Making Motoring American: The Integration of the Working Class in Automobile Film Advertising of the 1930s

This thesis examines a selection of automobile film advertisements from 1930 to America's formal declaration of war in 1941 as a means of analyzing the cultural narrative associated with automobile promotion throughout the Great Depression.The films depict the white, working-class male as the model driver and the automobile as a bastion of safety, as well as the key to a prosperous economy.While this shift in the representation of the automobile and its driver can be attributed in part to the reported saturation of the automobile market through the latter part of the 1920s and the economic uncertainty of the 1930s, semiotic analysis of the films indicates that the change was more than an effort to attract prospective consumers.Rather, the films' idealization of the working class was tailored to present a narrative of motoring that supported automakers and industrial capitalism in a period when both were being challenged.Six years ago my doctors told me that with my long-term health issues I should quit school and go home.I would never complete my degree.That was third year of my undergrad.To be arriving, albeit a year late, at the completion of my Masters is still somewhat surreal.However, I am certain that I would never have managed it without the consistent support and instruction of my two supervisors, James Opp and Andrew Johnston.My thanks to you both for being so willing to work with me in spite of the difficulties my health presents.I'm not sure I'd have had the fortitude to see this through without knowing you were both behind me.And support doesn't begin to describe the love, encouragement, and strength poured into me in endless measure from my massive, madcap family.They may have decided it is best not to ask what I'm working on, but they have never ceased to assure me I am capable of completing what I have set out to do.You make me laugh when I feel like crying and see victory in every defeat.I love you all to the fullest measure of the word.I would not be here without you and I wouldn't want to be.To my soulmate, Megan Ford, who has proved that friends can truly be the greatest love of our life, thank you for being my biggest cheerleader, my champion, and my constant companion through all-nighters, theory rants, and beyond.Love you more than air, dear girl.Much love and thanks to my flatmates Mina and Kat for feeding me over the last few months and bearing with my upside down schedules, cranky coffee breaks, and anti-social tendencies.You are both absolute gems!To the children and parents of the New Edinburgh Community and Arts Center's Afterschool program where I have been blessed to work the last two years -THANKMoreover, advertisements did more than outline the uses for, or the operation of, a product.They presented a specific image of their merchandise situated in consumers' lives, illustrating a particular lifestyle as a means of relating their product to a set of values or standards.3 We Drivers candidly offers instruction regarding the best methods of driving and deliberately outlines ideal conduct, but the advertisement is more than a valorization of good driving habits.The ad also describes who the model driver is, from the qualities they possess and their behavior, to their race, gender, and class.This consumer-centric approach emphasized the person using the product, rather than the product itself, not limiting the item's merit to its utility or physical attributes.Rather, the advertisements underlined the capacity of the merchandise to satisfy an immaterial psychological or emotional desire.Building on earlier trends, advertisements of the 1930s were less about statistics and more about telling a story or fitting a commodity within a pre-existing cultural narrative to "fuel a fantasy" that could be achieved through purchasing the product.4 While consumers might dismiss the factual argumentation of an advertisement regarding mileage, suspension, or aerodynamic engineering, the symbolism of the automobile, the attributes attached to the vehicle indirectly through the advertisement's characterizations of the automobile and its driver were less obvious in their presentation and, in turn, more difficult to dismiss. 3 Roland Marchand, Advertising the American Dream: Making Way for Modernity, 1920-1940 (Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1986), 164-167, 346-48.Marchand refers to advertisements that depicted a particular lifestyle to be associated with the product as "social tableaus" and contends that they did not accurately reflect reality.Nor were the advertisements that used this approach meant to.Rather, they were "reflective of the 'reality' of the social aspirations of American consumers.'Or at least, what manufacturers presumed those aspirations to be. 4

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