The Roaring

Twenties

“Over there, over there…

Send the word, send the word over there…

That the Yanks are coming,

the Yanks are coming…”

George M. Cohan

•America entered WW I eager to make the world safe for democracy.

•It was a short war--only 19 months (May 1917 – Nov. 1918).

•After the war most people expected life to return to normal. But what was normal?

•Whatever the word meant, to the new postwar generation, it belonged to the past.

˚For returning soldiers, the reality of war had made a mockery of slogans and noble words.

˚Some like Ernest Hemingway came out of the war cynical and disillusioned.

“A first-class revolt against the accepted American order was taking place in the early 1920s,”

- Frederick Lewis Allen

The revolt to love hard, live fast, live for the

moment was explained by…

Edna St. Vincent Millay in “First Fig.”

“My candle burns at both ends;

It will not last the night;

But, ah, my foes, and oh, my friends-

It gives a lovely light.”

Edna St. Vincent Millay

The Victorian shackles were off, along with corsets &

petticoats.

A revolution in MANNERS and MORALS was underway.

The population of the US was 106,521,537 people. In the year 2000 it was 281,421,906 people.

The average yearly income was $1,236. In the year 2000 it was $28,272.

The price of a gallon of milk was $.58. Today it is $3.25.

Men lived about 54 years. Women lived about 55 years. Today men live about 74 years, and women live about 79 years

A public school teacher earned about $729 a year. Today the average salary for a teacher is $42,898.

It took 13 days to reach California from New York driving on 2 lane roads. Today it takes 4 hours by plane.

Interesting 1920s Statistics

In 1919, the 18th Amendment passed the Act of Prohibition, which made the making of, the transportation of, and the selling of alcohol illegal. The intent of the Amendment was to lower the crime rate and to improve the general way of life, but the opposite happened.

Prohibition

Crime increased as people rebelled against not being able to buy alcohol. People began making homemade alcohol using equipment called stills. This homemade alcohol was sometimes called “bathtub gin.”

1920s

Speakeasy

Culture

Numerous illegal bars called speakeasies were created to provide drinks for the people who wanted alcoholic beverages.

A Speakeasy where liquor

flowed freely---

was a fashionable place to

go for an evening out.

And just as Prohibition

went into effect, the

cocktail party became

the new vogue.

Gangsters profited during this decade by smuggling alcohol and distributing it to different illegal businesses. Al Capone from Chicago was one of these gangsters. He made $105 million a year smuggling alcohol.

But the seamy side of the twenties didn’t touch most people’s lives directly.

They read about it in the tabloids.

Women received the right to vote by the 19th Amendment, but they still had little involvement in politics. During the 1920s women felt free to ask men out. They wore the new flapper style of clothing and were more assertive. They took the same jobs as men, but still fought for equality in the workplace.

Flappers were considered reckless rebels. They had short sleek hair. They wore a shorter than average shapeless shift dress. They wore make-up and put it on in public. They exposed their legs in public. They put their cigarettes in long holders to smoke them. They enjoyed doing the new dances, such as the Charleston, in the jazz clubs.

Fashion

• They wore clothes with no bust line, no waistline, and wore cloche hats

• They wore their hair boyishly short

•Flappers started to wear makeup which, at that time was only worn by actresses and prostitutes•Flapper fashion was most popular among the middle class

• They were also known for shocking dances such as the Charleston

• This was risky because this was a period of Prohibition

•Flappers were known for going to speakeasies at night where they would smoke and drink in public.•Even respectable, wealthy women led the flapper lifestyle

Men took their fashion ideas from the sports or gangster heroes of the day. Men wanted to appear “dapper.” Baggy pants, polished shoes, and a handkerchief in the pocket let others know that this man was someone to notice. The baggy zoot suit was worn for fancy occasions.

THE FLAPPERby Dorothy Parker

The Playful flapper here we see,

The fairest of the fair.She's not what Grandma

used to be, --You might say, au

contraire.Her girlish ways may

make a stir,Her manners cause a

scene,But there is no more harm

in herThan in a submarine.

She nightly knocks for many a goalThe usual dancing men.Her speed is great, but her controlIs something else again.All spotlights focus on her pranks.

All tongues her prowess herald.For which she well may render thanksTo God and Scott Fitzgerald.

Her golden rule is plain enough -Just get them young and treat them rough.

Henry Ford began mass production of the "Model T" automobile, the first car priced so the average man could afford one.

