Introduction for Chapter 22

CHAPTER 22 Cultural Conflict, Bubble, and Bust, 1919–1932

IDENTIFY THE BIG IDEA

What conflicts in culture and politics arose in the 1920s, and how did economic developments in that decade help cause the Great Depression?

Rising to fame in The Sheik (1922), Rudolph Valentino became a controversial Hollywood star. Calling him “dark, darling, and delightful,” female fans mobbed his appearances. In Chicago, Mexican American boys slicked back their hair and called each other “sheik.” But some Anglo men said they loathed Valentino. One reviewer claimed the star had stolen his style from female “vamps” and ridiculed him for wearing a bracelet (a gift from his wife). The Chicago Tribune blamed Valentino for the rise of “effeminate men,” shown by the popularity of “floppy pants and slave bracelets.” Outraged, Valentino challenged the journalist to a fight — and defeated the writer’s stand-in.

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Celebrating the Fourth of July, 1926 This Life magazine cover celebrates two famous symbols of the 1920s: jazz music and the “flapper,” in her droopy tights and scandalously short skirt, who loves to dance to its rhythms. The flags at the top record the latest slang expressions, including “so’s your old man” and “step on it” (“it” being the accelerator of an automobile, in a decade when cars were America’s hottest commodity). The bottom of the picture also added a note of protest: while July 4, 1926, marked the 150th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, Life says that Americans have had only “one hundred and forty-three years of liberty” — followed by “seven years of Prohibition.” Picture Research Consultants & Archives.

Valentino, an Italian immigrant, upset racial and ethnic boundaries. Nicknamed the Latin Lover, he played among other roles a Spanish bullfighter and the son of a maharajah. When a reporter called his character in The Sheik a “savage,” Valentino retorted, “People are not savages because they have dark skins. The Arab civilization is one of the oldest in the world.”

But to many American-born Protestants, movies were morally dangerous — “vile and atrocious,” one women’s group declared. The appeal of “dark” stars like Valentino and his predecessor, Japanese American actor Sessue Hayakawa, was part of the problem. Hollywood became a focal point for political conflict as the nation took a sharp right turn. A year before The Sheik appeared, the Reverend Wilbur Crafts published a widely reprinted article warning of “Jewish Supremacy in Film.” He accused “Hebrew” Hollywood executives of “gross immorality” and claimed they were racially incapable of understanding “the prevailing standards of the American people.” These were not fringe views. Crafts’s editorial first appeared in a newspaper owned by prominent automaker Henry Ford.

Critics, though, failed to slow Hollywood’s success. Faced with threats of regulation, movie-makers did what other big businesses did in the 1920s: they used their clout to block government intervention. At the same time, they expanded into world markets; when Valentino visited Paris, he was swarmed by thousands of French fans. The Sheik highlighted America’s business success and its political and cultural divides. Young urban audiences, including women “flappers,” were eager to challenge older sexual and religious mores. Rural Protestants saw American values going down the drain. In Washington, meanwhile, Republican leaders abandoned two decades of reform and deferred to business. Americans wanted prosperity, not progressivism — until the consequences arrived in the shock of the Great Depression.