Cover Slide
The American
Pageant
Chapter 31
American Life in the
"Roaring Twenties,"
1919-1929
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Babe Ruth
Babe Ruth
Babe Ruth had widespread appeal as one
of the country's first sports superstars.
Here a photograph of his mighty home
run swing appears on a school notebook,
showing the new link between sports and
consumerism. (Private Collection)
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Blues by Archibald Motley, 1929
Blues by Archibald Motley, 1929
This painting by the African American artist Archibald Motley represented the "AshCan" style, which considered no subject too undignified to paint, as well as the
sensual relationship between jazz music and dancing within African American
culture. (Collection of Archie Motley and Valerie Gerrard Browne. Photo courtesy
of The Art Institute of Chicago.)
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Christmas in Consumerland
Christmas in Consumerland
Giving a modern twist to an ancient
symbol, this advertising catalog of the
1920s offered an enticing array of new
electric products for the home. (Strong
Museum)
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Clarence Darrow at the Scopes Evolution trial
Clarence Darrow at the Scopes Evolution trial
Clarence Darrow's (at left) passionate devotion to freedom of thought, led him to the
courtroom pictured here, in defense of John Thomas Scopes, a teacher accused of
teaching the theory of evolution. (Library of Congress)
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Culver City population
Culver City population
Wide highways, cheap land, and affordable housing allowed automobile commuters
to move to the urban periphery. In this photo, young women wearing 1920s flapperstyle outfits celebrate the phenomenal growth of Culver City, outside Los Angeles.
Notice the strong presence of the motor car. (Security Pacific National Bank
Collection, Los Angeles Public Library)
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Dolly making radio history, 1925
Dolly making radio history, 1925
In 1925, to promote the Ringling Brothers Barnum & Bailey Circus, radio station
WJZ in New York City offered an hour-long broadcast of circus sounds, including
the bellowing of Dolly, a 2-year-old elephant. ()
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F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald on the Riviera, 1926
F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald on the
Riviera, 1926
While Fitzgerald chronicled the 1920s in
his fiction, he and Zelda lived the high
life in New York and in Europe. (Stock
Montage)
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Flapper sheet music: Oh! You Have No Idea
Flapper sheet music: Oh! You Have No
Idea
This 1928 novelty song, arranged for the
newly popular Hawaiian ukulele, included
the lyrics: "Has she the lips the boys
adore? Does she know what she's got'm
for? Oh! You have no idea." (Picture
Research Consultants & Archives)
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Ford ad
Ford ad
Henry Ford constantly worked to reduce
car prices on his cars. He also promoted
installment buying, promising in this ad
that "with even the most modest income,
[every family] can now afford a car of
their own." This ad also encouraged
impulse buying: "You live but once and
the years roll by quickly. Why wait for
tomorrow for things that you rightfully
should enjoy today?" (Library of
Congress)
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Ford Highland Park assembly line, 1928
Ford Highland Park assembly line, 1928
Pictured here is the assembly line for Model-A Fords, at Ford's main assembly plant in 1928.
Assembly line workers quickly perform the same task on car after car as the chassis moves past
them at the rate of six feet per minute. Ford pioneered the assembly line as a way to reduce
both cost and dependence on skilled workers. He paid the highest wages in Detroit but required
complete obedience from his workers, even to the point of prohibiting whistling while at work.
(From the Collections of Henry Ford Museum & Greenfield Village)
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General Electric ad
General Electric ad
Electric appliances became
commonplace in the 1920s and advanced
the consumer economy. Note here the
obvious link between a daughter and her
mother, whose domestic tasks appear to
be made easier and more appealing by an
electric range, a vacuum cleaner, and an
iron. (Picture Research Consultants &
Archives)
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July 4 at Nantasket Beach, Massachusetts, early 1920s
July 4 at Nantasket Beach, Massachusetts, early 1920s
Hundreds of identical Fords jam Nantasket Beach near Boston on a Fourth of July in
the early 1920s. ()
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Ku Klux Klan pamphlet: "America for Americans"
Ku Klux Klan pamphlet: "America
for Americans"
This image is from a Ku Klux Klan
pamphlet published in the mid-1920s,
when the Klan claimed as many as five
million members nationwide. The Klan
portrayed itself as defending traditional,
white, Protestant America against Jews,
Catholics, and African Americans.
(Private Collection)
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Ku Klux Klan parade in Washington, D.C., September 13, 1926
Ku Klux Klan parade in Washington,
D.C., September 13, 1926
In a brazen display of power, the Ku
Klux Klan organized a march in the
nation's capital in 1926. By this time, the
Klan was already in decline. ()
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Life cover, July 1, 1926
Life cover, July 1, 1926
On the one hundred and fiftieth
anniversary of the Declaration of
Independence, Life magazine presented
this cover, which parodied the famous
painting, the Spirit of '76. The Spirit of
‘26 depicts an uninhibited flapper, a jazz
saxophonist and drummer, and banners
with the snappy sayings of the day. The
caption reads: "One Hundred and Fortythree Years of LIBERTY and Seven
Years of PROHIBITION." (Private
Collection)
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Lindbergh
Lindbergh
In a celebrity-obsessed decade,
Lindbergh rocketed to instant fame after
his 1927 solo transatlantic flight.
