The Crowd: 1920's Uniformity of Consumer and the Urban Family

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Title: The Crowd

Release Date: February 18, 1928 (1928-02-18)

Director: King Vidor

Cast

Eleanor Boardman: Mary

James Murray: John Sims

Bert Roach: Bert

Estelle Clark: Jane

Daniel G. Tomlinson: Jim

Dell Henderson: Dick

Lucy Beaumont: Mary's Mother

Freddie Burke Frederick: Son

Alice Mildred Puter: Daughter

The roaring twenties - an era of booming free market, female sexual liberation, urbanization of families and new entertainment - Foner presents was little more than a facade sold and bought by the mass consumerists of America. John and Mary - the protagonists of The Crowd represent these individuals who strive to live the modern American dream by becoming homogenized in the new urban crowd. Foner infers that for a time remembered for its radical spirit the twenties was ripe with uniformity, conservative industry and traditional values. These themes are repeated throughout the film - utilized to represent the crumbling illusion of the American dream seen through the hardships, tragedy, and dissent of John and Mary.

John Sims, a man raised under the belief that he would someday become something great comes to New York looking for his big opportunity. Once secured with an office job John meets the other protagonist of the movie - Mary. Mary is an independent woman of the time who wears dresses that reveal the shape of her body, chew gum and has her own job. They go out on a date in Coney Island, where they touch and kiss before deciding to get married by the end of the night. These few scenes represent both the image of the ideal America propagated by film & advertising but also shows the cracks of reality that most of America lived in. At his office job John doesn't find the opportunity that will make him something big but become a uniformed worker who sit at the same desks, wear the same suits, write at the same pace and even say the same quips as they leave for the day. Mary too, is one of many modern women who dress alike, work at similar places and go out on dates in similar place. The scene that introduces her is representing like manufactured female liberty. Men who just came out of their job, including John wait outside an office that presumably only has women. One by one woman comes out of the rotating doors like a product on a conveyer belt - ready to be picked up by a man. Foner related such ideas - describing an outsider’s view of Americas during the time as being uniformed and assembly line ready. Factories and entertainment utilized advertisement to manipulate Americans to buy the same electronic and clothes - to watch the same movies and think the same ideas. Female sexual liberation, Foner described was no longer fought in the political arena but was bought by women from advertisements selling freedom in products like controversial movies, short haircuts and dresses, cars and cigarettes. Indeed cigarettes were sold to women as “torches of freedom.”

The next few years of John and Mary's domestic, urban life is wrought with struggling and repressed anger. We visit the married couple at Christmas. Mary is cooking, cleaning and encouraging John to get ready faster because her family is coming over for dinner. She runs around the tiny apartment trying to make their weathered accommodations presentable. John, not listening continues to sit on the toilet, playing the banjo in his undershirt only interrupted by the broken bathroom door that the continuously has to keep open. John leaves in the middle of dinner, partially to get more alcohol from his friend Bert but mostly to get away from his in-laws that don't think he is good enough for Mary. He doesn't go back though, choosing to stay with Bert and party with the flappers that Bert had invited over. The scene juxtaposes the image of America's great appeal with the reality of the conditions Americans really lived in. Foner described these two images as they played out in in twenties. Big Hollywood movies produced the image of the American Dream symbolized by Bert's life - which as a single businessman could party with flappers and afford to have a good time. It was the Bert's of the US and the middle class that advertisers sold their consumer goods to. The Sims and the image of their life are on the other end of the spectrum. They are poor and live in a small apartment. Foner described these individuals as the majority of America who had no washing machine, radio or savings. Over 40% of America at the time lived in poverty. As well, we see the limits of female liberty. Foner described that the sexual liberty of women was only tolerant to a certain extent and once women were married it was expected that they would quit their jobs and become domestics. Mary conforms to this ideal, leaving her job to become the cook and cleaner of the household, entertaining family and taking care of her husband.

