SOCIETY

1. SOCIETY

2. the 1920s were years of contrasts, conflict and change in the burgeoning cities members of the Women’s Christian Temperance Union lobbied to ban gambling, drinking, theatre attendance, and public dancing meanwhile, down the street, young people would be drinking and dancing to the wild new sounds of jazz nightclubs and burlesque shows were also popular The Roaring 20s: changing social attitudes

3. after the post-war recession, Canada’s economy appeared to boom new inventions and new forms of popular entertainment swept the country these challenged old values and led to bold – often defiant – attitudes and outlooks

4. The Roaring 20s: overview • Why did they roar? • a release of pent up frustration after years of war • newly (and gradually) won rights and influence for women • controversy over alcohol • Jazz music, dancing and Flappers • political change for a young nation • new prosperity for some, labour unrest for others • new technologies

5. The Roaring 20s: economic growth • after the immediate post-war recession, the economy improved gradually with the introduction of new technologies, the increased exploitation of natural resources, and the expansion of infrastructure

6. the automobile was now mass produced on the assembly line • as car use expanded other peripheral (spinoff) industries grew • private automobile ownership soared

7. The Roaring 20s: new technologies • technological advances vastly increased the pace of life • car, phone, electricity, air mail, radio, movies

8. The Roaring 20s: innovations • Ted Rogers created first AC radio and founded a radio station • Canadians would soon spend 3-4 hours • a day listening to radio • electricity too became part of everyday life • electric stoves, washing machines, vacuum cleaners etc. made lives easier • telephones soon reached many households

9. The Roaring 20s: a new vocabulary • Every generation creates new words • Period Slang • Giggle water • Flat tire • Hoofer • Cat’s meow • Crush • Hip • Bump-off • Spiffy • Jalopy • Big cheese • scram

10. housework and childcare were the major concern of married women a variety of modern appliances was available to the Canadian housewife (but in reality these luxuries were not accessible to most women) for those who possessed these innovations, the time saved from domestic chores was to be used to better care for husbands and children nevertheless, as she became less isolated (due to radio, telephone, automobile), the role of the housewife was changing The Roaring 20s: women’s work • the participation of women in the workforce had only increased marginally since the Great War • almost 90% of working women were single (many employers still required women to resign when married) and young (over half were between 20 and 30 years of age) • very few women had entered the professions (law, medicine) • women received lower wages than men (earning about 55% of the pay earned by their male counterparts)

11. Jazz was the hot new music that defined the Roaring Twenties created by African-American musicians in Louisiana, jazz had roots in ragtime and vaudeville it swept like wildfire into the expanding urban centres of the northern United States and into the growing Canadian cities along the American border The Roaring 20s: Flapper culture

12. by the 1920s, jazz radio broadcasts and gramophone recordings were immensely popular the hottest ticket in town would be a live performance by a local jazz band The Roaring 20s: Jazz Louis B. Armstrong

13. the new music and dance crazes poured into Canada from the United States: the Charleston and the Black Bottom were two of the most popular the flapper embodied the freewheeling attitude of American music and dance • flappers were fashionable young women who defied the old conventions of proper “feminine” behaviour • they scandalized the public by abandoning Victorian-era padded clothes (corsets)

14. at nightclubs they would dance the newest dance crazes in beaded dresses that went only to the knee Flappers also cut their hair into “boyish” bobs, shortened their skirts, smoked in public, drank alcohol, and drove their own cars the free-spirited flapper seemed to suggest that total female emancipation was at hand, in truth advances in women’s rights were slow in developing and did not bring revolutionary change to the dynamics of society (marriage, housework, and motherhood continued to dominate women’s lives) The Roaring 20s: women on the move

15. The Roaring 20s: communications Communications changed the world! • radio in particular became very influential and ended rural isolation (by 1929 there were 300,000 radios in Canada) • Radio dramas • - “The Shadow” • Symphony • Jazz music • Motion pictures • Sports (NHL Hockey)

16. The Roaring 20s: urbanization • Canadians continued to flock to cities • for some the city represented a place of corruption where American values predominated

17. The Roaring 20s: arts and culture • Canada witnessed a blossoming of domestic culture Humourists Emily Carr Painters Stephen Leacock Group of Seven

18. The Roaring 20s: Group of Seven • art reflecting the robust Canadian landscape • wilderness scenes represented the spirit of a new Canada free from colonial ties • possessed a violent flavour (in colour and form) and yet this modern art was both nostalgic and nationalistic • the artists and their works were troubled by the materialism of new society

19. The Roaring 20s: culture • Canada was greatly influenced by the explosion of culture in the United States which largely overshadowed developments here • 90% of Canadians live within 100 miles of the U.S. border (then & now) • some Canadians made their way to (and fortune in) America “America’s Sweetheart”

20. The Roaring 20s: promoting a Canadian identity • Canadian Author’s Association (1921) • RCAF: Royal Canadian Air Force (1924) • Statute of Westminster (1931) • CRBC: Canadian Radio Broadcasting Company (1933) • CBC: Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (1936) • NFB: National Film Board (1939)