Myths of the Golden Era -- Exploded!

[LizzieMaine]

Myth: During the Golden Era, schoolchildren everywhere started their day by saluting the flag, and nobody questioned or criticized the practice.

The Facts: Compulsory flag-saluting in American schoolrooms has been embroiled in controversy from the very beginning of the practice. Francis Bellamy created the Pledge of Allegiance -- not in the Constitution or as any Federal statute -- but as a piece in "The Youth's Companion" magazine in 1898, and it only very gradually found its way into classrooms. Most people who were adults in the 1930s did not salute the flag as schoolchildren, and it was only in the 1930s that the practice began to be written into local school regulations and state laws. The kickback against compulsory saluting began almost immediately, coming to a head in 1935 when a Massachusetts schoolboy named Carleton Nichols Jr. was suspended from school for refusing to salute. The boy was a member of Jehovah's Witnesses, a religious sect which taught that saluting any object was a form of idolatry, and the leader of the group, a lawyer named J. F. Rutherford, determined to, literally, make a Federal case of it, taking the matter all the way to the Supreme Court.

Controversy raged all thru the late 1930s over the issue, with many opponents of the practice likening it to the compulsory Nazi salute to Hitler, declaring that true Americans don't salute anything under compulsion. Others took the opposite view, declaring that in view of the rising threat of Fascism it was essential to inculcate children with patriotic principles of loyalty to the flag. The controversy reached a head in 1940, when Witnesses in several states were mobbed and beaten by gangs of self-proclaimed patriots. The American Civil Liberties Union, U. S. Attorney General Francis Biddle, and First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt came to the defense of the sect, attacking the mobs for using Fascist methods themselves.

At first, the Court ruled that states did have a right to require flag saluting -- but that decision was reversed in the case of Gobitis vs. Minersville School District in 1943. Since that time, it has been illegal for any school district or any state to *compel* any child to participate in a flag salute. Schools may conduct such ceremonies as they wish, but they cannot require anyone to salute, and there have always been those who, usually for religious reasons, declined to participate.

Myth exploded.

 

[Atomic Age]

The transcription procedure wasn't used for WOTW -- most CBS stations on the West Coast didn't yet have recording equipment installed in 1938. The West, or at least those CBS stations that chose to carry the program, took the Mercury Theatre live at 5 in the afternoon -- early enough that most people were busy with other matters and weren't paying any attention to the radio.

Transcription delays for the West didn't start to be used on a wide basis until 1939, when both NBC and CBS authorized the procedure for selected programs. It didn't start to be used for all programming until after the war.

The opposition program on NBC, by the way, was The Chase and Sanborn Hour, featuring Bergen & McCarthy, the most popular program on the air in the fall of '38 -- with an estimated audience of 37 million people. Columnist Dorothy Thompson suggested the reason the panic wasn't widespread was that "all the intelligent people were listening to Charlie McCarthy."

Oh interesting. I had always heard that the only reason that it was recorded at all was because it was going to be broadcast later that night via transcription. Maybe it was just recorded because Welles insisted.

Doug

 

[LizzieMaine]

There were at least two original recordings made. CBS didn't have its own recording equipment at the time, but had direct lines to the Harry Smith Recording Studio and the Universal Recording Company studio which were used for making linechecks for performers, sponsors, and for internal use. Universal recorded at least one set of reference discs for CBS -- as they did for all of the Mercury Theatre programs -- which had to be submitted to the FCC as part of the investigation of the incident, and a set of Harry Smith discs were made for Welles' personal use. The Universal discs were 16" 33 1/3 discs, while the Smith recording was a set of 12" 78rpm discs -- which may have been dubs made from the Universal originals or they may have been cut simultaneously off the line.

The Smith discs were probably the source discs used in 1948 for making a set of copy discs at Radio Recorders in Hollywood -- a set which has surfaced on the auction market at least three times in the past twenty years, and were probably the source of at least one of the WOTW recordings that circulates today.

 

[KayEn78]

I once spoke with a woman who graduated from college in 1934. She became a high school biology teacher. During the time she was engaged and married, she did not wear her wedding ring. If she had, she would've been fired. When she got pregnant in 1938 with her first daughter, she had no choice but to leave the job she loved doing.

