Post by Chief Paperboy on Apr 17, 2009 8:30:43 GMT
Is all this required reading? No. It's just a resource for anyone that wants to learn anything, don't panic. You're all free to go play around the site without even having looked at this.
Remember guys, this RP is set in 1927, therefore the information is more geared to around that time.
CONTENTS:[/U][/font][/size]
- Introduction
- The Prohibition
- Speakeasies
- Flappers
- Fashion
- Technology & Consumer Economy
- Religion
- Gender Equality
- Homosexuality
- Racial Tolerance
- People & Entertainers
INTRODUCTION[/U][/font][/size]
The popular image of the 1920s, as a decade of prosperity and riotous living and of bootleggers and gangsters, flappers and hot jazz, flagpole sitters, and marathon dancers, is indelibly etched in the American psyche. But this image is also profoundly misleading. The 1920s was a decade of deep cultural conflict, pitting a more cosmopolitan, modernist, urban culture against a more provincial, traditionalist, rural culture.
The decade witnessed a titanic struggle between an old and a new America. Immigration, race, alcohol, evolution, gender politics, and sexual morality--all became major cultural battlefields during the 1920s. Wets battled drys, religious modernists battled religious fundamentalists, and urban ethnics battled the Ku Klux Klan.
The 1920s was a decade of profound social changes. The most obvious signs of change were the rise of a consumer-oriented economy and of mass entertainment, which helped to bring about a "revolution in morals and manners." Sexual mores, gender roles, hair styles, and dress all changed profoundly during the 1920s. Many Americans regarded these changes as liberation from the country's Victorian past. But for others, morals seemed to be decaying, and the United States seemed to be changing in undesirable ways. The result was a thinly veiled "cultural civil war."
Shown: Prohibition, speakeasies, and flappers.
What were they? Keep reading.
THE PROHIBITION[/U][/font][/size]
In the history of the United States, Prohibition, also known as The Noble Experiment or the “Volstead Act”, is the period from 1919 to 1933, during which the sale, manufacture, and transportation of alcohol for consumption were banned nationally as mandated in the Eighteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution.
Prohibition was supposed to lower crime and corruption, reduce social problems, lower taxes needed to support prisons and poorhouses, and improve health and hygiene in America. Instead, Alcohol became more dangerous to consume; organized crime blossomed; courts and prisons systems became overloaded; and endemic corruption of police and public officials occurred.
The illegal production and distribution of liquor, or bootlegging, became rampant, and the national government did not have the means or desire to try to enforce every border, lake, river, and speakeasy in America. Organised crime boomed via the profits of bootlegging. In fact, by 1925 in New York City alone there were anywhere from 30,000 to 100,000 speakeasy clubs.
SPEAKEASIES[/U][/font][/size]
A speakeasy was an establishment which illegally sold alcoholic beverages during the Prohibition. The speakeasy got its name because one had to whisper a code word or name through a slot in a locked door to gain admittance.
Speakeasies became more popular and numerous as the Prohibition years progressed, and more of them were operated by people connected to organized crime. They could be as simple as a back room in a restaurant secretly serving alcohol, or in major cities, speakeasies were often quite elaborate, offering food, live music, floor shows, and striptease dancers.
Although police and Bureau of Prohibition agents would raid them and arrest the owners and patrons, the business of running speakeasies was so lucrative that they continued to flourish throughout America. Corruption was rampant—speakeasy operators routinely bribed police to leave them alone or to give them advance notice of raids. A large number had connections to - or were run by - organised crime syndicates.
FLAPPERS[/U][/font][/size]
The term 'flapper' in the 1920s referred to a "new breed" of young women who wore short skirts, bobbed their hair, listened to the new jazz music, and flaunted their disdain for what was then considered acceptable behavior. The flappers were seen as brash for wearing excessive makeup, drinking, treating sex in a casual manner, smoking, driving automobiles, and otherwise flouting conventional social and sexual norms.
FASHION[/U][/font][/size]
Ready-to-wear clothing was another important innovation in America's expanding consumer economy. During World War I, the federal government defined standard clothing sizes to help the nation's garment industry meet the demand for military uniforms. Standard sizes meant that it was now possible to mass produce ready-to-wear clothing. Since there was no copyright on clothing designs until the 1950s, garment manufacturers could pirate European fashions and reproduce them using less expensive fabrics.
WOMENS: The 1920s was the decade in which fashion entered the modern era. It was the decade in which women first liberated themselves from constricting fashions and began to wear more comfortable clothes (such as short skirts or pants). The tubular dresses of the 1910s had evolved into a similar straight silhouette that now sported shorter skirts with pleats, gathers, or slits to allow motion to rule women’s fashion for the first time in history. The tailor was a thing of the past.
