roaring or boring?

Culture of the 1920’s

The three focus areas are:

You will decide if the culture of the 20’s was roaring or boring!

1Mass Media and Celebrities 2Jazz Age and

society 3Women

Mass Media

Media (Medium)-any method of communication that reaches a large amount of people

1

Until the 1920s America had been a collection of regional cultures.

• Accents differed

• Customs differed

• Entertainment differed

Mass Media in the Jazz Age

Grow

th o

f Mas

s Med

ia Growth of the mass media helped form a common American popular culture during the 1920s

•Results- Breaks down ethnic barriers to create national culture.

•Newspapers and magazines became popular

•Radio (fairly new at the time) became popular as well playing music, news, and commercials to Americans around the country

Effects of Mass Media

Showcased more entertainment, fashion, sports and sensational stories.

The New York DAILY MIRROR“90% entertainment, 10% information – and the information without boring you.”

Tabloids

In 1927 the first film with sound was made.

In The Jazz Singer, Al Jolson sang and theaterschanged to the new “talkies.”

Movies

Celebrities

Greta Garbo Charlie Chaplin Clara Bow-1st “it girl”

Marion Davies Rudolph Valentino Douglas Fairbanks

Other famous faces from the 1920’sCharles Lindbergh1st transatlantic solo flight son kidnapped

Amelia Earhartfirst woman to fly solo

across the Atlantic.

Jack Dempsey 1921 world heavyweight champion boxer

“Sultan of Swat” George Herman

“Babe” Ruth

Pottsville Maroons

On Dec. 6, 1925, the Pottsville Maroons beat the runner-up Chicago Cardinals at Comiskey Park 21-7 in what was widely believed to be the NFL championship game. At the time, the NFL was struggling to survive while college football was king. Pottsville then played the Notre Dame Four Horsemen in an exhibition game in Philadelphia. Experts believed the fledgling NFL was still decades away from competing with college football. But on a last-second field goal the Maroons helped legitimize the NFL by beating Notre Dame 9-7.

Pottsville MaroonsBefore the game the Frankford Yellow Jackets, the team that would later become the Eagles, protested to the NFL saying the Maroons were violating their “territory.” (The Maroons had beaten the Yellow Jackets, 49-0, to earn the right to play Notre Dame at Shibe Park, later Connie Mack Stadium.) Although no territory rule was ever produced and the Maroons had two affidavits from men who witnessed the phone conversation in which the Maroons’ owner was granted permission to play the game from the league, the NFL upheld the protest and suspended the Maroons, making them ineligible for the championship they had earned on the field. (STUPID EAGLES)

Pottsville Maroons

Pottsville Maroons

Notre Dame Four HorsemanThe Four Horsemen of Notre Dame comprised a winning group of players at the University of Notre Dame under coach Knute Rockne. They were the backfield 1924 football team. The players that made up this group were Harry Styuldreher, Don Miller, Jim Crowley and Elmer Layden.

“Outlined against a blue-gray October sky, the Four Horsemen rode again. In dramatic lore their names are Death, Destruction, Pestilence, and Famine. But those are aliases. Their real names are: Stuhldreher, Crowley, Miller and Layden. They formed the crest of the South Bend cyclone before which another fighting Army team was swept over the precipice at the Polo Grounds this afternoon as 55,000 spectators peered down upon the bewildering panorama spread out upon the green plain below”- Grantland Rice

2Jazz became a nationwide craze and the 1920’s came to be called the Jazz Age

Jazz Age and Society

Hotspots for jazz were Jazz Clubs.

Most clubs were found in Harlem, in New York City

Jazz Club

Duke EllingtonEllington's Music lives on today. His old recordings are still available

Even a century after his birth, Duke Ellington is still the king of jazz.

My candle burns at both ends; It will not last the night; But ah, my foes, and oh, my friends – It gives a lovely light.”

Edna St. Vincent Millay

The Lost Generation

What does Lost

Generation mean?

The term stems from a remark made by Gertrude Stein to Ernest Hemingway, “You are all a lost generation.”

Referred to a group of people disconnected from their country and its values.

