10.4 Cultural Innovations

1. 10.4 Cultural Innovations

2. I. Literature • Writers who were critical of American culture in the 1920s were known as the “Lost Generation” • Ernest Hemingway wrote The Sun Also Rises • F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote The Great Gatsby Hemingway’s book focused on how the war had shattered many people’s beliefs in traditional values of love, faith, and manhood, which caused them to feel as though they didn’t fit in to American materialistic society in the 1920’s. "They were careless people, Tom and Daisy- they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness or whatever it was that kept them together, and let other people clean up the mess they had made… I shook hands with him; it seemed silly not to, for I felt suddenly as though I were talking to a child. Then he went into the jewelry store to buy a pearl necklace – or perhaps only a pair of cuff buttons – rid of my provincial squeamishness forever.”- The Great Gatsby

3. II. Popular Culture • Economic prosperity provided Americans with more leisure time MOVIE “PALACES” WERE BUILT TO ENHANCE THE MOVIE GOING EXPERIENCE

4. The movie palaces had vast & opulent accommodations including imperial staircases, kingly restrooms, gilded ornaments, marble staircases, crystal chandeliers, & ceilings painted with epic murals.

5. II. Popular Culture… B. Golden age of Hollywood began in 1927 with the production of the first “talkie” The Jazz Singer

6. II. Popular Culture… C. Mass media of the 1920s helped unify the nation & spread new ideas & attitudes

7. II. Popular Culture… D. Americans eagerly followed sports & sports figures

8. BASEBALL, FOOTBALL, BOXING, TENNIS, GOLF AND OTHER SPECTATOR SPORTS GAINED HUGE FOLLOWINGS IN THE 1920s Jack Dempsey Bobby Jones On the battlefield, in the factory production line, at home in a city apartment, and increasingly even in the business world the individual was becoming lost in a welter of the hive. The sporting field was one of the few remaining areas of pure individual expression where success or failure depended precisely upon individual physical and intellectual prowess. And if the masses themselves could not or would not participate directly they could at least, by a process of identification, salute the old virtues. - George E. Mowry, The Twenties: Fords, Flappers, & Fanatics Oscar Charleston Babe Ruth Helen Wills Gertrude Ederle

9. Babe Ruth •He was one of the first five players elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame •He was the first player to hit over 30, 40 and 50 home runs in one season •Hit 60 home runs in the 1927 season •Member of the original American League All-Star team in 1933 •In 1969, he was named baseball's Greatest Player Ever in a ballot commemorating the 100th anniversary of professional baseball •In 1998, The Sporting News ranked Ruth No. 1 in its list of "Baseball's 100 Greatest Players. “Every strike brings me closer to the next homerun.” Babe Ruth

10. Oscar Charleston •His career batting average was .353 and he regularly finished among league leaders in both homeruns and stolen bases •He served as a player and/or manager for the ABCs, Chicago American Giants, St. Louis Giants, Harrisburg Giants, Philadelphia Hilldales, Pittsburgh Crawfords, and other Negro League teams •In 1999, he ranked Number 67 on The Sporting News list of the 100 Greatest Baseball Players

11. Jack Dempsey •Boxer who held the world heavyweight title between 1919 and 1926 •Widely regarded as the greatest heavyweight champion of all time •Twenty-six of his opponents were knocked out in round one

12. Gertrude Ederle •In 1926, at the age of 19, she swam across the English Channel (35 miles) in 14 hours and 30 minutes (2 hours faster than any of the five men who swam it before her) •She was one of the first women that helped disprove the belief that women were physically inferior to men "When somebody tells me I cannot do something, that's when I do it,"GERTRUDE EDERLE

13. Helen Wills • One of the greatest female tennis players of all time • Won 31 Grand Slam titles during her career, including seven singles titles at the U.S. Championships, eight singles titles at Wimbledon, and four singles titles at the French Championships. • Won two Olympic gold medals in Paris in 1924

14. Bobby Jones • Won his first U.S. Open in 1923, and then went on to win 13 major championships in 20 attempts • He was the first player to win the double (both the U.S. Open and the British Open) in the same year, 1926 • Only player ever to have won the Grand Slam in the same year