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Amy T Peterson, Valerie Hewitt, Heather Vaughan, et al

Page 11

by The Greenwood Encyclopedia of Clothing Through American History 1900 to the Present (pdf)


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  ART AND ENTERTAINMENT

  Gibson’s vision indicated a young woman who

  was sturdy, self-reliant, and knew what she wanted.

  Although not openly advocating any political or

  social causes, the Gibson girl would engage in sports,

  ride a bicycle without a chaperone, and might, on

  occasion, engage in some mild form of strenuous ac-

  tivity. She did not faint, nor did she change her

  behavior to appeal to men. Women tried to model

  themselves after Gibson’s ideal, and men wanted to

  marry them.

  Not all art was intent at presenting life in a posi-

  tive, romantic manner. Perhaps because 1900 was

  seen as the beginning of a new millennium and the

  United States was growing past its isolationist stages

  and branching out into world politics, but in the

  1900s, American artists started reconsidering what

  ‘ art’ was. Many of the young artists at the time saw

  little point in producing the fantasized illustrations of

  life that had been painted for centuries. They wanted

  to bring more realism to their work, hence the con-

  cept of ‘‘realism.’’

  A Gibson girl in

  Part of the new trend was a result of finally having artists who were

  shirtwaist and picture

  trained in the United States. During the nineteenth century, most artists

  hat, c. 1910. [Library

  went to Europe to learn the styles of the European masters. After the

  of Congress]

  Civil War, many families could not afford to send children to Europe.

  The economic depressions and the horrors of the war impressed the artis-

  tic youth of this country. They began to see what really existed. By the

  end of the nineteenth century, artists were painting scenes of their area of

  the country. Homer Winslow, from New England, painted dramatic

  ocean scenes. Frederick Remington put the lives of common cowboys,

  horses, and cattle on canvas. The younger artists were starting to chal-

  lenge the way art had been done for decades, if not centuries.

  One of the first art movements in New York to challenge the status

  quo was a group of artists referred to as the Ash Can school. They

  painted scenes of life as it really existed on the streets of New York.

  Major museums and art critics deplored this art, but the artists insisted

  that it was real and that art should reflect life as it was, not as the artist

  wanted it to be. For the first year or two, no one was willing to allow

  such artists to display their work, so the artists joined forces and created

  their own studios and galleries that would display the more realistic

  scenes of life.

  The 1900s

  57

  The century also saw the rudimentary beginnings of mass photography.

  The first Kodak camera had been introduced in 1888, and professional and

  talented amateur photographers had been taking portraits and pictures of

  scenery for years. Frank Brownell developed a small camera called the

  ‘‘Brownie’ for George Eastman in 1900. This camera cost $1 and was inex-

  pensive enough that most Americans could buy one, making photography,

  for the first time, something that anyone could do (Chakravorti 2003).

  The Brownie, by the way, was not named after its developer. George

  Eastman was aware that children read books about elves and children,

  and there was a character called ‘‘Brownie’’ that was popular at that time.

  Eastman thought that, if the camera had a name that children would like,

  it might catch on, and he was correct.

  Architects were able to take advantage of some of the era’s new tech-

  nology to ‘ solve’’ some of the big problems of the cities. People kept

  flocking to the cities in hopes of finding work or in hopes of finding a

  better life. They needed someplace to live and work. The skyscraper was

  born to house offices, but it also could be used to house people. The new

  technique of creating steel beams that were strong and light would allow

  buildings to be built higher than anyone could have dreamed.

  The motto ‘‘form follows function’ became a trademark of early

  American architects such as Frank Lloyd Wright and Louis Sullivan. Nei-

  ther man saw a point to the useless details and ornamentation on many

  older buildings. Sullivan’s work stressed the function and the structure of

  the building itself. Wright considered Sullivan a master in the field, but

  Wright was able to construct buildings that looked as if they were grown

  from the area around them. Both men would have major impacts on

  American architecture in later decades.

  LITERATURE AND MUSIC

  Horatio Alger, a poor writer who found a successful formula, was a popu-

  lar author for boys’ novels at the turn of the century. The plots of the sto-

  ries all concerned young boys who had origins in poverty. The boys leave

  their family to seek fortunes elsewhere. These children did not earn their

  fortunes, but they were unfailingly polite and good role models for any

  young boy. They became wealthy simply because they would do some-

  thing quickly and save someone or something, and then they would be

  rewarded for their bravery and quick thinking. Alger wanted to demon-

  strate to his readers that somehow, their virtuous behavior would be

  rewarded. In the world that Alger created in his books, boys who did not

  follow the rules tended to be evil or have troubles their entire lives.