F. Scott Fitzgerald (wife Zelda Sayre)

He and his wife were known for their public antics (swimming in fountains, riding on hoods of taxes, throwing wild parties).Wrote the Great Gatsby

Art of the Lost Generation:

Rockwell Kent

Georgia O’Keefe

Jazz Influences on Art

Artists were showing the rougher side of life.

The ‘Roaring Twenties’.

ART• Art Deco was the style in design and

architecture that marked the era. Starting from Europe, it spread to America towards the end of the 1920s, where one of the most remarkable buildings featuring this style was constructed as the tallest building of the time: the Chrysler Building.

• The forms of art deco were pure and geometric, even though the artists often drew inspiration from nature. In the beginning lines were curved, but later on rectangular designs became more and more popular.

Images courtsey of wikipedia at http://en.wikipedia.org

Harlem Renaissance (New Negro Movement)A literary and intellectual growth.

A new black cultural identity, a "spiritual coming of age" giving the black community its "first chances for group expression and self determination."

Chiefly literary (the birth of jazz is generally considered a separate movement) transformed social disillusionment to race pride.

Zora Neale HurstonShe gained fame during the Harlem Renaissance as a writer with hernovel, Their Eyes Were Watching God.

Harlem Renaissance defined:

Langston HughesHe was a poet, short story writer, journalist and playwright who gained fame during this time.

A new type of woman emerged during the 1920’s, breaking the mold!

3Women

Why is “Flapper” a historical 20th century term?

The word Flapper comes from the word and the image of the movie “The Flapper” which starred Olive Thomas, Clara Bow, Louise Brooks, Colleen Moore, and Joan Crawford.

John Held, Jr (cartoonist) depicted the style and intent of the Flapper. Held drew Flappers wearing their unbuckled galoshes which would make a flapping sound while she walked.

Free Movie!!!

Go to IMDB and you can watch this movie for FREE!!!!

Why so rebellious?While movies depicted their style and advertised their purpose it was the Gibson Girls who gave Flappers direction.

Gibson Girls were the rebellious women who gained popularity in the 1880s to the early 1900s.

creation of illustrator Charles Dana Gibson. The ideal woman. -tall, slender, and big bosomed.

Piled her long hair on her head to expose her graceful swan like neck. Back then, that was enough to get a gentleman’s heart pumping. *used to sell everything from saucers and tea cups to pillow covers and fans.

Who were they?

Prohibition enticed them…Testing the waters and defying federal law were something these ladies exercised freely.

They drank as they pleased and broke as many laws as they felt comfortable breaking.

They were unlike generations of women who had been docile and obedient to the household.

These women set the wild atmosphere for the 1920s and are a contributing factor to women’s rights.

After WWI, Flappers expressed themselves without much repression. WWI opened opportunity for women to work while men fought overseas.Trench warfare indirectly changed our society as large numbers were slaughtered and American Culture grew mortified with loss. Americans became more apathetic towards morals.When the man returned from overseas women were pushed into unemployment.

Development in American Culture

Bored and agitated with the grief of war flappers—partied their young lives awayFrederick Lewis Allen wrote “they found themselves expected to settle down into the humdrum routine of American life as if nothing had happened, to accept the moral dicta of elders who seemed to them still to be living in a Pollyanna land of rosy ideals which the war had killed for them. They couldn't do it, and they very disrespectfully said so.” in his novel about the 1920s.• America was growing up.

How did we go from here?

To here?

Pretty lady, what’s your name?

Flappers shocked their Gibson Girl mothers:

They drank and smoked, favored the single life, Wore make up and bobbed their hair, and dressed in groundbreaking fashion.

They created their own dance , had their own unique slang , defied any authority. Bold enough to drive Ford cars (without any prior permission or driving education)

May I have a word with you?

Snugglepup- a man who frequents petting parties Barney-mugging- sexy“ask a man about a dog”- going to buy whiskey Handcuff, manacle- engagement/wedding ring Bimbo- a tough guy Butt me- I’ll take a cigarette Bird- to describe an odd man or a women Don’t take any wooden nickels- don’t do anything dumb You slay me- that’s funny“ That’s so Jake”, “that’s the bee’s knees”, and “the cat’s pajamas” were used to express approval.

Slang of the 20’s