Often, I've heard people say that there was "less" violence, child abuse, murder back in the "Golden Era." And I also remember hearing in one of my history classes in college that there were more drinkers of alcohol in the late 1800s than today. Not really sure if any of this is really true. Sure, there were acts of violence, murders, child abuse, kidnappings, drugs then, but was it so rampant as today?

-Kristi

 

[KayEn78]

Thought of another "myth" that people seemed to have carried with them through the years.

When WWII ended, there were celebrations and parades. Sure there were, but I believe that those who lost someone in the war weren't celebrating when the war ended. For them, their war had ended earlier. And not everyone who came home from the war got to participate in a parade or celebration. Yes, they got their life back on track after the war, came home, found a job, got married, had children--only many of them were suffering from what was then known as "combat fatigue." And for decades they suffered alone. The family saw the behaviors, but couldn't understand why.

Dad never talked about the war. Well, I'm sure there were people who didn't share their war experiences when they returned, but I think there were some that actually did--amongst friends, family and others who were in the service.

-Kristi

 

[Stanley Doble]

"Everyone" was a flapper in the 20s the way "everyone" was a hippie in the 60s and "everyone" was a slacker in the 90s.

"Everyone" drank in speakeasies in the twenties the way "everyone" does crack today.

 

[Stanley Doble]

A.J. Liebling in his account of the liberation of Paris, at which he was an eye witness, said he saw something he never saw before and never expected to see again. That was a city where everyone was happy, and it lasted a week. For that week the motto on everyone's lips was "at last, one can breathe".

 

[Stearmen]

WWII Parades

I know when my dad came back from WWII there were no parades. My mom told me, he was walking down the main street, when the local banker said, "I see you managed to make it back alive," and others said, "put that nonsense behind you!" There was a lot of alcohol and smoking, plus violent out burst, we now know about Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, they didn't, just ask Patton!

 

[AtomicEraTom]

It's funny, I wouldn't be surprised if the numbers where I live would still be really close to numbers in the past, if not higher. The vast majority of men I know are smokers, but less than half the women I know are smokers. Even in my family, my father, brother, and myself are pipe and cigar smokers, and my sister smokes cigarettes. My mother does not smoke.

I know Prohibition hit Wisconsin, Milwaukee in particular, very hard. Many of the breweries, particularly the larger ones (Pabst, Schlitz, Blatz, Miller, etc) went into making 'Tonics', Near Beers, Soda, Malt Syrups, Cheeses, and anything else they could come up with to keep going. I've got examples of all from Prohibition, one of my particular favorites being a box of Blatz cigars.

Before Prohibition, there were estimated to be over 100 breweries in Wisconsin, and after repeal, very few of them managed to re-open. There was plenty of business in the illegal alcohol business during Prohibition, though. My great-grandfather, and his sister, Katherine, both ran speakeasies in Milwaukee. You needed a secret knock to get in.

I didn't read through all that, but my research in the past told me that smoking in the Golden Era was more prevalent amongst men, than women. And that a greater percentage of men than women smoked. But it certainly wasn't "everyone". Granted, a sizable chunk of the population did, but as you say, that's not the same thing. There were people who just didn't smoke.

Related to this, I think there's another myth here, possibly. That everyone in 1920s U.S.A. was dying of dehydration from Prohibition. Was there such a huge drinking population in the U.S. as we're generally led to believe? I mean I guess there must've been, granted that speakeasys, booze-cruises and so-forth, were doing so wel, but did THAT many people drink THAT often, as we're generally led to believe from history & gangster-movies?

I think it's very important that people look past the stereotypes of the past. I hate hearing that people such as Archie Bunker represent every American that was born before WWII.

I have pictures of my great-grandmother 'dressed up' as a flapper in the 20's. I say 'dressed up' because that's exactly what it was, they were doing it because of how silly they thought the flappers looked.

Both my great-grandparents worked as well, they were both school teachers.

