The document discusses cultural changes that occurred in the United States during the 1920s. Prosperity led to a shift away from traditional values of thrift towards consumerism. Mass production of goods and the rise of advertising fueled this consumer culture. The movie industry also helped reshape morality as films depicted lifestyles and behaviors that challenged traditional values. By the late 1920s, movies had become a dominant form of mass entertainment and cultural influence, exposing audiences to new ideas about issues like sexuality and race relations. Jazz music similarly rose in popularity during this decade as another American cultural form that symbolized modernization for some and challenged morality for others.

1. Comparative History
Cultural Change in the 1920’s
Patricia Fonseca
May 2, 2012
History 141 Course #31136
History of the Americas Since 1800
Professor Arguello

2. Cultural Change in the 1920’s
• Prosperity and economic innovation converted society
away from self-denial and values of thrift.
• Mass-produced goods led to society to consume leisure
items, making advertising big business.
• Morality became an issue and led to conflict over issues of
immigration, race relations, Prohibition, and sexuality.
• The movie industry helped convert morality in society.
• Many worried Americans were turning away from
traditional Bible values and tried to restrict immigration,
revived the Ku Klux Klan in northern cities, and tried to
censor movies. Society began to mimic what they saw on
the screen. Smoking cigarettes and sexual promiscuity
are two examples of social and moral codes that were
lowered due to the movie industry which was considered
art and mass commercial entertainment of this time.

3. Cultural Change in the 1920’s
• By the late 1920’s every large city and almost all medium-sized
towns had at least one brand-new picture palace.
• Hollywood was reeling out nearly two feature films per day yet
only a small amount were without the expectation or hope of
making a profit.
• The movies depicted middle and upper-class society living in
large homes, employing servants, owning cars, earning their
money from business, finance or the professions.
• The urban leisure and professional classes were the first to
discard traditional Victorian social codes. The traditional
middle-class moral order was struggling to maintain its
dominance.
• Immigrants were seeking success, comfort, status just as
Americans were yet were asked to abandon their language,
religion, cuisine, attire to be able to blend in with Americans.

4. Cultural Change in the 1920’s
• Immigrants went to the movies with their children because it was
cheap, ubiquitous and appealing as fantasy and entertainment.
• Movie reshaped what Americans viewed as traditional values as
they were made by men who were committed to the capitalistic
values, attitudes and ambitions that were crafted by the dominant
social order.
• Cecil B. DeMille is famous for his series of extramartial
temptations. He is credited with creating films that set the
boundaries of social change that would not disturb the inherited
moral order.
• Moviemakers were worried that that Americans would soon tire of
watching the same things play out over and over again. They
were continuously looking for emotionally satisfying entertainment
formulas to keep churning in profits.
• Von Stroheim clung to traditional American morals but mixed
sensual Europeans with American women.
• The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse was an American made
film with a European cast .

5. Cultural Change in the 1920’s
• Americans wanted passionate behavior in their entertainment and
looked to Europe as its source.
• Greta Garbo quickly became known as a passionate, powerful, and
intense actress.
• Europeans wanted to see Americans in their films doing American
things. They were mesmerized by the rate at which Americans
changed while they themselves were weighted down by tradition
and customs.
• First, westerns epitomized Americans, followed by comedies
starring the likes of Buster Keaton. Sex was a common thing
although displayed in different ways. Lloyd and Keaton never
broke traditional social order but the bourgeois comic formula
went to extremes.
• Jazz, a purely African American tradition of musical expression,
created a jazz craze in Europe. Particularly in Paris. Jazz is
credited with being the beginning of a transatlantic cultural shift.
Powered by postwar prosperity, new sexual attitudes, the influence
of records and films, and contributions from immigrants, both
France and America experienced a cultural revolution.

6. Cultural Change in the 1920’s
• Jazz in France was a symbol of “Americanization” with help from
tourism, American products being introduced to the French
market, and American movies.
• Americans identified jazz with the urban ghetto while France
appreciated its rhythm and sensuality.
• Postwar France saw a rise in the number of jazz bands within
Paris. They were found in cabarets, nightclubs, dance halls,
restaurants, and theaters.
• Fashionable hot spots were created and traditional character was
being replaced.
• Phonographs and the radio allowed new music, such as jazz, to
be carried across great distances.
• Americans were the source of amusement for Parisians who
copied their attire and fashions. Jazz was just one of many
fascinations the French had for American things.