American Cultural History 1920 – 1929

Early modernism in art, design, and architecture, which began at the turn of the century, continued through to 1940 and the war. In cities, Skyscrapers (first in 1870s) were erected and hundreds of architects competed for the work. The first successful design was the Woolworth Building in New York.   In Chicago, the Wrigley building was designed by Graham, Anderson, Probst, and White while the Chicago Tribune Tower was designed by Howells and Hood.  The Art Deco design was exemplified by the Chrysler and Empire State Buildings (depression projects – the Empire State Building completed early 1931.) Frank Lloyd Wright was prolific during this period, designing homes in California and in Japan.  The term Art Deco (1925-1950) is derived from the International Art Exposition in Paris in 1925.  In the 20s and 30s art of that style was referred to as modern.  Designers included Karl (Kem) Weber and Eliel Saarinen.

Art movements included the modernist movement [George Luks, Charles W. Hawthorne], abstract expressionism [Willem de Kooning], surrealism, and dadaism [Georgia O’Keeffe, Morgan Russell, Man Ray],  realism [ Thomas Hart Benton, Edward Hopper, Grant Wood, Leon Kroll] and landscape [Aldro Thompson Hibbard, N.C. Wyeth].   Horace Pippin is considered one of America’s foremost primitive or naive painters.  The best museums featured shows by these important artists.
Web sites

• World Wide Art Resources from the Metropolitan Museum of Art    | Searchable by artists, movement, galleries, museums, architecture.
• 1925 The Year in Review   |  Texas.net Museum of Art – an online art museum.

Books

Following WWI (the war to end all wars), talented young authors, some expatriates in France, wrote about their feelings of disillusionment and alienation. A sense of rebellion developed and the victorian idea of decency was considered hypocritical.  Writers began to write frankly about sexuality. Three important groups during this period were:

 The Algonquin Round Table, also called THE ROUND TABLE, informal group of American literary men and women who met daily for lunch on weekdays at a large round table in the Algonquin Hotel in New York City during the 1920s and ’30s. Many of the best-known writers, journalists, and artists in New York City were in this group. Among them   were Dorothy Parker, Alexander Woollcott (author of the quote “All the things I really like are immoral, illegal, or fattening”, Heywood Broun, Robert Benchley,Robert Sherwood, George S. Kaufman, Franklin P. Adams, Marc Connelly, Harold Ross, Harpo Marx, and Russell Crouse.

i carry your heart with me(i carry it in
my heart)i am never without it(anywhere
i go you go,my dear; and whatever is done
by only me is your doing,my darling)
i fear
no fate(for you are my fate,my sweet)i want
no world(for beautiful you are my world,my true)
and it's you are whatever a moon has always meant
and whatever a sun will always sing is you

here is the deepest secret nobody knows
(here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud
and the sky of the sky of a tree called life;which grows
higher than the soul can hope or mind can hide)
and this is the wonder that's keeping the stars apart

i carry your heart(i carry it in my heart)

Children’s Newbery Book Award winners of the twenties: In 1921 Frederic G.Melcher had the Newbery Medal designed by René Paul Chambellan. The bronze medal has the winner’s name and the date engraved on the back. The American Library Association Executive Board in 1922 delegated to the Children’s Librarians’ Section the responsibility for selecting the book to receive the Newbery Medal.

• A period of slang: slang used for “girls or women”:  a broad, a bunny, a canary (well, one who could sing), a charity girl (one who was sexually promiscuous), a dame, a doll, cat’s meow, cat’s whiskers
• Jazz age jargon included: Joe College – better yet a Joe Yale – or a Joe Zilch , jazzbo, jellybean, blind date, upchuck, jazz babies, pos-a-loot-ly, and the real McCoy.
• Games included mah-jngg, ouija boards, and crossword puzzles
• Endurance races of all sorts gained popularity and included  Marathons and flagpole sitting
• Dance marathons – began in 1923 and really became the rage.
• Harry Houdini was the great escape of the 1920s.
• American Baseball!  and other sports were very popular.
• Miss America contest began in Atlantic City in 1921. Margaret Gorman (16 years old) was the first winner with measurements of 30-25-32
• Dance crazes included the Charleston,  the Black Bottom, and the Shimmy.
• Dining at Sardi’s.

• Early 20th Century Fashion | Links to world wide fashion at the turn of the century. Good ones..
• The Flapper Culture and Style | The Jazz Age.
•  The Roaring 1920s  |  A collection of links to more information.

Men: Clothing for men became a bit more conservative in the 1920s.  Trousers widened to as wide as 24 inches at the bottomes.  Knickers grew in width and length and were called ‘plus fours’.  White linen was popular during the summer.  And during the winter, an outstanding American coat was popular – the racoon coat.  These were very popular with the college men. The slouch hat was made of felt and could be rolled up and packed into a suitcase. A wool suit was only $15.85. Garters were 40 cents. All this and a 12″ long cigarette holder. Cigarettes were 10 cents a pack.

Women:  By 1921 the longer skirt was back – some long and uneven at the bottom.  The short skirt was popular by 1925.  This period was called the Flapper Age.  No bosom, no waistline, and hair nearly hidden under a cloche hat.  This decade began the present hey-dey for the manufacturing of cosmetics.  Powder, lipstick, rouge, eyebrow pencil, eye shadow, colored nails.  They had it all!  AND pearls.