A more masculine look became popular, including flattened breasts and hips, short hairstyles such as the bob cut, Eton Crop and the Marcel Wave. Undergarments began to transform to conform to the boyish figure, they wore new, softer and suppler underwear that reached to their hips, smoothing the whole frame giving women a straight up and down appearance.
1920's dresses were lighter and brighter and shorter than ever before. Fashion designers played with fabric colors, textures and patterns to create totally new styles of dress. Hemlines rose to the knee for most of the decade but dropped slightly toward the end. Shoes and stockings assumed a greater prominence now that they were more visible. Pantsuits, hats and canes gave women a sleek look without frills and avoiding the fickleness of fashion.
MENS: The end of World War I saw the end of social classes being strictly divided across fashion lines. A less fussy, more youthful look was embraced by much of society, and the prevailing wisdom dictated that it was less what a man wore than how he wore it that distinguished him.
Men abandoned overly formal clothes. Slacks and cotton dress shirts were the norm even for laborers in the cities. Suits and fedoras and possibly spats accompanied the average middle class male. A 'flaming youth' - a male equivalent of a flapper - would typically dress with a straw hat and resemble a member of a barbershop quartette. Loose fitting sleeves (without a taper) also began to be worn during this period. Amoung the working class jeans were common for their durability.
The suits which men wear today are still based, for the most part, on those which were worn by men in the late 1920s. During this time, double breasted vests, often worn with a single breasted jacket, also became quite fashionable. For formal occasions in the daytime, a morning suit was usually worn. For evening wear men preferred the short tuxedo to the tail-coat, which was now seen as rather old-fashioned and snobbish. Many young men favoured wristwatches over the now old-fashioned pocket watch. Shirts were softer and more casual. Even details in evening wear were less formal, with lace-up shoes being seen instead of black patent leather.
TECHNOLOGY & CONSUMER ECONOMY[/U][/font][/size]
Americans in the 1920s were the first to wear ready-made, exact-size clothing. They were the first to play electric phonographs, to use electric vacuum cleaners, to listen to commercial radio broadcasts, and to drink fresh orange juice year round. In countless ways, large and small, American life was transformed during the 1920s, at least in urban areas. Cigarettes, cosmetics, and synthetic fabrics such as rayon became staples of American life. Newspaper gossip columns, illuminated billboards, and commercial airplane flights were novelties during the 1920s. The United States became a consumer society.
CARS: One of the first major inventions to become a national craze was the automobile. Ford Motor Company mass produced affordable automobiles known as the Model-T. Ford's. Model-Ts became such an overwhelming success that over 15 million Model-Ts were sold by 1927 when the Model-T line was discontinued. By the end of the decade, there was almost one car per family in the United States.
MOVIES: As automobiles became more popular, transportation became less of a hassle, and consequently movie attendance soared with the increase of automobile sales. With comical performances by comedian, Charlie Chaplin, dramatic performances by sex symbol, Rudolph Valentino, and many other famous actors, the movie industry was able to attract a massive audience of loyal viewers, even during the years of silent black-and-white films. In 1922, improvements in sound recording technology enabled the filming and broadcasting of the first movie ever made with sound, "The Jazz Singer" starring Al Jolson. In 1927 alone, over 14,500 movie theaters throughout the nation showed over 400 films a year each, as movies became America's favorite form of entertainment.
RADIO: The radio became an instant success among the American public and became a part of virtually every home in America in only a few short years. Thousands of broadcasting stations pop up all over the country. Many people would stay up half the night listening to concerts, sermons, "Red Menace" news, and sports. Those without home radios gathered around crystal sets in public places. The advent of public radio allowed listeners to not only keep up with national issues and events, it also let people experience new ideas, new entertainment, and to form opinions on matters that had never been publicized to a national degree.
HOUSEHOLDS: Alongside the automobile, the telephone and electricity also became emblems of the consumer economy. By 1930, two-thirds of all American households had electricity and plumbing, and half of American households had telephones. As more and more of America's homes received electricity, new appliances followed: refrigerators, washing machines, vacuum cleaners, motorised lawn mowers and toasters quickly took hold. Advertisers claimed that "labor saving" appliances would ease the sheer physical drudgery of housework, but they did not shorten the average housewife's work week. Women had to do more because standards of cleanliness kept rising. Sheets had to be changed weekly; the house had to be vacuumed daily. In short, social pressure expanded household chores to keep pace with the new technology. Far from liberating women, appliances imposed new standards of cleanliness.
OTHER: Other technologies that existed included aerosol sprays, frozen food, hair dryers, hearing aids, sticky plasters and even a limited number of television sets. Important innovations in food processing occurred as manufacturers learned how to efficiently produce canned and frozen foods. Processed foods saved homemakers enormous amounts of time in peeling, grinding, and cutting.