THIS is the kind of stuff I like to know about the "Golden Era" - FACTS. The fact that not everything was a Hollywood movie, but not everyone was a racist, sexist, chainsmoking wifebeater. Both my grandparents worked in the 30s. I have handwritten letters from my grandmother dated 1937 to prove it. Neither of them smoked. According to my dad, my grandmother thought women who bobbed their hair in the 20s were "sl*ts" lol Grandma had hair down to her butt until the day she died! Another myth that every woman in 20s was a "flapper"

I've noticed this, too. In the sixties, seventies, and eighties, my grandfather went to the 'dry look' and had big sideburns. He looked a lot like Roy Clark on Hee Haw. Now, he's back to the wet look of the fifties.

I tend to think that as people get older they sometimes revert back to the styles, expressions, etc, that were in vogue when they were young. Case in point was my grandmother who was born in 1910. I have pics of her as a young woman in the 1920s, looking very much the flapper, as well as images of her in the '40s and '50s. In the latter her hair is in the '40s-early '50s style yet my memories of her from the 1970s till her death in 1999 was of her sporting a sort of a Dutch Boy or Jazz Age bob.

I'm certainly no expert on the past, I just go by what I've learned from people who were there and take my results from that.

 

[Atomic Age]

I once spoke with a woman who graduated from college in 1934. She became a high school biology teacher. During the time she was engaged and married, she did not wear her wedding ring. If she had, she would've been fired. When she got pregnant in 1938 with her first daughter, she had no choice but to leave the job she loved doing.

Often, I've heard people say that there was "less" violence, child abuse, murder back in the "Golden Era." And I also remember hearing in one of my history classes in college that there were more drinkers of alcohol in the late 1800s than today. Not really sure if any of this is really true. Sure, there were acts of violence, murders, child abuse, kidnappings, drugs then, but was it so rampant as today?

-Kristi

Actually if you look at statistics from the FBI, violent crime, particularly against children, is at the lowest rate since they started keeping records around 1908.

The only difference today, is that every time a child is abducted, or murdered, the whole country hears about it from 3 networks, 10 or 12 cable news channels and every news paper in the country. Back in the Golden Age your name had to be Lindbergh to make national news when your child was kidnapped.

Doug

 

[Atomic Age]

There were at least two original recordings made. CBS didn't have its own recording equipment at the time, but had direct lines to the Harry Smith Recording Studio and the Universal Recording Company studio which were used for making linechecks for performers, sponsors, and for internal use. Universal recorded at least one set of reference discs for CBS -- as they did for all of the Mercury Theatre programs -- which had to be submitted to the FCC as part of the investigation of the incident, and a set of Harry Smith discs were made for Welles' personal use. The Universal discs were 16" 33 1/3 discs, while the Smith recording was a set of 12" 78rpm discs -- which may have been dubs made from the Universal originals or they may have been cut simultaneously off the line.

The Smith discs were probably the source discs used in 1948 for making a set of copy discs at Radio Recorders in Hollywood -- a set which has surfaced on the auction market at least three times in the past twenty years, and were probably the source of at least one of the WOTW recordings that circulates today.

Very interesting stuff Lizzie. I don't know nearly as much about golden age radio as I do the golden age of the studio system movie industry. Thanks

Doug

 

[AntonAAK]

about 1.7 million accepted the program as a news bulletin and 1.2 million were sufficiently distressed to do something about it. In other words, nearly a third of those who heard the program believed it -- and nearly a quarter of those who heard it were, in Cantril's words, excited by it.

These numbers are actually considerably larger than I would have expected and for me reinforce the notion that this was an interesting social phenomenon. It doesn’t surprise me at all that people who didn’t hear the broadcast were not fooled by it.

Thanks LizzieMaine, I’ll see if I can find Cantril’s study anywhere, it looks interesting.

 

[1961MJS]

...I know Prohibition hit Wisconsin, Milwaukee in particular, very hard. Many of the breweries, particularly the larger ones (Pabst, Schlitz, Blatz, Miller, etc) went into making 'Tonics', Near Beers, Soda, Malt Syrups, Cheeses, and anything else they could come up with to keep going. I've got examples of all from Prohibition, one of my particular favorites being a box of Blatz cigars.

Before Prohibition, there were estimated to be over 100 breweries in Wisconsin, and after repeal, very few of them managed to re-open. There was plenty of business in the illegal alcohol business during Prohibition, though. My great-grandfather, and his sister, Katherine, both ran speakeasies in Milwaukee. You needed a secret knock to get in.
...

