10th American History

1
10th American History

• Unit VI- US Cultural History
• The Roaring 20s

2
Part 1 - 1920s

• Post War Reaction
• Post World War I and the Red Scare

3
Allied Intervention into Russia

• The British, French and Americans four-fold goal
• (1) prevent Japan from creating an empire in the
  East,
• (2) prevent massive Allied stores originally sent
  to the tsarist armies from falling into German
  and subsequently Bolshevik hands,
• (3) assist the White Armies in overthrowing the
  Bolshevik regime and bring Russia under Lenin
  back into the war against Germany,
• (4) rescue the Czechoslovak Legion trapped in
  central Asia so that they could rejoin the war
  against Germany.
• From 1918 on, Soviet propagandists skillfully
  exploited the raw fact of Allied presence on
  Russian soil. The scale of Allied operations was
  trivial, as their combat losses show. The British
  in particular provided military equipment to the
  Whites, but soon abandoned their Russian friends
  to their fate.

4
Labor Problems in the 20s

• Monopolies continued in spite of the Sherman
  Antitrust Act of 1890. Social problems flourished
  in the U.S. During the 1910s labor unions
  continued to grow as the middle classes became
  more and more unhappy. Unsafe working conditions
  were underscored by the Triangle Shirtwaist
  Factory fire in which 145 female workers were
  killed.
• Prices were soaring, wages and benefits were not.
  Some 4 million workers went on strike costing
  about 2 billion in lost sales.
• Public, government and courts did not support
  strikes.
• Strikes often turned violent and union membership
  fell.

5
Urban Riots

• 1919-These race riots were the product of white
  societys desire to maintain its superiority over
  Blacks, vent its frustrations in times of
  distress, and attack those least able to defend
  themselves.
• This was the year of the "Red Summer," with 26
  race riots between the months of April and
  October. More than one hundred Blacks were killed
  in these riots, and thousands were wounded and
  left homeless.
• These included disturbances in the following
  areas
• May 10 Charleston, South Carolina July 13 Gregg
  and Longview counties, Texas July 19-23
  Washington, D. C. July 27 Chicago October
  1-3 Elaine, Arkansas.
• Lynchings. Seventy-six black Americans are known
  to have been lynched in 1919.
• 1. In each of the race riots, with few
  exceptions, it was white people that sparked the
  incident by attacking Black people.
• 2. In the majority of the riots, some
  extraordinary social condition prevailed at the
  time of the riot prewar social changes, wartime
  mobility, post-war adjustment, or economic
  depression.
• 3. The majority of the riots occurred during the
  hot summer months.
• 4. Rumor played an extremely important role in
  causing many riots. Rumors of some criminal
  activity by Blacks against whites perpetuated the
  actions of white mobs.
• 5. The police force, more than any other
  institution, was invariably involved as a
  precipitating cause or perpetuating factor in the
  riots. In almost every one of the riots, the
  police sided with the attackers, either by
  actually participating in, or by failing to quell
  the attack.
• 6. In almost every instance, the fighting
  occurred within the Black community.

6
Bomb Scares

• In addition to workers' strikes, bomb threats
  also fueled the Red Scare- probably scattered act
  of misguided terrorists.
• In April of 1919, a United States Senator from
  Georgia, Thomas Hartwick, received a package
  which exploded when his maid opened it. Thanks to
  an observant New York City mail clerk, similar
  packages were discovered before they reached
  their targets.
• In all, authorities found sixteen homemade bombs
  wrapped up and addressed to such prominent
  members of commerce and government as J.P.
  Morgan, John D. Rockefeller, and Supreme Court
  Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. Although there
  was no evidence, many claimed this was part of a
  radical, Bolshevik conspiracy to take over the
  nation. Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer was
  one of the targets of an attempted bombing, which
  made him a convert to the Red Scare.
• The worst bombing was on Sept. 16, 1920 in Wall
  street where 38 people were killed and hundreds
  wounded.
• Palmer made use of the wartime Sedition Act
  (1918) to arrest and prosecute so-called
  "radicals." (Bolsheviks, Anarchists, terrorists,
  and foreigners .) On 7th November, 1919, the
  second anniversary of the Russian Revolution,
  over 10,000 suspected communists and anarchists
  were arrested and 247 other people, were deported
  to Russia. These raids took place in several
  cities and became known as the Palmer Raids.

