boom times economic prosperity 1922-1929 new technology new production methods new business...
TRANSCRIPT
Boom Times
Economic Prosperity
1922-1929
• New Technology
• New Production Methods
• New Business Practices
• New Consumers
The economy is driven by the AUTO
Model T (1908-1927) 15,000,00040% of sales 1926
Stop and Reflect
• List everything in your neighborhood dependent on the automobile.
• glass, steel, rubber
• concrete and asphalt roads
• gas stations, mo-tels, roadside business
• camp grounds / tourism
• suburbs• chain stores
Electrify !!• By 1927, 70-80% of mechanical energy is
supplied by electricity
• Nightlife!!• Magazine Sales• New appliances
Appliance Companies• American Flyer• Bissell• Black &
Decker• Carrier• Electrolux• Eveready• Frigidaire• General Electric• Hamilton Beach• Hoover• Hotpoint• Kelvinator• Kitchen Aid• Lionel• Maytag• Proctor-Silex• Roper• S. C. Johnson• Schick• Singer• Sunbeam• Tappan• West Bend• Westinghouse
Do you have any products from these?
Communications
•Radio– Harding’s election results
• He’s a listener
– Coolidge speaks to 23 million
• first presidential speech on radio
– RCA founded– 500 stations by 1922
– FDR’s “Fireside Chats”, later
1. Children’s Stories
2. Stories
3. Music
4. News
Movies• Silent Films
• 1st “talkie” The Jazz Singer
MOVIE PALACES
also, vaudeville remains popular
Top 10
• The Big Parade (1925) • The Four Horsemen of the
Apocalypse (1921) • Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ
(1925) • The Ten Commandments
(1923) • What Price Glory? (1926) • The Covered Wagon (1923) • Way Down East (1921) • The Singing Fool (1928) • Wings (1927) • The Gold Rush (1925
Stop and Answer
• What are the significant new technologies of the 20’s? Any others?
• What are the innovations that will drive our next big economic boom?
AUTOMOBILES, ELECTRIFICATION, RADIO AND MOVIES
New Production Methods
• Assembly Line– Moving line perfected by Ford 1913– adopted by other manufacturers– Benefits
• costs of production are lowered• less skilled workers required• Increased employment for managers and clerical
workers• Assembling the Model T, 1916
• Scientific Management– Frederick Winslow Taylor– Raise production by analyzing worker tasks. – Revise tasks for optimal performance.
• Productivity increases up to 60%
(All these new methods really create more than Americans can consume.)
New Business Models
• Bigger Businesses– “economies of scale”– CORPORATIONS
• a legal entity with stockholders• able to raise capital to grow the business
– Management and Ownership separated• new levels of management needed “white
• clerical opportunities for women collar”
New Consumers
• Improved transportation– suburbs– chain stores
WHAT ABOUT WAL-MART?
• Credit– Installment plan
• autos• household appliances
– Jobs in sales skyrocket
• Advertising– Becomes a major industry– Creating demand for the products of American
industry– Magazine prices fall from 35¢ to 5¢
• (Increases in advertising pay costs)
ConsumerismAdvertising
Credit
Overproduction
All this comes stumbling to a halt following the Stock Market
Crash in 1929
• Have we seen evidence that might help us predict the Great Depression?
• What happened??????
overproduction, credit, loss of small business
REVIEW- What elements define the 1920’s BOOMTIMES?
New Technology __________________ __________________ __________________
New Production Methods __________________ __________________
New Business Models __________________ __________________
New Consumer Behaviors __________________ __________________
• Connect this to what you already know about the 20s.– Rise of Nativism– Red Scare– Prohibition– Labor Unrest– Farm Problems– Isolationism– Conservative
Government
Contradictory Trends Underlie the “Jazz Age”