The Hyper Decade
As the postwar tensions that marked the beginning of the twenties began to fade, Americans turned their attention to the pursuit of pleasure. And oh, how they pursued it! The emotional energy that was generated during the war seemed to spill over into the search for diversions. Within ten years, spending on recreation and amusement rose by 300 percent.
As the recession of 1920-21 came to an end, people had more money to spend and more leisure time on their hands. As electricity reached more and more homes, an increasing number of women took advantage of new, time-saving appliances, such as vacuum cleaners and washing machines. And with the proliferation of refrigerators and bakeries, less time was spent on chores such as canning and baking. So, with time and money to spare, Americans went looking for a good time.
The Dream Palace
Throughout the twenties, Americans flocked to movie theaters in ever-increasing numbers. Movies, especially the silents, held universal appeal. Charlie Chaplin’s tramp was just as funny to the middle-class businessman as he was to the immigrant who could barely understand English. What’s more, motion pictures offered the luxury of escape, a point high-lighted in this advertisement from the Saturday Evening Post: "…. All the adventure, all the romance, all the excitement you lack in your daily life are in — Pictures. They take you completely out of yourself into a wonderful new world…."
In the previous decade, movies were a novelty, and the sight of moving pictures projected on a screen kept audiences spellbound. Most films were highly emotional and earnest, though they had an unpolished look about them. During the twenties, the movies changed. Wall Street tycoons were eager to get a piece of the action, and soon movies became part of the big business trend. Like all good managers, the new studio heads were motivated by what sells, or in Hollywood lingo, big box office. The idea of formula pictures became popular, based on the theory that if the audience bought it before, they’d buy it again.
Audiences also bought into the star system, and publicity men milked it for all it was worth, sometimes even arranging marriages and divorces between stars to keep the public interested. The publicity machine reached a new high (or low) with the untimely death, in 1926, of the greatest heartthrob of the time, Rudolph Valentino. Thanks to the efforts of Valentino’s manager and the undertaker’s press agent, a frenzied crowd stretched for eleven blocks outside the funeral home.
Excess was the name of the game when it came to movies. The look of the films became more slick, with elaborate costumes and stage sets. The stars’ salaries grew outrageously high. But the most impressive outgrowth of this boom in the movie industry was the theaters it produced. Sometimes accommodating thousands of people, these dream palaces, as they were called, featured uniformed ushers, upholstered seats, and breathtaking chandeliers. Even in smaller towns, the new movie theater was often the most impressive building on Main Street.
And what was showing in these new theaters? The most popular movies were shoot-’em-up Westerns and light-hearted comedies. The silent screen gave rise to comedy geniuses Charlie Chaplin, Harold Lloyd, and Buster Keaton, whose large eyes, deadpan expressions, and incredible physical stunts kept audiences roaring with laughter.
|
Charlie Chaplin. (1889-1977) |
|
|
|
By 1921, Charlie Chaplin was so famous, he was able to travel through Europe without a passport because his face was recognized everywhere, and for good reason. Chaplin had a genius for comedy. As a director and producer, he was a master of details who was able to visualize exactly the effect he wanted and then achieve it. As an actor, he was able to convey a world of emotions with just a small movement, a marked contrast to the flailing arms and sweeping gestures that were still the technique of many silent stars. Chaplin was born in London and grew up in poverty. From that experience he developed an affection and empathy for the downtrodden "tramps" of the world that was a running theme throughout his film career. In an era when high society was worshiped, Chaplin was one of the few artists to poke fun at the pompous manners of the upper class. In 1925, he released The Gold Rush, which hilariously mocked the money-crazed mood of the nation. But social commentary aside, The Gold Rush shows why Chaplin was loved by millions. In one memorable scene, Chaplin’s character is eagerly expecting the arrival of his ladylove, for whom he has prepared dinner. He pokes two forks in a pair of rolls and performs a little dance of joy with them on the table. Chaplin’s turbulent personal life provided plenty of material for the gossip tabloids in the twenties. During those ten years, he was divorced, then engaged, then broke off the engagement, and then married a different woman, who left him two years later. When sound movies arrived on the scene, Chaplin predicted that they were a passing fad, no doubt wishing it to be true. As it became increasingly obvious that they were here to stay, Chaplin began to worry about the future of his career: "Occasionally I mused over the possibility of making a sound film, but the thought sickened me, for I realized I could never achieve the excellence of my silent pictures."
| |
|
|
|
|
|
Around the mid-1920s, a new type of motion picture began attracting great crowds, as well as controversy. With titles such as Sinners in Silk, and Forbidden Fruit, these risqué films mirrored the changing morals and manners of the time. A typical movie ad promised "beautiful jazz babies, champagne baths, midnight revels, petting parties in the purple dawn…." As might be expected from such a description, the plots were weak, and style took precedence over substance. But style was a big seller in the twenties. Middle-class audiences loved studying the manners of the high society characters in the movies. While real life members of the upper class turned up their noses at the films, moviegoers couldn’t get enough.
Though the technology for making sound movies was available in 1921, the Hollywood studios were afraid of how audiences might react and so continued to produce silents for several years. But by the end of the twenties, moviegoers seemed to be growing restless and ready for something new. Warner Brothers gave it to them when the first feature length talkie premiered on October 6, 1927. The Jazz Singer featured the voice of "The World’s Greatest Entertainer," as Al Jolson liked to call himself. In a sign of the times, Jolson played a singer-comedian who performs in blackface. Though the story dripped with sentimentality, the first sound movie was a smash hit.
At first, talkies were dismissed as a fad that would pass with time, but soon it became clear that there was no going back. Hollywood studios rushed to buy the necessary equipment and soundproof their sets. Many actors who were huge stars of the silent screen, such as Douglas Fairbanks, saw their careers destroyed by the onslaught of talkies. They were casualties in a movie revolution.
