored their American counterparts. New York City had

replaced Paris as the art capital of the world. This informal group was

ART AND ENTERTAINMENT

referred to as the New York School, and it grew to its peak in the 1950s

and 1960s.

MUSIC AND LITERATURE

Although classical music remained popular throughout the decade, jazz

and its many variations eclipsed all other genres of music in the United

States during the 1940s. This period was known as the Big Band Era,

and, during it, swing music was king. Swing, or swing jazz, was a varia-

tion of jazz that featured a strong rhythm section and fast tempos. It had

evolved from an alternative music style into popular music by 1935, and,

by the early 1940s, it peaked as a music genre that is inextricably linked

to WWII. Originally recorded in 1939, Glenn Miller’s ‘‘In the Mood’’ is

considered by most to be the musical anthem of WWII. White audiences

were drawn to the Glenn Miller, Tommy Dorsey, and Benny Goodman

orchestras because the music was easy to dance to and had an upbeat

rhythm. Most clubs and hotels were still segregated at that time, and

although black musicians were allowed to entertain, they were not allowed

to patronize the same establishments.

Wartime was depressing and good music with lively dancing was one

way to leave the war behind. Dance bands, or swing bands, got everyone

on their feet. Dancing in the 1940s was a popular pastime for nearly every

age and ethnic group. Either live at a club or hotel or heard on the radio,

people got up and began to dance with any partner available. Swing music

had a dense rhythm and used a hard riff against which the melody could

be played. Tightly arranged three-minute pieces were written for 78 RPM

records, but longer improvisations created open-ended arrangements for

radio and live performances.

The instrumentation in swing music was a departure from that of the

early bands. Larger bands, often 16 pieces, included trumpets and trom-

bones for lighter and brighter sound, counterbalanced by saxophones and

clarinets. The rhythm was jazzed up a bit with an expanded drum set,

piano, and a string bass.

A lone conductor waving his baton was replaced by leader musicians

who took center stage. Bandleader Benny Goodman was proclaimed the

‘‘King of Swing,’’ but he was also an accomplished clarinetist whose solos

were flashy and toe tapping. Similarly, bandleaders Glenn Miller, Tommy

Dorsey, and Artie Shaw would alternate between leading the group and

playing a solo on each piece. Count Basie and Duke Ellington played

piano full time on each song while also leading their bands. Many bands

developed gimmicks that made them stand out from the other bands.

The 1940s