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Post by *~Mrs. Cooper ~* on Dec 29, 2006 3:00:58 GMT -5
1920-1929 - Boom Time
The war was over. The boys were home. Democracy had prevailed over the forces of evil. Now it was time to get back to the business of life in America.
With the twenties modernity reigned: telephones, automobiles, radio, jazz, movies--the promise of ever greater prosperity. The booming economy of the 1920's brought with it a national euphoria, "a kind of swaggering time," according to Martin Marty. Business tycoons, moneyed magnets, and the rule of Wall Street defined the decade.
The booming economy was also a driving force in the country's religious life. Most of the dates chiseled into cornerstones on the big, old downtown churches and synagogues are from the 1920's (or the 1950's). The twenties was not a time of deep piety. Growth and building were the prioritied, and Protestants dominated.
Dr. Marty says, "It was an era of good feelings, but underneath the illusion of well-being was a lot of ugliness. Everybody was mad at everybody. Conflict between peoples...was the most important public religious theme in the period between the two World Wars.... Not since the Civil War [has] America been more toen...in matters specifically religious."
Against this backdrop of cultural conflict, the Roaring Twenties saw the American people reach a level of prosperity and affluence once considered unimaginable. Oil discoveries created boom camps. Women entered the work force in unprecedented numbers. Everyone seemed to have something to celebrate--until Black Thursday, October 24, 1929.
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The Decade at a Glance 1920 Warren G. Hardin becomes president 1920 Prohibition begins, ushering in bootleggers, gangsters, and speakeasies. 1920 First live radio broadcast airs in Pittsburgh. 1920 First blues recording is made my Mamie Smith. 1920 The Nineteenth Amendment is ratified, giving women the vote. 1921 Race riot in Tulsa sees 50 whites, 200 blacks killed. 1921 White Castle, the first fast-food outlet, opens in Kansas City. 1921 Congress begins passing laws to restrict immigration. 1922 First radio commercial is broadcast, costing $100 for 10 minutes. 1922 Publication of Jame Joyce's Ulysses is banned in the U.S. 1922 Mussolini takes over Italy. 1923 Harding dies, Calvin Coolidge becomes president. 1924 Coolidge is re-elected. 1924 Joseph Stalin dies. 1925 The Scopes case, called the "Monkey" trial, pits creation against evolution in the first radio-broadcast court case. 1925 John Logie Baird invents the television. 1926 Ernest Hemingway publishes The Sun Also Rises, the same year A. A. Milne publishes Winnie the Pooh. 1927 The Jazz Singer, the first "talking picture," is released. 1927 Charles A. Lindbergh becomes the first person to fly across the Atlantic alone. 1927 Babe Ruth his over 60 home runs in one season. 1928 Herbert Hoover is elected. 1928 Sir Alexander Fleming discovers that penicillin destroys bacteria. 1928 Amelia Earhart flies across Atlantic. 1929 The stock market crashes. 1929 The St. Valentine's Day Massacre in Chicago becomes a bloody example of gangster rivalry.
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Post by Ajax on Jan 13, 2007 4:04:13 GMT -5
Actually, Philo T. Farnsworth invented the television, and the Scopes Trial was more about the right to free speech more than it was evolution and creation. It was all set up by the ACLU, and they already knew that the outcome would be a One Hundred Dollar fine for John Thomas Scopes, who wasn't even a biology teacher, but a man who answered the advert that the ACLU had put in the paper....
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Post by Miss Retro on May 24, 2007 11:45:44 GMT -5
Talk about CELEBRATING! People danced until they dropped, and one fell to the floor, dead! Of course, it wasn't Dance Planet. The radio became popular, and people tuned in everyday. The T.V. was not invented yet, so the radio was the next best thing. When they listened, people liked to listen to jazz, especially the king of jazz, Louis Armstrong. But never fear, people weren't couch potatoes, sitting next to the radio. Movies were also a big hit. This decade marked the start of the sound movies. So much happened in the 1920's, this is only a fraction of it all. Fads of the 1920's
Since the 1920s was a time of celebration, there were many fads. People loved to dance, especially the Charleston, Fox-trot, and the shimmy. Dance marathons were something everyone went to every weekend. The longest dance record ever recorded was a record of 3 weeks of dancing. Another fad of the 1920's was the radio. People "tuned" in every day to listen to music, as jazz, sports and live events. A favorite for listening to jazz was "the king of jazz", Louie Armstrong. The latest fashion fad was the flapper, a fad for women. The movie was also the latest thing. The start of 3-D movies was in the 1920's. The average American had a lot to look forward to, in the 1920's, that’s for sure!
