Impact of popular culture and news media - 1917-80

Cinemas in the 1930s

• Most movie theatres changed their ‘feature’ movie at least twice a week

• There was a B-movie, a short cartoon or travelogue, trailers and a newsreel

Movie theatre seats in 1941

• Nearly 10,500,000 → 1 for every 12.5 people

Hollywood fan magazines in the late 1930s

• 20

• Each had a circulation of 200,000 to 1 million readers

Influence of Hollywood in the 1930s and 1940s

90% of all films worldwide were made in Hollywood

Clara Bow

Made 15 movies in 1925

Shirley Temple

Earned $5000 a week in the 1930s, when the average wage was under $2000 a year

Sponsors

MGM made a $500,000 deal with Coca Cola that its stars would drink Coke during breaks and during interviews for magazines

Motion Picture Production Code/Hays Code

• Belief that movies should improve society by being morally improving films

• All movies had to conform between 1930-60

• Studios began to build a ‘morality clause’ into their contracts with the stars, whereby they had to sign up to good living

Homes with a gramophone by 1929

Almost 50%

Records sold in 1929

$75 million worth

Commercial radio stations by 1924

600

Father Coughlin

• Priest who broadcast a series of sermons criticising the KKK

• By 1930, he had about 40 million listeners

• During the Depression, he criticised bankers and supported Roosevelt, saying the New Deal was ‘Christ’s deal’ → when Roosevelt didn’t go far enough for him, he criticised Roosevelt, costing him support

Radio vs newspaper ownership

• 1930 → both 39%

• 1950 → radio - 91% → newspaper - 54%

1960 Kennedy v Nixon presdiential debate

• Kennedy was good looking and a persuasive speaker

• Nixon was visibly uncomfortable on air

Weekly attendance at movie theatres

• 1950 - 55 million

• 1960 - 30 million

• 1965 onwards - 20 million

Television ownership

• 1950 - 9%

• 1955 - 63%

• 1960 - 85%

• 1970 - 95%

Public Broadcasting Service (PBS)

• Set up in 1967 by the Public Broadcasting Act

• National station, made up of groups of local stations, mostly not run for profit

• Free from the influence of sponsors → liberal agenda to educate and entertain and ‘restore standards’

• Sesame Street → taught children about racial tolerance and sharing, as well as counting and reading → one of the first shows to have a racially balanced cast

• In 1981, on the conservative backswing, its government funding was withdrawn

MASH

• Set in the Korean War → considered issues relevant to Vietnam

• Contributed to popular feeling against the war

Rowan and Martin’s Laugh-in (1968-73)

• One of the first sketch shows to openly make fun of politicians → reached more people than criticism in serious newspaper, radio or television debates

1951 ‘See it Now’ broadcast

• Ed Murrow was co-producer of the CBS news series

• In 1953, Murrow broadcast a story on the Red Scare, about a young airman losing his job because of possibly family communist sympathies

• In 1954, ‘See It Now’ did a show on McCathy that exposed him as a liar and a bully → this helped shift public opinion away from McCarthy

1973 Watergate hearings

• Public television played 250 hours of hearings live

• Dramatic edited events were broadcast on the news

Vietnam War coverage

• In 1965, CBS news showed marines burning the village of Cam Ne to the ground

• In 1968, William Cronkite’s documentary (aired after the Tet Offensive) was shocking to people because someone they trusted was criticising a government they were uncertain about

Jimmy Carter

• Media initially presented him positively → 60-70% support level in his first few months

• His brother was involved in various scandals with the IRS

• In 1979, he was shown collapsing in a marathon → probably contributed to his losing re-election as he seemed weak

• In 1979, he was attacked by a rabbit while fishing and he hit it with his paddle