1910 – 1919
FACTS about this decade.
· Population: 92,407,000
· Life Expectancy: Male 48.4 Female: 51.8
· Average Salary $750 / year
· The Ziegfeld girls earned $75/week.
· Unemployed 2,150,000
· National Debt: $1.15 billion
· Union Membership: 2.1 million Strikes 1,204
· Attendance: Movies 30 million per week
· Lynchings: 76
· Divorce: 1/1000
· Vacation: 12 day cruise $60
· Whiskey $3.50 / gallon, Milk $.32 / gallon
· Speeds make automobile safety an issue
· 25,000 performers tour 4,000 U.S. theaters
The Progressive Era lasted from 1895 until World War I. This was a period of unrest and reform. Monopolies continued in spite of the Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890. Social problems flourished in the U.S. During the 1910s labor unions continued to grow as the middle classes became more and more unhappy. Unsafe working conditions were underscored by the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire in which 145 female workers were killed. Children were hired to work in factories, milles, and mines for long hours in unsafe and unhealthy conditions. Though efforts to pass a federal law proved unsuccessful, by the middle of this decade every state had passed a minimum age law. A commission found that up to 20% of the children living in cities were undernourished, education took second place to hunger and while children worked, only one-third enrolled in elementary school and less than 10% graduated from high school. The status of the Negro worsened. Skilled negro workers were barred from the AF of L. Women were also striving for equality.The first suffrage parade was held in 1910 - the 19th amendment finally ratified in 1919.
The Over There decade meant more than just sending our 'boys' over to fight during WWI. American became the most highly industrialized country during this time. Mass production of cars created a nationwide prosperity and resulted in one of the most profound social changes in America's history. Popular culture became a lucrative national product for the United States. All over the world people were dancing our dance crazes, listening to our jazz tunes, wearing our fashions, falling for our pop fads, and buying our products. Tobacco was a big business, with immigrants to New York City accounting for 25% of the tobacco purchasing.
Historic events include the sinking of the Titanic on April 15, 1912 when more than 1500 people lost their lives. The first moving assembly line began in 1914 and in 1915, the one millionth Model T ($345) rolled off the assembly line. Other news events included the initiation of the The National Park Service and Prohibition (1919). Jim Thorpe, an American Indian, won gold medals at the Olympics (although his medals were later taken away because he had played baseball for a salary earlier in his career), the first parachute jump was made, and the Girl Scouts of America were formed. Altogether, a decade to remember.
The Presidents were
William Howard Taft 1909-1913
Woodrow Wilson 1913-1921
·
ART & ARCHITECTURE
Three fundamental concepts concerning art in America were seriously reconsidered between 1910 and 1920. 1) What 'art' is, 2) who makes decisions about standards, and 3) how art is shared with the viewing public. (See American Decades 1910-1919, p 40.) The Eight from the Ashcan School - Robert Henri, John Sloan,William Glackens, George Luks, Everett Shinn, Ernest Lawson, Maurice Prendergast, and Arthur B. Davies - put on an exhibition of their works in 1908. No juries and no prizes were awarded. The City became a subject for the realist movement which was already underway. Artists painted scenes of the less glamourous aspects of modern life. These became known as the Ash Can realists (The Eight above were part of this group.) They depicted gritty New York scenery and lower class residents. Some impressionists (John Marin) and cubists or expressionists (Max Weber) and futurists (Joseph Stella) also painted the city. Industrialism was also a subject for the realistic art forms. Despite social change, the arts were not yet enlightened. Horace Pippin came back from the war in 1919 with sketches of the French countryside and horrors of battle. He buried his sketches in a chest drawer where they weren't found for another ten years. Norman Rockwell painted his first cover for Saturday Evening Post in 1916.
Realism, primitivism, symbolism, Fauvism, Dadaism, Futurism, and Cubism were all "-isms" of this decade.Georgia O'Keeffe began painting her sexual and controversial abstract forms. Other American arts of the decade included James McNeill Whistler, Childe Hassam and Mary Cassatt. Alfred Stieglitz was one of the most renown artists of this era. He elevated photography to an art form.
Important buildings of the period include the neo-gothic The Woolworth Building, the neo-classical The New York Public Library, Rice University (right), Grand Central Terminal, Midway Gardens (Frank Lloyd Wright), and MIT.
BOOKS & LITERATURE
The intellectual revolt against materialism spawned several books including those listed below (Books That Define the Time). The Education of Henry Adams assailed the nation's failure to live up to its founders' ideals. Walter Lippman and John Dewey were writing. Poets including Ezra Pound, William Carlos Williams, Amy Lowell, T.S. Eliot (The Lovesong of J. Alfred Prufrock), Robert Frost, Emily Dickinson, and Carl Sandburg.