RELIGION[/U][/font][/size]
People of the 1920s were still very Godfearing, and Religion was a pivotal cultural battleground. American Protestants saw the new Catholic and Jewish religions arriving overseas as a threat to their way of life.
People from Hispanic, Italian, and some Irish backgrounds were most likely Catholic, while most other Americans and European immigrants are probably some variety of Protestant. Same went for those from Africa/Asia who had lived in Westernized civilizations or come into contact with missionaries.
The roots of religious vs scientific conflict were planted in the late 19th century. During the 1870s, a lasting division had occurred in American Protestantism over Charles Darwin's theory of evolution. Religious modernists argued that religion had to be accommodated to the teachings of science, while religious traditionalists sought to preserve the basic tenets of their faith. Between 1921 and 1929, Fundamentalists introduced 37 anti-evolution bills into 20 state legislatures. A famous event was the Scopes Trial in 1926, where a teacher was taken to court for teaching Darwinian evolution to his students.
GENDER EQUALITY[/U][/font][/size]
In 1920, after 72 years of struggle, American women had received the right to vote. Many women, notably the Women’s Christian Temperance Union, had been pivotal in bringing about national Prohibition in the United States of America, believing it would protect families, women and children from the effects of abuse of alcohol and in the process establishing women as a new political force. The 1920s brought about various types of "new" women: married white women often earned an education and attempted to juggle careers and family, while the flapper girls challenged old ways of thinking and behaving. Aspirations included education and careers as well as families. Pre-marital affairs became more prominent.
Things were easier, but by no means equal. Gender roles and the notion that women were inferior were still prevalent and there was a strong divide between older, 'traditional' women and the younger ones attempting to bridge the gaps. Properly brought up young ladies still required chaperones while with a suitor, and women were still dependent on their fathers and husbands, and are not thought of as equals by the general male population. The younger generations of American women are hampered by the double standards that both their male peers and their matriarchs still clung to.
Women did not win new opportunities in the workplace. Although the American work force included eight million women in 1920, more than half were black or foreign-born. Domestic service remained the largest occupation, followed by secretaries, typists, and clerks--all low-paying jobs. The American Federation of Labor (AFL) remained openly hostile to women because it did not want females competing for men's jobs. Female professionals also made little progress. They consistently received less pay than their male counterparts. Moreover, they were concentrated in traditionally "female" occupations such as teaching and nursing.
HOMOSEXUALITY[/U][/font][/size]
Back in the 1920s, sexuality wasn't really viewed the same way we view it today, along a homosexual/heterosexual axis. Instead of homosexual behaviour, it was effeminacy that was really looked down upon among men at this point. Flamboyant homosexuals were pretty much considered to be on par with prostitutes as far as sexual availability went, and they were considered something of a "third sex," more accepted among the working class than the middle and upper classes (who found homosexuality threatening and generally beneath them). As a result, there was no stigma among men among being attracted to effeminate homosexuals (colloquially referred to as "fairies"), as long as you yourself were perfectly masculine.
Homosexuals in the public conscience were basically fairies and drag queens; men who were interested in them were termed "trade," but suffered no social stigma, among the working classes at least; there were far more young men than women in many cities due to the influx of young immigrant labourers, so substituting fairies for women seemed a natural option. Until the early 1930s, gay clubs were openly operated, commonly known as "pansy clubs".
Other colloquialisms were those of "wolves and punks," terms which surfaced in a prison culture and were later more broadly applied. Wolves were older men who seduced younger men, known as punks, but as neither was effeminate, this wasn't generally stigmatized either, although there was some concern over the moral corruption of innocent youth at the hands of the wolves. The latter, however, was more to be admired for his ability to attract young men.
Many men who realized they were gay during this period didn't want to come out for fear that it would necessarily make them a "fairy," as that was the only homosexual identity of which most were aware, stereotyped as lisping, wearing rouge, tweezing one's eyebrows, and generally displaying effeminate characteristics. Some still rejected this identity entirely, preferring to express homosexual desires through slightly misogynistic notions of "male camaraderie" a la Walt Whitman. While most of society was oblivious of homosexuality in day-to-day life, there were events such as drag balls which drew thousands of attendees and garnered front-page press coverage (although technically transvestitism was illegal in daily life). All in all, while there was strong bias against effeminacy in men, homosexuality was more of a curiosity than anything.
There wasn't really much of a lesbian culture at this point, as women were still fairly limited in terms of social freedoms.
RACIAL TOLERANCE[/U][/font][/size]
In short: There was none.
