Depression, War, and Recovery Unit 8A

Remember – people had a lot more money to spend in the 1920

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s

   People wanted to have fun – and were willing to spend money to have fun.

There were 100 million moviegoers every week. People went to museums, public libraries, listening to the radio, talking on the phone, driving their cars, etc…

Radio and movies were the two biggest forms of mass media in the 20 ’ s  The first commercial radio broadcast was in 1920 and played news, sports, music, comedy, and commercials.

Movies

   In the 20 ’ s, most movies were still silent – but there were starting to be some popular movie stars.

The Jazz Singer had the first sound (1927).

Steamboat Willie was the first animated movie (1928)

http://silent-movies.com/

Sports figures were some of the biggest heroes of the 1920 ’ s  The 1920 ’ s has been called the “ golden age ” of sports

African Americans used the same forms of entertainment to express themselves     This time/place was called “ the Harlem Renaissance.

” New York City was the unofficial Black capital of America and Harlem was on NYC’s West Side.

Harlem was the largest black urban community in the world.

Harlem (New York) was an African American cultural center for the arts – everything from music to poetry.

Jazz was big in the 20

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s

   But even in many of the clubs where Blacks were entertainers, only white people were allowed to watch/listen.

Two of the most popular musicians were Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington.

Harlem ’ s most famous nightclub: The Cotton Club

There was another side to the world at the time:

  A group of people in despair (There had just been a war with millions of dead and just saw little hope for a better future) They were called “ the Lost Generation ”

Many of these moved to Paris

(and some wrote about their view of the world)    Ernest Hemming (A Farewell to Arms, The Old Man and the Sea, For whom the Bell Tolls), who had been an ambulance driver in WWI.

F. Scott Fitzgerald (The Great Gatsby) – about New Yorkers whose lives spin out of control.

Sinclair Lewis (Babbitt), made fun of middle class America and their materialism