 Fad: PEZ
In 1927 in the country Austria, Edward Haas came up with this new peppermint candy.The word
PEZ comes from the German word for peppermint (pfefferminz). It was an adult breath mint that
he decided to market as an alternative for smoking. From the word pfefferminz they took the
first, middle and last letter and came up with the word PEZ.
PEZ was carried around in pocket tins. Then in 1948 they came out with the "easy, hygenic
dispenser" that we all recognize now to be a regular. In 1952 PEZ wanted to expand their sales
so they set their sights on the U.S.A., to make their product more appealing to Americans. They
placed heads on the dispensers and marketed it for children.
In 1973 PEZ built their U.S. plant that is located in Orange, Ct. In 1983, Mr. Scott McWhinnie
became "PEZident" of PEZ here in the U.S. In 1990 the size of the plant was doubled. It
operates 24 hours a day. In 1987 feet were added to the base of the dispenser. To date PEZ
has made about 300 different dispensers.
Scott McWhinnie, "pez-ident" and CEO of Pez Candy, says Pez dispensers are sold in more
than 60 countries and that in the US each year, "more Pez dispensers are sold than there are
kids." He attributes his product's success and "continuous growth" to a synergistic effect
between the "great-tasting" candy and its collectible, fun dispenser. Still widely available at
supermarkets and other stores, a dispenser and three rolls of candy now costs $1.49. The 50thanniversary commemorative dispenser sells for $19.52.
d
 Fad: Dance Marathons
In the early 1930s, during the height of The Depression, young people across America
gathered to participate in Dance Marathons.
These endurance contests offered the unemployed hopes of temporary fame, small fortune, and
the opportunity to dance their cares away. Prizes ranged anywhere between $1000 to $5000,
but many contestants participated solely for the promise of food and shelter. Serious
competitors danced for days, even weeks at a time. The record stands at 5,148 hours and 28.5
minutes. The contestants were usually allowed a mere 15 minutes of rest for every hour of
dancing. Success came to those who had the ability to keep their partner moving at all times;
style was irrelevant.
Due to potential health risks, police and health officials attempted time and time again to shut
down these contests. Two contestants literally danced to their deaths right on the dance floor.
The dangers, however, did not stop couples from participating, nor spectators from coming to
witness others dance themselves to utter exhaustion. The competitions continued on until the
early 1940s. For the unemployed, these tests of stamina and displays of fatigue provided an
escape from the dreariness and hopelessness of The
Depression.
Most of the music that was played was slow, but once or twice an
hour they would pick up the beat (called Sprints) and they were
required to dance the dance of the music, sometimes for extra
cash or prizes. The general rule was you could not fall asleep,
while some contests allowed one part of the team to sleep so
long as the other held them up, kept in contact and / or kept
moving.
As time in the contest continued, resting times would go from
the 1st week - half hour, 2nd week to fifteen minutes, then ten
minutes, then five minutes, then three minutes to none, while
some marathons would be danced sixty minutes then rest for
fifteen. There were many variations, but you get the idea.
The marathon consisted of a emcee, a Band and or phonograph player, a Nurses, inhouse
Doctor, a few cots, a dance floor, Contestants, Barbers, >Manicurists and Podiatrists, etcetera.
Some contestants were professional dancer/actors. Not all entrants were there to win, some
were placed (staged) in the contest to later get into a fight (Jerry Springer type) or some kind of
entertainment to draw interest and draw the paying audience, as well as having "fixed" type
entertainment like modern day wrestling on television. Dance marathons eventually turned into
walk-a-thons, being that you had to dance part of the hour and walk another part of the hour,
eventually they became just walking the whole time.