This period marked the spread of ready-to-wear fashion.  More women were wage earners and did not want to spent time on fittings.  The status symbol aspect of fashion was losing its importants as class distinctions were becoming blurred.  Inexpensive fashion became available.  America moved ahead of other countries  mass production of contemporary style clothing for women.  America even produced several designers of this fashion including Jane Derby.

Thanks to Henry Ford and mass production, one could buy a ford for $290.  The Volstead Act became effective Jan 16, 1920 and made the sale of a drink containing as much as one half-ounce of alcohol unlawful. This one unsuccessful act brought about much of the flavor of the Jazz Age or Roaring Twenties as we know them. This was a period of  prohibition and intolerance, speakeasies, flappers, gangsters, and crime. Hootch was supplied by Dutch Schultz and Al Capone.  The Nineteenth Amendment had passed the previous year allowing women the right to vote in national elections.  At the beginning of the decade the US was paralyzed by the grip of the red scare . Racial tensions were high and quotas were set for immigrants coming into America. The Ku Klux Klan was very active during this period. The decade was a wonderful one for all of the arts and literature in America. Technology grew – the country shrunk – as popularity of automobiles, radios, and movies exploded. Buying on credit or installments was an outcome of the industrial age. In the fall of 1929, the New York Stock Exchange was more active than it had ever been. Economists predicted a permanent high plateau. By October 24, 1929, Black Thursday, the stock market crashed and panic broke out. Banks closed. The nation stayed in this depression through the end of the twenties and most of the thirties.  Check out the Regulatory environment of the 1920s

•  Illinois Trail – 1920s  |  Excellent coverage of the decade, from speakeasies to politics.
• 1920s timeline   |  News arranged chronologically.  Very helpful.
• American History from 1860 to the present | Web Guide for this period.
• American Memory Project   | By the Library of Congress, digitized library of photographs
• Turn of the Century From Reconstruction to WWI – from U.S. History Net.
• Historical Atlas of the 20th CenturyCollection of maps and stats of the 20th century.
• Two views of the 20s   | The Roaring 20s and the Boring 20s
• Industry and Technology | Pictures and essays from Library of Congress.
• Biography Index | Biography of over 15,000 famous persons.
• Genealogy Guide |; Helpful in locating past people, places and events

Library of Congress browsing areas :
E -F – U.S. History [ Remember, history covers all areas of the library.]

Important Historic and Cultural Events First Transatlantic flight: Charles Lindbergh , James Doolittle first one-day.  Air flying companies outbid the railroads for transporting the mail  (1926)  Business travelers took to the skies on scheduled coast to coast flights   Flappers, the Roaring Twenties, prohibition, speakeasies and bootleg whiskey  Gangland warfare,  Sing Sing, sawed-off shotguns, and Al Capone  Women vote for the first time in a national election (1920)  Clarence Darrow and William Jennings Bryan debate evolution.  Ku Klux Klan is active in the south and midwest.  Burnings multiply  Admiral Byrd  | Flew over the North and South Poles during the 20s  Stock Market Crashed | October 24, 1929, bank closed – panic on Wall Street.

“There’s nothing surer; the rich get rich and the poor get poorer.” was considered the credo of the roaring 20s. Chicago was hot!  Harlem was hot with Jazz and the so-called “devil’s music’! (The Cotton Club was open to both whites and blacks and packed nightly.)  Jazz was hot! Bessie Smith sang the Blues. But most of the best-selling pop hits were sentimental ballads (I’ll Be With You in Apple Blossom Time and I’m Just Wild About Harry), old-fashioned walzes (Three O’Clock in the Morning and Deep in My Heart) , and nonsense songs (Yes, We Have No Bananas and I Wish That I Could Shimmy Like My Sister Kate).  Fanny Brice sang Rose of Washington Square and Second Hand Rose in the Ziegfeld Follies and Vaudeville.  The  Grand Ole Opry was transmitted on the radio from Nashville in 1925.

People were going places and singing about them; Chicago; That Toddling Town,  Carolina in the Morning, Way Down Yonder in New Orleans, California Here I Come (love YouTube), Alabamy Bound, and  Puttin’ on the Ritz by Irving Berlin. (featuring Clark Gable. Try the other versions, I just love Young Frankenstein.

Broadway reached an all time peak. Gershwin was hot with  An American in Paris,  Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein created Show Boat starring Helen Morgan. Fred and Adele Astaire opened in Funny Face.  There were 268 plays offered in New York City in the year 1927.  This compaired with 50-60 in the 1970s.

Radio networks began during this decade:  David Sarnoff’s NBC and William Paley’s CBS both went on the air.  Billboard Magazine published its first charts in 1928.  Bing Crosby and other crooner singing stars aided their sales with their live and recorded radio performances.

• American Popular Music 1900-1950   |  A look at the music and the times.
• Music in the Public Domain   |  Includes song lists – with links to some lyrics.
• Roaring Twenties Online Concert    |  Hear it weekly via your computer or radio
• Arts of the 20s    |  All of the arts of the 1920s