continuity and change: the 1920s vs. the 1930sdiversion – the dionne quintuplets ! 1934 five...
TRANSCRIPT
+Continuity and Change: The 1920s vs. The 1930s
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The 1920s – A New Prosperity
+Prohibition
n What would it have been like to live in the 1920s?
n Do we have prohibited acts now?
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+Video on the Prohibition
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+A New Prosperity
n Foreign Influence n Fashions from the United States
(tourists) n Men – straw hats, double breasted
suits, bell-bottom pants n Women – “flapper” look, bobbed
hair, hemlines above the knees
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n Youth scandalized their parents w i t h d a n c e s s u c h a s t h e Charleston, the Shimmy, and the Turkey Trot
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+The Charleston
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+The Shimmy
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+The Turkey Trot
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+Increased Mobility
n Henry T Ford “You can have any colour you like, as long as its black”
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+Improved Communications
n Telephone became a standard household appliance
n Radio allowed for information to spread, and for isolated communities to stay in touch
n By the end of the 1920s, nearly 300, 000 Canadians were tuning into US stations for entertainment – CBC created in 1936
n Movies n Silent movies to start n “Talkies” arrived in 1927
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+Canadian Art
n Group of Seven n Rugged landscape (broad,
bold strokes and brilliant colours)
n Emily Carr n West Coast forests and
Aboriginal life
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+Sports as Popular Entertainment
n Baseball, boxing, rugby, curling and golf grew in importance and popularity
n “Hockey Night in Canada” Foster Hewitt 1923
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What outside (foreign) influence do we see in Canadian culture in the
1920s?
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The “Roaring Twenties” come to an end in the Stock Market Crash on Tuesday, October 29, 1929
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Canada and the “Desperate Years” Social Environment of the 1930s
+The Desperate Years
n ¼ of Canada’s 10 million people went on relief n Humiliating process – inspectors made sure you
no longer had forbidden items (radios, pets, family treasures)
n “Reliefers” publically declare, and were given food vouchers instead of cash to “save them from temptation”
n Anyone found drinking could be deprived of benefits and left to starve
n Single men could not claim the need for relief and were told to find jobs somewhere
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+Prairie Drought
n Drought in 1928, lasted nearly 8 years
n Near-constant dust storms
n Grasshoppers plagued the Prairies
n 1 9 3 5 P ra i r i e Fa r m R e h a b i l i t a t i o n Administration Act, to help farmers build irrigation systems and reservoirs
n Many left their farms and moved to the city
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+Disadvantaged
n Aboriginal families told to “live off the land” (given $5/month)
n I m m i g ra n t s v i ewe d w i t h h o s t i l i t y (competition for jobs)
n Jews targeted and suffered from anti-Semitism
n 10,000 immigrants deported between 1930-1935
n 1931, government stopped immigration n Xenophobia: intense or irrational dislike or
fear of people from other countries
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+Riding the Rails
n Hitching a ride on freight trains by trying to ride on top of cars or inside them
n Initially in an attempt to f ind employment, later because they had nothing else to do
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+Pogey
n Similar to modern-day welfare
n Vouchers to those who quali f ied, exchanged for goods/essential items
n Deliberately kept lower than the lowest paying jobs
n Result: people ended up starving and suffering from disease because the pogey was not sufficient
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+Unemployment Relief Camps
n Set up by PM R.B. Bennett
n Men worked on public works projects (ex: building roads) for $0.20 per day plus room and board
n Tariffs were kept high to protect Canada’s staple products
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+On-to-Ottawa Trek
n Thousands of relief camp workers boarded trains in Vancouver for Ottawa
n Workers wanted “work with wages” or “real jobs”
n When they reached Regina they were stopped by the RCMP
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+Regina Riot
n Riot broke out after RCMP stopped On-to-Ottawa Trek
n More than 300 RCMP dressed in riot gear, 50 more on horseback
n Fought for more than 3 hours
n Dozens of “trekkers” were injured, one officer was beaten to death
n People turned in favour of Mackenzie King (away from Bennett’s policy)
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+Diversion – the Dionne Quintuplets
n 1934 five babies (quintuplets) were born near North Bay, Ontario
n First set of quintuplets to live more than a few days
n Ontario government took over the welfare of the Quints, sent to a nursery/hospital and cared for by a team of doctors and nurses
n Rarely saw their siblings and parents
n Tourist attraction – over $500 million gained from their exploitation
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