Unit VIII – Boom Times and Challenges (1919-1945)

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Unit VIII Boom Times and Challenges (1919-1945)

• Chapter 24 Section 3
• The Jazz Age

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The Jazz Age

• The Big Idea
• Musicians, artists, actors, and writers
  contributed to American popular culture in the
  1920s.
• Main Ideas
• Radio and movies linked the country in a national
  culture.
• Jazz and blues music became popular nationwide.
• Writers and artists introduced new styles and
  artistic ideas.

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Entertainment The Movies, Radio, and Sports
(0630)
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Main Idea 1Radio and movies linked the country
in a national culture.

• National radio networks, such as NBC and CBS,
  formed.
• New access to music, news, political speeches,
  sports broadcasts, and more
• Allowed Americans everywhere to share common
  experiences

Radio

• Opened new worlds for audiences
• 1927 movie The Jazz Singer was the first talkie,
  or motion picture with sound
• Became big business
• Movie stars became national heroes.

Movies

• Fans packed stadiums and listened on radios as
  athletes played and broke new records.
• Baseball was incredibly popular and had its own
  celebrities, such as Babe Ruth.

Sports
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Radio Drives Popular Culture
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Movies
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Film Star Heroes

• The great popularity of movies in the 1920s gave
  rise to a new kind of celebritythe movie star.
• One of the brightest stars of the 1920s was
  Charlie Chaplin, a comedian whose signature
  character was a tramp in a derby hat and ragged
  clothes.
• Rudolph Valentino, a dashing leading man of
  romantic films, was such a big star that his
  unexpected death in 1926 drew tens of thousands
  of women to the funeral home where his body lay.
• Clara Bow was a movie star nicknamed the It
  Girl.
• Mary Pickford was considered Americas
  Sweetheart and was married to Douglas Fairbanks
  Jr., a major star of action films.
• Their home, called Pickfair, was in Hollywood,
  the center of the motion picture industry.

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1920s Movies
Janet Gaynor
Fairbanks and Pickford

• Rudolph Valentino

Buster Keaton- The Great Stone Face
Charlie Chaplin
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Pilot Heroes of the Twenties
Charles Lindbergh
Amelia Earhart
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Charles Lindbergh - May 20, 1927 (0312)
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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.

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Crossing the Atlantic

• The Spirit of St. Louis fought wind, ice, clouds,
  and darkness- all challenges Lindbergh had faced
  before as a mail pilot.
• He couldnt sleep at all before the flight, and
  the crossing itself took a day and ½.
• The plane offered no forward visibility, it was
  almost 1000 at night, and he was dangerously
  exhausted.
• Radio reports from Ireland, where he had been
  spotted, reached Paris in time for thousands of
  people to surprise and welcome him.
• It was the radio which was first to share his
  success when he arrived.

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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.

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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.

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Sports Heroes

• Radio helped inflame the public passion for
  sports, and millions of Americans tuned in to
  broadcasts of ballgames and prize fights
  featuring their favorite athletes.

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Babe Ruth - 537 min.
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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.

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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
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A National Culture

• Identify Name two national radio networks.
• Compare What was the difference between the The
  Jazz Singer and the movies made before it?
• Make Generalizations In what way did radio help
  build a new national culture?

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A National Culture

• Identify Name two national radio networks.
• Compare What was the difference between the The
  Jazz Singer and the movies made before it?
• Make Generalizations In what way did radio help
  build a new national culture?
• Make Inferences By what means do you think
  Americans heard about baseball, swimming events
  and the flights of Lindbergh and Earhart?

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Main Idea 2Jazz and blues music became popular
nationwide.

• An explosion in the popularity of jazz music gave
  the 1920s a nickname the Jazz Age.
• Jazz developed in New Orleans.
• Blending of African American, European, and West
  African harmonies and rhythms
• Jazz was popular with young Americans.
• Loved the music and the fast-paced dances that
  swept the nation
• Jazz musicians were innovators.
• Artists like Louis Armstrong and Edward Duke
  Ellington made major contributions to music.
• Blues music also became popular in the 1920s
• Originated in the rural South of the Mississippi
  Delta
• Began as an expression of the suffering of
  African Americans during slavery

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Harlem Performers and Musicians
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Popular Music

• Identify Name three dance crazes of the Roaring
  Twenties.
• Draw Conclusions What did Jelly Roll Mortons
  grandmother think of his music?
• Rate Justify the following statement Jazz
  musicians enjoyed their work.

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Main Idea 3Writers and artists introduced new
styles and artistic ideas.

• The Harlem neighborhood of New York City became
  the center of the Harlem Renaissance, a period of
  African American artistic accomplishment.
• Many African Americans came to Harlem in the
  Great Migration.
• Harlem Renaissance writers made lasting
  contributions to American culture.
• Langston Hughes wrote poems, plays, and novels
  about African American life.
• Claude McKay was a poet and activist who spoke
  out against racial discrimination.
• Zora Neale Hurstons writings reflected the
  experiences of African American women.

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New Directions in Art

• Painting
• Painters experimented with new styles.
• Edward Hopper painted images of loneliness of
  modern urban life.
• Georgia OKeeffe was known for detailed paintings
  of flowers and of the Southwest.

• Architecture
• Architects of the 1920s embraced a new style
  called art deco.
• Buildings constructed in this style had clean,
  sharp lines resembling machines.

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Life in Harlem

• New York City was one of the northern cities many
  African Americans moved to during the Great
  Migration, and by the early 1920s, about 200,000
  African Americans lived in the city.
• Most of these people lived in a neighborhood
  known as Harlem, which became the unofficial
  capital of African American culture and activism
  in the United States.
• A key figure in Harlems rise was W.E.B. Du Bois,
  a well-educated, Massachusetts-born African
  American leader.
• In 1909 Du Bois helped found the National
  Association for the Advancement of Colored People
  (NAACP) in New York City.
• Du Bois also served as editor of a magazine
  called The Crisis, a major outlet for African
  American writing and poetry, which helped promote
  the African American arts movement.

This movement was known as the Harlem Renaissance.
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The Lost Generation

• Writers who criticized American society in the
  1920s became known as the Lost Generation.
• Wrote of their experiences living in the United
  States and abroad
• Often felt feelings of disillusionment with
  American society
• Many moved to Paris in the 1920s and formed a
  community of expatriates, people who leave their
  home country to live elsewhere.
• Writers of the Lost Generation
• Ernest Hemingway wrote short stories and novels
  and gained fame for his powerful and direct
  writing style.
• F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote about the loss of
  morality during the Jazz Age in his novel The
  Great Gatsby.
• Sinclair Lewis was the first American to receive
  the Nobel Prize in literature.