The longest running dance marathon lasted for 22 weeks and 3 1/2 days. Some dancers
would do many things to help them continue, one ladies success was due to "Pickling her feet"
before the contests (yes, just like making pickles). Some marathons would allow you to switch
partners with another contestant within a certain time period >if your partner dropped out or quit,
feel asleep etc. with another who's partner did same. Dance marathons were eventually
outlawed (called Blue Laws) in most states due to the unhealthy condition they would put the
contestants in and yes, some even died doing them.
 Fad: Flag Pole Sitting
His name was Alvin Kelly but he was best known as "Shipwreck"
Kelly. Employed as a professional stuntman in Hollywood, Kelly
decided to attempt to sit on a flagpole in response to a dare from a
Hollywood friend. He sat upon the pole for 13 hours and 13
minutes and began a national spectacle.
Kelly's stunt occurred in 1924 and within weeks hundreds of
people were trying to call themselves the "King of the Pole." One
man sat for 12 days, another for 17 and another for 21 days. Public
fascination was phenomenal as huge crowds would gather to
watch the participant. With such a large audience, the publicityhungry Kelly decided that he must once again be King. In Atlantic
City, New Jersey, Kelly sat atop a flagpole for a record 49 days in
front of an audience of 20,000 admirers.
Flagpole sitting died out around 1929 with the coming of the
Depression, but during its time, it certainly caught the nation's
fancy.
Flag-pole-sitting
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Pole-sitting is the practice of sitting on a pole for extended lengths of time, generally used as a
test of endurance. A small platform may be placed at the top of the pole.
Pole-sitting is related to the ancient ascetic discipline of Stylitism, or column-sitting. Famous
column-sitters include St Simeon Stylites the Elder (c. 388-459) of Antioch (now Turkey) who
sat on a column for 36 years.
The world record for pole-sitting was set during the World Championship by Daniel Baraniuk,
from Gdańsk, Poland, who sat on a 16-by-24-inch platform on an 8-foot pole for 196 days from
May 15, 2002 to November 26, 2002. Short breaks were allowed every 2 hours.
Flagpole-sitting was a fad from 1924 to 1929. The fad began when a friend dared stunt actor
Alvin "Shipwreck" Kelly to sit on a flagpole. Shipwreck's initial 1924 sit lasted 13 hours and 13
minutes. It soon became a fad with other contestants setting records of 12, 17 and 21 days. In
1929, Shipwreck decided to reclaim the title. He sat on a flagpole for 49 days in Atlantic City,
New Jersey, setting the enduring record. The fad died out after 1929.
This fad eventually reached shipwreck imitators and at one point in 1929 Baltimore had at least
17 boys and 3 girls sitting on 18 foot hickory poles while thier family and friends cheered them
on.
 Fad: Peanut-Butter & Jelly
In 1903, Dr. George Washington Carver began his peanut research at Tuskeegee
Institute in Alabama. While peanut butter had already been developed by then, Dr.
Carver developed more than 300 other uses for peanuts and so improved peanut
horticulture that he is considered by many to be the father of the peanut industry.
C.H. Sumner was the first to introduce peanut butter to the world at the
Universal Exposition of 1904 in St. Louis. He sold $705.11 of the treat
at his concession stand and peanut butter was on its way to becoming an American
favorite!
Krema Products Company in Columbus, Ohio began selling peanut butter in 1908 ~
and is the oldest peanut butter company still in operation today. Krema's founder,
Benton Black, used the slogan, "I refuse to sell outside of Ohio." This was practical
at the time since peanut butter packed in barrels spoiled quickly and an interstate
road system had not yet been built.
In 1922, Joseph L. Rosefield began selling a number of brands of peanut butter in California.
These peanut butters were churned like butter so they were smoother than the gritty peanut
butters of the day. He soon received the first patent for a shelf-stable peanut butter which would
stay fresh for up to a year because the oil didn't separate from the peanut butter.
One of the first companies to adopt this new process was Swift & Company for its E.K. Pond
peanut butter ~ renamed Peter Pan in 1928. In 1932, Rosefield had a dispute with Peter Pan
and began producing peanut butter under the Skippy label the following year. Rosefield created
the first crunchy style peanut butter two years later by adding chopped peanuts into creamy
peanut butter at the end of the manufacturing process.
