The “ Era of Wonderful Nonsense ” brought fun in many forms

1. The “Era of Wonderful Nonsense” brought fun in many forms ADVERTISEMENT JAZZ CARS CREDIT Culture of the 1920s FADS RADIO MOVIES PROHIBITION

2. Fad: an activity or a fashion that is taken up with great passion for a short time • Flagpole sitting • Dance Marathons • Crossword Puzzles • Mah-Jongg • Charleston: dance originating in S. Carolina—moving to a quick beat, dancers pivoted their feet while kicking out first one leg, then the other, backward & forward I’m going to teach you how!!!! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yNAOHtmy4j0

3. Flappers: young women who rebelled against traditional ways of thinking & acting • Wore hair bobbed, dresses short, bright red lipstick • To older Americans, flappers behaved & looked shockingly ridiculous • Smoked cigarettes in public • Drank alcohol in speak-easies • Drove fast cars • Very few were flappers – but soon older women would start trimming their hair & wearing shorter skirts & makeup

4. Jazz • Jazz: music style that developed from blues, ragtime & other earlier styles • Louis Armstrong: (1901-1971) one of the young African American musicians who helped create jazz • Learned to play the trumpet in a New Orleans orphanage • Experimentation with a simple melody paired with notes & rhythm • Many older Americans worried that jazz & new dances were a bad influence on the nation’s young people

5. New Writers • Many had horrifying experiences in WW1 • Many criticized U.S. for caring to much about money & fun • Some moved to Paris because they were unhappy in the states • Expatriates: people who leave their own country to live in a foreign land

6. Hemingway & Fitzgerald • Hemingway – was a teenager when WW1 broke out • Drove an ambulance on the Italian front • A Farewell to Arms (novel – young man’s growing disgust with war • The Sun Also Rises – examined the life of expatriates in Europe • F. Scott Fitzgerald • The Great Gatsby - examined the lives of wealthy young people who attended endless parties but could not find happiness • Flappers, bootleggers, moviemakers

7. Other Writers • Sinclair Lewis • Babbitt – wrote novels that presented small-town Americans as dull & narrow-minded • First American to win the Nobel Prize for literature in 1930

8. McKay - “If We Must Die” condemning lynching & mob violence that black Americans suffered after WW1 “If we must die, let it not be like hogsHunted & penned in an inglorious spot,While ‘round us bark the mad & hungry dogs,Making their mock at our accursed lot.If we must die, O let us nobly die,So that our precious blood may not be shedIn vain; then even the monsters we defyShall be constrained to honor us though dead!O kinsmen! we must meet the common foe!Though far outnumbered let us show us brave,& for their thousand blows deal one death-blow!What though before us lies the open grave?Like men we'll face the murderous, cowardly pack,Pressed to the wall, dying, but fighting back!”

9. Harlem Renaissance: a rebirth of African American culture • Large #s of African American musicians, artists & writers settled in Harlem, NY in the 1920s • Celebrated heritage • Protested prejudice & racism • Whites notice black achievements

10. Langston Hughes • Poet • Encouraged African Americans to be proud of their heritage • Wrote parallels between African Americans living on the Mississippi with Africans living along the Nile

11. Sports • Bobby Jones – Golf • Jack Dempsey – heavyweight boxing • Red Grange the “Galloping Ghost”- college football (University of Illinois) • Babe Ruth the “Sultan of Swat”—Baseball (most loved sport) NY Yankees • 714 HR record until 1974

12. Lucky Lindy • Charles A. Lindbergh • May, 1927 – nonstop flight across the Atlantic Ocean alone • 33 hour journey on the Spirit of Saint Louis, out of NY • No map, no parachute, no radio • Landed in Paris, France

13. CULTURAL EXPERIENCE!!!