Two weeks ago, a friend invited me to her room to watch the movie Chicago, a musical starring Catherine Zeta-Jones, Renee Zelweger, and Richard Gere. Since it won six Academy Awards, including Best Picture, I expected the movie to be entertaining, and besides that, Richard Gere is my favorite male actor (Pretty Woman, anyone?). The movie was fantastic, and I was pleasantly surprised to find that it captured the spirit of the 1920s perfectly. One aspect of the movie struck me as being particularly well-done: the portrayal of the American love of scandal.
Before I get into the details, here is a link to the Wikipedia page about the movie, and if you haven’t seen it, the “Plot” section does a good job of summarizing the story: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicago_(2002_film). Coincidentally, “DuduTheFlapper,” the same person who uploaded Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, also uploaded Chicago onto YouTube.
Chicago does an incredible job of portraying the American love for crime, and the scarlet journalism that nurtured it, in the 1920s. Most of the plot revolves around Roxie and Velma vying for the attention of the media—in fact, their lawyer, Billy Flynn, wins their cases by winning over the newspapers. This is shown lucidly in “We Both Reached for the Gun,” a song and dance number in which a group of newspaper reporters at Roxie’s press conference are depicted as marionettes under Flynn’s control. After this press conference, where Roxie gives the media a falsified sob story about her background, she finds herself the subject of every front-page headline in Chicago. Her belongings are auctioned for thousands of dollars to an eager audience, and the American public rallies to her side when she goes to trial. The link for “We Both Reached for the Gun” is here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SBM82Ju2kJU&feature=related
While Roxie’s popularity provides tongue-in-cheek entertainment for the viewer, Chicago also portrays the grimmer side of the American obsession with violence, most notably in the “Hungarian Disappearing Act” scene. Katalyn Helinski, a Hungarian inmate in Roxie and Velma’s jail block, loses her last appeal and is sentenced to death by hanging; she had been on trial for the murder of her husband, which she did not commit. She becomes the first woman in Illinois to receive the death penalty, arousing the interest of the newspapers. The scene of her death is shown as a circus act with a full audience. Katalyn ascends a ladder, ties a rope around her waist, and dives off a platform, disappearing into thin air before a cheering, whooping crowd. This portrayal, when shown alongside the audience at her hanging, produces a jarring effect for the viewer—it is as if her death is nothing more than entertainment for the crowd. If you haven’t seen the movie, the scene can be found here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LmU18AuTlWU&feature=related. It’s at about 2:50 on the video’s timer.
When I watched this scene, it reminded me of the Sacco-Vanzetti case. They too were foreign, subject to prejudice due to their nationality, and were given the death sentence after a highly publicized trial. Any thoughts on this; is the film alluding to the Sacco-Vanzetti case, or are the similarities just a coincidence?
After watching the movie a second time, I’ve been wondering about another question: was the American love of scandal born in the 1920s from the American people, or from the American media? Did the trend arise independently, or was it instead created by the newspaper industry to win more subscribers? I can easily see that “scarlet journalism” was what sold papers, and what sold papers was what got printed—but which side, the public or the media, started the trend? I’m not entirely sure myself; I’d like to know what you think.
Helen - I love your post, not only because I'm a huge fan of Chicago but also because I think you touched on so many aspects of the 20's it's ridiculous. When you mentioned the idea of "the American love of scandal" being "born in the 1920's" I recalled our class discussion about our love for western movies. Cowboys and Indians are a huge part of our culture as is violence and scandal. Chicago takes all of that and wraps it up in a lingerie filled musical (although I doubt inmates were singing "He had it coming" behind bars, but we all get the idea). Another aspect you touched on was the widespread use of newspapers. As we said, newspapers were becoming more and more popular and wide spread during the 20's. It was acceptable for a newspaper to make up a story because they could push it in all directions. That said it wasn't just newspapers making up stories but obviously people were too. I honestly could not say that it was either the public or the media that started the trend of "scarlet journalism", but if I had to venture a guess I would say that they played well off one another.
ReplyDelete@Tami: Thanks! Another good song in "Chicago" is "Razzle Dazzle," which you can easily find on YouTube. It highlights how the American legal system in the 1920s was just a lot of smoke and mirrors. It's truly fascinating.
ReplyDeleteI have to agree with Tami and say that your post is highly entertaining. While I was reading it, it made me think about tabloids today and they way in which celebrities compete against each other with their crazy stunts in order to keep the public eye on them. I guess one could say this is a competition bred into our culture stemming from the scarlet journalism you talk about in context of the 1920s.
ReplyDeleteThere's nothing new about the American love for tabloid journalism. It started with the very earliest newspapers in this country and continues to this day. In the mid-nineteenth century, tabloid journalism was everywhere, because there were no dominant national newspapers. Thus there was little to no oversight, and newspapers could print whatever they wanted no matter how biased or just plain wrong.
ReplyDeleteIn the 20s, tabloids really perfected things, by combining fact with fantasy. At the same time, large national papers were emerging, which was good because they kept tabs on each other and kept each other from totally lying through their teeth.
Today's clearinghouse style websites like the Huffington Post remind me of old fashioned newspapers, where tabloid journalism sat side by side with more genuine journalism. It's a relatively new media (the web) but a nineteenth century strategy for financial success.
As for Chicago the movie, I enjoyed it too, especially the costumes. I felt it did a good job portraying the glamorous side of the twenties.
I agree that your post is highly entertaining. Even though I have seen the movie before, I clicked on the links just to refresh my memory. I happen to love this movie because the songs are great and really reflect what was going on during the 1920s. One song that I think reflects a lot about the 1920s is "All that Jazz". Jazz was the music of the time as you can see through some of the books we've read in class.