7
A. Mitchell Palmer and the Red Scare

• In 1919 Wilson appointed Palmer as his attorney
  general.
• Worried by the revolution that had taken place in
  Russia, Palmer became convinced that Communist
  agents were planning to overthrow the American
  government. His view was reinforced by the
  discovery of thirty-eight bombs sent to leading
  politicians and the Italian anarchist who blew
  himself up outside Palmer's Washington home.
• Palmer recruited John Edgar Hoover as his special
  assistant and together they used the Espionage
  Act (1917) and the Sedition Act (1918) to launch
  a campaign against radicals and left-wing
  organizations.
• When the May revolution failed to materialize,
  attitudes towards Palmer began to change and he
  was criticised for disregarding people's basic
  civil liberties. Some of his opponents claimed
  that Palmer had devised this Red Scare to help
  him become the Democratic presidential candidate
  in 1920.

8
Fear of Foreigners and Nativism

• The Immigration Restriction League
• Founded in 1894 by a group of Boston lawyers,
  professors, and philanthropists who were alarmed
  by the large number of immigrants entering
  America each year.
• Lobbied for a literacy test for immigrants- 1917
  over Wilsons veto.
• This would discriminate against Eastern and
  Southern European immigrants, whom the league
  felt inferior.
• The First Quota Law-May 19, 1921,
• limited the annual number of immigrants to 3 of
  the number of foreign-born persons of most
  nationalities living in the USA in 1910.

• National Origins Act 1924- only 150,000
  immigrants a year.
• set immigration quotas based on national origins
  that openly discriminated against southern and
  eastern Europeans. For example, the law permitted
  65,721 immigrants from Great Britain annually,
  but only 5,802 from Italy and 2,712 from the
  Soviet Union. Asians were almost completely
  excluded.

9
KKK and the Immigration Restriction

• The second Ku Klux Klan (KKK) sought to reverse
  the changes in gender and sexual norms.
• The KKK worked to elevate white Protestant men
  and women while blaming the demise of America's
  moral standards on Catholics, Jews, and people of
  color. "pure Americanism."
• As a result of pressure from western states and
  nativist organizations, the federal government
  enacted laws that specifically targeted Asian
  immigrants, such as the Chinese Exclusion Act in
  1882 and the "Gentlemen's Agreement" with Japan
  in 1907. Literacy Tests. Immigration Act of
  1924 (Quotas)
• KKK hatred of Blacks, Jews, Catholics, Flappers
  and Immigrants. It established one of the
  largest social movements of the 20th century,
  enrolling nearly five million of ordinary,
  "respectable," middle-class Americans

10
Sacco and Vanzetti

• It was a bold and outrageous pair of murders.
  Three o'clock in the afternoon - in broad
  daylight - two armed men shot and killed a
  paymaster and his guard. Seven shots in all were
  fired. The killers picked up the two boxes
  containing almost 16,000, leaped into a car
  containing several other men, a car that had
  pulled up with precise timing, and sped away. The
  whole audacious enterprise had taken less than a
  minute.
• Retrospect, the evidence against them seems slim,
  and certainly the question of reasonable doubt is
  raised.
• Arguments supporting their innocence are
  indirect, but important. What happened to the
  16,000? Who were the other three criminals? How
  can one explain the variety of bullets taken from
  the victims that do not match Sacco's gun? Why
  did the accused show no change in their behavior?
  Why were the members of the Morelli gang not
  questioned?
• Anarchists and Immigrants.

11
Prohibition

• Prohibition in the United States was a measure
  designed to reduce drinking by eliminating the
  businesses that manufactured, distributed, and
  sold alcoholic beverages.
• The Eighteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution
  took away license to do business from the
  brewers, distillers, vintners, and the wholesale
  and retail sellers of alcoholic beverages.
• The leaders of the prohibition movement were
  alarmed at the drinking behavior of Americans,
  and they were concerned that there was a culture
  of drink among some sectors of the population
  that, with continuing immigration from Europe,
  was spreading. Anti Saloon League, Scientific
  Temperance Federation, World League Against
  Alcoholism, and Womens Christian Temperance
  Union.

