Lost in the Stars: Movies Become Big Business in 1920s AmericaWritten by Frank Beardsley 10 May 2006 MUSIC VOICE ONE: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English by the Voice
Trang 1Lost in the Stars: Movies Become Big Business in 1920s America
Written by Frank Beardsley
10 May 2006
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VOICE ONE:
THE MAKING OF A NATION a program in Special English by the Voice of America
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I'm Kay Gallant Today, Harry Monroe and I tell more about the technological and social changes that took place in the United States in the early nineteen twenties
VOICE TWO:
Some of the most important changes came as a result of the automobile and the radio
Automobiles began to be mass-produced They were low enough in cost
so many Americans could buy them Gasoline was low in cost, too Together, these developments put America on the move as never before
Automobiles made it easy for Americans to travel Trucks made it easy for goods to be transported Many people and businesses moved out of crowded, noisy cities They moved to open areas outside cities: suburbs VOICE ONE:
As automobiles helped Americans spread out, the radio helped bring them
closer together Large networks could broadcast the same radio program to
many stations at the same time Soon, Americans everywhere were
listening to the same programs They laughed at the same jokes, sang the
same songs, heard the same news
Another invention that produced big changes in American life was the
motion picture
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American inventor Thomas Edison began making short motion pictures at the turn of the century In nineteen-oh-three, a movie called "The Great Train Robbery" was the first to tell a complete story In nineteen fifteen, D W Griffith made a long, serious movie called "Birth of a Nation."
By the early nineteen twenties, many American towns had a movie theater Most Americans went to
see the movies at least once a week The movie industry became a big business People might not know the names of government officials But they knew the names of every leading actor and actress
VOICE ONE:
A 1913 Ford Model T
General Electric radio
A motion picture class at
Columbia University in 1927
Trang 2Movies were fun They provided a change from the day-to-day troubles of life They also were an important social force
Young Americans tried to copy what they saw in the movies And they dreamed about far-away places and a different kind of life A young farm boy could imagine himself as romantic hero Douglas Fairbanks or comedian Charlie Chaplin A young city girl could imagine herself as the beautiful and brave Mary Pickford
Rich families and poor families saw the same movies Their children shared the same wish to be like the movie stars In this way, the son of a banker and the son of a factory worker had much in common The same was true for people from different parts of the country
VOICE TWO:
In the early nineteen twenties, Americans also began reading the same publications The publishing industry used some of the same kinds of mass-production methods as the automobile industry It began producing magazines in larger amounts It began selling the same magazines all over the country
One of the most widely-read magazines was the Saturday Evening Post In nineteen-oh-two, it sold about three hundred thousand copies each week Twenty years later, it sold more than two million copies each week
Americans everywhere shared the same information and advice in such nationwide magazines The information was not always correct The advice was not always good But the effect was similar to that caused by the automobile and radio Parts of American society were becoming more alike They were trying to move toward the same kind of life economically and socially
VOICE ONE:
Other industries used the techniques of assembly-line production to make their goods, too They discovered that producing large numbers of goods reduced the cost of each one
One company that expanded in this way was the Atlantic and Pacific Tea Company It was called A&P for short
The A&P was one of the first large American grocery stores to sell all kinds of food It sold milk, meat, bread, canned fruits, and vegetables all in the same store
Shopping at the A&P was much faster and easier than going to different stores to get different kinds of food In nineteen twelve, A&P had four hundred stores in the United States About ten years later, it had more than eleven thousand stores It could buy huge amounts of goods and sell each at a very low price
VOICE TWO:
Mass production also came to the clothing industry People began wearing clothes made in factories, instead of by a family member or local tailor Before long, the same kinds of clothes could be found everywhere
Trang 3Mass production removed some differences that had marked Americans in the past Prices dropped, so people with little money could still buy nice clothes It became more difficult to look at Americans and know by their clothes if they were rich or poor
VOICE ONE:
Social changes also resulted from great progress in medical research
Doctors and scientists reported new developments in the fight against disease This progress gave most Americans a longer life In nineteen hundred, for example, the average person in the United States could expect to live forty-nine years By nineteen twenty-seven, the average person could expect to live fifty-nine years
VOICE TWO:
Life expectancy rates climbed, because doctors and scientists developed effective ways to prevent or treat diseases such as tuberculosis, typhoid, diphtheria, and influenza Yellow fever and smallpox were
no longer a threat
One new medicine was insulin It was used to treat diabetes A man-made version gave diabetics the insulin their bodies did not have It cut the death rate from the disease from seventy percent to about one percent
Doctors and scientists also learned the importance of vitamins to good health Now they could cure several diseases caused by a lack of vitamins
VOICE ONE:
Americans in the nineteen twenties lived much better than their fathers and mothers A man received more pay than in the past, even though he worked fewer hours each day He lived in a better house with new labor-saving devices He had a car to drive to work and to take his family on holiday trips
He received a better education than his father He and his family wore better clothes They ate
healthier foods The average American in the nineteen twenties had more time for sports and
entertainment He enjoyed listening to the radio and watching movies He was more informed about national and world events
VOICE TWO:
Life was good for many Americans as World War One ended and the nation entered the nineteen twenties Yet that life was far from perfect
Many Americans did not have the same chances to improve their lives Black Americans continued to suffer from racism Society continued to deny them their rights as citizens Women did not have equal rights, either For example, they could not vote
It was during this time that the United States experienced one of its worst incidents of public hatred Many people turned strongly against labor unions and leftists They feared a threat to democracy The federal government took action against what it called political extremists Many of the charges were unfair Many innocent lives were harmed
Trang 4That will be our story next week
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VOICE ONE:
You have been listening to THE MAKING OF A NATION a program in Special English by the Voice of America Your narrators were Kay Gallant and Harry Monroe Our program was written by Frank Beardsley