The Modernist World: Celebrity and Modern Life The Advertisement Era The effect of the automobile on recreational habits was often decried in the 1930's: the substitution of a passive amusement for something more active; standardization and regimentation; the moral problem of the parked sedan and roadside tourist camp. Read More Radio, Television and Media Population changes are being paralleled by functional shifts within society, which are likewise reflecting themselves upon the family. Most important of these is the rise of individualism. Read More BBC vs. American Culture The first priority for any government was to organize the allocation of frequencies. The method used in practice dictated the shape of the national broadcasting system. From the outset, British broadcasters looked aghast at the American experience and insisted that they would learn from and avoid American mistakes. Read More Two New Magazines Atkinson & Alexander published the Saturday Evening Post on 4th August, 1821. It was four page newspaper with no illustrations. By 1920 the Saturday Evening Post had a circulation of over two millions copies a week, and, with its mixture of fiction, current affairs and biographies of public figures, was staple reading for the American middle-class family. The magazine continued to grow in size. Read More Sports and Mass Media Throughout all of Europe and the United States, changes in work patterns and new expectations of leisure in the interwar period fueled a demand far leisure that manifested itself in a growing variety of sporting activities. More people had more time for leisure, which was increasingly viewed as something they had a right to enjoy. Read More Babe Ruth and Red Grange Few adults found themselves able or willing to play football. Although teams made up of former college players were for a time quite active, the game was primarily for boys. But many were glad to watch so exciting a sport. Its dependence upon brute force satisfied atavistic instincts as could no other modern spectacle except the prize-fight. Baseball had become the national game because so many people played it as well as watched it. Football was destined from the first to be primarily a spectator sport.  Read More Women in Sports: Suzanne Lenglen and Others Women in sport in the interwar period, the sport of lawn tennis proved to be a platform for female achievement. Suzanne Lenglen dominated the game from 1919 to 1926, and redefined what could be achieved by women. One historian said of her: "Her gifts were supreme. Her biting accuracy, coupled with divine balletic grace, dominated the game for so long without real challenge, that her immortality is unquestioned." Read More