New Inventions

1927 Ford Model T Runabout

proved to be among the last Model Ts made, as production ceased in spring 1927, after

more than 15 million had been built.

Henry Ford•Moving Assembly Line

•Higher Wages

•Worker Benefits

•Americans owned 8 of 10 cars in the world

Other well-known inventions of the decade included band-aids, kleenex, and zippers.

New food products introduced during the 1920's included Welch's Grape Jelly, Wrigley's chewing gum, and the Eskimo ice cream pie.

•Listening to the radio. •Entire families would gather and listen to the popular shows.• Popular songs: •“You’re the Cream in My Coffee”• “Lady-Luck Blues” by Bessie Smith• “California, Here I Come!” by Al Jolson• “Rhapsody in Blue” by George Gershwin• “It Had to Be You”• “Yes, Sir! That’s My Baby!” by Carlton Coon and Joe Sanders.

Entertainment

Silent movies became "talkies" when sound was finally added. Charlie Chaplin, the Little Tramp, was one of the most famous stars in motion-picture history. He wrote and directed nearly all of his films, and composed the music for all of his sound pictures.

Among the best movies of the decade were "Treasure Island" and "Ben Hur." Favorite actors were Rudolph Valentino as the Sheik, Clara Bow as the "it" girl, Mary Pickford, and Al Jolson, the star of the "Jazz Singer."

For Children Only

Favorite children's books were Winnie the Pooh, Bambi, Dr. Doolittle, and The Velveteen Rabbit.

Favorite toys included the new baby doll that said, “Mama," paper dolls, and teddy bears for the girls. Boys played with metal trucks, Tinker toys, and Erector sets.

Popular Cartoon Characters

Mickey Mouse Little Orphan Felix the Cat

Annie

Slang Language of the 20s

Applesauce-- what you say when you’re angry, i.e., “Oh, applesauce!”The Big Cheese—important person, boss

The Cat’s Meow—the best, most wonderful

Cheaters—eyeglasses

All wet—the wrong idea; “She ‘s all wet.”

Jake—it’s ok. “Everything is jake.”

Dogs—feet; “My dogs hurt.”

Giggle Water—alcohol

More Slang Language of the 20s

Heebie Jeebies—a scary, nervous feelingJalopy—an old carMoll—a gangster’s girlfriendPushover—someone naïve or easy to

convinceScram—leave; hurry awaySwell—wonderful; everything’s greatUpchuck—vomit; throw upWhoopee—have a good time

Amelia Earhart was the first female aviator to cross the Atlantic Ocean and the first woman to fly solo. She disappeared in 1937 in an attempt to be the first woman to fly around the world. No trace of Miss Earhart or her plane has ever been found.

Important People

Babe Ruth--the greatest slugger in baseball history. His record of 714 regular-season home runs wasn't broken until 1974 by Hank Aaron. He was named to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1936.

Red Grange was one of the greatest football players of all time. He became known as the Galloping Ghost when he scored five touchdowns on his first five carries in one game.

Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald, one of the great writers of the Jazz Age, began his career as a writer of stories for mass-circulation magazines. He was one of the main writers for The Saturday Evening Post. The publication of his novel, This Side of Paradise, made him famous overnight.

Fitzgerald on the Twenties:  

The pace was faster, the buildings were higher, the

morals were looser and liquor was cheaper…”

F. Scott Fitzgerald, Echoes of the Jazz Age (1931)

Bessie Smith was the greatest and most influential classic blues singer of the 1920s.  During her heyday, she earned upwards of $2000 per week, a queenly sum in the 20s. By the time the decade had ended, Smith had become the most respected black singer in America and had recorded a catalog of blues that still stands as the yardstick by which all other female blues singers are measured.

King Oliver is a legend in Jazz history.  As a trumpet player, he was strongly influenced by Buddy Bolden whom he imitated, but Oliver soon became a Jazz stylist in his own right. In the end, the designation of "king," which Bolden had long assumed, became Oliver's.

In the early 1920s, Louis Armstrong joined King Oliver in Chicago--playing solos with Fletcher Henderson at the Roseland Ballroom in New York and making jazz history with the Hot Five. It was in Chicago that he initiated his "scat" singing -- singing nonsense syllables in place of words and vocally simulating instrumental sound.

Duke Ellington

Jazz King

Duke Ellington, Jazz King

• was the greatest jazz composer and bandleader. One of the originators of big-band jazz, Ellington led his band for more than half a century, composed thousands of scores, and created one of the most distinctive ensemble sounds in all of Western music.