12
Prohibition - Problems

• Alcohol became more dangerous to consume crime
  increased and became "organized" the court and
  prison systems were stretched to the breaking
  point and corruption of public officials was
  rampant.
• No measurable gains were made in productivity or
  reduced absenteeism.
• Prohibition removed a significant source of tax
  revenue and greatly increased government
  spending.
• It led many drinkers to switch to opium,
  marijuana, patent medicines, cocaine, and other
  dangerous substances that they would have been
  unlikely to encounter in the absence of
  Prohibition.

St. Valentines Day Massacre
Eliot Ness
13
Prohibition

• Speakeasies were actually illegal "nightclubs."
  They were created during the 20's when
  prohibition was lurking about and alcohol was
  ruled illegal.
• They were usually opened late at night and
  served a playing field for the rebels that
  wanted to dance the night away and drink alcohol.
  
• They would usually have code words for people to
  get into and would be run by the local cop on the
  street.
• The Cotton Club in Harlem, New York was the most
  famous of these speakeasies.
• They were a place where the prosperous could
  party, local cops could make a little extra cash.
  
• In the speakeasies, discrimination was a problem.
  

14
Womens Suffrage- 19th Amendment

• Why We Don't Want Men to Vote
• Because man's place is in the army.
• Because no really manly man wants to settle any
  question otherwise than by fighting about it.
• Because if men should adopt peaceable methods
  women will no longer look up to them.
• Because men will lose their charm if they step
  out of their natural sphere and interest
  themselves in other matters than feats of arms,
  uniforms, and drums.
• Because men are too emotional to vote. Their
  conduct at baseball games and political
  conventions shows this, while their innate
  tendency to appeal to force renders them unfit
  for government.

15
Womens Suffrage- 19th Amendment

• 1920 Henry Burn casts the deciding vote that
  makes Tennessee the thirty-sixth, and final
  state, to ratify the Nineteenth Amendment.
  August 26 The Nineteenth Amendment is adopted
  and the women of the United States are finally
  enfranchised.
• 19th Amendment
• The right of citizens of the United States to
  vote shall not be denied or abridged by the
  United States or by any state on account of sex.

16
Part 2 - 1920s

• The Roaring 20s

17
Thanks to Henry Ford and mass production, one
could buy a car for 290. This was a period of
prohibition and intolerance, speakeasies,
flappers, gangsters, and crime. This brought
about much of the flavor of the Jazz Age or
Roaring Twenties as we know them. The 19th
Amendment had passed the previous year allowing
women the right to vote in national elections.
Technology grew - the country shrunk - as
popularity of automobiles, radios, and movies
exploded. In the fall of 1929, the New York Stock
Exchange was more active than it had ever been.
By October 24, 1929, Black Thursday, the stock
market crashed and panic broke out.
18
The Roaring 20s
19
Life in the Jazz Age - Automobile

• As the end of the decade neared, Ford and
  Chevrolet locked horns in a fierce pricing battle
  that continued through the Thirties. Other
  automakers, such as Cadillac, Packard, and
  Chrysler, began to have an impact on the market.
• Virtually every household in America owned an
  automobile, and it quickly became an integrated
  part of American life. Parents would drive to
  work in their automobiles. Families could visit
  friends and family who lived farther away. And
  young people found a whole new way to have fun.
  Entertainment and recreation as well as work.
• A wide variety of new industries were spawned-
  petroleum, manufacturing, road construction, etc.

