The 1950's: Consummerism and the American Dream

[darco16]

The 1950's: Consumerism and the American Dream
Title: Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter?
Director: Frank Tashlin
Cast:
ActorRoleJayne MansfieldRita MarloweTony RandallRockwell P. HunterBetsy DrakeJenny WellsJoan BlondellVioletJohn WilliamsIrving La Salle Jr.Henry JonesHenry RufusLili GentleApril HunterMickey HargitayBobo BraniganskyGroucho MarxGeorge Schmidlap

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1. How does the film relate to Chapter 24 in Foner? A solid answer should cover at least two themes from Foner.

In chapter 24 “An Affluent Society” Foner hinted that The Golden Age of the fifties in America was in many ways a throwback to the 1920’s American consumerism. He described the similarities of economic expansion and the rise in the standard of living as the after effect of a major world war. This swift swing in American society caused three major changes in American popular culture. These changes included the ideal of American consumerism, the role of women as domestic servants and the role of television and advertisement in selling the American Dream.

The movie Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter played with similar themes in a satiric look at the contemporary culture of the 1950’s that valued commercial goods, celebrity and televisions/advertisement. These three themes played out through the entire movie and certain scenes captured these ideas completely.

During the fifties the Soviet Union and Communism was perceived as a major threat to American freedom and way of life. They valued the group and not the individual, they devalued private ownership and consumerism and they had women were in the work place. To combat this American political figures like Richard Nixon and advertisement companies idealized and sold freedom as modern consumerism. New and old technology was being sold in abundance and now American was allowed to once again put it on credit. Debt was seen as part of American freedom as consumer bought cars, houses in the suburbs, television and kitchen appliances. Since American freedom in the 50’s was measured by access and coveting of consumer goods political participation and groups ideals all but vanished in the 50’s. The movie Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter critiqued the 50’s ideal of consumerism as the American Dream in one key scene. Near the ending of the film Henry Rufus (Henry Jones) shows Rock Hunter (Tony Randell) what his success in advertising brought him - a private bathroom and a big office of his own. In this scene Rock cries tears of joy at these prototypic symbols of success. Later on, the audience sees Rock alone and worn-looking at this same desk. His ex-fiancé - Jenny Wells (Betsy Drake) comes in to give him back the ring that they were supposed to get married with. The audience is meant to wonder if these are things that should bring people happiness - if the idea of upward mobility and consumerism is how people should measure their own joy.

The second change in American culture dealt with the idea of what it meant to be happy and a woman in the 1950’s. The shift to male powered consumerism drastically affected the freedom women once had to work and be independent of their spouse. Feminism and the fight for women in the work place disappeared in the 50’s. As middle class American moved to the suburbs the place of women became isolated to the domestic landscape. The suburb, isolated from any big cities was meant to form a barrier between middle class white America and lower class ethnic America. It also served to make women domestic servants again - separated from all the jobs that were in the city and taking care of the growing American family. As well, new domestic technology was propagated to women as part of their individual American freedom. Advertisement at the time gushed that frozen dinners, washers, dryers and vacuums meant to make life easier for the mother and wife of the 1950’s. The idea of the as the domestic servant - mother and wife was hinted at in the movie Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter with the character of Jenny.  Near the middle of the movie Rock comes home to see his fiancée - Jenny doing pushups. He was worried that she would be angry at him because his fake relationship with the big Hollywood starlet Rita Marlowe (Jayne Mansfield) is all over the news. However, she acts demure - outwardly debating whether going to college and getting an office job was worth it when she should have really been worried about how her body looked for her husband. It’s obvious that she is angry and all her words are in jest but in a later scene the audience sees that she worked herself to the point of exhaustion before passing out. The doctor who cared for her shook his head before saying, “Pushups are just a waste of time. It’s really better for women to just go to a store - if you know what I mean.” The idea behind the entire scene is the role of women in the fifties. With television, movies and advertisements women were told two things: that their looks couldn’t compare to that of big Hollywood starlets and that their role in life wad to be a domestic servant. The doctor’s words commented on both ideas. He meant that women shouldn’t waste their time doing pushups - an exercise that many women at the time thought would give them bigger breast. Instead - he comments - women should just go to the store and buy groceries and goods for dinner to make their husbands and children happy.

Both woman and consumerism were affected by the third change in American popular culture. Televisions were almost in every middle class household in the 1950’s. Americans watched television like Leave it to Beaver - a show that sold the idea of the perfect middle class American life to every viewer. However, more than that television sold advertisements. Every commercial propagated the same ideal American life Leave it to Beaver sold. These two Medias propelled the idea that the American Dream was one of upward mobility, the suburban life and vast consumerism. This propagation of the ideal life was used as satire in Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter. At the beginning of the movie the actor who played Rock Hudson (Tony Randall) introduced the film followed by a few scenes of stereotypical advertisements. The movie took a satirical view of contemporary advertisement - pointing out their use of the American Dream and ideal to sell consumers products that they didn’t need.  They show a women talking about how easy it is to use her new freezer and ice tray when clearly it is easily broken and making it difficult for her to even open her freezer. Another woman sells hair products - saying “and look what is does to your hair.” Then the audience sees that it has made her hair so stiff that she cannot even brush it out. Other things that were sold was detergent that clearly had too many chemical products in it, a car that was way too expensive at the time and a washing machine that swallowed it’s domestic servant.

