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MORMONS, GENDER, AND THE NEW COMMERCIAL ENTERTAINMENTS, 1890–1920

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 June 2017

Christine Talbot
Christine Talbot*
Affiliation:
University of Northern Colorado
*
email: Christine.Talbot@unco.edu
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Abstract

In the early twentieth century, new forms of commercial entertainment—dance halls, movie theaters, amusement halls and parks, saloons and the like—emerged in urban areas, providing new ways for young Americans to amuse themselves. This essay explores the distinctive Mormon response to these new forms of amusement. Mormon leaders took up other progressive reformers’ concerns about early twentieth-century amusements, but refracted them through a distinctively Mormon lens that was at once gendered and uniquely religious. Mormons rejected the progressive double standard that sought to constrain women's, more than men's, participation in these new entertainments, focusing on restraining both genders equally. While many progressives held women more responsible for the sexual transgressions they worried resulted from these new forms of entertainment, Mormons held men and women equally accountable. Moreover, while other progressives sought (and largely failed) to provide alternative, more wholesome, entertainment for American youth, Mormons successfully provided family and Church amusements that kept their youth safely ensconced within the Church community. By the end of the 1910s, Church leaders had officially institutionalized the provision of amusement for its members and the Church formally became a social as well as religious organization.

Type
Articles
Information
The Journal of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era , Volume 16 , Issue 3 , July 2017 , pp. 302 - 324
Copyright
Copyright © Society for Historians of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era 2017 

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References

NOTES

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6 For recent overviews of the Progressive Era, see Lears, Rebirth of a Nation; Flanagan, Maureen A., America Reformed: Progressives and Progressivisms, 1890s–1920s (New York: Oxford University Press, 2007)Google Scholar.

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19 Peiss, Cheap Amusements, 4. See also Rosenzweig, Roy, Eight Hours for What We Will: Workers and Leisure in an Industrial City, 1870–1920 (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1983)Google Scholar.

20 Peiss, Cheap Amusements, 40. See also Nasaw, Going Out, 3–4.

21 Peiss, Cheap Amusements, 57.

22 Peiss, Cheap Amusements, 88.

23 Peiss, Cheap Amusements, 90. See also Neth, Mary, “Leisure and Generational Change: Farm Youths in the Midwest, 1910–1940” in American Rural and Farm Women in Historical Perspective, eds. Jensen, Joan M. and Osterud, Nancy Grey (Washington, DC: The Agricultural History Society, 1994), 183 Google Scholar; McBee, Randy, Dance Hall Days: Intimacy and Leisure among Working-Class Immigrants in the United States (New York: New York University Press, 2000), 67 Google Scholar.

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26 Progressive reformers were a loosely conglomerated group of mostly middle-class reformers who initiated a broad variety of reforms intended to correct a variety of social ills reformers identified around the turn of the century. For a recent study of progressive reform campaigns, see McGerr, Michael, A Fierce Discontent: The Rise and Fall of the Progressive Movement in America, 1870–1920 (New York: Free Press, 2003)Google Scholar.

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28 Wagner, Adversaries of Dance, 198–201.

29 Gladden, Washington, Amusements: Their Uses and Their Abuses (North Adams, MA.: James T. Robinson, 1866)Google Scholar, quoted in Wagner, Adversaries of Dance, 211. For a discussion of liberal Protestant responses to dancing, see Wagner, Adversaries of Dance, 210–24.

30 Ashby, LeRoy, With Amusement for All: A History of American Popular Culture since 1830 (Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 2006), 148Google Scholar.

31 Flanagan, America Reformed, 192.

32 For histories of the YMCA, see Gustav-Wrathall, John Donald, Take the Young Stranger by the Hand: Same Sex Relations and the YMCA (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1998)Google Scholar; Winter, Thomas, Making Men, Making Class: The YMCA and Workingmen, 1877–1920 (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2002)Google Scholar; and Macleod, David I., Building Character in the American Boy: The Boy Scouts, the YMCA, and Their Forerunners (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1983)Google Scholar.

33 Ashby, With Amusement for All, 148–59.

34 Peiss, Cheap Amusements, 183–84; Ashby, With Amusement for All, 158–59.

35 Flanagan, America Reformed, 192.

36 McBee, Dance Hall Days, 70–80.

37 Smith, Joseph F., Gospel Doctrine: Selections from the Sermons and Writings of Joseph F. Smith, Sixth President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints 14th ed. (Salt Lake City, UT: Deseret Book Company, 1966), 321 Google Scholar. This is an excerpt from an article in the Juvenile Instructor, Mar. 1, 1904, 144.