The most poignant scene of the film is the death of John and Mary's daughter and resulting dissent of American conformity. After their daughter is hit by the car and is in bed dying John takes to the street, asking the crowd to be quiet because of his ailing daughter. The imagery of the scene shows John taking on the conformity of the bustling city demanding that they treat him as an individual - recognize his pain and suffering. After the death of their daughter John and Mary are split apart - forced by the priest, doctor and relatives to mourn separately - something that was done traditionally for many years. However, they refuse to mourn separately and fight against the conformity of the era so they could mourn their daughter’s death together. The next scene is John at work - his clothes are a mess and he's handing in sloppy work. His bosses - including Bert - are angry that he is still grieving and that it is affecting the production of his work. The scene concludes with John standing up - disrupting the conformity of desks and men working and screams that he quits before walking out. Foner explained conformity of people who traded their rights for consumer goods but he also went into details about how did let to mass Conservatism. The normal Americans were manipulated into thinking that consumer living would make them happy and in return they were willing to give up many other rights - their political voice and their want to unionize. As a result the government and society became conservative. Old protestant traditions were upheld and this was seen specifically in the work place. Without the fear of unions or strikes businesses were again able started to treat their workers as part of their assembly line. They forced rules, regulations and conformity onto their workers. In the last scene John broker this conformity just by being a grieving father. However, in the end he chose to go against the conformity and the crowd by taking a stand and quitting.

It was in these key scenes of The Crowd that the main themes of Foner's 'Give Me Liberty' (pg. 757-793) are presented. These scenes show both the perfect facade that was marketed to Americans in the 1920's and the reality of the poverty that most Americans lived in. Each scene also depicts the conformity that played out through the 1920's as described by Foner.

Q1) The Crowd in vague definition means a group of people characterized by a common trait. However, given the era that the film was released in - 1928 - the title becomes something wholly specific of the time. The 1920’s was a construct of consumerism. Individuality and group identity were both lost at this time as an effect of entertainment and propaganda like advertisement. Big businesses boomed with the economy and modern manufacturing - producing conveyer belt goods that were identical in every way. These products - cars, washing machines, vacuums and radios were advertised to the public as a means to American happiness. The public was saturated with these advertisements and with movies sending the same message of happiness through mass consumerism. This caused a cascade affect - Americans no longer worked to enhance a craft or because they were proud of their talent. They worked to by the new happiness, to afford to vacation, to buy electronics and cars. Business flourished - making restrictions in the workplace fiercer. Women too, who once fought for equal right bo7ught their feminism through cars, movies, clothes and cigarettes. The individual who sought opportunities in the US and the groups who fought for right were now a thing of the pass - replaced by the mass consumer. The title The Crowd reflects these ideas. John and Mary are the protagonists - set apart by being the main characters but they represent the uniformed worker and family. They dress in the same suits and dresses that their colleagues do, they go to the dating hot spots like everyone else and they work in the same offices that demand conformity. At John’s office every man sits the similar desk, in similar suits and say similar things. They are a production line of workers - mindless and hoping to get a raise or promotion not because they actually like the job but so they could afford more goods. During his grief - when John loses his daughter the audience views to separate instances of the protagonist going against the crowd. When John yells at the masses of people out on the street to be quiet when he is grieving - he is rebuked and seen as a lunatic. He asked them to treat him like an individual and not like one of the crowd. As a result he falls out of step with the crowd - no longer following or wanting the new American Dream but individuality. This is further emphasized at his job when he quits because he could no long take the repetitive nature and mindless conformity of number crunching. His daughter’s death forces him to reconcile that the life he has is not the life he wanted. John came to New York City to become something big but instead he becomes a number cruncher - working merely to consume the goods advertisements sold to the public. It’s somewhat ironic that John’s big dream was to be in advertisement and he winded up being one of the millions of victims of American advertisement.

