Throw back to the 20s

THROW BACK TO THE 20S

By: Taleah Smith Devontae Lane David Wu Jacob Birely Nick Kean Evan Hermiston

IMPACT OF COMMUNICATIONS The mass communication is a really broad topic. To start it off. The most important and the most popular communication device is the radio. The radio is really cheap and it is very easy for people to use and a lot of people and companies broadcasted important things like, news, music, stories, products advertisements, music, and many more things that people would like to receive and to know about. The radio was very common and a lot of stations were broadcasted and statistics would be 500 and more stations in the year 1923 and that’s just the beginning of the roaring twenties. Many companies advertised a lot of their product for example this lead to people knowing what they could due for free time and what problems they can fix. These were all a solution due to mass communication. All the way up to 1925, the radio expanded; the television took things to a whole new level. Radios were still common but just like new technology only a few people were able to get their hands on it but then many and a lot of people started to buy it and use it; television was really popular because in the cinemas moving screen were like a special treat to people and not everyone was able to go to it and watch what was going on. Television made it possible for people to watch motion pictures as they would call it. It was whole new level of broadcasting daily life in the U.S. even though the television was used, that didn’t stop people from going to the cinemas, cinemas developed even more; the companies like Warner Bros had the highest budgets so obviously what they produced was way better than some low budget film. This lead to companies of production.

Newspaper were still really common before technology took its stand, even though the newspaper were still good to have because they were really cheap and the people that couldn’t afford a radio or a television could and were able to receive news and were able to know what the U.S. was like.

Effects of the new mass communication, was that new trends begin and it lead to what the America is like today. The consumerism bloomed like never before and information was traveled faster and at the same time music and sports developed because people were able to get in touch with it instead of always being busy. Now they have time to enjoy all these new things. Life was like never before.

Communications of the 1920s shown bellow

IMPACT OF DATING In the 1920s dating started to become a way to get away from the “eyes� of their parents, as a way of their overprotectiveness. The invention of the car made it so that couples could get out of the house and leave to go on dates other that just being at the house. Couples would have to find different places to go on dates in the 1920s because of prohibition. The couples could no longer meet at bars/saloons for the dates.

Young women of the 1920s started to dress like flappers to get men to like them more. Women and men of this time debated that all people of all groups (upper-class, middle-class, lower-class) should be able to get the same medical treatments for child birth because of more and more people deciding to have sex at the time. If a man liked a woman he would go to her house the first night to meet her parents. If the parents liked the man the couple would decide to go on a date, they would need to be chaperoned by an older adult to keep an eye on them.

1920s date shown to the right

IMPACT OF MUSIC During the 1920s, new types of music were starting to arise. The music was turning more up tempo and less “old fashion”. One of the music types that were starting to become popular in the 1920s was jazz. Jazz was a mixture of different types of music such as African rhythms, European harmonies, African-American folk music, and 19th century band music and instruments. Jazz started off in New Orleans created by African Americans.

African Americans soon were called upon to bring jazz to parades, shows, and riverboat orchestras. As people and the riverboats started to go across America, they brought jazz with them.

Jazz migrated to big cities and African American communities. The most known jazz community in the north was the New York neighborhood of Harlem. Harlem was known as the “Jazz Magnet”. In Harlem, the most popular place to listen to jazz was the night clubs. The most famous night club in Harlem was the Cotton Club. Many famous jazz musicians played here including Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington. With jazz came new dance moves to fit the music. These moves were flamboyant and consisted of quick twist and turns. Jazz was hard to accept and a shock for many people who were more traditional and typically older. Traditional people and older people at the time thought that jazz was loosening moral standards. This led to some picketing and anti-jazz themed activities to protest jazz. Although jazz was a topic of concern for many traditional Americans, it still stayed popular throughout the decade.

Louis Armstrong shown below

IMPACT OF FILM In the 1920s movies became big business. Much different film company’s opened by 1927. There were 400-500 featured films being produced. Large companies made no fewer than 52 films a year. By the end of the 1920s films were seen as supportive of the “wet” values in society. Movies were viewed as alternative to the saloon. A study showed that many men preferred movies over pubs. In the last half of the 1920s the number of people attending movies doubled. Movies had potential and influenced and affected the way people acted and thought.

Silent movies dominated the 1920s but saw the introduction of synchronized sound. Movie stars got huge salaries. Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton and Greta Garbo all three created magic of the silent screen. Charlie Chaplin was an actor and also a director. Buster Keaton was a comedic actor. Greta Garbo was a silent screen glamor queen.

Picture of 1920s film shown below

IMPACT OF SPORTS In the 1920’s sports began to come alive. Boxing, baseball, football basketball and other sports became important to people in these times.

Professional boxing was able to become a money collector for people in the ‘20’s; in their spare time they would go see the matches between like Benny Leonard.

School teams were formed and began to boom in popularity. Football became a way for high school athletes to become recognized and get into college, scholarships were created for these athletes. It attracted consuming public interest; more and more people began to pay to see the games played by these young men. The National Football League was founded in 1920, as well as Negro National League.

