August 27: Introduction: Some points of entry into the 1920s -- the Sacco-Vanzetti Case, the Tulsa Race Riot of 1921, The "Flap" Over Flappers, the new Consumer Ethos

[Note: Students will choose one of these points of entry; they will then look over the materials collected on the initial page and report via email and orally on the topic(s). Each initial page contains a set of initial questions which students should answer. The last of these is along the lines of "how can this topic help us to make sense of the 1920s?" This is an open invitation to help shape the direction of the seminar as well as a rehearsal for the all-important task of selecting a topic to research for a final project. You will note that your instructor has scheduled himself into the report schedule on a regular basis. He too is a student of the period. He too will be cranking out reports and projects. You will also note that the schedule only extends to the first round of initial reports. We will organize the second round based upon what comes up during the first.]

August 29: Initial reports on Flappers (at right is Betty Boop, a cartoon favorite who did not long survive the imposition of the Motion Picture Production Code in the early 1930s. For more on Betty, click on the image.)

August 31: Initial reports on Tulsa Race Riot

September 3: Labor Day

September 5: Initial reports on the Sacco-Vanzetti Case

September 7: Initial reports on the Consumer Ethos

September 10: McClymer, "Passing from Light into Dark"

September 12: Discussion of topics

September 14: Discussion continued

September 17: Discussion continued

September 19: Discussion continued

September 21: Betty Boop cartoons; the Heptune Guide to Betty Boop contains detailed summaries of many of the cartoons, including those we will watch; you can download a wav. file of Cab Calloway singing "Minnie the Moocher" here -- you can use QuickTime Player to play it; there is a useful article on the Fleischer brothers and their role in the history of animation from Sight and Sound, the journal of the British Film Insitute, here

September 24: Reports on Betty Boop and "Passing" and your project: As we have begun to see, the Culture Wars of the 1920s focused on boundaries -- between "Nordic" Americans and others, between the genetically privileged and others, between Protestants and Catholics, between men and women, between whites and blacks, between the modern and the old-fashioned. The McClymer essay explores some of these boundaries and some of the attempts to cross them or confuse them or contradict them. The Betty Boop cartoons routinely confound boundaries. In one cartoon, "Dizzy Dishes," Betty has dog's ears. In another, "Minnie the Moocher," she is the daughter of German-Jewish immigrants. In a third she is Polynesian doing a frenetic hula wearing a grass skirt and lei. In this cartoon she has brown skin. In many her boyfriend is Bimbo, a dog. In "The Old Man of the Mountain" Cab Calloway sings the title part, even though the Old Man is white. In "Minnie the Moocher" Calloway provides the voice, for, among other creatures, a ghostly walrus. On the other hand, "I'll Be Glad When You're Dead, You Rascal You" uses commonplace stereotypes of African Americans and Africans.

topic: What light, if any, do these cartoons shed on the topic you are interested in pursuing? The notes below are intended to be suggestive. Do not attempt to answer all of the questions raised. Focus on your topic.

• They make heavy use of jazz. The music is not just a background element. Instead movements are choreographed to the actual dancing of Cab Calloway, Louis Armstrong, and others. Can we learn anything about the role of jazz in American culture from these cartoons?
• They draw heavily upon African-American entertainers and artists, and in a clearly appreciative and sophisticated way. Can we see the cartoons as one of the vehicles by means of which white Americans began to understand the African-American elements in their own culture?
• Betty is a "flapper." And the cartoons exploit the ineffectual censorship of the early 1930s. How does the character of Betty compare to other portrayals of flappers? or to real flappers like Anita Loos and Edna St. Vincent Millay?
• Betty is also Jewish, and the cartoons make occasional use of Yiddish. Can we learn anything about ethnicity in American life here? Is there a link with Betty's sexual appeal?
• The scene of "Minnie the Moocher" in which Betty confronts her father echoes the basic premise of "The Jazz Singer." Betty's subsequent adventures with ghosts, goblins, and "things that go bump in the night" echo the basic premise of the song, that Minnie "kicks the gong around," i.e., uses opium. The ending echoes innumerable stories with its message that "there's no place like home." Can we take scenes from cartoons and turn them into commentaries on American culture?

September 28: "Sherlock, Jr." showing

October 1: A Twenties "Who Dunnit": Who Killed William Desmond Taylor? At left is an editorial cartoon called "Cubist Taylor" satirizing the investigation into the death of the Hollywood director in February of 1922. Cubism was a brand new movement in art; the work of Picasso and Braque were just becoming well known. [For a good brief discussion of cubism, complete with links to many cubist works, visit Mark Harden's Artchive.] The cartoon incorporated many of the most sensational aspects of the case -- a "shooting star," a "mystery woman," a "dope pipe," a "love cult" (a reference to homosexuality), Mary Miles Minter's love notes, the missing Edward R. Sand who had been Taylor's valet and secretary, and much else. Cubist art was an appropriate choice since it did away with conventional perspective, permitting the artist to position elements of the work as he wished. The implication here was that the police and district attorney's office had been completely unable to make any sense of the mystery -- a judgment which still stands. The Taylor murder is still unsolved. We, however, will not despair just because no one has ever proved who "dunnit."

