THE 1920S
TECHNOLOGY

Electricity:

Homes: By 1929 two-thirds of American households
had electricity.
 Appliances - refrigerators, vacuum cleaners &
toasters
Workplace:
Power-driven machinery
Community:
Theaters & streetlights
TECHNOLOGY


Mass Production: Made US the greatest economic
power
Automobiles: Ford Model T
 Homes:
 Workers’
homes could be farther from jobs (suburbs)
 Visits by family and friends & vacations (leisure time)
 Community:
 New
roads and highways
 Relocation of businesses (large department stores)
CONSUMER SOCIETY

New Marketing techniques
- A willingness to spend
money!

Advertising:
Manufacturers needed to
convince Americans who had
been raised to value thrift,
that spending for the present
was preferable to saving for
the future
 Jingles on the radio, print ads
filled newspapers and
magazines

HTTP://WWW.YOUTUBE.COM
/WATCH?V=FFZZ6IZLLWO
Wheaties broke new ground when the
world's first singing commercial was
performed on Christmas Eve,
1926.The four male singers, who
came to be known as the Wheaties
Quartet, warbled the jingle:
“Have you tried Wheaties?
They're whole wheat with
all of the bran.
Won't you try Wheaties?
For wheat is the best food
of man.”
http://www.old-time.com/commercials/1920's/Wheaties.html
CONSUMER SOCIETY

Sports became an American obsession
A
new luxury which was a combination of more
leisure time, more money, easy credit,and freedom
of roads
 Babe Ruth - baseball (Yankees), Red Grange football (Univ. of Illinois), Jack Dempsey - boxing,
Gertrude Ederle - swam across the English Channel
(21 miles) in 1926
http://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=z7Ab8HmUmR0
CONSUMER SOCIETY

Radio, Newspapers, and Movies


Standardized News - people were tempted to read
paper because of tabloids
Radio: 1st broadcast was in Nov. 1920. 700 stations
in 1927

Weekly shows like “Amos and Andy” & News like coverage of
Charles Lindbergh’s non-stop flight across the Atlantic
Movies -
http://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=nlM60Nwc6CE
•Charlie Chaplin was most
popular silent film star
•1927 1st talkie was “The
Jazz Singer” with Al Jolson
•1928 “Steamboat Willie”
was the 1st Mickey Mouse
cartoon
1920S FASHION
1920S FASHION – THE MEN




Stemmed from sports or gangsters
Wanted to appear “dapper.”
Baggy pants, polished shoes, and a handkerchief in
the pocket
The baggy zoot suit worn for fancy occasions
FLAPPERS

F. Scott Fitzgerald said
"lovely, expensive, and
about nineteen.“

Rebelling from societal
norms

Short Sleek hair, short
shapeless dresses, lots of
makeup

Frequenters of nightclubs
1920S FASHION – THE FLAPPER
FLAPPERS
The Playful flapper here we see,
The fairest of the fair.
She's not what Grandma used to be, -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.
She nightly knocks for many a goal
The usual dancing men.
Her speed is great, but her control
Is something else again.
All spotlights focus on her pranks.
All tongues her prowess herald.
For which she well may render thanks
To God and Scott Fitzgerald.
Her golden rule is plain enough Just get them young and treat them
rough.
WOMEN
Opportunities for greater education
 Gained the right to vote in 1919 with the
19th Amendment

PROHIBITION

18th Amendment outlawed the
transporting, selling, manufacturing of
Alcohol.

Widely ignored

Lead to Organize Crime
THE 1920S NIGHT CLUB
“SPEAKEASIES”
• Offered an intense experience
• Entertainment tended toward adult fare
• “Alcohol" was central to the experience.
• The Night Clubs also had their dark side.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=rARN6agiW7o
ART & MUSIC SHAPED THE JAZZ AGE

Lost Generation
 Rejected
societies values
 The only possible salvation came
from art
 F.
Scott Fitzgerald - The Great Gatsby
 Ernest Hemingway - The Sun Also Rises
 William Faulkner - The Sound and the
Fury
 T.S. Eliot & Robert Frost - poets
ART & MUSIC SHAPED THE JAZZ AGE

Harlem Renaissance

Literary and artistic movement led by welleducated and talented middle-class African
Americans who expressed a new pride in the
African American experience.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vPJuFxl
0bxY