The Twenties and the Crash of 1929

1. 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

2. Prosperity > President Calvin Coolidge, 1924

3. Prosperity > Bruce Barton, author of The Man Nobody Knows, here with Hollywood producer Cecil B. DeMille, 1920s

4. 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

5. Prosperity > Welfare Capitalism: Shoe Company’s Billboard Ad, 1923

6. Prosperity > Comic Strip on Workers Owning Shares, 1929

7. 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: $25-$100 (making your own was much cheaper)

8. Consumer Culture > Department Store window in the 1920s

9. Consumer Culture > Automobile Sales and Registration

10. Consumer Cutlure > Ford Model T, 1920s

11. Consumer Culture > General Motors Ad, 1925

12. Consumer Culture > Cadillac Ad, 1925

13. Consumer Culture > Ford Model A Ad, 1929

14. Consumer Culture > Song about Ford Model A, 1928

15. Henry’s 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!

16. Mass Culture > Fatty Arbuckle at Coney Island (1917)

17. Mass Culture > Coney Island Roller Coaster, 1927

18. Mass Culture > Coney Island Beach, 1924

19. Mass Culture > Postcard of Chicago Theater, 1930

20. Mass Culture > Rudolph Valentino in The Sheik, 1921

21. Mass Culture > Charlie Chaplin, The Rink (1916)

22. Mass Culture > Stations and Set Ownership

23. Mass Culture > Farmer listening to the radio, 1920s

24. Mass Culture > People on a New York sidewalk listening to a football game, 1923

25. Mass Culture > Charles Correl and Freeman Gosden, 1929

26. Mass Culture > Movie Theater Poster Announcing Amos’n’Andy

27. Mass Culture > Amos’n’Andy 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 I’ve 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. That’s the way I get it. Amos: Uh-huh. I don’t know if I was gonna be a Democrat or a Republican, you know? Andy: Well, what was your ancestors? Amos: My aunt didn’t have no sisters. Andy: Oh no, not your aunt’s sisters, your ancestors. I mean, how did your old man vote? Amos: What my papa, you mean? Andy: Yeah, that’s 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.

28. New Woman > Magazine illustrations: “Gibson Girls” by Charles Gibson--a beauty standard of the 1900s--and a flapper by John Held, Jr. from the 1920s

29. New Woman > Working-class women at the turn of the century

30. New Woman > John Held, Jr.: Flappers have no manners or brains

31. New Woman > John Held, Jr.: “It’s all right, Santa-- you can come in. My parents still believe in you.”

32. New Woman > John Held, Jr., dustjackets for F. Scott Fitzgerald novels

33. New Woman > Film Actress Louise Brooks and a comic strip she inspired

34. New Woman > Actress Clara Bow, the ultimate flapper in It (1927) and Dangerous Curves (1929)

35. Harlem Renaissaince > The Crisis Cover, 1929

36. Harlem Renaissance > The Crisis Ad for Black Swan Records, 1923

37. Harlem Renaissance > NAACP Anti-Lynching Ad in the New York Times

38. Harlem Renaissance > Marcus Garvey’s Supporters Parade in Harlem

39. Harlem Renaissance > Leon “Bix” Beiderbecke, “Sorry,” 1928

40. Harlem Renaissance > Louis Armstrong, “Weather Bird,” 1928

41. Klan in the 1920s > 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

42. Klan in the 1920s > Poster for the Film The Birth of a Nation by W.G. Griffith (1915)

43. Klan in the 1920s > Washington, D.C. Parade against immigration

44. Klan in the 1920s > Social Movements Supported by the Klan • prohibition • anti-immigrant sentiments • anti-radicalism • religious fundamentalism • morality and family values

45. Fundamentalism > 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

46. Fundamentalism > Church Membership in 1920s

47. Fundamentalism > Actor Lionel Barrymore and Modern Christ

48. Scopes Trial > Cartoon on Evolution

49. Scopes Trial > William Jennings Bryan’s Cartoon against Modernity, 1924

50. Scopes Trial > Cartoon comparing Bolsheviks and Scientists, 1925