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1920’sAn Era of Violence? The wild hedonism of the 1920’s reflected a collective loss of innocence, as did the era’s violence – the parade of storm troopers, the fascist “squadri,” and leftist street brawlers in Europe. In the United States, the gangsters and the marching of the KKK down Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington DC also reflected the feelings of loss and fear American’s felt.
Al Capone and the Mafia With the age of telephone and radio communication dawning as it was during the Jazz Age, it spawned not only convenience for everyday life, but for the organizing of crime syndicates as well. Chicago's bloody history during the Jazz Age, is a testimony to the failure of prohibition laws introduced in 1919. The St. Valentine's Day massacre is not noteworthy for its uniqueness of gangland murder, for these syndicate 'hits' were common throughout the 1920s, especially in Chicago. What makes the murders so special on this occasion was the effect it had on the entire Unites States public, and the outrage that followed emphatically pronounced that something had to be done. The Al Capone story is really a study of power, where power corrupt is turned to power absolute. It isn't entirely necessary to understand Al Capone's history to appreciate the gangland politics of the St. Valentine's Day Massacre. However, the events leading up to it are intertwined with Capone's history.
Al Capone and the Mafia Capone was born in New York in 1899 and lived his youth there. He apprenticed in the ways of racketeering under the guidance of Johnny Torrio. The Torrio-Capone empire began in Cicero, a township south of Chicago which at the time was less integrated with Chicago as it is today. The South-Side of Chicago eventually became under their control. Their approach, “Do favors for favors.”
St. Valentine’s Day Massacre • "Only Capone kills guys like that!", said Bugs Moran after learning that seven of his men had been killed in a warehouse on Clark Street.
One February evening in North Chicago, seven well-dressed men were found riddled with bullets inside the S.M.C Cartage Co. garage. They had been lined up against a wall, with their backs to their executioners and shot to death. With the exception of Dr. Reinhardt H. Schwimmer these men were mobsters working under the leadership of gangster and bootlegger, "Bugs" Moran. • Within a few seconds, while staring at a bare brick wall, these seven men had become a part of Valentine's Day history: the St. Valentine's Day Massacre.
1920’sAn Era of New Laws?Prohibition The passing of Prohibition in 1919 signaled a change in society’s acceptance of “immoral” behaviors but propelled society into a swirling trend towards the disregard for authority and rules. Breaking the rules, in fact, became the norm and an exciting way of life. See Prohibition power point.
1920’s An Era of New Laws19th Amendment The passing of the 19th Amendment signaled a change in society’s views of women but failed to change the role women played in any more than a superficial manner. Sure women had the vote and the voice to speak out, but they did not receive the “equality” they sought.
The Flapper • The flapper 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. • However, flappers did more than symbolize a revolution in fashion and mores – they embodied the modern spirit of the Jazz Age.
The Role of Women • For women many of the social freedoms turned out to be limited. Single women in large numbers moved into office, sales, and service jobs during the 20’s. • Yet employers continued to assume women were in the labor force only until they were married firing women when they did wed. • Many jobs were refused to women.
The 1920’sAn Era of Shared Culture? • Suddenly American’s had shared heroes, common products, similar values, “vanilla” towns – a “national culture.” • Heroes helped American’s define themselves, whether they were marvels of aeronautics, swingers of the bat, or visions on the movie screen. • Commercialization became the way of the future and people recognized products by their name (kleenex), purchased the same goods from the A&P grocery store across the nation, and joined in the conspicuous consumption promoted by the “buy on time” mentality of the decade.
Charles Lindbergh On May 20, Lindbergh took off in the Spirit of St. Louis from Roosevelt Field, near New York City, at 7:52 A.M. He landed at Le Bourget Field, near Paris, on May 21 at 10:21 P.M. Paris time (5:21 P.M. New York time). Thousands of cheering people had gathered to meet him. He had flown more than 3,600 miles (5,790 kilometers) in 33 1/2 hours. Lindbergh's heroic flight thrilled people throughout the world. He was honored with awards, celebrations, and parades. President Calvin Coolidge gave Lindbergh the Congressional Medal of Honor and the Distinguished Flying Cross.
Somewhat off-course, she landed in an open field near Londonderry in northern Ireland. On climbing from her plane a man approached. She asked: "Where am I?"...the man replied "in Gallegher's pasture...have you come far?"..."from America", she replied. Amelia Earhart • By early 1932 no other person had successfully flown solo across the Atlantic since Lindbergh. • Earhart would not duplicate Lindbergh's course but would fly from Harbour Grace, Newfoundland with the British Isles as her destination. • On May 20, 1932, exactly 5 years after the Lindbergh flight, Earhart's modified Lockheed Vega began the journey. Earhart prided herself on traveling light...a thermos of soup and a can of tomato juice would sustain her.
Baseball Stars Babe Ruth Ty Cobb
Movie Stars America flocked to the movies to see the Queen of Hollywood, their sweetheart and the most popular star of the generation - "Our Mary" Mary Pickford, who was married to another great star, Douglas Fairbanks Sr. Their wedding in March, 1920 was a major cultural event. The greatest male attraction in exotic, adventurous romantic pictures was handsome, hot-blooded Italian import Rudolph Valentino. Dubbed the "Latin Lover," the matinee idol symbolize the forbidden and mysterious eroticism denied to American women.
1920’s An Era of Differing Beliefs? • Scopes Trial: 1924 – 1925 Fundamentalist legislators in at least twelve states introduced laws to ban the teaching of evolution in the public schools. • KKK – using mass-marketing techniques, it recruited new membership bring the numbers to between 4 – 9 million people. • Red Scare – begins with the overthrow of Russian and a fear that communism and/or socialism would take over America. All unconventional ideas were denounced as radical. “New thinkers and intellectuals” became disillusioned and often became ex-patriots.
Sacco-Vanzetti The Sacco-Vanzetti case remains in its broad outline the prime example of defendants tried not for what they did, but for whom they were: poor, passionate radicals, in an era in which the United States lived in a state of fear. It was the era of "The Red Scare." "This is what I say: I would not wish to a dog or to a snake, to the most low or misfortunate creature of the earth --- I would not wish to any of them what I have had to suffer for things that I am not guilty of. But my conviction is that I have suffered for things that I am guilty of. I am suffering because I am a radical and indeed I am a radical; I have suffered because I was an Italian, and indeed I am an Italian; I have suffered more for my family and for my beloved than for myself; but I am so convinced to be right that if you could execute me two times, and if I could be reborn two other times, I would live again to do what I have done already.
The 1920’An Era of Possibilities Bound to End • The Economy Inspires Trust • Wonderful Prosperity – market value in 1925 was $27 million, by 1929 it reached $87 billion. • Real wages (what people could actually buy) increased by more than 40%. • Confidence in business • Welfare Capitalism – organized labor lost membership (red scare) and the new approach to labor relations was welfare capitalism (raised wages, benefits, paid vacations, health plans, and English classes for immigrants).
