in tandem with mass production we also see the dawn of mass consumption advertising developed hand-in-hand with mass production of consumer goods after all it wasn't enough to just mass produce goods you had to be able to sell them and so classic devices in the industry such as inducing artificial need or using celebrity endorsements these marketing techniques developed in the 1910s and 1920s here we see an advertisement for palm olive soap that illustrates how companies marketed goods to consumers by creating anxiety or insecurity in them they were missing out on something or by invoking exotic images like as we see here references to cleopatra the ad promises quote a perfect skin by embodying the quote ancient beauty arts by 1915 palmolive was the best-selling soap in the world for more expensive items buying on credit became widespread and a part of advertising so here we see just one of the numerous ads of the from the early 20th century that invoked the statue of liberty to market consumer goods in fact in this case the image is selling a brand of crackers and for settlers out west as well as those in the rural south mail order firms were founded that expressly catered to rural communities across the united states the most famous of these by far was sears roebuck and company which quickly became known for its catalog known simply as the big book in its hundreds of pages nearly everything a consumer could want could easily be ordered and delivered no matter where you lived in the continental united states actually the catalog included hundreds of items that customers never even knew they wanted but they were so captivated that they decided to buy anyway as demand grew sears went to ever greater lengths to meet the needs of settlers and others in rural communities in the early 1900s the sears robot catalog began offering houses that you could buy here we see on the right one of these houses the entire package for this house weighed 25 tons and it would be shipped via the railroad upon arrival the package contained 30 000 pre-cut parts mostly wood beams and boards but also plumbing and electrical fixtures the package also contained an estimated 750 pounds of nails a sears home was the dream of many western settlers and the homes became wildly popular with sears selling over 75 000 of them in the early decades of the 20th century despite the success of sears roebuck and company mass consumption was a largely urban trend cities were also the birthplace of mass consumption society the promise of american life had always in part resided in the enjoyment of goods than other nations was available only to the very wealthy but in america cities like new york chicago and elsewhere developed large downtown department stores there were chain stores in cities and retail mail order houses for rural as residents to make accessible the goods produced in america's factories some of these goods included electric sewing machines washing machines vacuum cleaners and record players leisure activities were also a part of mass consumption with mass entertainment in the form of amusement parks dance halls and theaters that attracted large crowds during this period thanks to the innovation of edison and others motion pictures became a mass phenomenon in which even working-class moviegoers attended the so-called nickelodeons that is theaters that charged a five cent ticket price as the spread of these new technologies reshaped life creating a very modern world a world really for the first time that you and i could live in reasonably well and comfortably many people began to somehow miss the past and they started to romanticize the simplicity of life prior to all the added complications brought about by electricity and machines you know people by the early 1900s missed the good old days but of course the new technologies offered an answer to this if you missed the sense of adventure you could go to the theater not just to see a live performance with actors and singers but you could see a motion picture and when it came to popular interest few topics were in higher demand than westerns that brings us to a man named edwin porter who had previously worked in thomas edison's invention studio a place called menlo park in new jersey and porter set out to create a motion picture based around the themes of the wild west to this end in 1903 he produced and directed a film called the great train robbery it's only about 10 minutes long but it is both fascinating and a real achievement this was the very first western film made and even though it was filmed actually in the state of new jersey just by looking at it you instantly know that the setting is the wild west also it is arguably the first film ever made that had a plot that plot is a train robbery that went wrong so for many people technology provided a new outlet to pursue their interest and increasingly because of the rise of the middle class those interests were not just the absolute necessities for survival but those interests included entertainment and consumption as well