Popular Culture of the 20s How do schools & mass media shape the Jazz Age?

Education on the rise Public school enrollment increases by 2.5 million students in the 1920s ● Primary schools focus on basics, secondary schools focus on college readiness or vocational education ● Student dress, slang & behavior become “norm” for pop culture in the 1920s

Fads of the Roaring 20s 2) Dance Marathons 1) Flagpole sitting 5) The Charleston P U Z Z L E S 3) Barnstormers 4) Games S W O R http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yNAOHtmy4j0&feature=related D

Mass Media ● Newspaper & magazine circulation increases causing spread of literacy& culture ● Radio: allows people to hear live sporting events, news & entertainment

Sports Heroes Baseball: Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig & Andrew “Rube” Foster Gertrude Ederle was first woman to swim the English Channel Helen Willis dominated women’s tennis Jack Dempsey dominates boxing

Entertainment of the 1920s - Hollywood https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=79i84xYelZI ● Actors: Charlie Chaplin, Douglas Fairbanks, Lon Chaney ● Actress: Greta Garbo, Gloria Swanson, Mary Pickford ● “ The Jazz Singer” (Al Jolson) was first “talking picture” ● “Steamboat Willie” was first animated film with sound https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7NQyzcDnMdE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7NQyzcDnMdE http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PIaj7FNHnjQ&safe=active http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=79i84xYelZI&safe=active

Famous American Writers ● Sinclair Lewis: works were critical of “materialism”, first American to win the Nobel Prize in literature Edna St. Vincent Millay = wrote poems celebrating youth & women’s independence Discuss: how does her quote match the 1920s woman’s experience?

● Ernest Hemingway criticizes the glorification of war Lost Generation ● F. Scott Fitzgerald who coined the term “jazz age”, was critical of love of wealth – writes Great Gatsby (emptiness of wealth) ● Ernest Hemingway criticizes the glorification of war “If people bring so much courage to this world the world has to kill them to break them, so of course it kills them. The world breaks every one and afterward many are strong at the broken places. But those that will not break it kills. It kills the very good and the very gentle and the very brave impartially. If you are none of these you can be sure it will kill you too but there will be no special hurry.”  - from Farewell to Arms Discuss: What is Hemingway critical of and how could this be considered part of the “lost generation”?

Aviation Heroes Charles Lindbergh 1st person to fly solo non-stop across the Atlantic Ocean (1927) NY-Paris Becomes instant celebrity/ proves planes are viable transportation, first airline “Pan-Am” is born Amelia Earhart 1st woman to cross Atlantic (1928, 1932) 1st person to fly from HI to CA (1935) Tries to circumnavigate the globe but plane disappears (1937)

1920s Culture Video Question What is revolutionary about Henry Ford’s cars and how did cars change American culture?