Hi Tom

MY grandfather told me about working the railroad back before Prohibition. He said that all of the towns in Western illinois had their own brewery back then. He said it was all better than what you get now (1977 in that case). Most of the breweries left a keg tapped at the brewery and the local workers would walk by and get a cup of beer on their way home from work. For some odd reason, Grandpa Mike drank Olympia, which I never tasted, because it really didn't have any taste. I'm thinking he may have been happier with Budweiser.

That same grandfather worked as a bartender during the Depression and of course through that part of prohibition. He also worked WPA, and a day or two a month on the railroad.

later

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

At one time almost every town and city had their own local brands of beer, ice cream, soda, etc. It was with the advent of modern refrigeration technology that national brands became more prevalent.

 

[1961MJS]

At one time almost every town and city had their own local brands of beer, ice cream, soda, etc. It was with the advent of modern refrigeration technology that national brands became more prevalent.

Hi, I think that Prohibition did away with a lot of the breweries, you don't need to keep beer cold to keep it fresh (like Coors), but you do ice cream. Soda used to be more regional than local. At least there used to be several Southern Sodas including Dr. Pepper, Double Cola, and Royal Crown. A and W, among others were invented in California.

Later

 

[AtomicEraTom]

It was the same way around here, too. The workers at the larger breweries, I know, got treated and paid very well.

Back when my Great-Grandpa was a kid (he was born in 1902) he used to take his father's growler, get him some beer, then bring it back to work for him. Try that today!

Budweiser? Shoulda drank Pabst! Every generation of men in my family has been Pabst men since they came to Milwaukee. I always found that ironic, since they lived down the block from Schlitz.

Most of the breweries left a keg tapped at the brewery and the local workers would walk by and get a cup of beer on their way home from work. For some odd reason, Grandpa Mike drank Olympia, which I never tasted, because it really didn't have any taste. I'm thinking he may have been happier with Budweiser.

 

[LizzieMaine]

At the old Narragansett brewery in Rhode Island (closed 1981), workers weren't just allowed, they were *encouraged* to have all the beer they wanted, straight from the line, while working. Needless to say, brewery jobs were highly coveted. And god help you if, anywhere in New England, you were seen drinking a Pabst or a Schlitz or a Budweiser.

 

[Story]

I know when my dad came back from WWII there were no parades. My mom told me, he was walking down the main street, when the local banker said, "I see you managed to make it back alive," and others said, "put that nonsense behind you!" There was a lot of alcohol and smoking, plus violent out burst, we now know about Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, they didn't, just ask Patton!

That's a field for study - the misconception that psychotic outbursts from combat veterans is something new. I give you the former tank crewman Howard Unruh as an example http://articles.philly.com/2012-02-26/news/31101561_1_unruh-shot-howard-unruh-orris-smith

 

[Flicka]

That's a field for study - that psychotic outbursts from combat veterans is something new.

I suppose you mean it's not something new? Anyway, you can find examples of it going back hundreds of years.

 

[LizzieMaine]

I know when my dad came back from WWII there were no parades. My mom told me, he was walking down the main street, when the local banker said, "I see you managed to make it back alive," and others said, "put that nonsense behind you!" There was a lot of alcohol and smoking, plus violent out burst, we now know about Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, they didn't, just ask Patton!

The main reason why there weren't many parades when the boys came home in 1945 is that most of them *didn't* come home in 1945. The American armed forces demobilization system sent troops home based on the number of "points" they earned for months in uniform, months in overseas service, combat service, wounds, and other contributing factors -- it was supposed to ensure an orderly transition back to civilian life, but what it ended up doing is keeping millions of men in uniform thru much of 1946. "Wanna Go Home" demonstrations were common around Europe as servicemen announced their impatience with the system, and by the time they finally did get home, the post-Victory euphoria had long since worn off and there wasn't much point for parades.

However, nearly every town and city in the country erected some sort of "Honor Roll," listing all their citizens who served, with special designation for those killed in action, and many of those monuments still stand. That's better than a parade, if you ask me.