With Amusement for All: A History of American Popular Culture Since 1830

WITH AMUSEMENT FOR ALL A History of American Popular Culture Since 1830 BY LEROY ASHBY UNIVERSITY PRESS OF KENTUCKY 2006, 648 PAGES, $39.95

Given all the amusements discussed in this book, one wonders how Americans ever have time for work. This fascinating exploration is more than a listing, though, as it relates the importance of amusement to cultural change. Take, for instance, the popularity of Sunday football and baseball games. They have made the sports stadium the new church. Not many decades ago, with the exception of visits and picnics, Sundays were considered more or less hallowed days. Without question, the author, a distinguished professor of history at Washington State University, has researched and written a masterpiece. The book is a tour de force in its field and has made popular culture--once thought to be a frivolous area for academic study--a serious field of enquiry.

The importance of amusement in conservative England was recognized by King James I when he advocated Protestants to allow activities such as dancing, so Catholicism would not be attractive to potential converts. Even the Puritans did not mind an oxymoron in permitting "serious mirth" However, our own John Adams reflected his times in regarding amusement as frivolous.

Amusements really helped to break down the classes of society, which at one time varied according to the tastes and pocketbooks of the rich and poor. Compare the games of chess vs. checkers, bridge vs. poker, golf and tennis vs. bowling, and theater vs. movies. In the 1830s, the common man made his appearance and was catered to by penny newspapers, blackface and minstrel shows, circuses, and boxing. Carnivals and freaks and melodramas were there for the vulgar. These largely were an attempt to escape from Victorian mores that the upper classes were loath to give up. P.T. Barnum certainly caught the taste of the masses. Burlesque shows challenged "prowling prudes" and, in their own way, advanced the cause of women's release from a cultural strait-jacket. Mae West claimed that her fame was made by censorship, as forbidden fruit always appears attractive. Florenz Ziegfeld put on Follies that helped bring sex out into the open, as did the Radio City Rockettes. Slapstick comedy was personified in Jackie Gleason and the Three Stooges. This was contrasted by the subtle character of the shows of George and Gracie Allen, Fred Allen, and Robert Bums, the Arkansas Traveler.

Buffalo Bill's Wild West shows put a new slant on the American West and was the beginning of the glorification of the cowboy. It had international influence in attracting Europe to our Western culture. A lower class American could become famous without producing or inventing something as did, for instance, boxer John L. Sullivan or Sitting Bull. Writing of boxing (which at one time was illegal), Pres. Teddy Roosevelt advocated it as a manly sport and later the Army stressed its benefits to toughen soldiers. Dime novels entertained all classes with their lurid tales of villains, frontiersmen, and Horatio Alger stories.

The music of Irving Berlin won the hearts and minds of the masses and served the cause of patriotism in World War I. Bing Crosby had a voice that seemed to be that of everyman and, even during WWII, Germany loved der Bingle.

The struggle against democratization was reflected in some radio stations advertising "Music for the classes--not the masses." FM stations particularly flaunted this ware, but finally succumbed to "music for the masses," which meant country western, rock 'n' roll, and hillbilly stuff.

Coney Island recognized the market for the everyday man and justly won its immense popularity. This locale so appealed to the populace that, even during the Depression, people flocked to the shores of the Atlantic Ocean, not so much to spend, but just to languish there in its ambience.

Comic strips such as Tarzan and later Superman became the first sections read in the newspaper, and Hollywood movies moved mountains in serving as propaganda for America and an escapism from the humdrum of everyday life. This book is more than amusing; it is instructive.

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