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1920s Street Scene. The Jazz Age. Going to the Movies Wishing on the Stars: growth of Hollywood influence Escaping together New American Heroes : Sports & Individual Triumphs From Babe Ruth to Charles “Lucky Lindy” Lindbergh New Rhythms in the Air: Jazz, Blues, and the Charleston
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The Jazz Age • Going to the Movies • Wishing on the Stars: growth of Hollywood influence • Escaping together • New American Heroes: Sports & Individual Triumphs • From Babe Ruth to Charles “Lucky Lindy” Lindbergh • New Rhythms in the Air: Jazz, Blues, and the Charleston • The Harlem Renaissance, “A Literary & Artistic Movement” • Proclaimed that African Americans would no longer accept second-class citizenship in any area of American life
Time to Read….& Advertise • Americans had more time on their hand and more education that any previous generation • Mass Media: the methods by which information and entertainment are transmitted to large numbers of people; includes newspapers, TV, and radio • Books, Magazines, Newspapers • Syndicates: chains of newspapers under centralized direction • Editorials, sports, gossip, and Sunday features • Tabloid Newspapers: attempted to sell papers by publicizing scandals or fads
New Era of Consumer Goods • B/w 1923 and 1929, American workers saw their real income rise 11% • Now Americans had more than enough money to live on and they could buy more of the goods they produced • The decade began with a short but sharp economic depression in 1921 • Unemployment that year reached 5.73 million; for the rest of the decade, it hovered around 2.5 million • Wage increase seen in: manufacturing and public education; but income decreased in mining and agriculture
New Consumer Goods Using Ice for Packaging Food New Type of Packaging
New Household Products Vacuum Cleaners Washing Machines
Improved Standard of Living For Some…. The Model T…. • In the 1920s, many middle-class American consumers improved their standard of living* • *The material well-being of the individuals or groups in a society • Necessities and luxuries were more available and affordable • In 1927Americans owned 4 out of 5 of the world’s cars, averaging 1 motor vehicle for every 5.3 persons
Poverty Poverty For the Rest of America….. • Low wages unemployment combined to drive many American families into poverty • Farmers and other workers suffered when the goods they produced dropped in price • Hardships for coal miners and textile workers as occurred in the 1920s • Electricity & Fashion are evil!!! • For the first time in a century, overall factory employment decreased • A third of American families lived below minimum levels for a decent life
The Lost Generation • Materialism: society placed more importance on $ and material goods than it did on intellectual, spiritual and artistic concerns • Leaving the US Behind: • Expatriates moved to Europe: • Gertrude Stein, Ernest Hemingway, and F. Scott Fitzgerald • Criticizing the US from within: • John Dos Passos, Sinclair Lewis, H.L. Mencken
Clashing Cultures Farming & Agriculture Electricity • In 1920s, electrical current needed to run machines became more widely available, not just in the houses of the wealthy, but also in the homes of many average Americans • Rural America, especially in the South were not electrified for years
Clashing Cultures Tradition New-Age • Rural people, especially in the South and Midwest, remained faithful to their churches • When large #s of farmer migrated to cities during the 1920s, they brought fundamentalism with them – it helped to make sense of their new lives • Evangelists– modern aspects of fundamentalism • Used radio to reach people • The Scopes Trial • Evolution vs. The Bible • Fundamentalism: a movement that affirmed the literal truth of the Bible
Automobile Industry • Garages, filling stations, hot dog stands, restaurants, tearooms, tourists’ roadside camps –all sprang into existence only after the automobile industry • Changed the face of the country
Highways & Roadways • Villages along the new automobile routes thrived • Villages along the railroad lines began to disappear • At the end of WW1, the US had just 7000miles of concrete roads • By 1927, a network of 50,000 miles was growing at the rate of 10,000 miles each year Automobility
Effect of Auto-mobility Road-Side Tourist Lodge Gas Station
Leisure Time Coney Island Family Sunday
New Fads Flagpole Sitting Contests Dance Marathons
Selling America, “New Ways To Buy” Chain Stores Corner Stores • In 1918, there were 29,000 such stores • By 1929 there were 160,000 • Lost their main advantage of convenience w/ the automobile and people started to go to chain stores
Chain Stores A & P Safeway
Chain Stores Piggly Wiggly JC Penney’s
New Ways of Buying • In 1928, 85% of furniture, 80% of phonographs, 75% of washing machines and radios, and 70% of refrigerators were bought on credit* • *Putting money down and paying the balance in installments
Advertising a New Lifestyle • A premium was placed on youth – adults tried acting like children instead of young people modeling themselves on their elders • Youth came to mean stylishness – young people became the models for fashion, dress, music and language
1921: Electrolux Vacuum Cleaners and Chanel No. 5 Perfume Perfume Vacuum