20
Automobile Production
Motor Vehicle Production (Thousands) Year
United States Canada France United
Kingdom Germany Italy Czechoslovakia Russia 1907
45 3 25 12 4 0 0 0 1913 485 15 45 34 14 2 0 0 19
24 3504 135 145 133 18 35 2 0 1928 4359 242 210 2
12 90 55 13 1 1935 3971 173 165 404 240 44 10 97
21
The Radio

• Most radio historians assert that radio
  broadcasting began in 1920 with the historic
  broadcast of KDKA
• Radio became a product of the mass market
• Between 1923 and 1930, 60 percent of American
  families purchased radios. Families gathered
  around their radios for night-time entertainment
• Radio stations broadcast things like popular
  music, classical music, sporting events,
  lectures, fictional stories, newscasts, weather
  reports, market updates, and political
  commentary.
• The Federal Radio Commission was set up in 1926
  the Radio Act of 1927 organized the Federal Radio
  Commission.
• Crystal radios, like the one at left, were among
  the first radios to be used and manufactured.

22
The Phonograph

• The phonograph or Victrola was developed as a
  result of Thomas Edison's work on two other
  inventions, the telegraph and the telephone.
• Uses of the Phonograph- according to Edison
• Letter writing
• dictation
• Phonographic books,
• The teaching of elocution.
• Reproduction of music.
• The "Family Record"--a registry of sayings,
  reminiscences, etc., by members of a family in
  their own voices, and of the last words of dying
  persons.
• Music-boxes and toys.
• Clocks
• The preservation of languages
• Educational purposes.
• Connection with the telephone

23
1920s Movies
Janet Gaynor
Fairbanks and Pickford

• Rudolph Valentino

Buster Keaton- The Great Stone Face
Charlie Chaplin
24
Films really blossomed in the 1920s, expanding
upon the foundations of film from earlier years.
Most US film production at the start of the
decade occurred in or near Hollywood on the West
Coast, although some films were still being made
in New Jersey and in Astoria on Long Island
(Paramount). By the mid-20s, movies were big
business (with a capital investment totaling over
2 billion) with some theatres offering double
features. By the end of the decade, there were 20
Hollywood studios, and the demand for films was
greater than ever. Most people are unaware that
the greatest output of feature films in the US
occurred in the 1920s and 1930s (averaging about
800 film releases in a year) - nowadays, it is
remarkable when production exceeds 500 films in a
year. Throughout most of the decade, silent
films were the predominant product of the film
industry, having evolved from vaudevillian roots.
But the films were becoming bigger, costlier, and
more polished. They were being manufactured,
assembly-line style, in Hollywood's
'entertainment factories,' in which production
was broken down and organized into its various
components (writing, costuming, makeup,
directing, etc.). The major emphasis was on
swashbucklers, historical extravaganzas, and
melodramas, although all kinds of films were
being produced throughout the decade. Films
varied from sexy melodramas and biblical epics by
Cecil B. DeMille, to westerns (such as Cruze's
The Covered Wagon (1923)), horror films,
gangster/crime films, war films, the first
feature documentary (Robert Flaherty's Nanook of
the North (1922)), romances, mysteries, and
comedies (from the silent comic masters Chaplin,
Keaton, and Lloyd).
25
Refrigerators

• Two of the first home refrigerators both appeared
  in Fort Wayne, Indiana, where, in 1911, General
  Electric company unveiled a unit invented by a
  French monk. In 1915 the first "Guardian"
  refrigerator - a predecessor of the Frigidaire -
  was assembled in a wash house in a Fort Wayne
  backyard.
• Kelvinator and Servel models were among some two
  dozen home refrigerators introduced to the U.S.
  market in 1916. In 1920 the number had increased
  to more than 200. Compressors were generally
  driven by belts attached to motors located in the
  basement or in an adjoining room.
• In 1918 Kelvinator introduced the first
  refrigerator with any type of automatic control.
  One manufacturer's 1922 model had a wooden
  cabinet, a water-cooled compressor, two ice cube
  trays and nine cubic feet of storage space. It
  cost 714. In 1923 Frigidaire introduced the
  first self-contained unit. Steel and porcelain
  cabinets began appearing in the mid-20s.

26
Washing machines

• In 1922 The Maytag Company introduced a system of
  forcing water through the clothes by means of an
  agitator rather than dragging the clothes through
  the water. This system is most commonly used now.
  
