Society in the 1920s

• Men came back from the war disillusioned

• Women gained some independence during the war

– many had entered the workforce

– all were given the right to vote tradition

– People starting questioning tradition

Flappers came to symbolize a new era of

freedom and

creativity

They were rebellious and energetic

they were bold

Grandma????????

• They disapproved of the way people behaved

• They disliked the way men flocked to them

1920s Fashions

1920s Fashions

How do we change teens?

• Change for women started in WW I

• When the 19th amendment was passed women will get the right to vote

• Hemlines rose from 9 inches above the ground to knee-length

• Amount of fabric in dresses changed from 19.5 yards to 7

• Women ‘bobbed’ their hair and heavy make-up

Society in the 1920s

• Women began wearing make-up

• Women began smoking and drinking in public

• Before this women were proper

• Parents were enraged, a rebellion

Society in the 1920s

Women’s Liberation - 1920’s Style

• Women were expected to quit when they married or became pregnant

• Women earned less than men in the same positions

• Not all women felt the same

• Women were still closed out of many professional positions

• Example - women doctors were only allowed to treat female patients

All we need is love

• All women did not agree with the new change or voting!

• 35% only went to the polls

• Many saw it as unprofessional

• Women won the right to vote in 1920

• Only about 35% of women initially voted

• Increased as women became used to the idea

So what do we vote on??

• most women had a hard time getting to the polls

• Families discouraged it

• Women, if they did vote what would vote on:– What their husband voted on– Women’s rights

Sheppard Town Act

• 1st federal welfare program to promote prenatal health and women’s health

ERA

• Equal Rights Amendment

• Jeannette Rankins- won the election for US House of Representatives

• In addition to social changes, the US started changing demographically

• Demographics are the statistics that describe a population, such as race, ethnicity, gender and religion

Major demographic change

• The major change for the United States was the movement away from the country side to a more urban area

• Why migrate??

MOVE

• Well, farmers started doing poorly after the war. WHY?

• Industrial and commercial economies were booming but rural America was not part pf it

• MORE JOBS

Come one, Come all, wait!!!

• As more people started moving into the small limits of the cities we had overcrowding problems

• Attendance at public schools went from 2.2 million to 4.4 million

• African Americans continued to migrate north as well because of industrial growth

• Jim Crow Laws in the south were discriminating and cutting off jobs

Society in Society in the 1920sthe 1920s

Was the North a Bowl of Candy?

• Blacks did not have it 100% better in the North

• Many whites criticized African Americans because they took their jobs away

• Cheap labor

• Because we limited immigration many factory workers hired Mexicans and Canadians for cheap labor

• Created barrios, or Spanish Speaking communities where migrants lived

• Very congested and dirty

Look at how Crowed!!

• Because the cities were over populated people started to look elsewhere to live

• Suburbs began to spring up

• Transportation will improve first with Electric Trolleys, then a bus system and later an affordable automobile

• Lucky Lindy flew across the Atlantic in 1927

• His flight was 33 1/2 hours long from NY to Paris for $25,000

• He inspired a generation of aviators, including Amelia Earhart

• Plane was the Spirit of the St. Louis

• 1st born was kidnapped and murdered

Society in the 1920s

First woman pilot

• Amelia Earhart, “America’s Fly Girl”

• First woman to fly over the Atlantic

• Professional and amateur sports flourished in the 1920s

• Babe Ruth set home run records of 60 in a single season and 714 in his career

• Jim Thorpe, a Native American, became a professional football player after having his Olympic medals stripped

• Jack Dempsey, professional boxer

Society in the 1920s

Sports in the 1920s

Babe Ruth Gertrude Ederle Jack Dempsey

THE JAZZ AGE AND MASS MEDIA

Section 2

Mass Media & the Jazz Age

Hollywood if she could

• Hollywood was a small quiet town

• Became popular because of the different landscapes in close proximity

• Film makers started traveling there

• Actors liked it

• Cecil B. DeMille rented a barn and began to produce silent movies

• The barn expanded into a huge movie studio

• It was located in a little known suburb of Los Angeles named Hollywood

Hollywood

Cecil B. DeMille Films:

Sign of the Cross

Cecil B. DeMille Films:

Unconquered

What is Mass Media

• It includes print, film and broadcasting methods

• It communicates to LARGE numbers of people

Before the Mass

• People knew little about what was going on around them

• Mass Media created a NATIONAL CULTURE

• Now people in one states could learn about another state be reading a newspaper or listening to the radio

• Between 1920 - 1930 the number of movie theaters quadrupled to 22,500 from 5,000

• Tickets sales averaged 80 million each week; the countries population was 125 million

• The countries first ‘talkie’ was The Jazz Singer in 1927, Al Jolson was the star