1. How can you interpret the film as a commentary on the concept of “The American Dream” and the meaning of success during the 1950s?

In the chapter “An Affluent Society” Foner explains how the idea of consumerism as the American Dream was molded by political figure heads like Richard Nixon, was sold by media and advertisements and bought by the middle class consumer. The movie Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter does not shy away from critiquing the culture it lived in and its faulty ideals of success and happiness. For the main character of the film Rock Hunter his ideal American Dream was upward mobility. He envied his bosses that got private bathrooms when he was just a middle man. However, through his success in landing a big starlet to sell their advertisements he finds out that his boss Irving La Salle Jr. (John Williams) isn’t actually happy with his high position. That what really brings him happiness is growing flowers. Rock related to him because he once wanted to be a chicken farmer but the ideal of success that is propagated to society tells him that being Presidents of an Advertising company would bring his more happiness than chicken farming. However, after losing his fiancée and winding up alone in his new office as president of the company Rock realizes that he is not happy. The last few scenes shows La Salle having a flower named after him and then Rock on his chicken farm with this wife and niece. The last line in the movie is “We learned that success is just the art of being happy and being happy is just the very living end.” With this last line the movie emphasized its main criticism of 1950’s culture: that the American Dream of material goods and upward mobility does not make you happy or successful. Success is found by doing something or having someone in your life that makes you personally happy.

1. How are gender roles and sexuality represented in the film?  What do the film’s various representations of gender and sex reveal about life in the 1950s

In the chapter “An Affluent Society” Foner described the pursuit of happiness in 1950’s American as an opportunity and way of life given to men rather than women. Even though many of the advertisements on television were directed to housewives and mothers it was never directed at the individual women. Modern technology in the 1950’s like washing machine, dryers and dish washers were meant to make the life of the female easier but the products themselves managed to subvert of the role of women as mothers and wives. In the chapter Foner uses Nixon as the best example of the patriarchal society that these products were really sold for. Nixon applauded the new technology of kitchen appliances as a part of the new American Dream. He also compared women to kitchen products - saying that the equipment was so autonomic that women would soon not be needed. This encapsulates the freedom of women in the 1950’s - they were one step up from an autonomic dishwasher. Makeup that was sold in advertisements emphasized the idea of sex appeal - being objects that men could judge on aesthetics alone. Film and television further propelled this idea with the Hollywood starlet - females that were tons of makeup, tight clothes, had bleach blond hair, the biggest breast and the smallest voices. Everyday women were supposed to idealize these starlets and want to appeal to men like these women did. This idea manifests itself in Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter with the characters of Rita Marlowe and Jenny Wells. Rita is the starlet who throughout the movie Rock is tempted by and that’s her role and what she represents - the vixen. Jenny is the secretary that Rock plans to marry and that’s her role and what she represents - the nice girl. Both characters are diverse and interesting but the movie emphasizes that they are only important through the male gaze. This means that both female characters are only important in relation to the male protagonist and how he views them. The women are not individuals within the film but plot devices for the main male character. Rita’s sexual presence and fame are obstacles that Rock faces throughout the movie and are only important so long as they affect him. Jenny’s anger at possibly being replaced in Rock’s heart is only important so long as it affects Rock. Both characters - even though the movie makes them interesting - are meant to be stereotypes of what women were seen as during the 1950’s: sexual creatures that men could ogle or girls next door that men could turn into wives.

1. Does this film make any commentary about the practice of advertising? What does this commentary reveal about life in the 1950s?

In the chapter “An Affluent Society” Foner described advertising in the 1950’s as one of the biggest medias that sold Americans the ideal of consumerism as the American Dream. From washing machines to cars advertisements delivered constant reinforcements that consumer goods was the way of the new, suburban family. The film Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter critiques advertising for these reasons. At the beginning of the film there is multiple scenes of malfunctioning or unneeded material products that were being sold at the time: washing machine, hair product, etc. The film critiqued the idea that Americans need these to be happy - they did this by using the stereotypical formula that most advertisements used in that day - a mother washing dishes or a beautiful women fixing her hair - and then twisted it around to make the product more realistic - the soap was full of chemicals that were probably dangerous and the hair product only managed to stiffen out the women’s hair. It was meant to make audiences think if the product that they bought actually makes them happier - if they measure their joy by how much they consume.

Critique:  I enjoyed this film immensely. Its use of satire and meta characters of Hollywood actors was hilarious. At the same time I feel that it has something to say for our modern society because we are still a culture obsessed with material goods and celebrity. The acting was on par and you can never go wrong with casting Jayne Mansfield as a bombshell actress. Out of ten stars I give this film 8.5