In 1955, Procter & Gamble entered the peanut butter business by acquiring W.T. Young Foods
in Lexington, Kentucky, makers of Big Top Peanut Butter. They introduced Jif in 1958 and now
operate the world's largest peanut butter plant ~ churning out 250,000 jars every day!
 Fad: 3-D
The first presentation of 3D films before a paying
audience took place at the Astor Theater, New York, on
June 10, 1915. The program consisted of three onereelers, the first of rural scenes in the USA, the second a
selection of scenes from Famous Players' Jim, the
Penman (US '15), with John Mason and Marie Doro, and
the third a travelog of Niagara Falls. The anaglyphic
process used, developed by Edwin S. Porter and W.E.
Waddell, involved the use of red and green spectacles to
create a single image from twin motion picture images
photographed 2½ inches apart. The experiment was not
a success. Lynde Denig wrote in Moving Picture World:
"Images shimmered like reflections on a lake and in its present form the method couldn't be
commercial because it detracts from the plot."
The first 3D feature film was Nat Deverich's 5-reel melodrama Power of Love (US '22), starring
Terry O'Neil and Barbara Bedford. It premiered at the Ambassador Hotel Theater, Los Angeles,
on September 27, 1922. Produced by Perfect Pictures in an anaglyphic process developed by
Harry K. Fairall, it related the adventures of a young sea captain in California in the 1840s. The
only other American feature in 3D prior to Bwana Devil (US '52) was R. William Neill's Mars, aka
Radio Mania (US '22), with Grant Mitchell as an inventor who succeeds in making contact with
Mars via television. It was produced in Laurens Hammond's Teleview process.
The first feature-length talkie in 3D was Sante Bonaldo's Nozze vagabonde (It '36), starring
Leda Gloria and Ermes Zacconi, which was produced by the Società Italiana
Stereocinematografica at the Cinee-Caesar Studios. The 3D cameraman was Anchise Brizzi.
The first feature-length talkie in color and 3D was Alexander Andreyevsky's Soyuzdetfilm
production Robinson Crusoe (USSR '47), starring Pavel Kadochnikov as Crusoe and Y.
Lyubimov as Friday. The process used, Stereokino, was the first to successfully dispense with
anaglyphic spectacles. Developed by S.P. Ivanov, it employed what were known as "radial
raster stereoscreens"—a corrugated metal screen with "raster" grooves designed to reflect the
twin images separately to the left and right eye. The most difficult technical problem
encountered during the production of Robinson Crusoe was persuading a wild cat to walk along
a thin branch towards the camera. After five nights occupied with this one scene, the
cameraman succeeded in getting a satisfactory shot. The effect, according to accounts, was
riveting, the animal seeming to walk over the heads of the audience and disappear at the far
end of the cinema.
The first 3D feature with stereophonic sound was Warner Brothers'
House of Wax (US '53). When it was premiered at the Paramount
Theater, New York, with 25 speakers, the Christian Science Monitor
was moved to deplore the "cacophony of sound hurtling relentlessly at
one from all directions". André de Toth, director of the movie, may have
been able to hear the cacophony, but was unable to see the 3D effect,
as he only had one eye.
During the 3D boom that began with the low-budget Bwana Devil (US
'52), over 5,000 theaters in the US were equipped to show 3D movies,
but the fad was short lived. 3D production figures were: 1952—1;
1953—27; 1954—16; 1955—1. In addition there were 3D movies
produced in Japan, Britain, Mexico, Germany and Hong Kong, but many
of these (as well as some of the US productions) were released flat.
Sporadic production resumed in 1960 with the first Cinemascope 3D
movie, September Storm (US '60), since when there have been 54
further three-dimensional films.
