The Roaring Twenties

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The Roaring Twenties

• Prosperity in the 1920s
• The rise of Big Business
• The rise of consumer culture
• The rise of mass culture
• Social Change
• New Woman
• Harlem Renaissance
• Reaction to Social Change
• Klan
• Fundamentalism
• The Scopes Trial

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Prosperity President Calvin Coolidge, 1924
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Prosperity Bruce Barton, author of The Man
Nobody Knows, here with Hollywood producer
Cecil B. DeMille, 1920s
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Prosperity Who Prospered in the 1920s?

• 1200 mergers caused the disappearance of over
  600 independent enterprises
• top 0.1 of U.S. families in 1929 had combined
  income as large as bottom 42
• i. e. approx 24,000 families had combined income
  as large as 11.5 million poor and lower-class
  families
• per capita income in the U.S. rose 9 between
  1920-1929
• per capita income for the top 24,000 families
  rose 75
• 80 of families had no savings
• farmers did not prosper - 1/4 of all employment
• less than 10 invested in the stock market

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Prosperity Welfare Capitalism Shoe Companys
Billboard Ad, 1923
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Prosperity Comic Strip on Workers Owning
Shares, 1929
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Consumer Culture Salaries and Prices in the
1920s

• average US annual salary 1,236 (approx. 24.00
  per week)
• industrial worker 35.00 per week
• store clerk 8.00 per week
• higher salaries but also higher cost of living
• 8.00 could by only 3.93 worth of 1914 goods.
• Ford Model T car 290
• Coney Island roller coaster ride 15-25 cents
  (beach was free)
• movie ticket 25 cents (up from 5 cents in
  1910s)
• radio set 50-100 (making your own was much
  cheaper)

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Consumer Culture Department Store window in the
1920s
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Consumer Culture Automobile Sales and
Registration
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Consumer Cutlure Ford Model T, 1920s
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Consumer Culture General Motors Ad, 1925
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Consumer Culture Cadillac Ad, 1925
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Consumer Culture Ford Model A Ad, 1929
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Consumer Culture Song about Ford Model A, 1928
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Mass Culture Fatty Arbuckle at Coney Island
(1917)
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Mass Culture Coney Island Roller Coaster, 1927
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Mass Culture Coney Island Beach, 1924
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Mass Culture Postcard of Chicago Theater, 1930
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Mass Culture Rudolph Valentino in The Sheik,
1921
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Mass Culture Charlie Chaplin, The Rink (1916)
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Mass Culture Stations and Set Ownership
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Mass Culture Farmer listening to the radio,
1920s
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Mass Culture People on a New York sidewalk
listening to a football game, 1923
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Mass Culture Charles Correl and Freeman Gosden,
1929
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Mass Culture Movie Theater Poster Announcing
AmosnAndy
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Mass Culture AmosnAndy on Presidential
Elections, 1928
Amos Andy, tell me one thing. Is you a Democrat
or is you a Republican? Andy Well, I was a
Democrat . . . Amos Uh-huh. Andy But I believe
Ive done switched over to the Republicans
now. Amos Uh, who is the men that is running
against each other this here election time.
Explain that to me. Andy Herbert Hoover
inaudible Al Smith. Amos Herbert Hoover
inaudible Smith, huh? Andy Yeah. Amos And
another thing I wanna ask you. What is the
difference between a Democrat and a
Republican? Andy Well, one of em is a mule and
the other one is a elephant. Thats the way I get
it. Amos Uh-huh. I dont know if I was gonna be
a Democrat or a Republican, you know? Andy Well,
what was your ancestors? Amos My aunt didnt
have no sisters. Andy Oh no, not your aunts
sisters, your ancestors. I mean, how did your old
man vote? Amos What my papa, you mean? Andy
Yeah, thats it. Amos My papa used to always
vote for the Democrats. Andy Yeah, then if I was
in your place, I would vote for the Republicans.