(National Archives)
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Listerine ad
Listerine ad
Advertising promised that those who
used Listerine to eliminate halitosis
would gain friends and even romance.
(Courtesy Warner-Lambert Company)
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Los Angeles with cars
Los Angeles with cars
In the 1920s, civic leaders in Los Angeles cultivated an image of perpetual sunshine,
warm weather year-round, and abundant water. This photo from the late 1920s
includes some of these and more--the personal automobile, a sporty touring car with
its top down, and wide boulevards lined with palm trees and other semitropical
vegetation to emphasize the warm climate. (Los Angeles Public Library)
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Louis Armstrong
Louis Armstrong
Louis Armstrong, born in 1900, first
began to play the trumpet in New
Orleans but emerged as a leading
innovator in jazz after 1924, when he
joined Fletcher Henderson's orchestra in
New York. Some of his recordings from
the 1920s are among the most original
and imaginative contributions to jazz.
(Frank Driggs Collection)
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Lynching protest parade, Washington, D.C., 1922
Lynching protest parade, Washington, D.C., 1922
African Americans intensified their efforts to put an end to lynching. This protest
parade was held in Washington, D.C., in 1922. The NAACP's efforts to secure a
federal antilynching law, however, were repeatedly defeated by southerners in
Congress. (UPI/Bettmann)
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Margaret Sanger leaving court of Special Sessions after arraignment
Margaret Sanger leaving court of
Special Sessions after arraignment
Margaret Sanger is seen here in 1916,
leaving court after being charged with
distributing birth control information
illegally. During the Progressive Era,
women worked to remove legal barriers
to obtaining information on preventing
conception. (Smith College Collection,
Smith College)
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Mexican Americans enjoying their automobile ride
Mexican Americans enjoying their automobile ride
The spread of automobile culture in the early twentieth century gave a new freedom
and mobility to many women, particularly the young and urban. (Courtesy of the
Arizona Historical Society/ Tuscon AHS#62669)
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Mexican workers in California
Mexican workers in California
This photo, taken around 1920, depicts Mexican American workers laying irrigation pipe in
Ventura County, California. Immigration from Mexico increased significantly during the 1910s and
1920s, due to improvements in transportation within Mexico and to the social and economic
dislocations produced by revolution and civil war in Mexico. By the 1920s, Mexicans made up
much of the workforce in California agriculture. (Los Angeles Public Library)
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Moviemaking at Warner Brothers
Moviemaking at Warner Brothers
Pioneering in sound films in a movie-mad decade, Warner Brothers Pictures earned
profits of more than $17 million in 1929.
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Poster: Birth of a Nation
Poster: Birth of a Nation
D. W. Griffith's epic film glorified the
racist Ku Klux Klan. President Woodrow
Wilson called it "history written with
lightning." (Picture Research
Consultants & Archives)
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Radio ad
Radio ad
Between 1922 and 1930, the number of
families owning radios swelled from
60,000 to almost 14 million.
Manufacturers such as RCA produced a
variety of sizes and shapes and took out
full-page advertisements in popular
publications to inform the public about
the latest development in design and
technology. (Library of American
Broadcasting, University of Maryland at
College Park)
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Sheet music: O! Close the Gates
Sheet music: O! Close the Gates
Anti-immigrationists used songs, as well
as speeches and posters, to promote their
cause. This 1923 tune urges the
government to "Close the Gates" lest
foreigners betray the hard-won rights of
Americans and "drag our Colors down."
(National Park Service Collection, Ellis
Island Immigration Museum)
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Survey Graphic cover, March, 1925
Survey Graphic cover, March, 1925
This was the cover of a special issue of
Survey Graphic published in March of
1925. A popular magazine of the period,
Survey Graphic devoted the entire issue
to Harlem and the emergence of a new
consciousness among its AfricanAmerican residents. (Survey Graphic
1925)
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The Desso family of Beaumont and their touring car, 1920
The Desso family of Beaumont and their touring car, 1920
During the 1920s, the desire to own an automobile spread to members of all classes,
races, and ethnic groups. Low prices and available credit enabled this family from
Beaumont, Texas, to own a "touring car." (Tyrrell Historical Library)
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The Weary Blues
The Weary Blues
This is the original cover for The Weary
Blues, the first book of poetry by
Langston Hughes, published in 1926.
Hughes later wrote that the book
included some of the first blues that he
had ever heard, dating to his childhood
in Lawrence, Kansas. Both the reference
to the blues in Hughes's poetry and the
cover design for the book evoke the
connection between music and poetry
that was part of the Harlem Renaissance.
(Picture Research Consultants &
Archives)
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Valentino in Son of the Sheik
Valentino in Son of the Sheik
Rudolph Valentino, the leading male
movie star of the 1920s, starred in such
costume epics as The Sheik and Son of
the Sheik. This poster advertises Son of
the Sheik, which appeared after
Valentino's death in 1926, at the age of
31, from complications following the
removal of his appendix. (Billy Rose
Theatre Collection, The New York Public
Library)
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Video: Model T Ford
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Model T Films
(1913. Archive Films.)
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