The Jazz Age

Section 9.2

Today’s Agenda

• 9.2 Slide Show

• Presentations

• Homework– Read 9.3

Define materialistic.• Placing high value

on the purchasing of material things

• Characteristics of 1920s

What was the Lost Generation?• Expatriate writers and artists

who left America and criticized its materialism

• Said America was “enemy of the artist, of the man who cannot produce something tangible…”

• Hemmingway– The Sun Also Rises– Novels portray lost innocence

of post war generation

• F. Scot Fitzgerald– The Great Gatsby– Discusses the empty lives of

wealthy Americans

How did Americans entertain themselves during the 1920s? 1of 2 slides

• Era of the silent movies• Theaters

– opened 1-11 PM everyday– $.10 per seat– Glamorous to lower

classes– Criticized for corrupting

youth

• Cult of Stardom– Read gossip columns

written about stars lives

– Tried to imitated hairstyles, fashion

Clara Bow

The Silver Screen

• Spectator Sports– Baseball

• Babe Ruth– Bambino, Sultan of Swat

– Boxing• Jack Dempsey

– “Manassas Mauler”– World Heavyweight

Champion (1919 and 1926)

• Fight with Gene Tunney viewed as battle between Modernists and Traditionalists

How did Americans entertain themselves during the 1920s?

Sports Heroes

How did music change during the 1920s?• Blues and jazz • Blues

– Derived from work songs of slaves

• Jazz– Born in New Orleans– No written notes– Louis Armstrong

• The Charleston– Dance with crossing

hands, knocking knees• Radios

– began to become popular

Jazz

Radio

What did people read during the 20s?• High literacy rate• Reader’s Digest, Time

Magazine created• Tabloids

– Published scandals, fads, dance marathons

• Advertisements– Spawned from the

Committee of Public Safety

– Told Americans what they needed, wanted

Creature Comforts & Consumerism

Who was Langston Hughes?• Novelist & Poet during of

the Harlem Renaissance– flowering of African

American art, literature, music and culture in Harlem

• Part of the “New Negro” movement– Proud to be black– “black is beautiful”– Urged African Americans

to reach their American Dream

The night is beautiful, So the faces of my people. The stars are beautiful, So the eyes of my people Beautiful, also, is the sun. Beautiful, also, are the souls of my people.

What happens to a dream deferred? Does it dry up like a raisin in the sun? Or fester like a sore And then run? Does it stink like rotten meat? Or crust and sugar over like a syrupy sweet? Maybe it just sags like a heavy load. Or does it explode?

Harlem Renaissance

Conclusion

• The Jazz Age was viewed by traditionalists as an attack on tradition American values