The “Roaring Twenties”

2. The “Roaring Twenties” 11:30

3. MassConsumptionSociety.2

4. While mass production and mass consumption were born in the 1800s, Henry Ford took them to a whole new level in the early 1900s with the assembly line process where a car’s frame moved along a conveyor belt and workers stationed along it would attach various parts to it until by the end of the line it was a complete car. Although for workers, such repetition could be mind-deadening, it was also very efficient, cranking out a new car every five minutes. Such a technique also forced the production of a more standardized product. As Ford put it, you could have a car in any color you liked, as long as it was black.

5. This had two major effects. It lowered the price of building a car and thus the price Ford could charge for a new car, vastly expanding the potential market for his cars. Secondly, it raised profits which allowed Ford to pay his workers more, thus creating an even bigger market that could afford his cars. Not only did other car manufacturers, most notably General Motors, adopt the assembly line production, so did other types of products, which just accelerated the process toward a more widely based mass consumption society.

6. An Age of Mass Media One of the great innovations of the century was the revolution in reproducing sound. For the first time, people could listen to music without having to make it or listen to it live. The gramophone, as it was then called, was the progenitor of all our modern stereos, including the personal stereo. It also began a trend with music, much like the printing press had 450 years earlier, of making its enjoyment a much less social, as well as more passive, experience. Later innovations, such as the iPod, would accelerate this tendency to fragment society in favor of more private experiences

7. Talkies. In 1927, the first movie with sound, The Jazz Singer, debuted. Although the parts with Al Jolson’s singing were the only scenes with sound, The Jazz Singer set a new standard for movies, and silent films were soon a thing of the past. The two faces in the middle are both Al Jolson, one of them in blackface, a popular stereotype of African Americans from the 1830s until the Civil Rights movement in the 1960s. A montage of such stereotypes in the twentieth century from Spike Lee’s movie, Bamboozled,canbe seen at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C45g3YP7JOk

8. So were a lot of silent film stars. For one thing, some of them didn’t have voices suited for talkies. Also, the new type of film required a new more natural and subdued style of acting, because the exaggerated gestures of silent films were no longer needed. Movies from the late 1920s and early 1930s, such as the Oscar winning All Quiet on the Western Front, reflect this transition, being more natural than older silent films, but still retaining a bit of their more exaggerated gestures and blocking.

9. Early films and sound recordings also tended to play back a bit fast, creating a higher pitch and tinny quality to the voices. Only in recent years have the recordings of early blues musicians, such as Robert Johnson, been re-mastered for proper pitch.

10. Radio came into its own, especially with regular commercial broadcasting in the late 1920s and became a fixture in millions of homes. In one sense, it helped create a more global community as people listened to the same entertainment and news (starting in the 1930s) 1926

11. In another sense, radio created less of a sense of local community as families stayed at home gathered around the radio. Like the phonograph, it also made listening to music a more passive and private experience instead of an active and social one. Radio also provided a medium for politicians to spread their messages to millions of people at once, however benign or malicious those messages might be.

12. Architects such as Frank Lloyd Wright tried to counter this trend away from the social and toward the private realm by designing houses with small bedrooms to force people together into a central space. However, other inventions in the twentieth century, such as television, portable record players, personal stereos, and air conditioning, would further separate families from their communities and family members from each other. Left: Wright’s Falling Waters House Below: Vandamm House

13. Left & below Below: Wright’s Massarolakehouse just finished in 2007

14. Massaro House counter-clockwise from left: Kitchen, drawing room, and skylight

15. Massaro House: The living room, a large open space to encourage people coming together.

16. Massaro House: Bedrooms, including the master bedroom below

17. Power to the people. The new technology of the 1920s (light bulbs, telephones, radios, movies, vacuum cleaners, and even lie detectors) all had one thing in common. They ran on electricity. At first, power was produced by small generators for a limited market at high prices. The belief then was that each street or family needed its own generator. One problem with electricity was that it couldn’t be stored, thus making it expensive and limiting its market to a few wealthy people. For example, Chicago in the 1890s had twenty generators serving only 5,000 customers. 1926

18. Enter British-born Samuel Insull (1859-1938, who, after working for Thomas Edison, moved to Chicago in 1892. Using more efficient steam turbine generators (that could be stepped up at little cost during times of peak need) Insull saw that if he could generate electricity for large numbers of customers, he could count on more consistent demand, operate more efficiently with less waste, and charge lower prices per kilowatt. The lower prices would attract more customers, allowing him to expand his operations, and so on. 1926

19. Insull also expanded his customer base by wiring houses cheaply & giving away electric appliances. By the late 1920s, he had wired Chicago, the state of Illinois, & 4,000,000 customers in thirty-two states. Thanks largely to his vision, cheap electrical power became available to the masses as the price of electricity per kilowatt (adjusted to 1992 dollars) went from $4 in 1892 to $1.56 in 1912 to 55¢ in 1927 to 9¢ in 1967. Insull built the Civic Opera House in Chicago in 1929. It was built in the shape of a throne facing west, away from New York City, which had supposedly spurned his efforts.

