The Twenties and the Crash of 1929

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The Twenties and the Crash of 1929

• 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
• The Crash of 1929
• Financial Panic
• Causes of the Great Depression
• Consequences of the Crash

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Prosperity gt President Calvin Coolidge, 1924
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Prosperity gt Bruce Barton, author of The Man
Nobody Knows, here with Hollywood producer
Cecil B. DeMille, 1920s
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Prosperity gt 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 gt Welfare Capitalism Shoe Companys
Billboard Ad, 1923
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Prosperity gt Comic Strip on Workers Owning
Shares, 1929
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Consumer Culture gt 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 25-100 (making your own was much
  cheaper)

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Consumer Culture gt Department Store window in the
1920s
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Consumer Culture gt Automobile Sales and
Registration
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Consumer Cutlure gt Ford Model T, 1920s
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Consumer Culture gt General Motors Ad, 1925
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Consumer Culture gt Cadillac Ad, 1925
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Consumer Culture gt Ford Model A Ad, 1929
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Consumer Culture gt Song about Ford Model A, 1928
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Henrys Made a Lady Out of Lizzie
She's like all the other vamps, Pretty shape and
lovely lamps, HENRY'S MADE A LADY OUT OF
LIZZIE! Since she's taken on some weight, Honest,
folks, she's looking great, HENRY'S MADE A LADY
OUT OF LIZZIE! Her dashboard has a clock, That's
a hit with all the Scotch, A Scotchman saw the
clock, And promptly stopped his watch. You've all
heard the Frenchman song, Fifty million cant be
wrong, HENRY'S MADE A LADY OUT OF LIZZIE! Just a
girl who knows her stuff, Plenty fast but never
rough, HENRY'S MADE A LADY OUT OF LIZZIE! Always
tidy, always clean, Faithful as an old
Marine, HENRY'S MADE A LADY OUT OF LIZZIE! She's
not the kind who tries to get Your money all at
once, She only wants ten dollars down, The rest
in fourteen months, Good for sister, nice for
ma, Ev'rybody rides but Pa, HENRY'S MADE A LADY
OUT OF LIZZIE!
Have you seen her, Ain't she great? She's
something you'll appreciate, I'm sure you
understand just what I mean, Ev'ry body, Every
where, is falling for her now, I'm talking bout
the new Ford and boy it's sure a wow! When you
see her, You'll agree, She's just the one for you
and me, She's everything that any one could
ask, "Sit tin' pretty yes I am, With her I'm
always found You "ought ta" see her Chassis,
it's sure the best a round. Talk of this and
talk of that, Boys you must take off your
hat, HENRY'S MADE A LADY OUT OF LIZZIE! Has she
plenty, has she much? Got the "tin" you love to
touch, HENRY'S MADE A LADY OUT OF LIZZIE! They
used to park her in a lot, For that they charged
two bits, But now they charge you nothing, And
you park her at the Ritz. She once had rattles in
her wheel, But now she's full of "sex
appeal" HENRY'S MADE A LADY OUT OF LIZZIE!
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Mass Culture gt Fatty Arbuckle at Coney Island
(1917)
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Mass Culture gt Coney Island Roller Coaster, 1927
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Mass Culture gt Coney Island Beach, 1924
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Mass Culture gt Postcard of Chicago Theater, 1930
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Mass Culture gt Rudolph Valentino in The Sheik,
1921
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Mass Culture gt Charlie Chaplin, The Rink (1916)
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Mass Culture gt Stations and Set Ownership
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Mass Culture gt Farmer listening to the radio,
1920s
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Mass Culture gt People on a New York sidewalk
listening to a football game, 1923
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Mass Culture gt Charles Correl and Freeman Gosden,
1929
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Mass Culture gt Movie Theater Poster Announcing
AmosnAndy
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Mass Culture gt 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.
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New Woman gt Magazine illustrations Gibson
Girls by Charles Gibson--a beauty standard of
the 1900s--and a flapper by John Held, Jr. from
the 1920s
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New Woman gt Working-class women at the turn of
the century
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New Woman gt John Held, Jr. Flappers have no
manners or brains
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New Woman gt John Held, Jr. Its all right,
Santa-- you can come in. My parents still
believe in you.
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New Woman gt John Held, Jr., dustjackets for F.
Scott Fitzgerald novels
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New Woman gt Film Actress Louise Brooks and a
comic strip she inspired
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New Woman gt Actress Clara Bow, the ultimate
flapper in It (1927) and Dangerous Curves (1929)
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Harlem Renaissaince gt The Crisis Cover, 1929
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Harlem Renaissance gt The Crisis Ad for Black Swan
Records, 1923
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Harlem Renaissance gt NAACP Anti-Lynching Ad in
the New York Times
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Harlem Renaissance gt Marcus Garveys Supporters
Parade in Harlem
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Harlem Renaissance gt Leon Bix Beiderbecke,
Sorry, 1928
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Harlem Renaissance gt Louis Armstrong, Weather
Bird, 1928
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Klan in the 1920s gt Timeline of Klan History

• founded during Reconstruction, collapsed in
  1870s
• revived in 1915 (in part because of the movie
  Birth of a Nation)
• resurgence of popularity in the 1920s, but
  collapsed again by the 1930s
• again reappears in the 1950s

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Klan in the 1920s gt Poster for the Film The Birth
of a Nation by W.G. Griffith (1915)
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Klan in the 1920s gt Washington, D.C. Parade
against immigration
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Klan in the 1920s gt Social Movements Supported by
the Klan

• prohibition
• anti-immigrant sentiments
• anti-radicalism
• religious fundamentalism
• morality and family values

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Fundamentalism gt Timeline

• Word coined at around 1910
• Denotes religious groups that take the Bible
  literally
• Popular and active in the 1920s
• Then the movement retreats from politics until
  1980s, in part because of the Scopes Trial

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Fundamentalism gt Church Membership in 1920s
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Fundamentalism gt Actor Lionel Barrymore and
Modern Christ
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Scopes Trial gt Cartoon on Evolution
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Scopes Trial gt William Jennings Bryans Cartoon
against Modernity, 1924
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Scopes Trial gt Cartoon comparing Bolsheviks and
Scientists, 1925
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Scopes Trial gt Bryan and Darrow
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Scopes Trial gt Bryan as Don Quixote
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Scopes Trial gt Darrow as a Street Player
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Scopes Trial gt Monkeys Vote on Evolution