During the 1920's, racial tension in American society was high. New non-protestant immigrants like Jews and Catholics had been arrived in their masses from south-east Europe since early on in the century. Together with Orientals, Mexicans and the Black population these minorities suffered the most at the hands of those concerned with preserving the long established White Anglo-Saxon Protestant (W.A.S.P.) values that were an integral part of American life. Prejudice and racism reared its ugly head in many areas of society, with people showing a tolerance for racist views in the media, literature and towards organisations like the Ku Klux Klan.
SOCIAL-DARWINISM: In the 1920's Anti-Immigration Organisations that had been founded in the latter parts of the first decade of the twentieth century began to receive much larger and an increasingly influential following. The Immigration Restriction League was one such group, it claimed to have 'scientific' evidence that the new immigrants from Southeast Europe were racially inferior and therefore posed to threaten the supremacy of the USA. They believed strongly in WASP values and certainly did not wish to see them become polluted by other religions from minorities like Catholics and Jews. This Social-Darwinist belief was not just popular with the masses, but it's appeal spread to people of considerable eminence. For example the principals of important American universities like Harvard, Stanford and Chicago were numbered among the Leagues supporters.
IMMIGRATION: In response to the call for further restrictions on immigration, Congress passed two laws. Firstly the Emergency Immigration Act in 1921, which restricted new arrivals to 3% of the foreign born of a nationality. In 1924 the Johnson-Reed Act stiffened these terms, limiting the number of people from any nationality to 2% of the total number of that national origin living in the USA in 1890. This law also set a permanent limitation of 150,000 people a year coming into the USA. This new act, which came into effect in 1929, virtually ended immigration from Southern and Eastern Europe and excluded Asians almost entirely. However the quota systems did not place any restrictions on immigration from the Western Hemisphere, and consequently from immigration from Mexico and French Canada soared during the 1920's.
THE KU KLUX KLAN: The growing spirit of intolerance erupting throughout America can be witnessed none clearer than in the wartime revival of the secret society, the Ku Klux Klan. The newly re-modelled organisation of the Civil War days claimed to be fighting to protect native white Protestants from the alien elements within. They argued that the American way of life was under threat not only from the Negroes but also from Catholics, Jews and all immigrants. It emphasised the notion of 100% Americanism. Its appeal was mainly sited in the Southern states, where the majority of black people lived, where the powerful idea of 'white supremacy' went unquestioned. The Klan's appeal also spread to the western and northern states, where Catholics and Jews became the targets. Throughout the 1920's the Klan's membership saw an increase, estimates at the time ranged from 3-5 million and profits rolled in from the sale these memberships, regalia, costumes and rituals. The burning cross became their symbol. The Ku Klux Klan used intimidation, threats, beating and even murder in their quest for a "purified America". Klan members, between 1920-27 it has been estimated, carried out the lynching of 416 Blacks in the Southern States.
EMPLOYMENT: The racial discrimination towards ethnic minorities during the twenties can also be seen in the job opportunities available to them. Blacks, Mexicans, and the recent immigrants clustered as the bottom of the wage scale. All were usually the last hired and the first fired and performed menial jobs. Mexicans were employed as cheap labour on Californian farms. Wherever the minorities worked the 'native' Americans saw them as a threat to their livelihood, as they normally accepted jobs that the whites did not want. Despite emancipation from slavery after the Civil War, the former slaves remained at the bottom of the social scale in the southern states, where most blacks lived. They lacked economic independence, since they largely worked in white-owned land.
SEREGATION: During the 1920's various groups of ethnic minorities were discriminated against through the act of segregation. Most commonly associated with Blacks, who were separated from whites in most public areas including trains, parks and even cemeteries, also extended to other minority groups. Orientals living in America were compelled to attend segregated schools. Catholics, shunned by the Protestant majority in organised sport, formed a separate high-school athletic conference early in the 1920's but was not allowed to merge with the public system until forced legislation to do so in 1966. Jews continued to be discriminated against in the twenties.
PEOPLE AND ENTERTAINERS[/U][/font][/size]
THE PRESIDENT: Calvin Coolidge
THE POPE: Pius XI
ENTERTAINERS:
SPORTS STARS:
Remember guys, this RP is set in 1927, therefore the information is more geared to around that time.
CONTENTS:[/U][/font][/size]
- Introduction
- The Prohibition
- Speakeasies
- Flappers
- Fashion
- Technology & Consumer Economy
- Religion
- Gender Equality
- Homosexuality
- Racial Tolerance
- People & Entertainers
INTRODUCTION[/U][/font][/size]
The popular image of the 1920s, as a decade of prosperity and riotous living and of bootleggers and gangsters, flappers and hot jazz, flagpole sitters, and marathon dancers, is indelibly etched in the American psyche. But this image is also profoundly misleading. The 1920s was a decade of deep cultural conflict, pitting a more cosmopolitan, modernist, urban culture against a more provincial, traditionalist, rural culture.