20. From capitalist hero to villain. To finance his enterprises, Insull had sold low-price bonds and stocks to over a million middle-class Americans. Unfortunately the stock market crash of 1929 made their investments worthless, and almost overnight Insull went from hero to villain, owing $16 million dollars more than he was worth, making him "too broke to be bankrupt”, as one banker put it. In 1934, he was charged with fraud, acquitted of the charges, and moved to Paris where he died in 1938. 1923 May, 1934

21. Girls just want to have fun: The New Woman of the 1920s

22. Flappers. The new modern women of the 1920s not only had the vote, but an unprecedented amount of social freedom. While most women still followed more traditional roles and lifestyles, there were a number of young women, typically referred to as flappers, who exhibited a freer lifestyle than ever before.

23. A flapper was typically urban, single, socially free, and affluent enough to pursue such a life, either from having her own job or an indulgent father (known commonly as a dapper).

24. The flapper’s hair was short, typically in a pageboy cut known as a bob. Her dresses were loose (thanks to the demise of the corset) and also short, showing an unprecedented amount of leg up to and even above the knee. Adding to the more liberated and waif-like image was a preference for a more flat chested look to de-emphasize more traditional female roles. This is a trend that has alternated with the more full-bodied look ever since.

25. She tended to wear a good deal of eye makeup, something only women of ill repute were previously allowed to do. Thus for women in the 1920s, wearing makeup was seen as liberating. A flapper might even be a smoke-eater (i.e., woman who smokes cigarettes).

26. “Flapper speak.” Along with the flapper’s new lifestyle came a profusion of new words and expressions. Below are a few select terms that suggest women’s rapidly changing status and attitudes in the twentieth century: Petting party- Social event devoted to hugging Snugglepup- Man who likes petting parties Alarm clock- A chaperone Father time- Any man over 30 years old Fire alarm- A divorced woman They- refers to objecting parents Cat's Pajamas or Frog's eyebrows- Anything that's good Goof- Flapper's sweetheart Biscuit- A pettable flapper Barney-muggin- Love-making Drop the pilot- Get a divorce Police-dog- Young woman's fiancé Handcuff- Engagement ring An alibi- A box of flowers Forty-niner- Man prospecting for a rich wife Strike breaker- A woman who dates a friend's "steady" during a coolness Mad money- Carfare home if she has a fight with her escort

27. Coco Chanel, a French orphan who revolutionized women’s fashions in the 1920s by introducing clothing that felt as good as it looked. Among her innovations were sports clothes, red lipstick, bobbed hair, and even trousers for women.

28. Leisure fashions from the 1920s, including ”ski chic”.

29. From the early 1920s to the early 1930s the standard head gear for women was the cloche hat. One side effect of this was the much shorter hair styles for women in the 1920s.

30. The flappers of the 1920s shocked their mothers by showing their natural shapes. Left & right: Louise Brooks & Colleen Moore, two very modern looking & extremely popular silent film stars of the 1920s, who popularized bobbed hair, but are barely remembered now.

31. Colleen Moore is best remembered today for her fairy castle dollhouse which resides in Chicago’s Museum of Science and Industry.

32. Cocktails and Prohibition The 18th Amendment (1920), which prohibited alcohol production and consumption in America, can be said to have been another (fleeting) victory for women, since it was largely pushed by women suffering neglect and abuse because of their husbands’ alcoholism. However, Prohibition hardly slowed down alcohol production or consumption. It merely made it the realm of gangsters, such as Al Capone in Chicago, and illegal bars, known as speakeasies, where one could buy “bathtub gin.” Below: a cocktail flapper and other examples of the wild nightclub life of speakeasies in the 1920s.

33. Due to the typically poor quality of these drinks, they were often mixed with each other and different beverages. Thus was born the cocktail. With the cocktail, a new character appeared on the social scene: the bartender who knew the secrets of mixing the hundred or so new drinks made popular at the time. In addition, really good bartenders had their own secret formulas for cocktails that made them especially popular. There was even a novel, Poet’s Pub by Eric Linklater about people trying to track down a bartender with the formula to the Blue Cocktail.

34. By 1933 Prohibition had proved to be such a dismal failure that it was repealed by the 21st Amendment. Below: Al Capone and the scene of the infamous St Valentines Day Massacre in 1929 which brought him the unwanted attention of the federal government.

35. But not all women were as liberated as the flappers. Left: My grandmother (center) and grandfather (c.1920). He was a popular vaudeville star who ran off with another woman, leaving my grandmother as a single mom in the 1920s to raise my mother (the two of them pictured lower right, c.1920).