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  ART AND ENTERTAINMENT

  Girls too had their stories. Many of them were presented as melodra-

  mas on a local stage. Frequently, a young girl would be engaged in some

  kind of dispute with a very wealthy woman. The wealthy women were of-

  ten portrayed as thoughtless and frequently unscrupulous. The wealthy

  woman would be doing everything she could to maintain the wealth of

  her family and to continue living a life of what many called ‘ conspicuous

  consumption.’’ The poor young girl might be nothing in the rich woman’s

  eye, but the plot to the story was obviously meant to demonstrate that the

  poor girl was a better person than the rich one. As in Horatio Alger’s sto-

  ries, the poor young girl would be rewarded for her virtue by the end of

  the story, much like the ending of the Cinderella story. What was rarely

  discussed, however, was whether or not the young girl married her rich

  husband and then became a conspicuous member of the idle rich.

  Much of the popular literature reflected the ideals of the times. Some

  of the best known novels of the late 1800s, stories such as Tolstoy’s Anna

  Karenina or Thomas Hardy’s Tess of the d’Urbervilles, reflected stories of

  women who, for a variety of reasons, left their husbands for another man.

  These fictional women might have some weeks or months of happiness,

  but, invariably, they met disaster. The idea was clear: a woman’s place was

  with her husband and children.

  People who did not live a ‘ proper life’’ were also the subject of the

  many pamphlets and stories that reformers made popular. As the world

  started changing, many groups banded together to do something about<
br />
  that change. Women who joined the Women’s Christian Temperance

  Union advocated stories that would demonstrate how someone could start

  out on the ‘‘right path,’’ become confused and misguided by ‘ demon rum’

  or another form of alcohol, and then learn that following the footsteps of

  one’s forebears was the path to happiness. Many stories were also written

  in which the hero or heroine would be tempted but never gave into the

  temptations. Many such stories were aimed at young people. Edgar Rice

  Burroughs’ stories about Tarzan preached the virtues of ignoring the fancy

  trappings of the city life and living a simple life.

  One subtle shift, however, was taking place in literature. At the begin-

  ning of the nineteenth century, stories ended with the marriage. The main

  characters had met, overcome their obstacles, and ‘ lived happily ever af-

  ter’ in conjugal bliss. By the beginning of the nineteenth century, how-

  ever, stories began with the marriage and then discussed issues related to

  family life. Although the idea that a woman could leave her husband was

  not a totally acceptable behavior, the literature was beginning to reflect

  the reality that married life was not the ‘ happily ever after’ that everyone

  wanted marriage to be.

  The 1900s

  59

  Literature was changing in others ways as well. Because the population

  was more urbanized, stories were focusing on people and the new experi-

  ences that the city provided. Many heroines would experiment with single

  life and a variety of jobs and men. Women in literature were becoming

  less inhibited, and many people did not like it. A variety of attempts were

  made to censor some of the new literature; many communities developed

  some sort of ‘ anti-vice’’ committee in an attempt to ensure that youths

  were not led astray. The attempts to destroy material deemed improper

  only made it more popular.

  Newspapers and magazines, although not exactly ‘ literature,’’ became

  a popular form of storytelling. Generally, newspapers told the news. Then

  Ida M. Tarbell and Lincoln Steffens wrote what might be called

  ‘ exposes.’’ Ida Tarbell documented John D. Rockefeller and his Standard

  Oil Company. Steffens started writing about the poverty and the prob-

  lems of city living. Originally, these were intended to be simply stories,

  but the public reaction was overwhelming. Editors learned that people

  would pay to buy anything with a scandalous or sensational story to it.

  Editors started hiring people to write more such stories, called ‘ muck-

  raking’’ by President Roosevelt, simply to boost circulation.

  One such ‘ muckraking’’ story was The Jungle, written in 1906 by

  Upton Sinclair. The story discussed some of the ‘ evils’’ of the industrial-

  ized cities. Its hero wanted to destroy the capitalist system, so most edi-

  tors would not publish it. Sinclair found a socialist newspaper, The Appeal

  to Reason, that ran the story, and Sinclair’s novel became popular. When it

  was published in book form, even President Roosevelt was supposed to

  have a copy. The book, along with some of the other newspaper and mag-

  azine stories, started changing people’s minds about living conditions in

  the cities. Some believe the book’s popularity caused Congress to pass

  laws that would prohibit some of the excesses of the greedier industrial-

  ists. This kind of legislation would have been unthinkable even ten years

  earlier.

  Books were not the only commodity that people considered censoring.

  Music was becoming ‘ evil.’’ Perhaps not the music itself, but the fact that

  much music encouraged young people to dance and the way they danced

  was horrifying to many adults. Some of the popular tunes during the pe-

  riod 1900 1909 were ‘‘In the Good Old Summertime’’ and ‘‘Give My

  Regards to Broadway.’’ Rags, such as ‘Alexander’s Ragtime Band’ by Irv-

  ing Berlin, became popular. Other dances, such as the tango, became very

  popular in dance halls before WWI.