Q4) John and Mary are perfect examples of the American dream sold in the 1920’s. Like the advertisement of consumer happiness John and Mary wore a veneer of fake happiness hiding what the truth of what most Americans experienced during the era. John did his best to pretend that he cared about his number crunching job and getting a promotion. He was always close to having his “boat come in.” However, this was only a façade. John wanted to be something big and individual and not a uniformed worker. He wanted to be one of the advertisers selling the American dream and not one of the consumers buying it. Mary at the beginning of the movie was an outside facade of independence - she had a job, dated without supervision and had a short bob haircut. However, the audience soon finds out that she is not really that independent but finds her mother and brother acceptance deeply important and doesn’t have a bob haircut but just tucks her long hair in. Once they get married the audience can infer that the idea of a modern urban couple with electronics and city living was also a facade. The reality is that they are poor and live in a foldaway apartment so cramped that the toilet and the stove nearly touch. They are not happy either. John goes out on Christmas and parties with his friend and flappers - an ideal that modern living that was sold in advertisements. Later on we see both of them becoming increasingly unhappy. John blames Mary for their crappy living environment and Mary is angry that John isn’t getting ahead in the business he works for. There is no resolution to either of these problems but they are forgotten once it is found out that Mary is pregnant. A child is supposed to be a testament to male virility and to happiness within the marriage. They use the birth of both their children as a cover for their unhappy lives. However, the veneer quickly disintegrates after their daughter’s death. The unhappiness within their marriage, living conditions and employment is at the forefront. They almost separate but John proves to Mary that he wants the family they still have - he does this by taking the job as juggling clown - a job that he mocked at the beginning of the movie as demeaning. The last scene is of Mary, John and their son at the theater, laughing with the rest of the crowd as if their life is perfect when the audience already knows that their American Dream was nothing more than a front. But now the audience can contemplate that maybe everyone in the crowd is also pretending. That none of them are actually living the American Dream that was sold to them in advertisements but are all just like John and Mary.

Q8) Upward mobility was not a new idea in American culture when rugged individualism already existed but the idea of upward mobility changed in the 1920’s. Advertisements and movies changed the attitude of the public. They no longer wanted to seek new opportunities - one of the major reasons immigrants came to the US - but they wanted to seek jobs that would enable them to live the American Dream. Advertisements sold America the idea of a 9 to 5: jobs that are mindless but would bring home profit for the American family. No longer did people care about their individual skills or talents but what they could buy in the new market and how much they would have to work to get it. John is one of these individuals. He came to New York for his big break but winded up with a 9 to 5 job that made him unhappy. He wanted to become an adman but his real dream was never realized because he was too stuck in the dream that was sold to him of upward mobility through conformity of the worker. Many scenes in this movie als9o exemplify the Protestant work ethic. At John’s job we see all the workers producing the same amount of work at the same time like a production line. At the time the conservative, protestant business owner wanted nothing more than his workers to be free of individual emotions that could disrupt production. John turned against this idea - showing his bosses that he was an individual who had emotions - he had just lost his daughter - and not just a machine that produced their goods. These consumer goods were viewed as the most important aspect of the time. Big business made them to become richer and consumers bought them because they thought it would bring them the happiness they saw in movies and advertisements. When John wins 500 dollars from his advertisement the first thing Mary does is make a list of everything that they could do with the money. The list includes paying off the debt they have on their apartment and furniture. For the first time in history Americans were allowed to get credit and make payments on goods like electronics. This meant that even the average worker could buy a vacuum and furniture. However, like Mary and John it usually meant that Americans went into debt, could not make payments anymore and lose the products that they thought would bring them happiness. What John does when he wins the prize is buy more consumer goods - a dress for Mary and toys for their children. They believed that this money would buy them their American Dream because they could not afford goods. What they soon found out - when their daughter is run over and killed - was that those goods didn’t bring them happiness but despair.

Critique: The Crowd is a good analysis of the 1920’s and there were many emotional scenes in the movie that I was able to relate to a good 84 years later. However, I could find it in me to care for the main character. John Sims is not a likable man but is tragic in the way many of the men at the time were. He is cruel and abusive to his wife through the better half of the movie. He leaves her at Christmas to get drunk with his friend and other women. He verbally abuses her, blames her for their living conditions and calls her stupid. In one of the first scene we see him mocking a man out on the streets for having a demeaning job and of course we see him get his comeuppance when he becomes that man by the end of the movie but their still isn’t anything that redeems his character for the audience.