37. Loss of faith in econ. Panic selling Less buying & investment Loss of jobs & consumers Cut production Unstable world econ. in 1920s despite illusion of prosperity Agr crisis in US when farmers can’t pay mortgages on land bought during the war Stocks drop Agr. Boom in US from selling grain to Eur. Higher prices & heavier competition  fewer mkts Tariffs to protect home mkts Stock mkt craze in US where investors pay only 10% down & borrow rest from banks at 10-15% interest  Stocks must rise 10-15%/yr to break even  Investors prone to panic selling at 1st sign of trouble Unbalanced $ flow to US for loans, goods & resources US loans & sales to Eur. Agr. prices fall in 1920s when Eur. can feed itself again FC.131 POST WAR BOOM AND BUST (1920-29) After-effects of World War I on world economy (FC.128) Eur’s rebuild ind’s, but don’t reclaim mkts (FC.128) US takes over many Eur. Mkts (FC.128) 5000 US banks, which over-invested in stock mkt, crash  Eur. Banks crash when US banks call in loans Worldwide depression (FC.132)

38. FC.93A “TULIPMANIA”: THE FIRST MODERN SPECULATIVE BOOM (1636-37) Difficult for artisans to make profit Prices paid for tulips dramatically & rapidly rise Rich look for new ways to spend money Botany & gardening fashionable among the rich Growing speculative market in tulips Demand increases while supply remains constant Tulips slowly reproduce  Ltd. supply Panic since so many borrowed to buy Buy bulbs on basis of future profits Danger of debt Buy bulbs w/goods, land, & even a trade ship for 1 bulb Genes for most beautiful designs are recessive Unlikely a bulb will produce the desired design Eventually, people see tulips are extremely over-priced Everyone wants to sell No demand  Prices rapidly drop Allure of eastern goods, scarcity of tulips, & little need for capital investment Lucrative to grow & trade them Sudden collapse of “tulipmania” Age of Explor.  New mkts & sources of $ (FC.81) Scientific Rev. of 1600s More interest in science (FC.97) Printing press circulation of new scientific findings (FC.74) Trade w/Turks Tulips reach Antwerp by 1562 (FC.93)

39. What typically happens to economies right after a war & why?

40. Post-war depression FC.131 POST WAR BOOM AND BUST (1920-29) A After-effects of World War I on world economy (FC.128)

41. Post-war depression -France: 500% inflation FC.131 POST WAR BOOM AND BUST (1920-29) A After-effects of World War I on world economy (FC.128)

42. Post-war depression -France: 500% inflation -Low birth rate FC.131 POST WAR BOOM AND BUST (1920-29) A After-effects of World War I on world economy (FC.128)

43. Post-war depression -France: 500% inflation -Low birth rate Slower pop. recovery FC.131 POST WAR BOOM AND BUST (1920-29) A After-effects of World War I on world economy (FC.128)

44. Post-war depression -France: 500% inflation -Low birth rate Slower pop. recovery -More agr. Econ Ind econ less affected by Depr. FC.131 POST WAR BOOM AND BUST (1920-29) A After-effects of World War I on world economy (FC.128)

45. Post-war depression -France: 500% inflation -Low birth rate Slower pop. recovery -More agr. Econ Ind econ less affected by Depr. -Br exports to Fr down 65% & to US 42.6% by 1921 FC.131 POST WAR BOOM AND BUST (1920-29) A After-effects of World War I on world economy (FC.128)

46. Post-war depression -France: 500% inflation -Low birth rate Slower pop. recovery -More agr. Econ Ind econ less affected by Depr. -Br exports to Fr down 65% & to US 42.6% by 1921 -Irish rev  Indep (1937) FC.131 POST WAR BOOM AND BUST (1920-29) A After-effects of World War I on world economy (FC.128)

47. Post-war depression -France: 500% inflation -Low birth rate Slower pop. recovery -More agr. Econ Ind econ less affected by Depr. -Br exports to Fr down 65% & to US 42.6% by 1921 -Irish rev  Indep (1937) New products & tech’s FC.131 POST WAR BOOM AND BUST (1920-29) A After-effects of World War I on world economy (FC.128)

48. Post-war depression -France: 500% inflation -Low birth rate Slower pop. recovery -More agr. Econ Ind econ less affected by Depr. -Br exports to Fr down 65% & to US 42.6% by 1921 -Irish rev Indep (1937) New products & tech’s -Refrigeration, comm. air travel, talking films, radio, vacuum cleaners, cars FC.131 POST WAR BOOM AND BUST (1920-29) A After-effects of World War I on world economy (FC.128)

49. Post-war depression -France: 500% inflation -Low birth rate Slower pop. recovery -More agr. Econ Ind econ less affected by Depr. -Br exports to Fr down 65% & to US 42.6% by 1921 -Irish rev Indep (1937) New products & tech’s -Refrigeration, comm. air travel, talking films, radio, vacuum cleaners, cars -80% new ind’s in US FC.131 POST WAR BOOM AND BUST (1920-29) A After-effects of World War I on world economy (FC.128)

50. Post-war depression -France: 500% inflation -Low birth rate Slower pop. recovery -More agr. Econ Ind econ less affected by Depr. -Br exports to Fr down 65% & to US 42.6% by 1921 -Irish rev Indep (1937) New products & tech’s -Refrigeration, comm. air travel, talking films, radio, vacuum cleaners, cars -80% new ind’s in US US loans & sales to Eur. Unbalanced $ flow to US for loans, goods & resources FC.131 POST WAR BOOM AND BUST (1920-29) A After-effects of World War I on world economy (FC.128) US takes over many Eur. Mkts (FC.128)