Entertainment

American entertainment has come a long ways, since its beginnings. From the early 1900’s people have found ways to keep themselves entertained during some of our darkest times, such as war and depression. With the more people moving from the farms into city peoples leisure time began to increase also.

In the early 1900’s, a new type of leisure was developing. One is the most common types of entertainment was the radio. People listened to shows like Amos and Andy and Will Rogers. The world’s first movie theaters were created during this era using Thomas Edison’s 1888 invention of the Kinetoscope (Jones 456). The kinetoscope was a camera that did motion picture. From this invention the film industry was created. The city’s working class neighborhoods began to enjoy movies. They would see movies like Gone With The Wild. Now keep in mind the movies weren’t like the films you and I are use to seeing today. They were black and white without any sound.

Also around this time a popular music began to draw its own attention. Jazz music attracted all types of people. Cabarets and dance halls began to pop up all over the city. Also painters began to paint portraits of life in the city. Big bands began to form, and grow in popularity during the 1920s and 1930s. But by the 1940s the big bands began to breakup and become single artist. Jazz music also influenced the art industry. Artist began to paint pictures that reflected to city’s vibrant nightlife. These paintings exuded the vitality of urban life and conveyed a gritty reality without moral condemnation (Jones 458).

Later in the 1950s, television was becoming the new American past time. It was very different from the radio because the viewer got to see the entertainers. The first live national television broadcast in the United States took place on September 4, 1951 when President Harry Truman's speech at the Japanese Peace Treaty Conference in San Francisco, California. The cold war was going on and many watched for the fate of America. Television brought the entire family together. Many of the teens during this time enjoyed shows like Band Stand well their parents enjoyed shows like I Love Lucy. Comic strips became real popular during the 1960's. These popular comics became cartoons, which mostly children enjoyed.