• Even as early as 1875 there had been more than
  2,000 patents issued for various washing devices.
  Not every idea worked, of course. One company
  built a machine designed to wash only one item at
  a time.
• What may have been the first "laundromat" was
  opened in 1851 by a gold miner and a carpenter in
  California. Their 12-shirt machine was powered by
  10 donkeys.
• Earliest washers were hand powered by means of a
  wheel, pump handle or similar device. One, was
  driven by twisted ropes which powered the washer
  by "unwinding" somewhat like the use of a rubber
  band to power model airplanes. One washer
  contained rollers which were pushed back and
  forth by hand to squeeze out dirt. Several
  featured "stomping" devices and one - called a
  "Locamotive" was moved rapidly back and forth on
  a track washing the clothes by slamming them
  against the walls of the tub.

27
Vacuum Cleaners

• In 1907 an American named James Murray Spangler,
  who was working as a cleaner, Designed the first
  small electric cleaner. he sold the patent to a
  harness maker named Hoover. By the 1920's Bothe
  started to produce his own range of electric
  cleaners under the Goblin name. He had 2500 door
  to door sales representative's in England selling
  mainly under hire purchase. Both the Hoover and
  the Goblin range were very successful and are
  still operating today selling machines that have
  not changed much in basic design since their
  first prototype.
• In 1908 Hoover introduced the Model O vacuum, the
  first to use both a cloth filter bag and cleaning
  attachments. The machine weighed only 40 lbs.
• Hoover developed positive agitation in 1926, and
  this greatly increased the dirt removal
  efficiency of the vacuum. The Model 700 featured
  a rigid beater bar which was used in combination
  with the brush on the agitator to dislodge dirt
  from the carpet.

28
Bonnie and Clyde

• Clyde Champion Barrow and his companion, Bonnie
  Parker, were shot to death by officers in an
  ambush near Sailes, Bienville Parish, Louisiana,
  on May 23, 1934, after one of the most colorful
  and spectacular manhunts the Nation had seen up
  to that time.
• Barrow was suspected of numerous killings and was
  wanted for murder, robbery, and state charges of
  kidnapping.
• At the time they were killed in 1934, they were
  believed to have committed 13 murders and several
  robberies and burglaries. Barrow, for example,
  was suspected of murdering two police officers at
  Joplin, Missouri, and kidnaping a man and a woman
  in rural Louisiana.
• Numerous sightings followed, linking this pair
  with bank robberies and automobile thefts. Clyde
  allegedly murdered a man at Hillsboro, Texas
  committed robberies at Lufkin and Dallas, Texas
  murdered one sheriff and wounded another at
  Stringtown, Oklahoma kidnaped a deputy at
  Carlsbad, New Mexico stole an automobile at
  Victoria, Texas attempted to murder a deputy at
  Wharton, Texas committed murder and robbery at
  Abilene and Sherman, Texas committed murder at
  Dallas, Texas abducted a sheriff and the chief
  of police at Wellington, Texas and committed
  murder at Joplin and Columbia, Missouri.

Some day they will go down together, And they
will bury them side by side, To a few it means
grief, To the law it's relief, But it's death
to Bonnie and Clyde.
29
Scopes Trial

• THE CAST
• Clarence Darrow,famed and brilliant lawyer
  specializing in defending underdogs, who
  volunteered for this case to help combat
  fundamentalist ignorance
• John T. Scopes, a 24-year old science teacher and
  football coach
• v.s.
• William Jennings Bryan, famed orator,
  fundamentalist and presidential candidate.
• The world's attention was riveted on Dayton,
  Tennessee, during July, 1925. At issue was the
  constitutionality of the "Butler Law," which
  prohibited the teaching of evolution in the
  classroom. Oklahoma, Florida, Mississippi, North
  Carolina and Kentucky already had such laws.
• The ACLU hoped to use the Scopes case to test
  (and defeat)Fundamentalist meddling in politics.
  Judge John Raulston began the trial by reading
  the first 27 verses of Genesis.
• Clarence Darrow said "Science gets to the end of
  its knowledge and, in effect, says, 'I do not
  know what I do not know,' and keeps on searching.
  Religion gets to the end of its knowledge, and in
  effect, says, 'I know what I do not know,' and
  stops searching.