Inventions
An invention, which soon after became a popular fad, is the radio. Because of no invention of the TV, the radio was their TV. And, it really did do pretty much everything the TV does for us. If you tuned in at the right time, you could catch comedy shows, news, live events, jazz, variety shows, drama, opera, you name it, the radio had it! Discovered in the 1920's were penicllin and discovery of insulin for diabetic.This decade had some major breakthroughs in medicine and science.
Did You Know...
Here's some of the little things you probably didn't know. The peanut butter and jelly sandwich became famous in 1922. The #1 book on the bestseller list was a Manners book by Emily Post. People said it was a good book because it was not snobby. Calvin Coolidge, a president of a few words, was so famous for saying so little that a White House dinner guest made a bet that she could get the president to say more than two words. She told the president of her wager. His reply, "You lose."
Beyond Belief: A True Story
In November of 1923, Lord Carnavon has just opened Pharaoh Tutankhamun's tomb, but was a superstition about the Pharaoh's curse. The superstition said that if someone opened and "disturbed" a mummified pharaoh, a curse would be placed on the finder of the coffin. Apparently, six months after Tutankhamen's tomb was opened, Lord Carnavon died of an insect bite while working in the tomb.
Entertainment
The 1920’s was the decade of entertainment. Rin-Tin-Tin, the movie dog, used to be a starving German Shepherd dog during the Great War. He became most famous dog ever to star in the movies in 1923. The first radio broadcast ever came out in November of 1920. The first Miss America contest was held on September 8, 1921. Metro Goldwyn Mayer film making studio was founded. A new Pooh Bear story by A.A. Milne was a big hit for little children. Mickey Mouse became everyone's favorite cartoon character in Steamboat Willie.
National Events
The Supreme Court struck down a 1918 minimum-wage law for District of Columbia woman because with the vote, women were considered equal to men. This ruling canceled all state minimum wage laws. Nellie Tayloe Ross of Wyoming becomes the first woman elected governor of a state. Bertha Knight Landes is the first woman elected governor of a sizable city, Seattle, Washington.
The Stock Market Crash of 1929
On October 24, 1929, later to be known as Black Thursday, the stock market began its downhill drop. After the first hour, the prices had gone down at an amazing speed. Some people thought that after that day, the prices would rise again just as it had done before. But it didn’t. Prices kept dropping, and on October 29, 1929, Black Tuesday, more than 16 million shares were sold, but by the end of the day, most stocks ended below their previous value, and some stocks became totally worthless. Because of that, some people became homeless and penniless, all because of the Stock Market Crash. By November 13, the prices had hit rock bottom. The stock AT&T had gone from $304, to the price of $197. America had celebrated for eight years, but now, everything was wasted in just a few weeks, by the Stock Market. It was a sad ending to this glorious decade!
Timeline of the 1920's
1920 - November 2: First Radio broadcast; President Warren Harding elected; women get their first vote
1921 - September 8: First Miss America pageant held in Atlantic City; November 11: Unknown soldier of World War I buried
1922 - November 26: Archaeologist Howard Carter finds tomb of Tutankhamen near Luxor, Egypt
1923 - August 2: President Harding dies; August 3: Vice President Calvin Coolidge is sworn into office as president
1924 - February 3: Former President Woodrow Wilson dies; November 4: Calvin Coolidge is elected President
1925 - October 2: Scottish inventor John Baird invents the first form of a television
1927 - First talking movie, The Jazz Singer released; May 20: Spirit of St. Louis and pilot Charles Lindbergh land in Paris
1928 - September 19: First Mickey Mouse talking film, Steamboat Willie, released by Walt Disney; November 6: Herbert Hoover elected President
1929 - October 24: Start of the Stock Market Crash
The 1920's was, for 8 years and 3/4 of 1929, a very happy decade. The last 1/4 was the Stock Market Crash that could have started the Great Depression that lasted straight through the 1930' s, not ending until mid-1940. A war started before 1920, and a war broke out in 1929. Although it was called the Great Depression, people killed others, killed themselves, became homeless, and became penniless. Actually, the eight years of happiness might have felt like a small vacation to a person who lived during the time.
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Post by Miss Retro on May 24, 2007 11:52:48 GMT -5
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Post by Miss Retro on May 24, 2007 11:54:57 GMT -5
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