ABSTRACT
New Deal Rhythm’s chorus line hooks into the US interwar fascination with Fordist mass aesthetics and sexual allure: numerous attractive women performing high kicks or intricate tap rhythms in precise unison stoked both desires and anxieties about machines, technology, and modernity. New Deal Rhythm’s chorus line hooks into the US interwar fascination with Fordist mass aesthetics and sexual allure: numerous attractive women performing high kicks or intricate tap rhythms in precise unison stoked both desires and anxieties about machines, technology, and modernity. New Deal Rhythm combines congressional satire with earnest political support as politicians become comic relief and chorus girls uphold the NRA. While Footlight Parade, with Berkeley’s perfectionist dance direction at Warner Brothers, is usually the go-to reference for Hollywood’s New Deal aesthetic boosterism, Paramount’s New Deal Rhythm connected to current political events more thematically through song and dance in the halls of government.
