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Gay Nineties

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
For the Canadian band, see Gay Nineties (band).

The Gay Nineties is an American nostalgic term and a periodization of the history of the United States referring to the decade of the 1890s. It is known in the United Kingdom as the Naughty Nineties, and refers there to the decade of supposedly decadent art of Aubrey Beardsley, the witty plays and trial of Oscar Wilde, society scandals and the beginning of the suffragette movement.[citation needed]

Despite the term, part of the decade was marked by an economic crisis, which greatly worsened when the Panic of 1893 set off a widespread economic depression in the United States that lasted until 1897.

Etymology

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The term Gay Nineties began to be used in the 1920s in the United States, and it is believed to have been created by the artist Richard V. Culter, who first released a series of drawings in Life magazine titled "the Gay Nineties" and later published a book of drawings with the same name.[1]

History

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Novels by authors like Edith Wharton and Booth Tarkington documented the high life of the "old money" families. By the 1920s, the decade was nostalgically seen as a period of pre-income tax wealth for a newly emergent "society set". The railroads, the agricultural depression of the Southern United States, and the dominance of the United States in South American markets and the Caribbean meant that industrialists of the Northern United States seemed to have been doing very well.

The Gay Nineties Revue was a nostalgic radio program in the 1930s, hosted by a prominent composer of popular songs of the 1890s, Joe Howard.[2] The television series The Gay Nineties Revue was broadcast in the 1940s.

There was an 1890s-themed New York cafe, "Bill's Gay Nineties", during the 1930s.[3][4] Billy Rose's "Diamond Horseshoe" was an 1890s themed establishment,[5] and the subject of the film Billy Rose's Diamond Horseshoe (1945).[6]

From the 1920s to the 1960s, filmmakers had a nostalgic interest in the 1890s as seen in the films She Done Him Wrong (1933),[7] Belle of the Nineties (1934),[8] The Strawberry Blonde (1941),[9] The Nifty Nineties (a Mickey Mouse cartoon) (1941),[10] My Gal Sal (1942),[11] Heaven Can Wait (1943),[12] The Naughty Nineties (1945),[13] I Wonder Who's Kissing Her Now (1947),[14] By the Light of the Silvery Moon (1953) and Hello, Dolly! (1969).

Roger Edens' song "The Gay Nineties" opens a production number spoofing period melodramas in Strike Up the Band, a 1940 MGM film starring Judy Garland and Mickey Rooney.

There were 1890s nostalgia albums.[15][16]

"Nineties Nostalgia"[14] for the "Gay Nineties" or 1890s was a form of decade nostalgia, and existed by the 1920s and 1930s.[17][18][19] 1890s nostalgia was part of the broader phenomenon of Neo-Victorian nostalgia.[20] In Japan, 1890s nostalgia was part of the broader phenomenon of Meiji nostalgia.[21]

See also

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References

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  • Martha Shearer. "The Gay Nineties". New York City and the Hollywood Musical: Dancing in the Streets. 2016. pp 78 to 82.
  • "Leg O'Mutton Era Revived By Mode". The Montreal Gazette. 30 March 1936. p 9.
  • "Gay Nineties Nostalgia Returns To Athabasca". Edmonton Journal. 3 February 1961. page twenty.
  1. ^ Culter, Richard V. (1927). The Gay Nineties: An Album of Reminiscent Drawings. Doubleday, Page & Company.
  2. ^ "Big Time Vaudeville Days Recalled by Howard Review". Youngstown Vindicator. 13 October 1944. p 28.
  3. ^ "Bill's Gay Nineties - The History". Bill's NYC. Archived from the original on March 30, 2012. Retrieved April 6, 2012.
  4. ^ "Bill Hardy Makes Present Living By Living In The Past". The Florence Times. 18 May 1939. page Five.
  5. ^ Bloom. Routledge Guide to Broadway. p 45.
  6. ^ The Diamond Horseshoe, the World War II-Era Nightclub Resurrected by Randy Weiner and Simon Hammerstein. Vanity Fair. 24 January 2014.
  7. ^ Shearer. p 81
  8. ^ Babington and Evans. Affairs to Remember: The Hollywood Comedy of the Sexes. 1989. p 129.
  9. ^ Sprengler. Screening Nostalgia. 2009. p 25.
  10. ^ Brode. From Walt to Woodstock: How Disney Created the Counterculture. 2004. p 35.
  11. ^ Solomon. Twentieth Century-Fox: A Corporate and Financial History. p 61.
  12. ^ Scheibel. Gene Tierney: Star of Hollywood's Home Front.
  13. ^ Joseph Millichap. "The 1890s". Peter C. Rollins (ed). The Columbia Companion to American History on Film. 2003. p 10 at p 11.
  14. ^ a b Sprengler. Screening Nostalgia. 2009. p 35.
  15. ^ "Album Reviews". Billboard. 2 October 1948. p 72.
  16. ^ "New Records Revive Old Tunes; Some Make It, But Most Do Not". Meriden Record. 20 December 1957. p 6. From AP Newsfeatures writer.
  17. ^ Rob King. Hokum!: The Early Sound Slapstick Short and Depression-Era Mass Culture. 2017. pp 160 & 161.
  18. ^ Christine Sprengler. Screening Nostalgia: Populuxe Props and Technicolor Aesthetics in Contemporary American Film. 2009. pp 21 & 26.
  19. ^ Jill Watts. Mae West: An Icon in Black and White. p 98.
  20. ^ Sprengler. Screening Nostalgia. 2009. p 27.
  21. ^ Sandra Buckley. "nostalgia boom". The Encyclopedia of Contemporary Japanese Culture. Routledge. 2002. Taylor & Francis e-Library. 2006. p 365.
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