Chapter 24, Section 3“The Jazz Age”
ENTERTAINMENT
Jump in Entertainment
• More leisure time for Americans as working hours shortened (8 hour days) and labor-saving appliances for homes became available
• 1929 Americans spent 4 billion on entertainment.
• 100% jump in ten years!
• How were they “entertaining” themselves?
Radio• First commercial radio station was
KDKA in Pittsburgh in 1920 which broadcast the presidential election result (Harding won)
• 1921 World Series broadcast nationwide
• By 1930 60% of families had a radio • First shows included news, weather,
sports, music, and political speeches• Later broadcasts included dramas,
soap operas, comedies, and children’s shows (just like the shows that eventually would be on TV)
Early Movies• 1891 Thomas Edison files for
a patent on his motion-picture projector
• In 1907 there were about 4,000 small “nickelodeon” cinemas with films accompanied by a pianist
• First blockbuster full-length movie was “Birth of a Nation” in 1915 (contained racism and depictions of the KKK after the Civil War)
Hollywood• Became a boomtown in the
1910s and 1920s for the movie business
• The sleepy village outside of Los Angeles grew to be the largest film-producing location in the world
• Shops, restaurants, hotels, and neighborhoods grew to support the rich and famous residents and visitors to the town
Silent Movie Stars
• Comedy – Charlie Chaplin as “the Tramp”
• “America’s Sweetheart” – Mary Pickford
• “The King of Hollywood” – Douglas Fairbanks
• The three along with director D.W. Griffiths (“Birth of a Nation”) combined to create United Artists production company to make their own films
Movies in the 1920s• Movies were silent until 1927
• In “The Jazz Singer” in 1927 Al Jolson famously looks into the camera and thrills audiences by saying “You ain’t heard nothin’ yet.”
• 1910: 5,000 Theatres in US
• 1930: 22,500 Theaters in US
• 1929: 125 Million Americans, 80 million movie tickets sold a week!
Impact of Radio and Movies on 1920s Society• They brought images and ideas
to them that they would not get at home (could dream of doing different things with their lives)
• This created a national popular culture:– They copied language from
movies and radio (slang)– They copied hairstyles and
fashions from movies• They became more informed in
national and international news
Sports Baseball: • George Herman
“Babe” Ruth • Considered the
greatest player to ever play
• Records:– 714 Career
Homeruns– 60 homeruns
in a season• 60th Homerun• Celebrity Status
Sports: Boxing • Jack Dempsey –
World Heavyweight Champion from 1919 to 1926
• “Manassa Mauler”• 60-7-8. 50 KO’s • Dempsey vs. Willard
(the fight he first
won the title in)
Sports: FootballJim Thorpe
• Native American
(from Sauk and Fox tribes)• Perhaps the greatest multi
sport athlete ever • Won gold medals in
Olympics (decathlon and pentathlon)
• Played professional baseball & football as well
• Overview of his achievements
Charles Lindbergh• As a 25-year-old U.S. Air
Mail pilot, Lindbergh emerged from obscurity to virtually instantaneous world fame
• 6 well-known pilots failed to make the first solo non-stop flight across the Atlantic
• Lindbergh did it in 1927 by flying from New York to Paris
Amelia Earhart
• In 1928 Earhart was the first woman fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean
• She set many other records, wrote best-selling books about her flying experiences
• During an attempt to make a circumnavigational flight of the globe in 1937, she disappeared over the central Pacific Ocean