ReplyDelete@Rachel: That's an interesting point; it does seem that some celebrities today simply act out to get media attention.
ReplyDelete@Miriam: "All That Jazz" does characterize the feelings of the time; the last song in the movie also does a good job of this.
I love this movie! I have always wanted to see it on Broadway. I think the scene "We Both Reached For The Gun", as Helen you have mentioned is the perfect example for the American love of scandal. It shows the paparazzi at the press conference listening and accepting every word that Roxie and Flynn say. This scene ends with the paparazzi all writing that "they both reached for the gun", showing that during that time all of the newspapers had the same information, like we have learned about in class. I believe that each paper tried to get their own angle of the story, like Ms. Sunshine's paper. It was a dry paper so she asked for advice from Roxie for girls "seeking to avoid a life of Jazz and drink" in order to sell more like Helen suggested. This paper was sold to a specific part of the population, the dries. Even today we have different gossip magazines such as People, US weekly and In Touch that sometimes contradict each other. On the cover, they put the stories which they expect to be the most popular and controversial in order to achieve higher sales. I do think that the love of scandal did stem from each newspaper and magazine trying to achieve their own niche in which they will gain higher sales. However, the 1920's represented Americans loving silly distractions. These scandals were able to distract people from their own lives. This had to have played a role in why people bought the scandalous papers.
ReplyDeleteIt's interesting to note that the American love of scandal is still prevalent today in a big way. Tabloids and "trashy" magazines (that most of us are probably guilty of reading once in a while, or maybe a little more than that) are seemingly ubiquitous. The desire to be distracted from the hardships of daily living is not a desire specific to the 20's, but one that will always exist as long as there is a lack of purpose and meaning in daily life.
ReplyDelete@Avital and Yael: You two brought up an interesting point about the desire of Americans to "be distracted from the hardships of daily living." I wonder, though, if that was the aim of the media in the 1920s; since the country prospered so much, was life in the 1920s something to be distracted from? I tend to think of the Great Depression, for example, as a time in which people wanted to escape their daily lives. What do you think?
ReplyDeleteWell, in response to Helen's response to Yael and Avital, the interest in juicy stories and overall scarlet journalism may very well have been a distraction from their daily lives even though their lives were fairly prosperous.
ReplyDeleteThis reminds me of an earlier time, say the 1870s, during the Industrial Revolution when the newly developed middle class started to have time for leisure. These leisurely activities were beautifully portrayed by Impressionist artists such as Monet and Renoir. This is a time when people began to appreciate the distinction between work and life.
Point being, since society of the 1920s was prosperous, they too could appreciate the distinction between work and life. So part of this "life" was the obsession with scandals, that distracted them from their work.
Also in response to Helen's post addressing Avital and Yael the public of the 1920's wanted to escape from the effects of the war. Only Yesterday stressed how they wanted to resume normalcy and focus on frivolity because they worried for so many years during WW!. It makes sense,therefore, that the public would push for mindless entertainment such as violence and scandals as they were sick of reading about politics. As such I think it was the public who made 'scarlet journalism' a demand and the media tapped into the public's desire to read about and see violence. In short, I think the public started the demand and the media fueled it causing the demand to grow.
ReplyDeleteI wrote a long post to this but the website failed.
ReplyDeleteI'll try and summarize what I wrote...I like the question you bring up Helen about what came first? A classic chicken or the egg? I think that once one story hit the newspapers of scandal and they realized people went crazy over it they realized this is what sells. And we as consumers, like people said before, continue to buy into it. And its gotten to the point where paparazzi invade people's lives and stalk them because they know they can get a few thousand or millions for a single photograph of someone. I can't help but remember that that's how we lost Princess Diana, someone who only wanted to do good in our world, was killed being chased by paparazzi in Paris.
It's sick that still a hundred years later, with the help of YouTube and the internet, we're nowhere near breaking this habit.
Jenny, you took the words right out of my mouth and with that i agree with you. We learned in the book "Only Yesterday" that the people during the 1920's wanted to be distracted from important and political things because they were sick of being worried as they were during the first world war. They therefore distracted themselves with gossip and scandal. This in turn fueled the press to write and give importance to such petty things.
ReplyDeleteAs a response to what Helen said, I believe that no matter what state someone is in, one will never be fully satisfied. It is like the saying, "the grass is always greener on the other side". With this in mind, people want to distract themselves and most would look to gossip and scandal to do that, which is why these themes are popular and seen throughout many newspapers back in the 1920's and today in, as what Avital referred to it, "trashy magazines," t.v. shows, and movies.
I like where this conversation is going; everyone has great ideas to add. I'm wondering, though...do you think that the only reason that Americans were eager for petty distractions was due to the "convalescent" post-WWI period they were in, or were there other factors that contributed to it?
ReplyDeleteHelen, one factor that I think the book underestimates is how the war created technology that was later exploited by the markets, providing Americans with toys for "petty distractions."
ReplyDeleteFor example, engine technology was advanced by military engineering, which led to advances in automobile design by the Ford company, which allowed ordinary Americans to buy cars. Voila! a ready-made distraction!
Interesting. That also happened after WWII; early computer coding used by the US army eventually became part of PC production and developed into the programs we know and love.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Aliyah, I think the media tapped into something great when they realized the public loved to hear about scandals. I don't think the public realized how much they wanted a scandal until it was given to them by the media.
ReplyDeleteInteresting thoughts, Aliyah and Gila. The media certainly started a trend that remains popular and pervasive to this day.
ReplyDelete