Download The Roaring 20s

The Roaring ‘20s
The Great Gatsby and the Jazz Age
Prosperity in the ‘20s
Nearly half the population owns automobiles, radios, vacuum
cleaners and washing machines
Advertising and public relations begin to campaign for the
American household
Widespread electrification helps reduce manufacturing costs of
existing products
Introduction of Consumer Credit
Shopping in the ‘20s
The automobile made stores accessible:
Sears, Roebuck
Woolworth’s
Kroger
JC Penny’s
Walgreen’s Drugstores
Department Stores: Macy’s (New York), Filene’s (Boston),
Wanamaker’s (Philadelphia)
Poverty in the ‘20s
Rural poverty is widespread
Mainly affected African Americans, white farmers, and
immigrants
Agricultural economy of the 1920’s experiences depression
despite booming economy
American Farmers were burdened by heavy debt
Prohibition
In 1920, the manufacture, sale, import and export of
alcohol was prohibited by the Eighteenth Amendment
It was an attempt to alleviate various social problems;
this came to be known as "Prohibition"
Led to the rise of Speakeasies: places where liquor was
sold without a license
Bootleggers imported alcohol into the US from Canada
Famous People in the ‘20s
Authors:
F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, William
Faulkner, Willa Cather
Sports:
Babe Ruth (New York Yankees), Lou Gherig,
Bobby Jones (golf), Jack Dempsey (Boxer)
More Famous People in the ‘20s
Celebrities:
Will Rogers, Mae West
Notables:
Al Capone (gangster), Charles Lindbergh (first
solo cross-Atlantic flight)
Politicians:
William Harding, Calvin Coolidge, Herbert
Hoover
Cars
•One of the most significant inventions of the
20s
•Drastically changed the lives of Americans
•Improved transportation
•Helped boost the economy
The Model T
•By 1927 almost everyone
had an automobile
•Families could visit family
and friends that lived
farther away
•Parents could drive to work
Jazz
Jazz was hot – Chicago, Harlem
The Cotton Club was a popular nightclub with both Blacks and
Whites
Bessie Smith sang the Blues
First Commercial Radio station broadcasts in 1922
Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington were popular bandleaders
Bessie Smith
Women’s Fashions
Marlene Dietrich helped transform women’s fashions into a
more androgynous look
Women wanted equality with men
Short hair became popular
No more corsets!
Flapper styles became the rage
The Flapper
Smoke and drank in public
Wore makeup
Danced
Short Hair, Short Dress
Cloche Hats
Wore stockings attached to
garters
Independent, carefree style of
“new woman”
Cinema in the ‘20s
Mostly silent films
Valentino, Charlie Chaplin are stars
Sound added later in the decade
The Jazz Singer, starring Al Jolson is
first sound movie
Technicolor is introduced
Walt Disney produces first cartoon
Al Jolson in The Jazz Singer
Rudolph Valentino
Art
Art Deco – The Chrysler
Building
Art deco is characterized by
the use of angular,
symmetrical geometric forms.
Art
The Harlem Renaissance
A flowering of African-American social thought and culture
based in the African-American community forming in Harlem
in New York City
Was expressed through every cultural medium: visual art,
dance, music, theater, literature, poetry, history and politics
Langston Hughes
Josephine Baker
WEB DuBois
Zora Neale Hurston
Video clips
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=foooDFF9Dgs