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Were Americans always smiling? These pictures from before WW2 seem to indicate otherwise.

http://blogs.denverpost.com/captured/2010/07/26/captured-ame...

It might be because they were in a depression, but look at picture 13, that situation almost calls for a smile. So the most likely scenario seems to be the smiling is a relatively new cultural thing.

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As a continuation on the idea that they were in a depression, but also remember that picture 13 is located in Oklahoma and a mere six years earlier they were probably experiencing the dust bowl.

I'll throw in an unsubstantiated hypothesis that this happened with popularization of Carnegie's "How to Win Friends and Influence People".

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