Rationale: Looking into this case will both provide an avenue into the popular culture of the 1920s and give us some on-the-job training in analyzing historical evidence. You will find, as you work your way through these materials, that I have interjected comments about the primary materials and their reliability. You will also find that I have constructed two possible scenarios for the crime. I have also explained some of the reasons why I think other scenarios are unconvincing. These elements are NOT intended to direct your own work. My scenarios are simply examples of how one can reconstruct possible versions of the events. The two I have come up with by no means exhaust the possibilities.

Procedure: We will break into teams. Several will seek to build a case against one or another of the prime suspects. Another will review the ways various public officials -- District Attorneys, a governor -- sought to use the investigation (or to block it). Another will look at the way the mystery also became a scandal.

Reports: Team members will submit reports via email by 10:00 on the day they are due. I will then post them to the class website. Reports should make detailed and specific references to the primary materials. Specific and detailed reference is NOT the same as block quotation. We can project the materials in class; there is no reason to employ long quotations. The focus here is on analysis.

The materials should, unless there is a very good reason not to, follow chonological order. Where helpful, team members should supply a chronology at the head of the report.

Teams: 1) Mrs. Charlotte Shelby, mother of the film star Mary Miles Minter; the lead detective, Ed King, "liked" Mrs. Shelby but never succeeded in building a case; D.A. Asa "Ace" Keyes, who reopened the case in 1926, also apparently "liked" Mrs. Shelby -- was she the killer?

2) Edward R. Sands, former servant of Taylor, whom Taylor fired and who apparently then robbed Taylor's house on two occasions. Sands, a serial deserter from the military, disappeared around the time of the murder, never to be heard from again -- had he played a role in the murder?

3) Mary Miles Minter, film star, who was in love with Taylor but who denied seeing him for months before the murder -- was the murder the result of a love triangle?

4) D.A.s and other investigators -- are they the reason the case remains unsolved?

5) Scandal-mongering -- how did the media treat the case?

October 3: Meetings with individual students concerning their projects

October 5: Meetings with individual students concerning their projects

October 8: Columbus Day holiday

October 10: Was Shelby the Killer? report; Was Sands the Killer? report

October 12: Was Mary Miles Milner the Killer? report

October 15: D.A.s and other investigators report; Scandal-mongering report

October 17: Preliminary reports on projects: Taylor, Nunes, Feeley

October 19: Preliminary reports on projects: Bernier, Pierno, Duncan

October 22: Preliminary reports on projects: Grew, Scigliano, Brown

October 24: "The Jazz Singer," part one

October 26: "The Jazz Singer," part two

October 29: "Passing from Light into Dark" revisited

"There is a primal scene in every blackface musical: it shows the performer blacking up. . . . The scene lets viewers in on the secret of the fetish: I know I'm not, but all the same. . . ." Michael P. Rogin, Blackface, White Noise: Jewish Immigrants in the Hollywood Melting Pot (University of California Press, 1996).

With reference to "The Jazz Singer," Rogin writes:

Assimilation is achieved via the mask of the most segregated; the blackface that offers Jews mobility keeps the blacks fixed in place. By wiping out all difference except black and white, blackface turns Rabinowitz into Robin, but the fundamental binary opposition nevertheless remains.

In "Passing from Light into Dark" I write:

I make use of Rogin's key thesis, that Jews and other ethnic and nationality groups used blackface and mintrelsy as ways of proclaiming their own eligibility for full participation in American public life. I have tried to complicate Rogin's analysis in what I hope are helpful ways. One is by elaborating on the parallels between the ways specific ethnic groups in specific communities used these tropes and the ways movies used them. Another is by extending the analysis to include Asian equivalents of "blacking up." In the process, I have also widened the focus of his thesis to include other groups beyond Jews.

Choose three specific scenes from "The Jazz Singer" in which the Jolson character claims to be "American." In a paragraph, describe the scene. Include relevant detail, including music and/or dialogue as well as action and setting. What does the Jolson character mean by "American"? On what does he base his claims? How do these scenes complicate or illuminate the argument presented in "Passing from Light into Dark"?

October 31: "Birth of a Nation," part two

November 2: "Birth of a Nation," part two continued

November 5: Reports on McClymer, "The 1920s Through the Prism of the KKK"; Was the KKK a fascist organization? How did it articulate the grievances of "Nordic" Americans? What were those grievances?

November 7: Reports continued: What were some of the parallels between the Know-Nothings of the 1850s and the KKK of the 1920s? What were some of the differences? In what ways did World War I represent a turning point in the role of national government in promoting and defining American nationality? (Do the references to Locke and Tocqueville help or hinder your understanding on these points?) Material about Auburn University frat parties with students in blackface, from Southern Poverty Law Center.

November 9: Reports continued: How persuasive do you find the characterization "the ironies of Normalcy" in describing the sense of grievance expressed by the KKK in the 1920s? What were some of the positive attractions the KKK afforded its members?

November 12: reports on projects: Taylor, Nunes, Feeley

November 14: reports on projects: Bernier, Pierno, Duncan

November 16: reports on projects: Grew, Scigliano, Brown