Darrow
Bryan
30
Charles Lindbergh

• Lindbergh Does It! To Paris in 33 1/2 Hours
  Flies 1,000 Miles Through Snow and Sleet
  Cheering French Carry Him Off FieldNew York
  Times, May 21, 1927
• Lindbergh, Charles Augustus (1902-1974), an
  American aviator, made the first solo nonstop
  flight across the Atlantic Ocean on May 20-21,
  1927. Other pilots had crossed the Atlantic
  before him. But Lindbergh was the first person to
  do it alone nonstop.
• Lindbergh's feat gained him immediate,
  international fame. The press named him "Lucky
  Lindy" and the "Lone Eagle." Americans and
  Europeans idolized the shy, slim young man and
  showered him with honors.
• Before Japan attacked Pearl Harbor in 1941,
  Lindbergh campaigned against voluntary American
  involvement in World War II. Many Americans
  criticized him for his noninvolvement beliefs.
  After the war, he avoided publicity until the
  late 1960's, when he spoke out for the
  conservation of natural resources. Lindbergh
  served as an adviser in the aviation industry
  from the days of wood and wire airplanes to
  supersonic jets.

31
Flappers

• The flapper was "modern."
• Lively and full of energy, she was single but
  eligible.
• With short hair and a short skirt, with
  turned-down hose and powdered knees - the flapper
  must have seemed to her mother (the gentle Gibson
  girl of an earlier generation) like a rebel.
• No longer confined to home and tradition, the
  typical flapper was a young women who was often
  thought of as a little fast and maybe even a
  little brazen
• These young women further blurred the boundaries
  between respectable and depraved by their public
  activities swearing, smoking cigarettes,
  drinking alcohol, dancing, and dating were among
  her pastimes.

32
Slang

• ankle to walk, i.e.. "Let's ankle!
• apple sauce flattery, nonsense, i.e.. "Aw,
  applesauce!
• beeswax business, i.e. "None of your beeswax."
  Student.
• Tin Pan Alley the music industry in New York,
  located between 48th and 52nd Streets
• palooka (1) a below-average or average boxer (2)
  a social outsider, from the comic strip character
  Joe Palooka, who came from humble ethnic roots
• killjoy a solemn person

• Bee's Knees - An extraordinary person, thing,
  idea the ultimate.
• Cat's Meow - Something splendid or stylish
  similar to bee's knees The best or greatest,
  wonderful. Cat's Pajamas - Same as cat's meow.
• Heebie-Jeebies - The jitters.
• Sheba - A woman with sex appeal (from the move
  Queen of Sheba) or (e.g. Clara Bow). Sheik - A
  man with sex appeal (from the Valentino movies).
• Spiffy - An elegant appearance.
• Swell - Wonderful. Also a rich man. Take for a
  Ride - To drive off with someone in order to bump
  them off. Torpedo - A hired gun.

33
The Jazz Age

• Nothing quite like it had ever happened before in
  America. And by the mid-1920s, jazz was being
  played in dance halls and roadhouses and
  speakeasies all over the country. The blues,
  which had once been the product of itinerant
  black musicians, the poorest of the southern
  poor, had become an industry, and dancing
  consumed a country that seemed convinced
  prosperity would never end.
• Dances like the Lindy Hop, Charleston, Shimmy,
  Blackbottom, the Break-a-way, Texas Tommy, Cake
  Walk, Turkey Trot, Grizzley Bear, and Apache
  Dance.

34
1920s Fads

• His name was Alvin Kelly but he was best known as
  "Shipwreck" Kelly. Employed as a professional
  stuntman in Hollywood, Kelly decided to attempt
  to sit on a flagpole in response to a dare from a
  Hollywood friend. He sat upon the pole for 13
  hours and 13 minutes and began a national
  spectacle.
• Kelly's stunt occurred in 1924 and within weeks
  hundreds of people were trying to call themselves
  the "King of the Pole." One man sat for 12 days,
  another for 17 and another for 21 days. Public
  fascination was phenomenal as huge crowds would
  gather to watch the participant. With such a
  large audience, the publicity-hungry Kelly
  decided that he must once again be King. In
  Atlantic City, New Jersey, Kelly sat atop a
  flagpole for a record 49 days in front of an
  audience of 20,000 admirers.

