Golden Era Cultural Icons

[LizzieMaine]

For all the grousing we tend to do about the modern celebrity obsessed culture, we shouldn't forget that every era has its own popular-culture touchstones -- figures who for better or worse define that era's zeitgeist.

For example, if you talked to just about any average American in, say, 1937 they would instantly and without hesitation be able to identify every name on this list:

Franklin D. Roosevelt
Shirley Temple
Clark Gable
Henry Ford
John D. Rockefeller
Babe Ruth
Benito Mussolini
Jean Harlow
Charles A. Lindbergh
Barbara Hutton
The Dionne Quintuplets
Father Coughlin
Joe Penner
Adolf Hitler
Mickey Mouse
Mae West
George Bernard Shaw
Andy Gump
Al Smith
Joe Louis
Wallis Warfield Simpson
Greta Garbo
Marie Dressler
Popeye The Sailor
Amos 'n' Andy
Charlie McCarthy
Kate Smith
Eleanor Roosevelt

What's interesting to me in thinking about this, though, this question: how many of these cultural touchstones would, after 70 years, still be instantly recognizable without need for any further explanation to the average American today? Could it be that Mickey Mouse and Hitler will, when all is said and done, go down in history as the most-recognizable figures of the 1930s?

Sic transit gloria mundi. Or something like that.

 

[happyfilmluvguy]

In the town of Hollywood, the most sold icon related souvenirs are James Dean, Marilyn Monroe, and Elvis. All others are only for those who know who they are and are not just familiar with them.

Years from now, I figure they will still be in that iconic place or copies of the iconic image they once had. Some have all the luck...

 

[Dagwood]

LizzieMaine -

I think you hit the nail on the head - history will remember the 1930's as the decade of Mickey Mouse and Silly Symphonies. The rise of color cartoons, Donald Duck, Snow White, "Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf" song, etc.

Hitler, in my opinion, is more closely associated with the 1940's.

 

[Dixon Cannon]

I think we'd all agree...

Howard Robard Hughes was the cultural icon of that era as he touched so many parts of the culture through film and aviation, and eventually science and medicine.

HRH was the Sir Richard Branson of his day, or perhaps the Bill Gates. Not just a rich man in a era of poverty and depression, he used his wealth to explore the boundaries of the human experience. Aviation was the 'space race' of that era and until the War years, he worked primarily with his own money. Talking pictures were presentations of scientific art and HRH jumped in feet first to make them and perfect them - again with his own capital and resources.

His romantic liassons and promotion of beautful actresses in Hollywood made his a household name throughout the era. It's difficult to equate him with anyone from our modern era because of his unabashed juggling of women, airplanes, film, and financial deals. No one has really compared since.

-dixon cannon

 

[happyfilmluvguy]

And everyone tries to be as private. No luck. He was a master of the private life.

 

[dhermann1]

I had to Google Joe Penner, and Father Coughlin rang a bell, but I had to look him up too. I was going to say that Winston Churchill beloinged in that list, but I realized he was just a has-been politician in 1937. He really became the man we know now in 1940. Two names that I would add to that list are Will Rogers and that fellow who was married to Mrs Simpson, (what was his name? Spiffy dresser, quit his job. It'll come to me). And maybe Aimee Semple McPherson. But it's an interesting question. Like wise, who was around then but not particularly well known (e.g. Churchill) who we now look back on as a major figure of the time?
So, who will still be household names 50 years from today? Probably Roosevelt, if they keep his head on the dime, maybe Garbo, Babe Ruth, Harlow. Actors will still be seen from time to time in their films. Shaw's plays will still be performed, and hopefully the Shaw Festival in Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario (a must visit place if there ever was one!) will be going strong.
Lindbergh's name should still be known, I wonder if it will be. We'll see if the name Ford is still around!

 

[Amy Jeanne]

There's only 3 I've never heard of on that list:

The Dionne Quintuplets
Father Coughlin
Andy Gump

As for the average adult of today, I think these ones would be most recognizable without explaination:

Franklin D. Roosevelt
Shirley Temple
Adolf Hitler
Mickey Mouse
Popeye The Sailor
Eleanor Roosevelt

A few years ago in an art class we had to make a "fertility symbol" out of clay and I made a little Mae West. I told the class who it was and they were all like "Who?" The only person who knew who Mae West was was the teacher who said "She's an old actress with a funny voice."

 

[happyfilmluvguy]

Betty Boop. Even though she is really only a popular image now. A lot of people don't know that she's been around since the 30's.

 

[CharlieH.]

