The Roaring 20’s Webquest
Section 1: Movies in the 1920s: http://www.filmsite.org/20sintro.html
1. Describe films of the 1920s (be specific!)
2. What were the Big 5 movie studios? Circle the ones on your paper that you recognize as still around today.
3. Locate at least one film in which the following actors and actresses starred in (write them on your paper):
 Douglas Fairbanks, Sr.:
 Greta Garbo:
 Lon Chaney:
 Janet Gaynor:
 Charlie Chaplin (Press the NEXT arrow at the bottom of the page and scroll down):
4. Click on “Part 3” at the bottom and scroll down to “The Jazz Singer: The World's First 'Talkie’…what is
groundbreaking about this film?
5. Go to http://www.tcm.com/mediaroom/video/299765/Jazz-Singer-The-Movie-Clip-You-Ain-t-Heard-Nothin-Yet.html
And watch the video (after the ad). What is going on? What is the name of the song?
Section 2 Inventions: https://www.timetoast.com/timelines/inventions-in-the-1920s
6. Click through the dots to answer these questions.
Who invented a traffic light?
What was invented July 22, 1921?
What year was the bulldozer invented?
What was Kool-Aid’s original name?
Section 3 Automobiles: http://www.history.com/topics/henry-ford Watch the video.
7. What was Henry Ford’s contribution to transportation in America?
8. How did he change the assembly line to make it more efficient?
9. What did the automobile now cost because of this?
Section 4 Slang: http://local.aaca.org/bntc/slang/slang.htm
10. Define the following slang terms, and find 2 of your own you thought were funny! Copy this chart on your paper.
Bearcat=
Goofy=
Cat’s meow=
Juice joint=
Clam=
Dry up=
Section 5 Women: https://sites.google.com/a/uconn.edu/the-roaring-20s/page
11. Describe a “flapper.” What contributed to the evolution of this “new type of woman” (be specific)?
Section 6: Harlem Renaissance Video >>> http://www.history.com/topics/black-history/harlem-renaissance
12. Describe the Harlem Renaissance.
13. Why did Harlem become the epicenter of this artistic explosion?
14. What is Shuffle Along?
Section 7 Literary Movement: http://www.poetryoutloud.org/poet/langston-hughes
15. Who was Langston Hughes?
16. Click the link, “The Negro Speaks of Rivers.” This is one of Hughes’ earliest poems. Read it and explain what you
think it is about. (DO NOT SAY “RIVERS”)
Section 8 Jazz Age: https://sites.google.com/a/uconn.edu/the-roaring-20s/evolving-music
17. How did the way to record music change music?
18. Where was jazz music born?
19. What influenced jazz music?
Section 9: Louis Armstrong: http://www.biography.com/people/louis-armstrong-9188912
20. Watch the video. Write down 3 thing that Armstrong did to impact jazz music.
21. https://vimeo.com/5336946 Watch the video. What Louis Armstrong song is this? What is it about?
Section 10: Tin Pan Alley: http://www.songwritershalloffame.org/exhibits/eras/C1002
22. What is Tin Pan Alley and what is the theory about how it got that name?
Section 11 Irving Berlin https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irving_Berlin
23. Who was Irving Berlin?
24. Click on “Various Hit Songs by Berlin.” What well-known patriotic song did Berlin write? What day did it debut on
and what was that celebrating?
Section 12 Scopes’ Trial: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/monkeytrial/peopleevents/p_scopes.html
25. Explain what happened in the Scopes’ Trial (charges and outcome)
Section 13 Prohibition and Organized Crime: http://blogs.archives.gov/prologue/?p=8258
26.
27.
28.
29.
What was the Volstead Act?
How did Prohibition backfire? What was the intention and what actually happened?
How did ‘bootleggers’ transport their illegal substances across state lines?
How many agencies were created to try and enforce this act?
Section 14 Al Capone: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VzfWQ7TRF8w
30. Explain Capone’s early life and rise to organized crime power
31. What happened at the St. Valentine’s Massacre
32. How did Capone finally get arrested?
Section 15 Roaring 20’s: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VfOR1XCMf7A
33. Explain why the time period can be called the “Roaring Twenties.”