35
1920s Fads

• In the early 1930s, during the height of The
  Depression, young people across America gathered
  to participate in Dance Marathons. These
  endurance contests offered the unemployed hopes
  of temporary fame, small fortune, and the
  opportunity to dance their cares away. Prizes
  ranged anywhere between 1000 to 5000, but many
  contestants participated solely for the promise
  of food and shelter. Serious competitors danced
  for days, even weeks at a time. The record stands
  at 5,148 hours and 28.5 minutes. The contestants
  were usually allowed a mere 15 minutes of rest
  for every hour of dancing. Success came to those
  who had the ability to keep their partner moving
  at all times style was irrelevant.
• Hot toys included the erector set, tinker toys,
  and lincoln logs. The Ouija Board became popular.
  Sales of this game soared.

36
1920s Sports

• Up until 1922, no swimmer, male or female, had
  been able to swim the 100 meters in under a
  minute's time. American Johnny Weissmuller (1904
  - 1984), an exception to the record books, broke
  the record with 58.6 seconds swimming freestyle
  on July 9. This, however, was not Weissmuller's
  only feat. He went on to win three gold medals at
  the 1924 Olympics in Paris, France, and two gold
  medals at the 1928 Olympics in Amsterdam. In his
  career, he claimed 52 U.S. titles and 28 world
  distance records. 1st Tarzan in the movies.
• Gertrude Ederle (1906 - ), who was born on
  October 23, 1906, was a superb swimmer. Not only
  did she win three Olympic medallions and break
  several records, but to top it all off, she went
  on to become the first woman to swim across the
  English Channel. When she swam the 21 miles on
  August 6, 1926, Ederle was only nineteen. Her
  time 14 hours and 31 minutes - good enough to
  beat the previously set men's record.
• George Herman Ruth (1895 - 1948), often known to
  his fans as Babe Ruth, hit a total of 60 home
  runs in 1927. This record-breaker would remain a
  record itself until 1961, when Roger Eugene Maris
  (1934 - 85) hit 61 home runs. Babe Ruth, who
  earned more than 2 million in his career, was
  known by several other names as well. These
  included the Bambino, the Behemoth of Bust, the
  Blunderbuss, the Colossus of Clout, the Mammoth
  of Maul, the Mauling Mastodon, the Mauling
  Monarch, the Prince of Powders, the Rajah of Rap,
  the Sultan of Swat, and the Wazir of Wham. Among
  all of his other accomplishments, this southpaw
  pitcher was inducted into the Baseball Hall of
  Fame in 1936.

37
1920s Sports

• Like Babe Ruth is to baseball so is Man O' War is
  to horse racing. The horse they called Big Red
  burst onto the scene as a two year old and would
  win 20 of 21 races. As a three-year-old he did
  not lose when he did race he often gave 30 pounds
  to his rivals. Although he did not win the Triple
  Crown it was only because he did not race in the
  Kentucky Derby.
• Legendary Notre Dame Football coach Knute Rockne
  in 1924 featured one of the greatest backfields
  in college football history. They were Harry
  Stuhldreher, Jim Crowley, Don Miller and Elmer
  Layden. They got their nickname the four horseman
  by sports writer Grantland Rice who compared them
  to those of biblical fame. " Outlined against a
  blue-gray October sky the four horseman rode
  again
• Red Grange became a household name when he scored
  5 touchdowns against Michigan. However his
  biggest accomplishment was probably establishing
  the pro game. Up to that point the NFL was in the
  same category as monster truck shows are today.
  Well that changed when Red Grange decided to go
  pro after his final college game. Galloping
  Ghost
• Jack Dempsey was not just the greatest
  heavyweight of the decade but usually makes
  anyone short list for the best of all-time. He
  was a fierce fighter and usually awarded boxing
  fans with exciting fights. This made him very
  popular figure of the day, along with Babe Ruth
  he was probably the most well known sportsmen of
  his time. He also took par in one of the most
  famous fights in boxing history " The Long Count
  fight in a rematch with Gene Tunney.

Man O War
The four Horsemen
Red Grange