the twenties
Post on 23-Feb-2016
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THE TWENTIES
Age of Paranoia
Roaring Twenties A Time of new
ideas and prosperity that brought change to popular culture and contritubed to new directions in American life
A new Consumer CultureNew products make
life easier Listerine, Toaster,
Vacums , washing machines, irons, refrigerators
Advertising Grows Focus on buying
the next best thing Used psychologists
to figure out people’s desires and behaviors
Bruce Barton Print and radio
Buy now / Pay later Credit Installment buying 15% of all retail
sales were on installment plans
Americans in the Air and on the Roads
Airplanes Charles Lindbergh flies
across the Atlantic U.S post office uses
surplus military planes First transcontinental
mail route in 1920 from NY to San Francisco
Ford produces an all metal airplane that carried 10 passenders
Automotible Henry Ford’s Model
T Allowed people to
live outside of cities (suburbs)
Building of Federal Highways
Gas stations, diners, motels spring up
Automobile accidents rise
Mass Media Grows
Radio KDKA in Pittsburgh
broadcasts the 1920 Presidential election
David Sarnoff broadcasts the sinking of the Titanic.
RCA (Radio Corporation of America) and Sarnoff create NBC radio
Broadcast news, sports, music, drama, and comedy across the nation
Brings Americans closer together
Motion Pictures 50 million movie
goers in 1920 rises to 90 million by 1929
The Jazz Singer first “Talkie”
Charlie Chaplin and Rudolph Valentino
Sports Spectator Sports like
Boxing, wresting and Baseball emerge
Jack Dempsey fight earns $2.6 million dollars
Radio spreads the popularity
Babe Ruth in Baseball and Jim Thorpe Football became national heroes.
The Boom Years
Henry Ford Pioneers a New Age
By 1929 half of american famlies owned a car
Assembly line helped Ford cut the price of the car from $950 to $290
Doubled pay from $2.40 an hour to $5.00 By 1930 Ford produced 20 Million cars
Innovations give Birth to New industries
1 of every 8 workers had a job related to the auto industry
By 1930 – 38 domestic and five international airlines
Plastics Craze, Synthetic fibers changed clothing, cellophane
Big Businesses Get even Bigger
Consolidation of businesses grew as Presidents ignored anti-trust laws
Three big auto makers - GM, Ford, Chrysler
A&P Grocery Store Chain drives small businesses out.
Speculators Aim to Get Rich Quick
Ponzi Scheme and Florida Land Boom led to speculators losing everything
Stock Market investment become commonplace for housewives, barbers, taxi drivers and other middle class workers.
DOW Jones Industrial Average doubled between 1928 and 1929
Left Out of the Boom: Enduring Poverty
Gross national produce rose by 40% between 1921-1929
Half of American families earned $1500 a year or less. ($2500 was decent)
Farmers remained in debt after the war. Surplus crops caused farm prices to drop.
Farmworkers earned low wages Workers in old industries struggled (coal
miners, textile factory workers,) African Americans paid less than whites,
barred from unions.
A whole new way of life for Women
19th Amendment grants suffrage
WWI jobs inspired women to do more
Flappers – rebellious women who wore short skirts
Birth Control – Margaret Singer
Makeup, cigarettes
Harlem Renaissance The outpouring of creativity among
African American writers, artists and musicians who gathered in Harlem in the 1920’s
William Johnson (artist)
Aaron Douglas (artist)
Zora Neale Huston (writer)
Claude McKay (writer)
Langston Hughes (writer)
I Am
I am the darker brother.They send me to eat in the kitchen
When company comes,But I laugh,
And eat well,And grow strong.
Tomorrow,I'll be at the table
When company comes.Nobody'll dareSay to me,
"Eat in the kitchen,"Then.
They'll see how beautiful I amAnd be ashamed—
I, too, am America.
- Langston Hughes
The Jazz Age
The Jazz Age Grew from African
rhythms, European Harmonies African American folk music
Improvisation Born in New Orleans Spread to Chicago,
New York, St. Louis as musicians traveled north
Duke Ellington
Jazz clubs in Harlem (Cotton Club) had mostly white patrons but black entertainers
Radio Stations catch on Louis Armstrong, Duke
Ellington Led to new dance
called the Charleston Traditionalists felt that
jazz was leading to immoral behavior
Prohibition 18th Amendment
Prohibited the sale and/or use of alcohol
Why Prohibit alcohol
The Good
• The use of alcohol declined under the 18th
• Fewer workers especially poor and working class ethnic groups spent their wages at saloons
The Bad• The gov’t did not
provide enough funding for men or supplies
• People sold alcohol illegally in speakeasies
• People brewed their own “bath tub” gin
• People bought bootlegged alcohol smuggled in from Canada
The Bad Sale of alcohol was a
multibillion dollar business for gangsters like Al Capone
Al Capone bribed judges, politicians and police and was blamed for hundreds of murders
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