38 Kimball, Richard Ian, Sports in Zion: Mormon Recreation, 1890–1940 (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2003)Google Scholar.

39 See Lystra, Karen, Searching the Heart: Women, Men, and Romantic Love in Nineteenth-Century America (New York: Oxford University Press, 1989)Google Scholar.

40 See Lynn, Karen, “Courtship and Romance in Utah Territory: Doing Away with ‘The Gentile Custom of Sparkification’” in A Sesquicentennial Look at Church History: Sidney B. Sperry Symposium, January 26, 1980, Brigham Young University Campus, Provo, Utah (Provo, UT: Brigham Young University Church Educational System, 1980), 211–23Google Scholar; Kathleen Flake, “The Emotional and Priestly Logic of Plural Marriage,” Leonard J. Arrington Mormon History Lecture Series, paper 15, 3, http://digitalcommons:edu/arrington_lecture/15 (accessed Feb. 20, 2015).

41 See Inouye, “What a Girl Wants.”

42 See Lystra, Searching the Heart; Rothman, Ellen K., Hands and Hearts: A History of Courtship in America (New York: Basic Books, Inc., 1984)Google Scholar; Bailey, Beth L., From Front Porch to Back Seat: Courtship in Twentieth-Century America (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1988)Google Scholar.

43 Bailey, From Front Porch to Back Seat.

44 See Smith, Merina, Revelation, Resistance, and Mormon Polygamy: Introduction and Implementation of the Principle, 1830–1853 (Boulder: University Press of Colorado, 2013), 223–25Google Scholar.

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46 Inouye, “What a Girl Wants,” 79.

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49 Chudacoff, Howard P., The Age of the Bachelor: Creating an American Subculture (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1999)Google Scholar.

50 “Our Work. Amusements and Entertainments,” Improvement Era (Dec. 1903): 148.

51 “Our Work,” 148.

52 Joseph F. Smith, “Editors’ Table. Home Culture,” Improvement Era (June 1908): 716.

53 See also Evans, John Henry, “Plays and Play-Going,” The Young Woman's Journal (Dec. 1913): 748 Google Scholar, where Evans declared it “incredible … that we should give over to the dollar-seeker this matter of the amusement of our young people”; Paul Mason, “Social Leadership,” The Improvement Era (Sept. 1920): 1008, where Mason was distressed that “the stamp of commercialism and its attending evils has been placed upon all forms of amusement.”

54 See Wagner, Adversaries of Dance, 201, 237, and 242–43.

55 Smith, Alice K., “Enter Not into Temptation,” The Young Woman's Journal (Apr. 1903): 162 Google Scholar. See also “Usages and Proprieties of Good Society Lesson XI: Picnics, Excursions, Parties, and Winter and Summer Outings,” The Young Woman's Journal (June 1903): 286.

56 Peiss, Cheap Amusements, 32.

57 Peiss, Cheap Amusements, 16–21.

58 Nichols, Jeffrey, Prostitution, Polygamy, and Power: Salt Lake City, 1847–1918 (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2002), 1–2 Google Scholar.

59 Nichols, Prostitution, Polygamy, and Power, 11–25.

60 Nichols, Prostitution, Polygamy, and Power, 25. See also 36.

61 Chudacoff, The Age of the Bachelor, 4.

62 The Senior Editor, “Editor's Table: Talks to the Young Men—The Tendency to Deify Evil,” The Improvement Era (Oct. 1899): 944.

63 On the sexual double standard in the context of commercial amusements, see Clement, Elizabeth Alice, Love for Sale: Courting, Treating, and Prostitution in New York City, 1900–1945 (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2006), 17 Google Scholar; Wagner, Adversaries of Dance, 201–5.

64 The nature of sexuality, for Mormons, is determined by the “plan of salvation,” the process by which one becomes like God. In the pre-existence, literal spirit children of an embodied God await physical birth on earth to earthly parents. Sexuality on earth, then, fulfills the functions of providing physical “tabernacles” (bodies) for God's spirit children. Mormon marriage is considered eternal, continuing into an embodied afterlife. Sexuality is part of this afterlife, as those who become like God provide “spirit bodies” for their spirit children.