Professional basketball came about in the 1920’s as well, weirdly the most successful teams were noncompetitive, and the most successful team at the time was Harlem Globetrotters, a team of black players organized by Abe Saperstein in Chicago, 1927.

The most popular sport in the 1920’s was baseball; Babe Ruth was traded to the New York Yankees and hit 54 homeruns in one season, which set the record. Ruth became the legend of baseball and is still known to this day. The rise of popularity of baseball was called the “golden age” Picture of Typical 20s Boxing match shown below

18TH AMENDMENT The 18th amendment is in 3 sections. The 18th amendment lead to prohibition or was the start of the whole thing. At first the amendment was easy because the amount of alcohol actually decreased and the use and handle of it decreased in the first year cause of the first section. The congress said that power was going to be in each state to enforce and make the prohibition happen. In fact everything back fired. Government officials didn’t care and they didn’t actually enforce the law. The only way to ratify the document was to pass another act to cancel it out. This was important because this act would be really hard to stop and ratify.

Due to the 18th amendment the amount of crime rose like never before.

Gangs started to form and increase in size and power. Everything backfired due to the fact that government officials were joining in on the action. The amount of funding rose in the police force. Many deaths over alcohol occur and crime was hard to stop because the organizations could over power the police officers. There were special places to get alcohol and most of the time government officials were there drinking and they would go to a meeting right after to make sure prohibition works and they put people to jail because they were drinking and in fact they were the ones that were drinking and using alcohol.

Andrew Volstead tried to enforce prohibition and the Volstead act was because of him and it was to be able to keep the 18th amendment under control. a picture describing the 18th amendment shown below

19TH AMENDMENT The nineteenth amendment guarantees women the right to vote it took reformers nearly 100 years to win the right to vote. For women to get these rights women lectured, wrote, marched, lobbied, and practiced to get the bill passed. It was a lengthy struggle but the law was finally ratified on August 18th 1920.

Illinois, Wisconsin and Michigan were the first states to ratify the law, those who were against the law managed to delay the ratification. Some states were slow on the ratification even after it was a part of the Supreme Court law of the land. Tennessee reaffirmed and delivered the needed 36th ratification.

Susan B. Anthony (1820-1906) was probably the most known women’s rights activist. She was raised to be independent, her parents believed men and women should study, live and work as equals. There’s many other women like Susan who contributed in women’s rights, every women wanted independence in the 1920’s and before, they wanted to have equal rights as every other man, white, black, young, or old.

Picture of celebration after the 19th Am. Shown to right

POST WAR ISOLATIONS The US refused to join the League of Nations but pushed hard for US membership. The US closed doors to immigrants because of anti-European feelings after WW1.

Political sketch shown below

POST WAR DISARMAMENT Post-War disarmament was an attempt at staying isolated, but also Americans wanted world peace. Disarmament was a way to keep countries isolated and to try from keeping them from becoming too powerful. Disarmament was also a way to keep safety and to make safety even safer. Also disarmament would help lead to a reduction in weapons, which would also keep countries safe.

Governments wanted naval disarmament because they feared of having navies becoming too big. People who supported naval disarmament thought that disarming would lead to less wars starting. Governments decided that they should limit the navy. They chose to limit the construction of large war-boats, but this rule did not affect the smaller naval boats. More countries started to add more and more smaller cruiser boats to their army to take the place of the large boats.

Political sketch of post war disarmament shown below

SCOPES TRIAL During the 1920s, the teaching of evolution through science was illegal in Tennessee.

Schools were only supposed to teach evolution through the bible. The law was known to cause a nation wide stir because some people disagreed. One of the Tennessee citizens who disagreed was John Scopes. Scopes was asked by a teacher’s student if biology could be taught without a lesson of evolution. Scopes said that he believes that evolution must be taught and he volunteered himself to teach the lesson, even though it was against the law. After the lesson, Scopes was arrested.

The scopes trial began on July 10th, 1925. Over 200 arrived in the small town of Dayton Tennessee for the trial. Clawrence Darrow, a very powerful lawyer at the time, offered to represent Scopes during the trial. Darrow and Scopes had to go up against the state of Tennessee’s representative for the trial, Bryan. Darrow in the beginning of the trial deemed that he had nothing to support Scopes with. But then Darrow asked Bryan is he took everything in the bible literal. Bryan responded yes. Darrow then asked, even that the earth was created in six days. Bryan responded with, might have been a few million years. That question response by Bryan tricked him into admitting that he did not take everything in the bible literal. After 10 minutes, Scopes was declared guilty and was fined $100. One year later, Supreme Court over turned the conviction because the judge, not jury, imposed the fine.