 Fad: Slang
The twenties were the first decade to emphasize youth culture over the older generations, and
the flapper sub-culture had a tremendous influence on main stream America; many new words
and phrases were coined by these liberated women. Many of these are still used today!
Ab-so-lute-ly - affirmative
Caper - a criminal act or robbery
All Wet - describes an erroneous idea
or individual, as in, "he's all wet."
Carry a Torch - To have a crush on
someone
And How - I strongly agree!
Cash - a kiss
Applesauce- an expletive same as
“phooey”, As in "Ah applesauce!"
Cash or check? - Do you kiss now or
later?
Attaboy - well done!; also Attagirl!
Cat's Meow - Something splendid or
stylish; similar to bee's knees; The best
or greatest, wonderful.
Baby - sweetheart. Also denotes
something of high value or respect.
Cat's Pajamas - Same as cat's meow
Balled Up - confused, messed up
Cheaters - Eyeglasses
Baloney - nonsense!
Check - kiss me later
Bank's Closed - no kissing or making
out - i.e. - "Sorry, Mac, the bank's
closed."
Ciggy - cigarette
Bearcat - a hot-blooded or fiery girl
Beat it - scam or get lost
Beat one's gums - idle chatter
Bee's Knees - An extraordinary person,
thing, idea; the ultimate
Beef - a complaint or to complain
Beeswax - business, i.e. None of your
beeswax."
Berries - That which is attractive or
pleasing; similar to bee's knees, As in
"It's the berries."
Bible Belt - Area in the South and
Midwest where Fundamentalism
flourishes
Big Cheese - The most important or
influential person; boss. Same as big
shot
Clam - a dollar
Copacetic - Wonderful, fine, all right
Crush - An infatuation
Daddy - a young woman's boyfriend or
lover, especially if he's rich
Dame - a female
Dapper - a Flapper's dad
Darb - An excellent person or thing (as
in "the Darb" - a person with money who
can be relied on to pay the check)
Dead soldier - an empty bear bottle
Deb - an debutant
Dogs - feet
Doll - an attractive woman
Dolled up - dressed up
Big six - a strong man; from auto
advertising, for the new and powerful;
six cylinder engines
Don't know from nothing - don't have
any information
Bird - general term for a man or woman,
sometimes meaning "odd," i.e. "What a
funny old bird."
Double-cross - to cheat, stab in the
back
Blind Date
- going out
with someone
you do not
know
Bluenose An excessively
puritanical person, a prude, Creator of
"the Blue Nozzle Curse."
Don't take any wooden nickels Don't do anything stupid
Dough - money
Drugstore Cowboy
- a guy that hangs
around on a street
corner trying to pick
up girls
Dry up - shut up, get lost
Ducky - very good
Bootleg - illegal liquor
Breezer - a convertible car
Bull - (1) a policeman or lawenforcement officer including FBI (2)
nonsense (3) to chat idly,
Bull Session - Male talkfest, gossip
Bum's rush – tossed out by force from
an establishment
Bump Off - To murder, To kill
Butt me - I'll take a cigarette
Visit the following website for more 1920’s slang:
http://local.aaca.org/bntc/slang/slang.htm
[up]
 Fad: Miss America Pageant
The Miss America competition originated on September 7, 1921, as a
two-day beauty contest in Atlantic City, New Jersey. The event that
year was still called the Atlantic City Pageant, and the winner of the
grand prize, the 3-foot Golden Mermaid trophy, wasn't even called
"Miss America" until 1922, when she re-entered the pageant. The
pageant was initiated in an attempt to keep tourists in Atlantic City after
Labor Day weekend.