The decade witnessed a titanic struggle between an old and a new America. Immigration, race, alcohol, evolution, gender politics, and sexual morality--all became major cultural battlefields during the 1920s. Wets battled drys, religious modernists battled religious fundamentalists, and urban ethnics battled the Ku Klux Klan.
The 1920s was a decade of profound social changes. The most obvious signs of change were the rise of a consumer-oriented economy and of mass entertainment, which helped to bring about a "revolution in morals and manners." Sexual mores, gender roles, hair styles, and dress all changed profoundly during the 1920s. Many Americans regarded these changes as liberation from the country's Victorian past. But for others, morals seemed to be decaying, and the United States seemed to be changing in undesirable ways. The result was a thinly veiled "cultural civil war."
Shown: Prohibition, speakeasies, and flappers.
What were they? Keep reading.
THE PROHIBITION[/U][/font][/size]
In the history of the United States, Prohibition, also known as The Noble Experiment or the “Volstead Act”, is the period from 1919 to 1933, during which the sale, manufacture, and transportation of alcohol for consumption were banned nationally as mandated in the Eighteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution.
Prohibition was supposed to lower crime and corruption, reduce social problems, lower taxes needed to support prisons and poorhouses, and improve health and hygiene in America. Instead, Alcohol became more dangerous to consume; organized crime blossomed; courts and prisons systems became overloaded; and endemic corruption of police and public officials occurred.
The illegal production and distribution of liquor, or bootlegging, became rampant, and the national government did not have the means or desire to try to enforce every border, lake, river, and speakeasy in America. Organised crime boomed via the profits of bootlegging. In fact, by 1925 in New York City alone there were anywhere from 30,000 to 100,000 speakeasy clubs.
SPEAKEASIES[/U][/font][/size]
A speakeasy was an establishment which illegally sold alcoholic beverages during the Prohibition. The speakeasy got its name because one had to whisper a code word or name through a slot in a locked door to gain admittance.
Speakeasies became more popular and numerous as the Prohibition years progressed, and more of them were operated by people connected to organized crime. They could be as simple as a back room in a restaurant secretly serving alcohol, or in major cities, speakeasies were often quite elaborate, offering food, live music, floor shows, and striptease dancers.
Although police and Bureau of Prohibition agents would raid them and arrest the owners and patrons, the business of running speakeasies was so lucrative that they continued to flourish throughout America. Corruption was rampant—speakeasy operators routinely bribed police to leave them alone or to give them advance notice of raids. A large number had connections to - or were run by - organised crime syndicates.
FLAPPERS[/U][/font][/size]
The term 'flapper' in the 1920s referred to a "new breed" of young women who wore short skirts, bobbed their hair, listened to the new jazz music, and flaunted their disdain for what was then considered acceptable behavior. The flappers were seen as brash for wearing excessive makeup, drinking, treating sex in a casual manner, smoking, driving automobiles, and otherwise flouting conventional social and sexual norms.
FASHION[/U][/font][/size]
Ready-to-wear clothing was another important innovation in America's expanding consumer economy. During World War I, the federal government defined standard clothing sizes to help the nation's garment industry meet the demand for military uniforms. Standard sizes meant that it was now possible to mass produce ready-to-wear clothing. Since there was no copyright on clothing designs until the 1950s, garment manufacturers could pirate European fashions and reproduce them using less expensive fabrics.
WOMENS: The 1920s was the decade in which fashion entered the modern era. It was the decade in which women first liberated themselves from constricting fashions and began to wear more comfortable clothes (such as short skirts or pants). The tubular dresses of the 1910s had evolved into a similar straight silhouette that now sported shorter skirts with pleats, gathers, or slits to allow motion to rule women’s fashion for the first time in history. The tailor was a thing of the past.
A more masculine look became popular, including flattened breasts and hips, short hairstyles such as the bob cut, Eton Crop and the Marcel Wave. Undergarments began to transform to conform to the boyish figure, they wore new, softer and suppler underwear that reached to their hips, smoothing the whole frame giving women a straight up and down appearance.
1920's dresses were lighter and brighter and shorter than ever before. Fashion designers played with fabric colors, textures and patterns to create totally new styles of dress. Hemlines rose to the knee for most of the decade but dropped slightly toward the end. Shoes and stockings assumed a greater prominence now that they were more visible. Pantsuits, hats and canes gave women a sleek look without frills and avoiding the fickleness of fashion.
MENS: The end of World War I saw the end of social classes being strictly divided across fashion lines. A less fussy, more youthful look was embraced by much of society, and the prevailing wisdom dictated that it was less what a man wore than how he wore it that distinguished him.
