Origin, Meaning of "All American Sweetheart"

[leto...@nospam.net]

Does any one know the origin and original meaning of the term All
American Sweetheart?

I know (suspect) the meaning has changed (been perverted) by
advertising and Hollywood over time, but what did it first mean?

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leto...@together.net
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[Karl Self]

<leto...@nospam.net> wrote:
> Does any one know the origin and original meaning of the term All
> American Sweetheart?
> I know (suspect) the meaning has changed (been perverted) by
> advertising and Hollywood over time, but what did it first mean?

My best guess is that "All - American Sweetheart" is the mindless
combination of two popular expressions, "all - American" and "America's
sweetheart". The former was especially popular in the United States of the
world war era to the early 1960'ies (this is a ballpark guess), when the
melting pot ideology was more proliferated than it is now (you can find
further information in Peter Novick's "The Holocaust In American Life");
the latter is a sobriquet applied to Hollywood actress Mary Pickford
(further information here:
http://www.britannica.com/eb/article?eu=61440&tocid=0).