  One of the greatest sins of the music was that it made people move;

  they might wiggle and then move other parts of their bodies, and the

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  ART AND ENTERTAINMENT

  movements were seen as suggestive. Many people thought the new music

  would give youths ‘ ideas’’ that they would not have otherwise. Many tried

  to ban dance halls and the music played in them, but the music was too

  popular. Adults who were working in or outside the home could not fol-

  low their children everywhere.

  Even if people did not go to dance halls, many people wanted to play

  the music. Sheet music was popular and easy to obtain. Sheet music had

  been a popular medium for spreading music across the population. Then

  came the phonograph. In New York City, an area referred to as ‘ Tin Pan

  Alley’ started producing phonograph records that would allow anyone

  who did not play an instrument to play music at home. In the next several

  years, the phonograph led to the decline of the popularity of sheet music.

  THEATER AND MOVIES

  People in urban areas were able to easily visit live theater. People in the

  rural areas might be able to put on some shows of their own for a special

  occasion, such as the Fourth of July, but many people looked forward to

  traveling shows, such as the circus or a traveling theater troupe. Some of

  the actors from large metropolitan areas such as New York would travel to

  smaller urban areas and give live performances. Very rural areas or areas

  that had some reason to limit entertainment, such as very mountainous

  regions, rarely had such opportunities. Many acts were Shakespearean

  plays or varieties that were popular in a particular region of the county.

  American theater is closely connected to Broadway, in New York City.

  Madison Square Theater had been built in 1887, but new theaters were

  being built after 1900. It was in these theaters that George M. Cohan,

  Jerome Kern, George Bernard Shaw, and Henrik Ibsen presented their

  plays to the American public. Some, such as Ibsen’s Camille and Doll

  House, had to be modified so that they could pass the censors, but audien-

  ces loved them. Americans also became enamored with an odd tale of

  crocodiles and alarm clocks and boys who never grew up when Peter Pan

  first appeared in 1905.

  In 1901, Sarah Bernhardt, the famous French actress, appeared in

  Hamlet, playing the title role. Perhaps because the play was in French, it

  was not liked by American audiences. As a result of the poor reception

  from Americans, Bernhardt said she would not return to America, but the

  popular star could not stay away from the lucrative American theater and

  returned to the United States in 1906. Other young actors learned their

  craft on the Broadway stage. Many, such as the Barrymore family and

  Helen Hayes, would later become big stars in motion pictures.

  The 1910s

  61

  Because towns and cities acquired electricity, penny arcades proliferated

  and presented nickelodeons. For pocket change, people could view a variety

  o
f topics, depending on what was allowed in their communities. Topics

  could range from pictures of boats to flowers to girls climbing apple trees.

  They were usually short pieces of entertainment, but there were many of

  them and they were different from anything anyone had seen.

  Before WWI, Broadway theaters developed three types of productions:

  light comedy, operettas, and vaudeville. Some of the operettas, such as

  Babes in Toyland, Naughty Marietta, The Merry Widow, and The Wizard of

  Oz, later found themselves in new incarnations as Hollywood movies.

  Victor Herbert, a classically trained musician, was so pleased with the suc-

  cess of Babes in Toyland in 1903 that he produced some form of the pro-

  duction almost every year after that until he died in 1924.

  T H E

  1910S

  ART MOVEMENTS

  Cubism was a style that was increasingly noticed after 1910. Many of the

  cubists, including Pablo Picasso, Georges Braque, and Juan Gris, were

  European, but increasing numbers of Americans adopted the style because

  they felt that something needed to replace the idealized, representative art

  of the past century. Cubism involved deconstructing the objects in an

  image, flattening them into two-dimensional, geometric parts, analyzing

  them, and reassembling them at randomly intersecting angles. The style

  was ridiculed in print and cartoonists enjoyed making fun of the style, but

  it continued to grow despite the antagonism of the press and many art

  critics.

  Realistic forms of painting were as popular as abstract ones. In 1916,

  an editor of The Saturday Evening Post met a young man who wanted to

  paint a cover for the magazine. The editor was positively impressed and

  Norman Rockwell painted the first of many Post covers, and a beloved

  American trademark was born.

  Another popular artist who did not follow the trend of abstraction

  was James McNeil Whistler. He was an American artist who lived most

  of his life in Europe, usually London or Paris. His work was realistic, but

  he preferred using gray and black in his paintings to demonstrate the

  interplay of light and dark, as well as form. His Arrangement in Grey and

  Black is probably his most famous work, possibly one of the most famous

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  ART AND ENTERTAINMENT

  works by any American artist, although few people recognize it by the

 

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