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Title: 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
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