first radio commercial invited people to leave the "congested city"

The first radio commercial advertised a new apartment complex.

Gunther Barth points to, among other things, the apartment house as a way to announce the arrival of urban living. Yesterday, the students understood that such living could be traced in part to Parisan flats. This morning, Writer's Alamanac mentioned how the first radio commercial in the United States advertised apartments in the Jackson Heights section of Queens in 1922. Given that we can look at emerging urban life occurring between the 1830s and 1910, give or take a decade, this radio advertisement barely falls short of fitting the bill. 

The real estate developer for Hawthorne Court via this commercial told listeners who were tired of congested living in Manhattan the following: "Friend, you owe it to yourself and your family to leave the congested city and enjoy what nature intended you to enjoy." Again, we can see not only the tensions between our rural past and urban life, but also the class politics that may be apparent in this invitation to leave the city. For more about the technology that made this commercial possible, listen to this story on NPR. If you listen closely, you will hear another thing that allows us to see emerging urban life: department stores.

Postscript: Learn about Dr. Susan Reynold's recent visit to our class on Alabama Heritage magazine's Facebook page.