| This dissertation examines the history of Chicago's commercial amusement scene during the early twentieth century. By emphasizing the manner in which young, immigrant, working-class Chicagoans incorporated these amusements into their everyday lives and social relationships, it challenges the prevailing notion that the rise and popularity of commercial amusements were attributable solely to those who owned and operated them. Instead, citing evidence gathered from oral histories, local newspapers, entertainment trade journals, and social reform investigations, it shows how Chicago's youth repeatedly and determinedly appropriated the city's commercial leisure venues for their own individual and collective purposes. Through visits to amusement parks and dance halls during the 1910s, young Chicagoans transcended their ethnic differences, reworked outmoded social conventions, and forged a distinctive youth culture that sparked momentous changes in the way twentieth-century Americans thought about love, sex, marriage, and personal happiness. As they entered adulthood in the 1920s, many young, working-class Chicagoans continued to view commercialized leisure activities as an important component of a happy, enjoyable life. Through visits to the city's lavish movie palaces and luxurious department stores, they affirmed their long-standing aspirations for upward social mobility and came to define themselves as "middle-class" in cultural, if not economic terms. Significantly, young Chicagoans did not see their visits to the city's amusement parks, dance halls, movie theaters, and department stores as some form of idle "escapism"---that is, a hapless plunge into a fantasy world that stood apart from the realities of everyday life. To the contrary, they enjoyed their excursions into the expanding realm of commercial amusements precisely because of the opportunities they provided for transforming everyday urban life. Although focused on the experiences of the youthful patrons of Chicago's commercial amusements, this dissertation also examines the responses of social reformers and women activists to the increased interest in leisure and play among the city's children and adolescents, illuminating a largely overlooked aspect of Progressive politics. |