Edith Wharton wrote Ethan Frome and Willa Cather published O Pioneers! and My Antonia. Popular books of the period included The Secret Garden (Francis Hodgson Burnett), Sons and Lovers (D.H. Lawrence), Of Human Bondage (Somerset Maugham), Wild Fire (Zane Grey), Tarzan of the Apes (Edgar Rice Burroughs), . In 1912 and 1913, there was a separate list of best sellers by the Publisher's Weekly. Then the list was abandoned until 1917 when fiction and non-fiction books became more popular than ever before. War books included Mr. Britling Sees it Through (fiction by H.G. Wells), and Over the Top by Arthur Guy Empey. Robert W. Service was on the best seller list for two years with Rhymes of a Red Cross Man. Dere Mable, [book available on Google Scholar] (Gershwin wrote the music and Dere Mable went on Broadway) containing humorously spelled letters from the war by Edward Streeter spawned two sequels, Same Old Bill, Eh Mable! and As You Were, Bill! The number one fiction of 1919 was The Four Horseman of the Apocalypse, later made into a movie. A single copy sold for $1.90 - industry insiders felt the public would never pay $2 for a book but were happy to be proved wrong! (Oh for the good old days!) Margaret Sanger published information on birth control and women during this time.
Books That Define the TimesGeorge Eastman brought photography to the masses.
The Smart Set by H.L. Mencken
The New Republic by Herbert Croly
The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man by James Weldon Jackson
Uncle Remus by Joel Chandler Harris
The Economic Consequences of the Peace by J.M. Keyes
The American Language by H. L. Mencken
Democracy and Education by John Dewey
Family Limitation by Margaret Sanger
FADS & FASHION
The Gibson Girl was it the last year of its popularity. Women were begining to want to think more of comfort during the 1910s, although many quickly fell for the hobble skirt. Fabrics became lighter, colors are brighter, and styles are looser. Lowered necklines became popular and sales of cold cream and lemon extract escalate. The Tea Gown was worn 'at home.' The sack, the sheath, oriental costumes, harem trousers, and the Hellenic tunic were all introduced. These were important years for furs. Head gear was worn, very costum-y. When the war began, fashion design and export came to a standstill. "Made in America" fad began. New materials and technologies made more colors available. The suffragettes started a more comfortable fashion - no more hobble skirt - and lots of pockets. Hemlines inched up (to show ankles :-).
Men, during the 1910s, wore striped trousers, a morning coat and starched white shirt. A top hat and frock coat were also worn. At home, informal lounge suits, tweed jackets and striped blazers were popular with dinner jackets in the evening.
FADS OF THE PERIOD
Theda Bara, a silent screen star, made vamping popular for five long years. Hot toys included the erector set, tinker toys, and lincoln logs. The Ouija Board became popular. Sales of this game soared. The Model T was affordable, so speed became a big fad. Chevrolet,DeSoto, Dodge, and Nash all were introduced during the 1910s. Prestige models became worth going into debt for - cars like Cadillac, Buick, Pierce, Haynes, Packard, and Studebaker. Ocean liners (floating hotels) were the rage. Both the Titanic and the Lusitania sunk during this decade. A neatly sized folding Kodak made picture taking easier and more popular for the masses.
Ballroom dancing was popular. Dance crazes included the Fox Trot and the Tango. Irene and Vernon Castle were 'off the charts'. Boston, New York, and Cleveland banned the tango. Parents worried about loosening morality. After all, lipstick was worn, actresses showed their legs. Oh my! Dangerous times! The Chautauquas (or camp meetings) entertained and inspired children (and adults) toward a christian path. These were tent meetings, entertainment spiced with religious, educational and political messages.
MUSIC
The 1910s were called the Ballroom Decade. Many of the trendier restaurants were equipped with dance floors. Black Americans continued to write and perform ragtime, blues and jazz. Popular songs of the decade (many made popular because of WWI) included Alexander's Ragtime Band (Irving Berlin), Danny Boy, You Made Me Love You (Al Jolson), Ah! Sweet Mystery of Life, The Aba Daba Honeymoon, and All I Do is Dream of You.War songs (listen to the originals) included Pack Up Your Troubles in Your Old Kit Bag, Keep the Home Fires Burning, Over There, Til We Meet Again, Oh! How I Hate to Get Up in the Morning, and Hinky Dinky Parlay Vous.
Jerome Kern and George Gershwin (this is a fabulous site) continued to produce music and musicals throughout the decade. Al Jolson began on stage in blackface. (film from 1927) Fanny Brice migrated to the Ziegfeld Follies, Vernon and Irene Castle and Fred Astaire danced, Vaudeville boomed, Speakeasies (listen to the audio) sold booze, and entertainers sang Over There.
THEATER, FILM & RADIO
Teens enjoyed Theda Bera and vamping, a seductive, sexual dance and posturing. Americans flocked to the Ziegfeld Follies and Vaudeville on Broadway to see such stars as Fannie Brice, Fatty Arbuckle, and Bill "Bojangles" Robinson, who as a child tapped his way into legend for nickels and dimes. Bojangles invented the 'stair tap'. Musicals had major audience appeal. Jerome Kern continued to be popular throughout this decade with such hits as Oh, Boy! and Leave It To Jane (Lyrics for both by P.G. Wodehouse). Irving Berlin, Richard Rogers, Cole Porter, and George and Ira Gershwin (Dere Mable) all had hits during this decade, and Victor Herbert's Naughty Marietta, premiered on Broadway. Plays other than musicals included those by George Bernard Shaw, Booth Tarkington, and Sinclair Lewis. Movies were extremely popular in the 1910s. Birth of a Nation (D.W. Griffith) Trailer on YouTube , The Floorwalker (Charlie Chaplin), Daddy Long Legs, Les Miserables (Weber version from this link) and A Tale of Two Cities. Top box-office stars were Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks (The Golden Couple,) and Pearl White (The Perils of Pauline.)