+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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