Men abandoned overly formal clothes. Slacks and cotton dress shirts were the norm even for laborers in the cities. Suits and fedoras and possibly spats accompanied the average middle class male. A 'flaming youth' - a male equivalent of a flapper - would typically dress with a straw hat and resemble a member of a barbershop quartette. Loose fitting sleeves (without a taper) also began to be worn during this period. Amoung the working class jeans were common for their durability.
The suits which men wear today are still based, for the most part, on those which were worn by men in the late 1920s. During this time, double breasted vests, often worn with a single breasted jacket, also became quite fashionable. For formal occasions in the daytime, a morning suit was usually worn. For evening wear men preferred the short tuxedo to the tail-coat, which was now seen as rather old-fashioned and snobbish. Many young men favoured wristwatches over the now old-fashioned pocket watch. Shirts were softer and more casual. Even details in evening wear were less formal, with lace-up shoes being seen instead of black patent leather.
TECHNOLOGY & CONSUMER ECONOMY[/U][/font][/size]
Americans in the 1920s were the first to wear ready-made, exact-size clothing. They were the first to play electric phonographs, to use electric vacuum cleaners, to listen to commercial radio broadcasts, and to drink fresh orange juice year round. In countless ways, large and small, American life was transformed during the 1920s, at least in urban areas. Cigarettes, cosmetics, and synthetic fabrics such as rayon became staples of American life. Newspaper gossip columns, illuminated billboards, and commercial airplane flights were novelties during the 1920s. The United States became a consumer society.
CARS: One of the first major inventions to become a national craze was the automobile. Ford Motor Company mass produced affordable automobiles known as the Model-T. Ford's. Model-Ts became such an overwhelming success that over 15 million Model-Ts were sold by 1927 when the Model-T line was discontinued. By the end of the decade, there was almost one car per family in the United States.
MOVIES: As automobiles became more popular, transportation became less of a hassle, and consequently movie attendance soared with the increase of automobile sales. With comical performances by comedian, Charlie Chaplin, dramatic performances by sex symbol, Rudolph Valentino, and many other famous actors, the movie industry was able to attract a massive audience of loyal viewers, even during the years of silent black-and-white films. In 1922, improvements in sound recording technology enabled the filming and broadcasting of the first movie ever made with sound, "The Jazz Singer" starring Al Jolson. In 1927 alone, over 14,500 movie theaters throughout the nation showed over 400 films a year each, as movies became America's favorite form of entertainment.
RADIO: The radio became an instant success among the American public and became a part of virtually every home in America in only a few short years. Thousands of broadcasting stations pop up all over the country. Many people would stay up half the night listening to concerts, sermons, "Red Menace" news, and sports. Those without home radios gathered around crystal sets in public places. The advent of public radio allowed listeners to not only keep up with national issues and events, it also let people experience new ideas, new entertainment, and to form opinions on matters that had never been publicized to a national degree.
HOUSEHOLDS: Alongside the automobile, the telephone and electricity also became emblems of the consumer economy. By 1930, two-thirds of all American households had electricity and plumbing, and half of American households had telephones. As more and more of America's homes received electricity, new appliances followed: refrigerators, washing machines, vacuum cleaners, motorised lawn mowers and toasters quickly took hold. Advertisers claimed that "labor saving" appliances would ease the sheer physical drudgery of housework, but they did not shorten the average housewife's work week. Women had to do more because standards of cleanliness kept rising. Sheets had to be changed weekly; the house had to be vacuumed daily. In short, social pressure expanded household chores to keep pace with the new technology. Far from liberating women, appliances imposed new standards of cleanliness.
OTHER: Other technologies that existed included aerosol sprays, frozen food, hair dryers, hearing aids, sticky plasters and even a limited number of television sets. Important innovations in food processing occurred as manufacturers learned how to efficiently produce canned and frozen foods. Processed foods saved homemakers enormous amounts of time in peeling, grinding, and cutting.
RELIGION[/U][/font][/size]
People of the 1920s were still very Godfearing, and Religion was a pivotal cultural battleground. American Protestants saw the new Catholic and Jewish religions arriving overseas as a threat to their way of life.
People from Hispanic, Italian, and some Irish backgrounds were most likely Catholic, while most other Americans and European immigrants are probably some variety of Protestant. Same went for those from Africa/Asia who had lived in Westernized civilizations or come into contact with missionaries.
The roots of religious vs scientific conflict were planted in the late 19th century. During the 1870s, a lasting division had occurred in American Protestantism over Charles Darwin's theory of evolution. Religious modernists argued that religion had to be accommodated to the teachings of science, while religious traditionalists sought to preserve the basic tenets of their faith. Between 1921 and 1929, Fundamentalists introduced 37 anti-evolution bills into 20 state legislatures. A famous event was the Scopes Trial in 1926, where a teacher was taken to court for teaching Darwinian evolution to his students.