65 Anon, “Don't Send My Boy Where Your Girl Can't Go,” The Improvement Era (Nov. 1899): 26.

66 Joseph F. Smith, “Editor's Table: True Love,” The Improvement Era 14 (July 1911): 829.

67 John Henry Smith, Talk Given Closing Session, Conference Reports, Apr. 1907, 107.

68 Joseph F. Smith, “Editor's Table: True Love,” 829.

69 Joseph F. Smith, “Unchastity the Dominant Evil of the Age,” [Salt Lake City: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1917?], 9. Available at the Church History Library, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Salt Lake City, Utah [hereafter cited as Church History Library].

70 Joseph F. Smith, “Unchastity the Dominant Evil,” 6.

71 Joseph F. Smith, “Unchastity the Dominant Evil,” 7.

72 Joseph F. Smith, “Unchastity the Dominant Evil,” 10.

73 Nichols, Prostitution, Polygamy, and Power, 8–88.

74 Nichols, Prostitution, Polygamy, and Power, 92–93.

75 Alice K. Smith, “Enter Not into Temptation,” 162.

76 “Usages and Proprieties of Good Society: Lesson III,” The Young Woman's Journal (Oct. 1902): 497 Google Scholar.

77 “In the Realm of Girlhood: Lesson VI: Dress,” The Young Woman's Journal (Feb. 1906): 89, 88Google Scholar.

78 “In the Realm of Girlhood,” 89.

79 “In the Realm of Girlhood,” 89.

80 Richards, George F., “Modesty,” The Young Woman's Journal (June 1916): 323 Google Scholar.

81 Richards, “Modesty,” 324.

82 Smith, Joseph F., “Dress,” The Young Woman's Journal (July 1916): 386 Google Scholar.

83 Smith, “Dress,” 387.

84 Smith, “Dress,” 386–89.

85 Smith, “Dress,” 387.

86 Richards, Stephen L., “Social Service,” The Young Woman's Journal (Aug. 1919): 408 Google Scholar.

87 Richards, “Modesty,” 324.

88 For an examination of the controversies surrounding “round” dancing among Mormons in the last quarter of the nineteenth century, see Bitton, Davis, “‘These Licentious Days’: Dancing among the Mormons” in Bitton, Davis, The Ritualization of Mormon History and Other Essays (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1994)Google Scholar.

89 “Guide Department: Usages and Proprieties of Good Society: Lesson VI: Ball Room Etiquette,” The Young Woman's Journal (Jan. 1903): 46 Google Scholar.

90 Bitton, “These Licentious Days,” 101–13.

91 Revised Ordinances of Salt Lake City, Utah, 1920, revised, compiled,and arranged by W. H. Gregory (Salt Lake City: Arrow Press, 1920), 491–95.

92 Richards, “Social Service,” 410.

93 Alexander, Thomas G., Mormonism in Transition: a History of the Latter-day Saints, 1890–1930 (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1986), 258–72Google Scholar; Hoyt and Patterson, “Mormon Masculinity,” 72–91.

94 Hoyt and Patterson, “Mormon Masculinity,” 81–84.

95 James Dunn, “An Appeal to Boys,” The Improvement Era (Jan. 1914): 221.

96 Dunn, “An Appeal to Boys,” 221.

97 Joseph F. Smith, Gospel Doctrine, 321. This is excerpted from an article in The Juvenile Instructor, Mar. 1, 1904, 144–45.

98 Joseph F. Smith, “Editor's Table: Social Doings,” The Improvement Era (Jan. 1917): 260.

99 Smith, “Editor's Table: Social Doings,” 259.

100 “Talks to Young Men. IX. Amusements and Pleasures,” The Improvement Era (July 1903): 694.

101 Wagner, Adversaries of Dance, 207.

102 “Guide Department: Usages and Proprieties of Good Society: Lesson VI: Ball Room Etiquette,” The Young Woman's Journal (Jan. 1903): 47, 46Google Scholar.

103 “Junior Lessons: The Latter-day Saint Girl: Lesson IX: Her Amusements,” The Young Woman's Journal (Dec. 1914): 778 Google Scholar.

104 Joseph F. Smith, “Editor's Table: Amusement and Recreation,” The Improvement Era (July 1908): 716–17.

105 “The Moral Influence of the Y.L.M.I.A.,” The Young Woman's Journal (Nov. 1902): 519 Google Scholar.

106 Kimball, Sports in Zion, 125–51.

107 Evans, “Plays and Play-Going,” 747.

108 Smith, “Editor's Table: Amusement and Recreation,” 717.

109 Joseph F. Smith, “Editor's Table: The Home and the Child,” The Improvement Era (Feb. 1908): 301.

110 “The Latter-day Saint Woman: Lesson VI: Her Social Life,” The Young Woman's Journal (Oct. 1914): 645 Google Scholar.

