The late 19th and early 20th century was a time when America was enormously changing. Coney Island’s extravagant amusement parks caught the eyes’ of all America. John Kasson states the reason why Coney Island was so popular was because it “mocked the established social order” (Kasson 50). The image from John F. Kasson’s book Amusing the Million is a great example of how Coney Island was in the early 20th century. The image is called “Riding the elephant” and it was taken at Luna Park. The image shows people riding an elephant, sliding down slides, and waiting for the rides. John Kasson explains that the park is “ an agent of Americanization for immigrants and their children” (Kasson 70). It is very obvious that Coney Island would be very attractive to immigrants because of the exotic and familiar architecture and animals. Americans also loved the features of Coney Island because it was out of their cultural norm (70). …show more content…
The image suggests about the changing materials, demographic, and the social relations of the late 19th and early 20th century that this was a time where high class met kookiness. The image shows men and women very well dressed riding on elephants and going down slides. All the men are wearing suits and hats while the women are in either skirts or dresses with extravagant hats. This shows that even though most of these people were maybe higher class, Coney Island was still very attractive to them. The architecture is out of the norm and because of the numerous people that are at the park it is evident that the people of the time enjoyed spending their weekend at Coney
The United States of the Gilded Age was not the superpower is it today. At best, it was considered a powerful manufacturing and industrial country, but little more. Culturally and politically, it was an upstart to the relatively old and established European powers of the day. At this point in history, much of the American West was still frontier country, relatively undeveloped. The North east, especially New York, was the only part of the US considered by the world to be somewhat civilized and cultured. Even what we think of as east today, most notably Chicago, was thought of as uncivilized. Getting the World’s Fair in Chicago was their chance to prove otherwise. It was also a chance for the whole country to prove its cultural power. With the Fair’s success came new respect from the world, particularly Europe. The US was no longer viewed as much as a second rate power with no culture of its own and no global influence. The fa...
The 1930’s was dominated by the Great Depression. There was not much time of money for people to spend on entertainment, but there were a few pin pricks of light. People, especially kids, went to the movie theater. They could spend ...
The author Russ Rymer wrote a very interesting essay called Back to the Future: Disney Reinvents the Company Town. In this essay, Russ Rymer wrote about how Disney was attempting to create a town called Celebration, which would give a “sense of” community and place (Rymer 297). Rymer’s purpose is to inform the reader of how Disney was wasting time and money trying to create a community that was supposed to be a blast from the past even though the designers used neo-traditionalism and neo-urbanism designs. Throughout his writing he conveys a sort of arrogant tone to get his point across to the readers that no matter how hard Disney tries they cannot bring back the past. It was like taking todays now generation and expecting
10. The technology used in Coney Island's rides allowed the park managers to control crowds while simultaneously giving people the illusion of total autonomy as they navigated the park. This is a parallel to the cultural changes going on at the time, brought about in part by Coney Island. The new "mass culture" gave people a newly found sense of liberation from older, more restrictive values even though part of the reason why people were adopting this new culture was societal pressure.
...als, journalists and fans in period costumes (mostly about forty years out, the ubiquitous crinoline doing duty as a blanket signifier of historical dress-ups) arrived at the gates of the MCG in variously anachronistic horse-drawn vehicles and vintage cars with Coke logos on them. But just how deep and wide the late twentieth century's nostalgia for authenticity really goes, and just how problematic and paradoxical a notion it has become in its tendency to make us forget history rather than remember it was demonstrated in Tasmania on the afternoon of Sunday April 28, when many of the tourists at Port Arthur mistook present reality for a harmless facsimile of a deadly past -- 'one of those re-enactment things' -- and began hurrying towards the gunshots, instead of away.
Back in the roaring twenties America was seeing such world-changing phenomenons such as The Great Gatsby, and penicillin, but what took the world by surprise was none other than Walt Disney and his lovable creation, Mickey Mouse. Walt Disney, throughout his entire lifetime and career, always had an idea, a spark, and a way to make things better. Even in the face of tough times, he never failed to keep his optimistic attitude and kind faith in humanity from infecting those around him. A major part of his success was due to the technological innovations that revolutionized the film industry.
middle of paper ... ... It is no wonder why movies were and still are a popular form of entertainment, as well as why during the 1920’s and even during the depression, people continued to flock to the movies. Works Cited Carringer, Robert, L. Jazz Singer. Madison, Wisconsin: University of Wisconsin Press, 1979.
life that has potential just like the American Dream. The “Fast movies” (p.9) and the “telephone” (p.12) symbolise the Twentieth. – century technological environment. The growth of cinemas, cars, boats. is recognised by the twenties as a decade of mass media and mass production in America.
