The Roaring 20’sIn what ways did economic conditions and developments in the arts and entertainment help create the reputation of the 1920’s as the “Roaring Twenties?”

Election of Warren G Harding and a “Return to Normalcy”Sec of State – Charles Evans HughesSec of Commerce – HooverSec of Treasury – Andrew MellonChief Justice – Taft

Harding dies September 2, 1923 – VP Calvin Coolidge

Isolationism, Red Scare & KKKRed Scare & Labor Unrest – Palmer

Raids (1919 Boston Police Strike & 1920 Great Steel Strike 350,000 workers)Sacco & Vanzetti – 1921 – 1927 (exonerated by M. Dukakis)KKK – Knights of the Invisible EmpireIsolationism & Nativism

Emergency Quota Act of 1921Immigration Act of 1924

Attorney General Palmer associated labor unions with Communism – started the FBI and deported 294 “Communists”

8 bombs in 8 cities in one minute = bombed Palmer’s home (3-1920)

Nativism & ImmigrationEmergency Quota Act of 1921 – set limit @ 3% of immigration population from each country from 1910 census (10,000 Greeks X .03 = 300)

Immigration Act of 1924 – set limit @ 2% of immigrant population from each country from 1890 census (2000 Greeks X .02 = 40) Japanese completed excluded

*Purpose – to slow down flood of S&E Europeans(lifted in 1965)

Prohibition and the Law that wasn’t…18th Amendment – 1919, (repealed 1935 by 21st – Wickersham Report proved law was unenforceable)

Enforced by the Volstead ActSpeakeasiesBootleggersAl Capone & racketeers

The Scopes Monkey Trial1925 – ACLU asked Scopes to teach Evolution in TN (against the law), hoping he would be jailed. Wanted to test the constitutionality of the law.Prosecution – Wm. Jennings Bryan (won, but died 5 days later due to stroke)Defense – Clarence DarrowFound Guilty and fined $100.00

Religious Conflict – Fundamentalists Vs. Modernists

Buying on Credit! & Entertainment•Bruce Barton – Greatest adman of all time…..•Sex sells everything•Sports Heroes

Babe Ruth

Jack Dempsey

Gertrude Ederle

Jim Thorpe

Bobby JonesAdvertising becomes a $350 billion industry

Henry Ford and his “Tin Lizzy”$260 = 1-2 months salary for average worker1930 = 20 million cars – 1 per family (662,000 miles of highway)

Negative Effects of cars – time spent at home decreased, people emigrated from less desirable states, deaths, crime, pollution

1 car every 93 minutes (12 weeks before)Ford made $25,000 a day ($312,000 for today)

Into the Wild blue yonder…..Wright Brother – Kitty Hawk – 12/17/1903 (12 seconds, 120 feet)Airmail – 1920 (1st transcontinental)Charles Lindbergh – 1927 (NY to Paris)Pan – Am Airlines

Marconi and the Radio1920 KDKA – Pittsburgh, by 1930 800 Stations – NBC,

CBSAmos N Andy

Clara Bow – Hollywood’s “It” Girl!

The NickelodeonsThe Great Train Robbery (1903)The Birth of A Nation (1915)Jazz Singer (1927)By 1929 – 80 million tickets a week

The Cultural RevolutionFlappersJazzHarlem Renaissance

Let America be America again.Let it be the dream it used to be.Let it be the pioneer on the plainSeeking a home where he himself is free.

(America never was America to me.)

Let America be the dream the dreamers dreamed--Let it be that great strong land of loveWhere never kings connive nor tyrants schemeThat any man be crushed by one above.

“The Lost Generation”

1920’s Prosperity & The Stock MarketBuying on MarginReal Estate Speculation – 1925National Debt = $23 billion by 1921

Businesses accept government regulation, gov’t is pro-businessTax Reform (Andrew Mellon)

Reduced from 1921-26Excise taxes, estate taxes, income taxes.

Put burden on Middle Class!