GENDER EQUALITY[/U][/font][/size]
In 1920, after 72 years of struggle, American women had received the right to vote. Many women, notably the Women’s Christian Temperance Union, had been pivotal in bringing about national Prohibition in the United States of America, believing it would protect families, women and children from the effects of abuse of alcohol and in the process establishing women as a new political force. The 1920s brought about various types of "new" women: married white women often earned an education and attempted to juggle careers and family, while the flapper girls challenged old ways of thinking and behaving. Aspirations included education and careers as well as families. Pre-marital affairs became more prominent.
Things were easier, but by no means equal. Gender roles and the notion that women were inferior were still prevalent and there was a strong divide between older, 'traditional' women and the younger ones attempting to bridge the gaps. Properly brought up young ladies still required chaperones while with a suitor, and women were still dependent on their fathers and husbands, and are not thought of as equals by the general male population. The younger generations of American women are hampered by the double standards that both their male peers and their matriarchs still clung to.
Women did not win new opportunities in the workplace. Although the American work force included eight million women in 1920, more than half were black or foreign-born. Domestic service remained the largest occupation, followed by secretaries, typists, and clerks--all low-paying jobs. The American Federation of Labor (AFL) remained openly hostile to women because it did not want females competing for men's jobs. Female professionals also made little progress. They consistently received less pay than their male counterparts. Moreover, they were concentrated in traditionally "female" occupations such as teaching and nursing.
HOMOSEXUALITY[/U][/font][/size]
Back in the 1920s, sexuality wasn't really viewed the same way we view it today, along a homosexual/heterosexual axis. Instead of homosexual behaviour, it was effeminacy that was really looked down upon among men at this point. Flamboyant homosexuals were pretty much considered to be on par with prostitutes as far as sexual availability went, and they were considered something of a "third sex," more accepted among the working class than the middle and upper classes (who found homosexuality threatening and generally beneath them). As a result, there was no stigma among men among being attracted to effeminate homosexuals (colloquially referred to as "fairies"), as long as you yourself were perfectly masculine.
Homosexuals in the public conscience were basically fairies and drag queens; men who were interested in them were termed "trade," but suffered no social stigma, among the working classes at least; there were far more young men than women in many cities due to the influx of young immigrant labourers, so substituting fairies for women seemed a natural option. Until the early 1930s, gay clubs were openly operated, commonly known as "pansy clubs".
Other colloquialisms were those of "wolves and punks," terms which surfaced in a prison culture and were later more broadly applied. Wolves were older men who seduced younger men, known as punks, but as neither was effeminate, this wasn't generally stigmatized either, although there was some concern over the moral corruption of innocent youth at the hands of the wolves. The latter, however, was more to be admired for his ability to attract young men.
Many men who realized they were gay during this period didn't want to come out for fear that it would necessarily make them a "fairy," as that was the only homosexual identity of which most were aware, stereotyped as lisping, wearing rouge, tweezing one's eyebrows, and generally displaying effeminate characteristics. Some still rejected this identity entirely, preferring to express homosexual desires through slightly misogynistic notions of "male camaraderie" a la Walt Whitman. While most of society was oblivious of homosexuality in day-to-day life, there were events such as drag balls which drew thousands of attendees and garnered front-page press coverage (although technically transvestitism was illegal in daily life). All in all, while there was strong bias against effeminacy in men, homosexuality was more of a curiosity than anything.
There wasn't really much of a lesbian culture at this point, as women were still fairly limited in terms of social freedoms.
RACIAL TOLERANCE[/U][/font][/size]
In short: There was none.
During the 1920's, racial tension in American society was high. New non-protestant immigrants like Jews and Catholics had been arrived in their masses from south-east Europe since early on in the century. Together with Orientals, Mexicans and the Black population these minorities suffered the most at the hands of those concerned with preserving the long established White Anglo-Saxon Protestant (W.A.S.P.) values that were an integral part of American life. Prejudice and racism reared its ugly head in many areas of society, with people showing a tolerance for racist views in the media, literature and towards organisations like the Ku Klux Klan.
SOCIAL-DARWINISM: In the 1920's Anti-Immigration Organisations that had been founded in the latter parts of the first decade of the twentieth century began to receive much larger and an increasingly influential following. The Immigration Restriction League was one such group, it claimed to have 'scientific' evidence that the new immigrants from Southeast Europe were racially inferior and therefore posed to threaten the supremacy of the USA. They believed strongly in WASP values and certainly did not wish to see them become polluted by other religions from minorities like Catholics and Jews. This Social-Darwinist belief was not just popular with the masses, but it's appeal spread to people of considerable eminence. For example the principals of important American universities like Harvard, Stanford and Chicago were numbered among the Leagues supporters.
