1920s Popular Culture

Consumerism: New Culture of Consumers1. 1920s economic boom.

a. The average Per Capita income grew by 30%

2. Largely because theEuropean Economywas destroyed byWorld War I.

• New technological inventions allowed goods to• be made quicker/cheaper.• a. Henry Ford and the Assembly Line• 5. Boost in economy and• invention of many• household appliances• created more leisure time• for men & women.

The Radio

1. KDKA in Pittsburgh, first radio station, starting in 1920.

2. By 1922 that number had grown to 600

3. Popularity grew quickly, becomes primary source of home entertainment.

4. Between 1923 and 1930, 60% of Americans purchased a radio.

Hollywood

1. By the early 1920s Hollywood was the film capital of the worlda. Nickelodeons were escapist entertainment for the working-class.2. Films were used as a platform to address “risqué” issues (sex, birth-control, violence, divorce)

3. By the middle of the 1920s about half the countries population went to the movies weekly (50 million people).

4. Late 1920s and the “talkies”

Charlie Chaplin: Comedy Rudolph Valentino: Romance & Drama

Clara Bow: Romance

Formation of the Teenage Culture

• 1. Fewer children had to work to support their families, teens weren’t being forced into marriage at 16 or 17and teens were staying in school longer• 2. The automobile!• 3. Teens could now go on dates

The “Golden Age” of Sports

• 1. Sports became another form of entertainmentfor the masses.2. More free time allowed peopleother than just the wealthy to play/watch sports

Dempsey v.Carpenter

College Football

CharlesLindbergh

Babe Ruth

Jazz

• 1. Jazz was born in New Orleans in the early 1900s, but quickly spread throughout the country• 2. The phonograph

4. 1920’s dances, like the Charleston and the Black Bottom.

5. Prohibition and the advent of the speakeasy provided many opportunities for Jazz musicians

Louis Armstrong

Nat King ColeDuke Ellington

Speakeasies1. Because of Prohibition speakeasies become an established institution in America.2. For every legitimate saloon that closed as a result of the new law, a half dozen underground palaces sprung up.3. Speakeasies also become the place were fashions were made and the fashionable were seen.

Gangsters1. Gangsters are the ones who provided the alcohol (and other things) to those who wanted it2. Led to a collapse of law and order and many cities, do corruption and bribery3. February 14, 1929, St. Valentine’s Day Massacre: Al Capone killed 7 men toeliminate any potentialchallengers to his “throne”

Prohibition• Prohibition: complete ban on the

sale, manufacture, and consumption of alcohol.• Bootleggers: People who illegally

smuggled alcohol.• Speakeasy: Places that illegally

sold alcohol.•Moonshiners: People who illegally

made alcohol.