Interesting subject. Only unfamiliar names to me were Father Coughlin and Andy Gump.
To the list of popular figures from the 30's I can one of my heroes, Robert Ripley. His Believe It Or Not! cartoons, odditoriums, films and radio shows were quite popular at the time. Or so I think....
And I must agree that the only ones that'll be recognisable forever (or quite a long time) are Hitler and the mouse. (Although, I'll never understand just what made Mickey Mouse so popular...)

 

[LizzieMaine]

*bump* Came across this old thread and it made me wonder. What would be the instantly-recognizable cultural icons ten years after the original list I posted -- the Icons of 1947.

Most of those on the 1937 list would still be very familiar to the average person on the street -- some, like Joe Penner and Jean Harlow would be just fading memories by 1947, and the bloom would have been well off of Andy Gump by then, but all of the others would still be instantly identifiable to most any adult of the time.

And you could add to the list:

Harry S. Truman
Dwight D. Eisenhower
Douglas MacArthur
George C. Marshall
Henry A. Wallace
Bing Crosby
Frank Sinatra
Bob Hope
Superman
Gypsy Rose Lee
Judy Garland
Roy Rogers
Jackie Robinson
Margaret Truman

That's just off the top of my head, but it's a pretty good cross section of the cultural zeitgeist of the moment. And who, would you think, would be the only instantly recognizable figure on that list today? The only one any random adult on the street would be able to identify from a picture?

Most likely, the Man of Steel.

So, again -- will the twentieth century's real enduring legacy be its fictional characters? Who might show up on the list from 1957? Or 1967?

 

[dhermann1]

Mmmmmm . . .
Eddie Cantor and Jolson still loomed large.
DiMaggio, definitely.
Toscanini.
Henry Ford & Thomas Edison (even tho both were dead by then).
Cadillac and Packard, but I don't think Lincoln or Chrysler, per se, as brands.
NBC.
Radio, in general.
The A bomb.
Levittown.
Hedy Lamarr, still.

This has me going. Maybe more later.
I was in my first year in 1947, I'll try to rack my memory.

 

[Warbaby]

Benny Goodman, Tommy Dorsey and all the rest of the big band leaders would also be on that 1947 list.

As for iconic staying power, I think Sinatra would prolly be remembered as much as Superman.

 

[dhermann1]

Except that in 1947 Sinatra was considered washed up. Only after From Here to Eternity in 1953 did he get back in the public eye.

 

[LizzieMaine]

I thought Sinatra might be one of those figures who'd endure -- certainly anyone over 40 today would know who he was. But would the average 30-year-old recognize a photo of him, instantly and without prodding? Given how completely unaware of any pre-rock-era pop culture most young people today are, I kind of doubt it.

Sinatra as a performer in 1947 was becoming kind of a pop-culture joke. He was still visible on radio -- he was the star of Your Hit Parade every Saturday night -- but the bobby-soxers had moved on to Vaughn Monroe and Frankie Laine, and the records he was making were cheesy inconsequential pop tunes. Everyone would have instantly known who he was, but he would have been a punch line to many people rather than a respectable artist.

 

[W4ASZ]

Ed Murrow was pretty good, popular, and infinitely cool.

 

[LizzieMaine]

A few possibilities to add for 1957 --

Marilyn Monroe
Ed Sullivan
Adlai Stevenson
Howdy Doody
Mickey Mantle
Perry Como
Betty Furness
Sugar Ray Robinson
Dave Garroway
Lucille Ball
Arthur Godfrey
Steve Allen
Mamie Eisenhower
Grace Kelly
Casey Stengel
Nat King Cole
Eddie Fisher
Richard M. Nixon
Debbie Reynolds
Liberace
Elvis Presley
Lassie

Still Relevant from the 1947 list --

Dwight D. Eisenhower
Harry S. Truman
Frank Sinatra
Jackie Robinson
Bing Crosby
Bob Hope
Roy Rogers
Judy Garland
Superman

Still Relevant from the 1937 list --

Clark Gable
Mickey Mouse
Popeye
Amos 'n' Andy
Charlie McCarthy
Kate Smith
Eleanor Roosevelt

Should have been on the 1937 list and still relevant in 1957 --

J. Edgar Hoover

 

[CaramelSmoothie]

For the 1930s

The Marx Brothers
Three Stooges
Cab Calloway
Jean Harlow
Dillinger
Al Capone

 

[Tomasso]

I'd add James Cagney to the '37 list and Cary Grant and Humphrey Bogart to the '47 list.

 

[scottyrocks]

Id add Batman to the 40s list, as long as Supes is there.

 

[Haversack]

A couple I would add:

Walter Winchell

John L. Lewis. (He had the market on eyebrows cornered)