The Immigrant
Glancing at urban New York City society in the early 1920’s is to observe an era fixated on a changing pace and emerging cultural trends as a result of the end of World War I in 1919. For the United States as well as it’s western European allies, coming to terms with a break from seemingly antiquated ways of past generations was becoming the new norm. Changes in many aspects of social standards such as loosening of the once predominate role of women being strictly passive domesticated caretakers, the lapsing of agricultural industries as the dominant sector in world economies and an acceptance of behavior that was no longer confined to traditional conservatism.
The four years of war where two million Americans fought and the many more on the home front including women who took on new positions in factories to support the manufacturing efforts would prompt a major ideological change in the decade to come. Similar to how the Civil War had caused a large northern migration for many of the millions once enslaved population, the trend to relocate to factory jobs amongst all races was even more prevalent after 1919.
Cultural influences adopted by what once were French, British and other European country’s avant garde society made a lasting impression mostly upon the major American urban centers where a rebirth of accepted means of entertainment and personal leisure gained a risqué American identity. Soon New York City was a cultural capital of the world where the once dominant European cities such as London and Paris were soon seeking influence from their American counterpart as a model of liveliness, diversity and modernization.
For one, the automobile with Henry Ford’s mass produced Model T provoked the sense of an individual’s freedom to go where they wanted when they wanted at a price that was largely affordable for many working Americans. The streets of NYC after the end of WWI were lined with motorcades and jubilation as it was the venue for major homecoming parades in honor of the victorious troops. Additionally, Charles Lindberg, the twenty five year old acclaimed public figure had just demonstrated the inevitability of future transcontinental travel by completing his singular air flight from Paris to New York. Franklin D Roosevelt was soon on his way towards trumpeting a cross country tour that would tout his notion of a pan-Western alliance of nations, the UN, that might coordinate interests in hopes of preventing such a catastrophic war in the future as the world had just experienced.
With the economic boom that followed the war time production years, a more liberalized personal outlook of life emerged a la the equality movements of women, ethnic minorities, et al and new means of communication such as the radio all having profound impacts upon the nation. NYC, due to it’s preeminence as a prosperous location as the home and investment center for the country’s industrial titans including the Rockefellers, Vanderbilts and Carnegies offered all of the splendor that those of ambitious desire could hope for. Opportunity seemed to await those most intent upon pursuing it but which meant modifying one’s ways to that of what was customary to an arduous transformation into city life. As many came to find out, adjusting to the ways of such a populated enclave then with six million people was no easy task. It soon bore the reputation as the place that will eat you alive before spitting one back out.
For the poor class laborers from countries such as Italy, Ireland and others, the allure of self-aggrandizement in industrial jobs and the presage of democratic freedom spawned a large populace of immigrants destined to find themselves in New York. The reality though was extreme hardship for many of those first generations who had to succumb to the many barriers that hindered their notions of opportunistic dreams. Upon arriving by boat to the city’s ports, Ellis Island opened in 1892 was the assigned checkpoint for hopeful immigrants whom since the 1840's had begun first arriving to America en masse from old world countries.
By 1920, conditions had scantly improved for those working in the factories. The immigrant ghettos continued to consist of hardly tolerable enclaves where the many laborers of segregated national ancestries and various professional trades would reside in cramped quarters often earning barely enough to pay for the most basic of food necessities. Life was certainly seemingly a gamble for those hoping to make a better way for themselves in the allusion of splendor that the city of New York and American for that matter seemed to offer. So to focus on the extremes of the social divide among the struggling immigrant class versus the affluent class of the city’s privileged residents and all of those in between portrays a picture of the melting pot social structure that comprised the world’s most idolized city during the post war 1920s.
It was to accept the good with the bad and the city’s reputation as a fixture for the roaring twenties and birthplace of the jazz age certainly provided a nostalgia for which many managed to overlook the decrepit and unsightly aspects of city life for it’s more prosperous elements.
Mainstream popularity of the social club scene where cabarets became all the rage in New York with establishments such as Reigheimers, Mosewheimers, the Follies Roof and the Blue Bird among others within the theatre district of Broadway became havens for residents possessing a certain panache in search of a bit of indulgence. Whether they be artists, writers, flapper socialites, military veterans, the urban youth or successful business men the, congregating of such diverse types became routine until late night hours while watching live performances amidst the social surroundings. Inhibitions largely had been destroyed in this clandestine acceptance of taboo behavior such as alcohol consumption, open sexuality including revealing women’s wear, emergent dancing trends like the Charleston and a defiant display of one’s public actions.
So too did organizations arise that sought ways to prosper from the nature of such seeming social indiscretions. Political cronyism was rampant with the likes of Tammany exerting a coercive impact in contrast to the more sanguine democratic policies from the governor’s offices in Albany who attempted to exert bureaucratic ways of government upon NYC. Often encountering major limitations in power against the influence of Tammany, the Albany capital offices were blamed for seeking the windfall revenue gains of the city without having a significant presence nor vested interests in the ways of the city itself. Such those local city powers to be such as Tammany men who sought to reign in their influence over districts often in unscrupulous ways, took egregious methods that showed little regard for the well being of their would be constituents. Members of the immigrant population were most often the most neglected, being simply treated as pawns for the aspiring motives of the local political class.
A new movie release, The Immigrant focuses first handedly on the indiscretions of this age circa 1923 New York. The film debuted at Cannes Film Fest in May a year ago to very good reviews and just made it’s premiere in theatres last Friday. Lead actor Joaquin Phoenix plays a conniving, self-interested predator of sorts named Bruno. Under the pretense of his convincing charm, which has led some critics to describe as evoking a dichotomous persona in which the audience is likely to feel drawn towards is not to detract from the villainous motives that comprises his character‘s objective. His modus operandi is to await newly arrived immigrants and coax them into unsavory ways of making money amidst a state of fluxomed unfamiliarity for their new surrounding in America. Specifically, throughout the story, Bruno’s pursuit is to victimize a young Polish immigrant named Ewa Lybulski played by Marion Cotiallard into the position of prostitution.
The unfolding of the deleterious circumstances of such a baneful ploy nonetheless draws the film’s viewer into a historic time period film that has depth and momentous appeal. The director James Gray has made it be known that Joaquin Phoenix is his lead actor of choice as this is their fourth movie in which the two have collaborated on since 2007.