Why American society needed heroes in the aftermath of World War II-

Paul Gallico, described athletic stars as "the Golden People", nothing that in the years following World War I sport had " its first million-dollar prizefights, and the adulation of sports heroes rose to the point almost of national hysteria". As World War I came to a close, however, the " Golden People" were anything but. The horrible devastation of the war and its terrible new weapons had shattered the idealistic notions of the Progressive reformers. The decade of the 1920s was termed the "Golden Age of Sports", and the media's creation of sport heroes during this time provided a stabilizing influence in a rapidly changing American culture. Sports stars were lionized as All-American types who exemplified American cultural values. The Four Horsemen of Notre Dame represented the American ideology of spirit, teamwork, and assimilation of diverse groups within society. Babe Ruth, the most famous of all the athletic heroes, symbolized the American dream, the land of opportunity and meritocracy, where one could succeed despite humble origins. The depiction of such heroes presented a more homogenous culture and solidified an American cultural identity, but it also masked social tensions inherent in the United States in the aftermath of World War I and during the Great Depression and World War II

The media's role in constructing a popular culture-

The new communication medium of radio became commonplace in the 1920s and contributed to the publicizing of athletic heroes, as announcers dramatized and sensationalized sports events for remote audiences. While radio broadcasts catered to a wide variety of popular and ethnically specific tastes in drama and music, sports programming focused on American games, and broadcasts of event such as baseball games, the Kentucky Derby, the Indy 500, and the