By 1921, East Coast newspapers were looking for ways to increase
their circulation. Newspaper organizations decided to sponsor
photographic popularity contests from among their readership and awarded their respective
winners with an all expense paid trip to the Second Annual Fall Frolic. Once there, frolic
organizers placed the young women in an "Inter-City Beauty" contest in which the judging was
largely based on their general appeal in appearance, personality, conversations with the judges,
and interactions with the crowds. In order to build hype, the women were later put in the running
for the Golden Mermaid trophy given to "The Most Beautiful Bathing Girl in America." Margaret
Gorman swept both events. By September 1922 she became known as "Miss America." In the
ensuing years it would grow and reflect some of the most powerfully held attitudes towards what
it meant to be an ideal American woman.
The pageant was a product of its times. In the decades just prior to its creation, there was a
marked transformation around women's roles in society. The years from 1900 to 1920 were rich
with expanding social, political and cultural activity for women. As America moved headlong
from the Victorian to the modern age, a new image for women developed, symbolizing the
changing times. According to leading magazines and periodicals of the time, the modern woman
was vigorous. She exercised and was encouraged to eat right. This was an unprecedented
break from the rigorously controlled physicality prescribed for the ideal 19th century woman,
with its emphasis on delicacy and fragility.
The first pageant winner reflected these changes in attitude towards beauty. Margaret Gorman
was girlish and wholesome-looking. She also bore a striking resemblance to silent screen star
Mary Pickford, who was just achieving fame as 'America's Sweetheart'. Samuel Gompers, head
of the American Federation of Labor, noted in the New York Times, "She (Margaret Gorman)
represents the type of womanhood America needs; strong, red-blooded, able to shoulder the
responsibilities of home-making and motherhood. It is in her type that the hope of the country
resides."
Despite the best efforts of the pageant officials, the pageant gained a reputation for being a little
risqué. Annual protests from women's and religious groups questioned the morality of a beauty
contest that featured bobbed hair and bare limbs. In 1928, the protestors won, and the pageant
was discontinued as commercial supporters withdrew in response to accusations that the
pageant lacked decorum.
Miss America
1921
Miss America
1922-23
Miss America
1924
Miss America
1925
Miss America
1926
Miss America
1927
 Fad: Miniature Golf
In the early 1900's, miniature golf was actually the short game of regulation golf. The name
quite frequently used in the early years was "Garden Golf" and it was
played with a putter on real grass. In the 1920's & 30's, "rails" or "bumpers"
started to appear, confining the ball within a boundary. The playing surface
was changed to hard-pressed cottonseed hulls, which created a smoother
putting surface. The game of minigolf was extremely popular among movie
stars and celebrities, which helped spawn new links all across the nation.
During the 1930's, there were approximately 30,000 links throughout the
country with over 150 rooftop courses in New York City alone. The American population was
hooked on miniature golf, as not only a leisure time game, but also a sport that any gender, any
age could excel without any handicap or without being a well-conditioned
athlete.
Miniature Golf Courses are not the first business that most people think
of when they consider early roadside commercial establishments. But
mini-golf courses were among the first businesses to dot the roadscape
in the mid-to-late 1920s. There are two main eras of development for
miniature golf courses. In the late 1920s, mini-golf was a craze. The
sport appealed to amateur and professional golfers--- women, men, and
children. Courses sprouted up on empty lots in the city, on rooftops, in resort areas, and in
basements across Kentucky. By the 1930s, however, the craze had fizzled out, due to the
effects of the Great Depression. There are very few courses extant from this era.
Miniature golf rose to popularity in the late 1910s and early 1920s as a
way for early golf fanatics to replicate major golf courses on a small scale.
The game was commonly called "garden golf," and was played with a
putter on grass. Thomas McCulloch Fairbairn, a golf fanatic,
revolutionized the game in 1922 with his formulation of a suitable artificial green—a mixture of
cottonseed hulls, sand, oil, and dye. With this discovery, miniature golf became accessible
everywhere; by the late 1920s there were over 150 rooftop courses in New York City alone.
Mini golf amounted to a popular culture craze in the first years of the Depression but its
popularity waned dramatically by 1935 or so.