THE JAZZ AGE
Flapper Culture & Style
"They're all desperadoes, these kids, all of them with any life in
their veins; the girls as well as the boys; maybe more than the
boys."
--- from "Flaming Youth," by Warner Fabian
The flapper, whose antics were immortalized in the cartoons
of John Held Jr., was the heroine of the Jazz Age. With short
hair and a short skirt, with turned-down hose and powdered
knees - the flapper must have seemed to her mother (the
gentle Gibson girl of an earlier generation) like a rebel. No
longer confined to home and tradition, the typical flapper was
a young women who was often thought of as a little fast and
maybe even a little brazen. Mostly, the flapper offended the
older generation because she defied conventions of acceptable
feminine behavior. The flapper was "modern." Traditionally,
women's hair had always been worn long. The flapper wore it
COVER BY JOHN HELD JR.
short, or bobbed. She used make-up (which she might well
apply in public). And the flapper wore baggy dresses which often exposed her arms as well as
her legs from the knees down. However, flappers did more than symbolize a revolution in
fashion and mores - they embodied the modern spirit of the Jazz Age.
In her own way, the silent film star Louise Brooks was very
much part of the Jazz Age. Her rise as a personality and as a
film star was in keeping with the central phenomenom of the
flapper era - the worship of youth. Brooks' exuberant social life
echoed the flamboyant tenor of the times, while her social circle
included the notable figures who helped define the era - such as
the composer George Gershwin and the writers F. Scott
Fitzgerald, Robert Benchley, H.L. Mencken and Anita Loos.
Prior to her career in Hollywood, Brooks briefly appeared in
such New York stage productions as the George White Scandals
and Zeigfield Follies. Her tenure on stage (and later in the
movies) brought her into contact with the wealthy, the artistic
and the socially glamourous figures of the 1920's.
LOUISE BROOKS,
1920's ADVERTISEMENT
She was painted by Vargas, photographed by Edward Steichen, and served
as the inspiration for John H. Striebel's long running flapper-inspired
cartoon, "Dixie Dugan." During the 1920's, Brooks was also a model, and
appeared occassionally in fashion ads. Her sleak looks and signature bob
helped define the flapper look.
As an actress, Brooks' first on-screen role as a flapper was in the 1926 film
A Social Celebrity. Brooks would also play flapper-like characters in Love
'Em & Leave 'Em (1926) and Rolled Stockings (1927). However, to the
public at large, actresses like Colleen Moore, Joan Crawford (star of the
popular 1928 film Our Dancing Daughters) and Clara Bow (the so-called
"It" girl) would symbolize the "actress as flapper."
DIXIE DUGAN
Along with popular and now mostly forgotten authors of the time - such as Elinor Glyn
(author of It) and Percy Marks (author of The Plastic Age), the one writer most identified with
the roaring 20's is F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896 - 1940). A handsome and gregarious man,
Fitzgerald became famous with the publication of his first novel This Side of Paradise (1920).
The author was among the first writers to draw attention to the new post-World War I
sophistication, particularly such phenomena as petting parties and youthful love affairs.
Fitzgerald's books were such a success that he became a kind of king to American youth; his
queen was his beautiful, witty (and emotionally unstable) wife Zelda.
This royal celebrity couple became nearly as well known for their
mapcap antics as for his writing. One famous incident involved them
splashing in a public fountain. They also rode on the hoods of taxis,
disrupted plays by laughing at the sad parts and weeping over jokes,
and entertained lavishly (during Prohibition) at drunken parties. To
foot the bill for their extravagant lifestyle, Fitzgerald wrote dozens of
short stories for the leading magazines of the day. Both his stories and
his novels record - and partly served to create - the period.

Fitzgerald's novels include The Beautiful and the Damned
(1922) and The Great Gatsby (1925). His best known short
SCOTT & ZELDA
story is certainly "Bernice Bobs Her Hair," which is included
in Flappers and Philosophers (1920). Other story collections include Tales of the Jazz
Age (1922) and All the Sad Young Men (1926). Over the last few years, Scribners has
reissued Fitzgerald's books with smart looking period covers. Also recently issued is
The Jazz Age (New Directions, 1996), which gathers Fitzgerald's reportage on the
period.
THE FLAPPER
by Dorothy Parker
The Playful flapper here we see,
The fairest of the fair.
She's not what Grandma used to be, --
Besides the well known and often
quotable Dorothy Parker (1893 1967), one other writer whose
novels, movie scripts and other
writings capture the spirit of the
times is Anita Loos (1893 - 1981).
While still a schoolgirl, Loos made a
She nightly knocks for many a goal
resolution never to be bored. Years
The usual dancing men.
later, to offset the tedium of a
Her speed is great, but her control
ANITA LOOS
traintrip, she began sketching a
Is something else again.
story about a gold-haired girl
All spotlights focus on her pranks.
named Lorelei Lee. The sketch grew into the book
All tongues her prowess herald.
Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1925), which became
For which she well may render thanks such a bestseller it was even serialized in Chinese.
To God and Scott Fitzgerald.
Two of Loos' Jazz Age classics, Gentlemen Prefer
Blondes and the sequel But Gentlemen Marry
Her golden rule is plain enough Brunettes (1928) have been reissued by Penguin.
Just get them young and treat them
Amusing period pieces, these two short novels are
rough.
written as the "diaries" of a flapper who travels to
Europe, meets "everyone" and returns to America to
marry a millionaire. Later, Loos also authored a number of volumes of autobiographical
essays and memoirs such as A Girl Like I (1966), Kiss Hollywood Goodbye (1974) and others.
Long out-of-print, each contains a handful of references to Louise Brooks and other
personalities of the roaring '20's.
You might say, au contraire.
Her girlish ways may make a stir,
Her manners cause a scene,
But there is no more harm in her
Than in a submarine.
Further information on the youth culture of the period can be found in Paula S. Fass' The
Beautiful and the Damned: American Youth in the 1920's (Oxford, 1977).
Another good source on the broader social history of the period is Elizabeth Stevenson's
Babbits & Bohemians: The American 1920's (Macmillian, 1967), as well as Frederick Lewis
Allen's well known and often reprinted Only Yesterday (Harper, 1931).One recent book which
takes a look at the Jazz Age is Ann Douglas' fascinating Terrible Honesty (Farrar Straus
Giroux, 1995). Subtitled "Mongrel Manhattan in the 1920's," this book contains a handful of
references to Louise Brooks.
The cartoon at the top of this page is by John Held, Jr
(1889 - 1958). More than any other illustrator, Held's
comic art captures the style and exuberant tenor of the
time. If F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote the dialogue for the era
- its been said - John Held Jr. drew its portrait. (Follow
this link to an image of two Fitzgerald books with Held
dustjackets.) And like Fitzgerald, Held depicted with
irony the superficial glitter of an age he nevertheless
loved. Held's work - which often depicted flappers and
their collegiate male admirers - frequently appeared in
such publications as Life, Vanity Fair, and The Smart Set.
One book on the artist is Shelley Armitage's illustrated
LOUISE BROOKS
biographical study, John Held, Jr.: Illustrator of the Jazz
Age (Syracuse University Press, 1987). Devotees of the era's comic art will also enjoy the two
volume paperback set Cartoons of the Roaring Twenties (Fantagraphics Books, 1992). Each
volume of this set contains hundreds of illustrations.
1920'S CARTOON BY LAUREN STOUT