111 Smith, “Editor's Table: The Home and the Child,” 302–3.

112 Smith, “Editor's Table: The Home and the Child,” 302.

113 Although the Mormon tradition of Family Home Evening began during this time in 1915, oddly, it did not seem to be linked to the desire for home entertainment. Instead, the First Presidency “advise[d] and urge[d] the inauguration of a ‘home evening’ throughout the Church at which time fathers and mothers may gather their boys and girls about them in the home and teach them the word of the Lord.” The initial purpose of Family Home Evening, it seems, was much more about education than entertainment. Joseph F. Smith, Anthon H. Lund, and Charles W. Penrose, “Editor's Table: Home Evening,” The Improvement Era (June 1915): 733.

114 Aunt Su [Gates, Susa Young], “Simplicity: Of Entertainment,” The Young Woman's Journal (July 1907): 318–19Google Scholar.

115 Aunt Su [Susa Young Gates], “Simplicity,” 318.

116 Aunt Su [Susa Young Gates], “Simplicity,” 319.

117 “The Latter-day Saint Woman: Lesson VI,” 645–49.

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119 “Guide Department: Usages and Proprieties of Good Society: Lesson VI: Ball Room Etiquette,” The Young Woman's Journal (Jan. 1903), 46.

120 Richards, “Social Service,” 410.

121 “Our Work: Amusements and Entertainments,” 146.

122 Joseph F. Smith, “Editor's Table: The Home and the Child,” The Improvement Era (Feb. 1908): 302.

123 Gates, Susa Young, History of the Young Ladies’ Mutual Improvement Association of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, from November 1869 to June 1910 (Salt Lake City, UT: The Deseret News Press, 1911), 370–71Google Scholar, quoted material on 371.

124 The Senior Editor, “Editor's Table: Talks to the Young Men—The Tendency to Deify Evil,” The Improvement Era (Oct. 1899): 946.

125 “The Moral Influence of the YLMIA,” The Young Woman's Journal (Nov. 1902): 519.

126 “Talks to Young Men. IX. Amusements and Pleasures,” The Improvement Era (July 1903): 695.

127 Smith, “Editor's Table: The Home and the Child,” 301.

128 Smith, “Editor's Table: The Home and the Child,” 302–3.

129 Fourth Ward amusement committee minutes, February 1902–March 1903, Church History Library.

130 There are quite a few remaining advertisements for events like this. For a few representative examples, see “A Farewell Missionary Entertainment will be Given in the Nineteenth Ward Meeting House …,” 1909, Church History Library; “Grand Entertainment by the Seventeenth Ward Primary Association, Thursday and Friday, December 13 and 14, Seventeenth Ward,” 19--?, Church History Library; “You are Cordially Invited to a Grand Vaudeville Entertainment in the Emigration Ward Hall …,” 1918?, Church History Library.

131 “You are Cordially Invited to a Grand Vaudeville Entertainment in the Emigration Ward Hall …,” 1918?. See also Twenty-Second Ward, Salt Lake Stake, “A Grand Entertainment and Dance Will Be Held in the 22nd Ward Meeting House” (The Human Culture Co., Printers, Salt Lake City), Church History Library; Fourteenth Ward Meeting House, Thursday, May 21, 1903 …,” Church History Library.

132 “Editor's Table,” The Improvement Era (Jan. 1916): 268.

133 Kimball, Sports in Zion, 38–45.

134 “The General MIA Conference,” The Improvement Era (Aug. 1916): 927–28.

135 “Editorial Department: A Call to the Women of the Church,” The Young Woman's Journal (Jan. 1917): 41.

136 “A Call to the Women of the Church,” 41.

137 “A Call to the Women of the Church,” 42.

138 Thomas G. Alexander, “Between Revivalism and the Social Gospel: The Latter-day Saint Social Advisory Committee, 1916–1922,” BYU Studies 23:1 (Winter 1983): 25.

139 Alexander, “Between Revivalism,” 26.

140 See Taylor, Rachel Grant, “Social Work,” The Young Woman's Journal (Sept. 1917): 507 Google ScholarPubMed.

141 Alexander, “Between Revivalism.”

142 Alexander, “Between Revivalism,” 31–32. For a lengthier discussion of the “recreation building boom” among Mormons, see Kimball, Sports in Zion, 57–82.

143 See Josephson, Marba C., History of the YWMIA (Salt Lake City: Deseret News Press, 1955), 150–51Google Scholar.