Mass Media & the Jazz Age

Movie Stars Greta Garbo & Lillian Gish

1920’s1920’sGlamourGlamour

GirlGirl

• Newspapers and magazines became larger, averaging over 50 pages in some from only 14

• Tabloids were popular for entertainment; they concentrated on sports, movies, and scandals and had few words and lots of pictures

• They replaced serious news with fun

• Many newspapers merged or were bought out by conglomerates

Mass Media & the Jazz Age

• Frank Conrad was an engineer from Westinghouse began broadcasting recorded music and baseball scores

• The world’s first radio station, KDKA of Pittsburgh, soon followed

• The National Broadcasting System (NBC) formed to link individual stations together

• Jazz began in New Orleans before the turn-of-the-century

• With the radio playing to millions, it would sweep the nation in the 1920s

• Duke Wellington wrote and performed over 1000 original songs

Where O Where Can Jazz Be??

How is it different??

• Jazz used improvisation, which was really just “feeling” the music

• No note sheets etc.

Black performers

played

jazz

for white

audiences

Most Jazz Clubs were in Harlem, New York.

Shall we dance???

• Many danced the Charleston which was filled with kicks, twists

• Wasn’t unusual to see in Harlem

• Paintings reflected old and traditional times– O’Keefe

Edward Hopper

The Jazz AgeThe Jazz Age• The “lost generation” was a group of

artists and writers that were disillusioned with America

• Disliked conservative politics, prohibition, consumerism, and conformity

• Most of them spent the 1920s in Europe

• The Great Gatsby was written about the self-centered, shallow people in the USA

The Jazz AgeThe Jazz Age

• In the Harlem Renaissance, people like Langston Hughes wrote about the difficulties of being black, being human, and being an American

• The following poem is entitled Cross, by Langston Hughes

My old man's a white old man

And my old mother's black.

If ever I cursed my white old man

I take my curses back.

If ever I cursed my black old mother

And wished she were in hell,

I'm sorry for that evil wish

And now I wish her well

My old man died in a fine big house.

My ma died in a shack.

I wonder were I'm going to die,

Being neither white nor black?

SECTION 3

Cultural Conflicts

• Prohibition

• Religion

• Racial Conflicts

Prohibition was supposed to cure the social evils of the time

Prohibition

• The 18th amendment outlawed the sale, use, and manufacture of alcohol

• People used homemade stills and made “bathtub gin” and the President did not follow the law!

• Bootlegging, or smuggling alcohol, became very profitable

Prohibition

• Did not stop people from drinking

• Helped to establish organized crime in the USA

• Was repealed with the 21st amendment in 1933

Prohibition

Main Goals

• 1. Eliminate drunkenness and family abuse

• 2. get rid of saloons, prostitution and gambling

• 3. prevent absenteeism from jobs and work-related accidents

You must obey

• The President himself was not following Prohibition

• Volstead Act was implemented to enforce the 18th Amendment

• The 18th Amendment split the country:– Only 5% of people in NY obeyed– Yet 95% of people in Kansas obeyed

The new criminal

• The bootlegger was the new criminal

• They sold illegal alcohol

• Some made it from food and others smuggled it from Canada and the Caribbean

Speakeasies

• They were places where people went to get illegal booze

• Most had gates where you would show your ID

• Most were disguised as flower shops etc

Come together

• Most criminals could not keep up with the demand

• They decided to merge

• Became so large that they bribed government officials and cops

• Begin of organized crime

• Al Capone- also known as Scarface murdered his way up the chain in Chicago

• The FBI was later created for the purpose of stopping organized crime

Religion

• Science and religion were in conflict

• Scientists believed in evolution, or the development of the world over time

• Fundamentalists interpret the bible literally; the bible says that the world was created by God in 6 days

• Clashes between the 2 groups continue to this day

Scopes Trial• John T. Scopes was arrested for

teaching evolution in the classroom in 1925

• He was found guilty and fined $100

• This ‘trial of the century’ was the 1st to be broadcast on the radio

• This sparked an intensive debate on the roll of religion in public education

Winner of the 1920Eugenics Society Perfect Baby

Contest

Racial Tensions

Racial Tensions• Race riots killed hundreds of

people in northern cities

• The KKK, which had died out after Reconstruction, was revived in 1915

• Between 1922-1924 its membership grew to 4 million

Racial Tension

• NAACP and other groups fought for anti-lynching legislation

• Marcus Garvey called for a separation of the races and urged African-Americans to return to Africa

Postwar Social Change

In spite of the many societal conflicts, the mood of the country was upbeat and hopeful, giving rise to the nickname

Music Credits:Music Credits:

• It Don’t Mean a Thing by Duke Ellington and Irving Mills

• Stormy Weather by Billie Holiday

• Mack the Knife by Louis Armstrong

• Dream a Little Dream of Me by Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong

The End!The End!