IMMIGRATION: In response to the call for further restrictions on immigration, Congress passed two laws. Firstly the Emergency Immigration Act in 1921, which restricted new arrivals to 3% of the foreign born of a nationality. In 1924 the Johnson-Reed Act stiffened these terms, limiting the number of people from any nationality to 2% of the total number of that national origin living in the USA in 1890. This law also set a permanent limitation of 150,000 people a year coming into the USA. This new act, which came into effect in 1929, virtually ended immigration from Southern and Eastern Europe and excluded Asians almost entirely. However the quota systems did not place any restrictions on immigration from the Western Hemisphere, and consequently from immigration from Mexico and French Canada soared during the 1920's.
THE KU KLUX KLAN: The growing spirit of intolerance erupting throughout America can be witnessed none clearer than in the wartime revival of the secret society, the Ku Klux Klan. The newly re-modelled organisation of the Civil War days claimed to be fighting to protect native white Protestants from the alien elements within. They argued that the American way of life was under threat not only from the Negroes but also from Catholics, Jews and all immigrants. It emphasised the notion of 100% Americanism. Its appeal was mainly sited in the Southern states, where the majority of black people lived, where the powerful idea of 'white supremacy' went unquestioned. The Klan's appeal also spread to the western and northern states, where Catholics and Jews became the targets. Throughout the 1920's the Klan's membership saw an increase, estimates at the time ranged from 3-5 million and profits rolled in from the sale these memberships, regalia, costumes and rituals. The burning cross became their symbol. The Ku Klux Klan used intimidation, threats, beating and even murder in their quest for a "purified America". Klan members, between 1920-27 it has been estimated, carried out the lynching of 416 Blacks in the Southern States.
EMPLOYMENT: The racial discrimination towards ethnic minorities during the twenties can also be seen in the job opportunities available to them. Blacks, Mexicans, and the recent immigrants clustered as the bottom of the wage scale. All were usually the last hired and the first fired and performed menial jobs. Mexicans were employed as cheap labour on Californian farms. Wherever the minorities worked the 'native' Americans saw them as a threat to their livelihood, as they normally accepted jobs that the whites did not want. Despite emancipation from slavery after the Civil War, the former slaves remained at the bottom of the social scale in the southern states, where most blacks lived. They lacked economic independence, since they largely worked in white-owned land.
SEREGATION: During the 1920's various groups of ethnic minorities were discriminated against through the act of segregation. Most commonly associated with Blacks, who were separated from whites in most public areas including trains, parks and even cemeteries, also extended to other minority groups. Orientals living in America were compelled to attend segregated schools. Catholics, shunned by the Protestant majority in organised sport, formed a separate high-school athletic conference early in the 1920's but was not allowed to merge with the public system until forced legislation to do so in 1966. Jews continued to be discriminated against in the twenties.
PEOPLE AND ENTERTAINERS[/U][/font][/size]
THE PRESIDENT: Calvin Coolidge
THE POPE: Pius XI
ENTERTAINERS:
Louis Armstrong Mary Astor Josephine Baker John Barrymore Lionel Barrymore Irving Berlin Clara Bow Louise Brooks Eddie Cantor Lon Chaney Charlie Chaplin Joan Crawford Bebe Daniels Marion Davies Duke Ellington Douglas Fairbanks Greta Garbo Janet Gaynor George Gershwin John Gilbert Dorothy Gish Lillian Gish William Haines Kelly Harrell | William S. Hart Harry Houdini Al Jolson Buster Keaton Harold Lloyd Tom Mix Colleen Moore Mae Murray Jelly Roll Morton Pola Negri Ramon Novarro Will Rogers Mary Pickford Cole Porter Norma Shearer Bessie Smith Gloria Swanson Chief Tahachee Norma Talmadge Rudolph Valentino Rudy Vallee Paul Whiteman Florenz Ziegfeld |
SPORTS STARS:
Warwick Armstrong (Australian cricket captain) Gordon Coventry (Australian rules football player) Jack Dempsey (American boxer) Red Grange (American football player) Jack Hobbs (Surrey & England cricketer) Alex James (Arsenal & Scotland footballer) Bobby Jones (American golfer) Kenesaw Mountain Landis (American Baseball Commissioner) Suzanne Lenglen (French tennis player ) Helen Wills Moody (American tennis player) | Paavo Nurmi (Finnish runner) Wilfred Rhodes (Yorkshire & England cricketer) Babe Ruth (American baseball player) Herbert Sutcliffe (Yorkshire & England cricketer) Bill Tilden (American tennis player) Lou Gehrig (American baseball player) Alex Grove (American bowler) |