Picture of Scope being transported below

FORMS OF TRANSPORTATION In the roaring twenties, the technology in transportations have changed but not by too much. The most common transportation was Model T made by Henry Ford. These were the most common due to the creation of mass production. The mass production of cars was easier to help with daily life because it influenced dating, couples were able to go around places easier and it was easier to see each other and they could communicate a lot more. Roads were first just regular dirt roads then pavement and cement were laid down for the ease of automobiles. This was good because this lead to the development of roads and other kinds of transit developments. At first not very many people could afford the car but eventually due to mass production the price of the car was dropped way down so it was possible for a lot of people to be able to buy them. Soon eventually the car was distributed all over the U.S. Another common way of transportation is by ocean lines, also known as ships, these were important to trade and immigration. The ships were used by businesses to promote cruises and it was a new way to spend your time. Only the wealthy could afford to go to these cruises. Companies started taking a big investment in ships and ocean liners because they were really easy to use and really easy to be able to set up cargo trades between countries and states. Ship transportation also affected the way of immigration. Now ships are bringing in a lot of people from all over the world because of the easiness of the job.

The planes returning from the war or used in the war were soon returned and pilots would be able to fly all over the place to show off their planes and their skills. Air transportation started to be common because it was the fastest way and it was super easy to deliver news. Air mail for example was really common and it was a really easy and efficient way.

The development of trains was also really common because it was easy due to all the train tracks built; it was easy to travel along the country or to go to Canada. It was easy to move incoming orders of products and trade. There were different kinds of passages like for people who would travel along the country they would need to get to the carts that allowed a lot of places to rest. And for the hauling of products they would have a special cart for that too because it was really essential to be able to get in trades. They all used coal or wood fueled engines.

Picture of Ford Model-T shown to the left

POST WAR After world war one, the American government was nearly fully ran by republicans. Three Republican presidents served during the 1920s, including Warren G. Harding, Calvin Coolidge, and Herbert Hoover. These presidents teamed up and started to try to make America return to normalcy. One way they did this was through isolationism.

Isolationism was the practice of isolating a country from foreign affairs. Another project the presidents worked on was the Washington Naval Conference. This conference was a talk about limiting the size of the world’s most powerful navies so there is less military competition. Another problem the government strode to fix after the war was the regaining the money owed to the United States from European loans. The way the government tried to fix this was through the Dawes Plan. The plan was made to loan more money to countries that owed the US money so that could rebuild their economy to pay off the loans in the future.

While the government was fixing there problems, problems were arising in the government itself. The government was corrupt after Harding allowed his friends to take different places in the government, and sell American land, and take bribes for their own.

As the Harding friends were receiving money, the citizens where receiving money too.

Citizens were using the Dow Owen Plan to gain money, or investing in stocks. With all the investing in stocks, the economy rose to great levels. This was the economic boom. During the economic boom, lots of town citizens were benefiting, but the farmers were often left out.

Picture of Republican Presidents below

ECONOMIC BOOM There was a growth in the automobile industry. High levels of consumer confidence, increased by new attitudes to consumerism. Improvements in technology, partly as a result of WW1. Improvements in labor productivity- e.g. technology and new management techniques.

Picture of slogan during 1920 economic boom shown above

HENRY FORD/ASSEMBLY LINE Henry ford was a creator of one of the first cars made. By making cars affordable, Henry Ford changed lives of Americans. Cars became more than just transportation. They became a sense of freedom for teenagers and women. Cars were so huge back then that more Americans had cars than bathtubs, as one woman said “You can’t drive to town in a bathtub.” Cars also ended isolationism for farmers, now they could travel into towns to sell their products/crops. Cars also made it easier to make traveling long distances more fun or enjoyable.

Henry Ford was also a creator of an airplane. He was a creator of the Ford TriMotor. The Ford Tri-Motor could hold up to 10 passengers and went up to 100mph; the plane also had three engines, which is why it is called the “Ford Tri-Motor.” In the early days of flight, pilots became celebrities because more and more people liked coming to air shows where pilots would show off their skills. Plane flying also became a big contribute to women’s rights. Amelia Earhart was the first women to fly across the Atlantic Ocean solo. It proved that men and women were equal in jobs that required intelligence, coordination, speed, coolness, and will power.

Ford Automobile shown bellow

ADVERTISING IN THE 20S Advertising in the 1920’s was based on industrial expansion; mostly lowering the prices meant more items were available to more and more people than ever.

Advertising to the public meant persuading to people they needed or “deserved” to own the product. After World War I, muckraking journals had a widespread circulating by exposing corruption and greed in business and politics.

Coca-Cola serves as a good example of how product advertising changed over this forty-year period. When first introduced in the 1880s, the product was marketed as a medicine, with claims that it cured headaches, now Coca-Cola is just served as a refreshing drink that also brings in the money.

The marketplace served as a place for women to express themselves, production methods of World War I helped flood the market with things to buy, The advertisers' message became, "Not only are these products necessary for your family's convenient living, but using them solidifies your social standing too so nobody thinks you might be 'lower class' citizens." Families thought the products that were shown, they needed.

Not all products that were advertised benefitted families and individuals. Some were cigarettes and other harmful things that we know not to use today.

Picture of Advertisement of the 20s to the left

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