The Chicago World’s Fair was simply expected to exhibit American culture; however, it inspired American culture in a more important manner. The fair, also known as the World’s Columbian Exposition, occurred from late spring to early fall in 1893; it celebrated the 400th anniversary of Christopher Columbus’s arrival in the New World (Larson 14). Not only was it a celebration of the past, the fair shaped America’s future, including its culture and exceptionalism. The multiple inventions exhibited in the World’s Fair changed the everyday lives of Americans. Ideas from the fair shaped how Americans viewed themselves. Last, important figures of the 1900s who visited the fair helped change American entertainment and culture. Thus, the World’s Fair changed American culture and
During the late nineteenth century, America was undergoing a cultural change in society. An island with Amusement Parks and vast beaches was underway in development to change the face of America in ways no one could have imagined at the time. The island was referred to as Coney Island. Coney Island Amusement Parks was built in a span of 30 years that would provide the American people a place to relax and enjoy time together with their friends and family. As a whole, Coney Island at the turn of the century, offered the ways of the future in distinctive ways; through technological advances of the era. Around 1900, the Brooklyn Rapid Transit Company created steam railways that connected Manhattan and Brooklyn, thus making Coney Island much more accessible to people living the city (Source 2). Coney Island was a symbol of America in the early twentieth century, where all of America’s values and traditions were defined and brought into one place. In a sense, Coney Island took Americans from the Victorian age, to a more modern and futuristic sense of what America could potentially become. Changing economic and social conditions helped to create the basis of new mass culture that was carried on into the new century (Source 1)
Watching a movie in the 1920s was a cheap and easy way to be transported into a world of glitz and glamour, a world of crime, or a world of magic and mystery. Some of these worlds included aspects of current events, like war, crime, and advances in technology; while others were completely fictional mysteries, romances, and comedies. Heartbreakers, heartthrobs, comedians and beautiful women dominated movie screens across the country in theaters, called Nickelodeons. Nickelodeons were very basic and small theaters which later transformed into opulent and monumental palaces. When sound was introduced into film by Warner Bros. Pictures, “talkies” took top rank over silent films. “Movies were an art form that had universal appeal. Their essence was entertainment; their success, financial and otherwise, was huge” (1920-30, 3/19/11). Films offered an escape from the troubles of everyday life in the 20s, and moviegoers across the country all shared a universal language: watching movies.
In The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid, Bill Bryson recounts 1950s America as he, a young boy in suburban Iowa, experienced it. The book is less of a historical account and more of a comedic childhood memoir, but it still provides an excellent snapshot into American culture at the time. Bryson, between stories of childhood antics and familial eccentricities, provides factual accounts of the culture of post war America in its time of innovation and financial prosperity, and just how different the era was to society as it is today. At the same time, though, Bryson describes aspects of life such as the most simple childhood experiences or products new to the fifties (for instance, the humble TV
When you associate anything with New York City it is usually the extraordinary buildings that pierce the sky or the congested sidewalks with people desperate to shop in the famous stores in which celebrities dwell. Even with my short visit there I found myself lost within the Big Apple. The voices of the never-ending attractions call out and envelop you in their awe. The streets are filled with an atmosphere that is like a young child on a shopping spree in a candy store. Although your feet swelter from the continuous walking, you find yourself pressing on with the yearning to discover the 'New York Experience'.
There is no such thing as silence here. Everything jumps out at once, like the feathers on a peacock, immediately catching your attention. There are uncountable masses of colorful blobs moving, but within that great glob, there are many people, each person moving with the powerful confidence of a lion. The buildings all loom over the people, a grand oak tree above thousands of ants, tying together this concrete landscape. There is a tangible atmosphere of wonder, and you are left in awe of such an astonishing place. This magnificent place is none other than Times Square in New York City.
like an oddly dressed cousin at a family gathering. Its old-fashioned coffeeshops and conserved pre-war apartments provide an interesting backdrop to the area’s eccentric fashion boutiques and eateries, adding to the offbeat and idiosyncratic vibe of the neighbourhood.