Essay On The Golden Age Of Sports In The 1920s

Will Barnwell

The 1920s, the Golden Age of Sports

HS330

11 March 2018

The 1920s, the Golden Age of Sports

In an era where a post wartime economy boomed, transportation and media innovations mobilized rural communities and an enticement to enjoy leisure ensued, the United States ushered in a “Golden Age of Sports” in the 1920s. This golden age became a reality as extraordinary athletes emerged in virtually every sport from baseball, football, tennis, golf, polo, and boxing among many others. Athletes were becoming crowned as models for American children, and sport was bridged as not only a builder of physical skills but also of strong moral character. Radio and newspapers also contributed to the "ballyhoo," or dramatic interest, surrounding sporting events as mass media helped transform local athletes into national icons. The popularity of watching and participating in sporting events increased as a result of more money and free time from work to spend on leisure activities. Spectator sports such as boxing, football, and baseball reached new heights of popularity and massive stadiums were built in cities to cater for the increasing interest of people who wanted to watch and enjoy the excitement of spectator sports.

Sport in the United States during the twenties

experienced its “golden age” in that athletics had become an everyday part of American culture. Babe Ruth, arguably the most famous athlete of this decade, had a greater impact on professional baseball than any single player in history. This paper aims to explain the rise of Babe Ruth and how the media’s role constructed a sports superstar for Americans everywhere to fall in love with.

In a March 1996 issue from the Colby Quarterly, Patrick Trimble analyzed how a growing sports media industry vaulted the likes of Babe Ruth into an American household hero status. Trimble argued that Babe Ruth’s popularity was fueled by his own ability to move from the sports section into the front pages . Aside from his athletic prowess, his showmanship made him a recognizable public figure thanks to being right in New York where the great media boom of the decade had been growing. Editorial innovations such as sensationalism in columns, syndication of editorial processes and deemphasizing of political partisanship aided the rise of sports as a source of entertainment value in the daily newspaper.
Much of Trimble’s article delves into Ruth’s acting career and the release of his 1920 movie Heading Home. His analysis of the film illustrated how the reality of Babe Ruth as a hero emerged and displayed an example of film and sport blending to create a public image. Ruth played a small-town, good-natured boy who possessed physical God given talents. His image catered to the idyllic image of residents among the American heartland as he was respectful to his little sister, was friends with the local church pastor and held morals that allowed him to do the right thing in wavering circumstances. Unfortunately, Babe’s character was run of town when he was forced to play for a visiting baseball team that came to town and hit a home run that won the game for them. The rival manager after the game offered him a contract to play professional baseball and Babe took the deal, moving to the big city where his talents could be seen by a much broader range of people. The city was depicted as a scary and dark place headlined by antagonist Harry Knight, a gambler and drunk who tried to take advantage of Babe’s childhood sweetheart Mildred. Ruth’s heroism was championed in the film by stopping an embezzlement scheme as well as throwing Knight through a window and chasing him out of town.
According to Trimble, “the fictional Babe became the real babe” in that his successes and feats of strength were celebrated into the becoming of a small town boy into a national hero in the urban environment . Throughout the decade, many athletes who established themselves in their respective sport also starred as leads in their own feature films. Ruth also appeared in a 1927 short film The Babe Comes Home while boxer Jack Dempsey formed his own movie production company and stared in his own 1925 feature film Manhattan Madness. Even Red Grange, the burly halfback for the Chicago Bears, made two of his own films. While movies featuring athletes were popular in the mainstream, the box office numbers were not parallel to the successes that these athletes had on their respective playing fields. Ruth himself had a movie career that lasted longer than those of Dempsey and Grange, however Trimble argues that Ruth did not necessarily transcend their talents on the screen.
Trimble's article gave a unique insight on how newspapers, magazines, and even movies featuring star athletes gave the sports reporter a new authority as the media brought information about athletes to large, receptive audiences.

By examining Ruth's first film, it shows that Ruth was much more than just a great baseball player to the people of his era. His accomplishments, his unique personality, and his presence in the media became symbols of how Americans saw themselves in the 1920s as self-made individuals of courage and humility. Headin' Home and the news reports about Ruth did not create those symbols so much as they reflected an image that audiences, the media, and Ruth himself, wanted to

see.
Throughout the decade before the Stock Market crashed, Ruth had been something of a symbol of American optimism; the sports hero with the big appetite and uncanny grin who made anything possible . Without question, Ruth’s role as a darling in the eyes of the media helped to change sport in America from its concentration on amateur ideals of the nineteenth century to a more professional, commercially driven entertainment industry. Ruth was not the only factor in the revival, certainly, but his power and celebrity helped energize sport and expand the fan base. In so doing, he helped to elevate baseball’s place in American culture and to make it a much bigger business. Trimble’s article contributes to the rising influence on sports media and imagery with paved a way for the 1920s to becoming the golden age in American sports.
This article made a sound argument in how Babe Ruth’s movies aided his rise as an icon however this article can be enhanced by adding details of his lasting legacy on the game. While it is true that he paved the way for athletes becoming celebrities in the public eye, his hitting prowess changed the game into the one we know today. Before Ruth was smashing home run records, managers focused the game on the base running strategy and placing balls as a hitting technique in order to score the most amount of runs. Ruth’s signing to the Yankees made him the highest paid baseball player ever, taking on a $130,000 contract that was worth two and a half times more than the previous highest contract . Babe Ruth left behind a professional baseball legacy that few other players would ever equal. According to his own Hall of Fame plaque, Babe Ruth was the “greatest drawing card in history of baseball.”