THE GOLDEN TWENTIES

[Music] [Applause] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] you want me to be American history search yeah Leonel son oh we've got a theme to write the school on any period of recent American history gee I don't know what to pick plenty to choose from here up to 1914 I guess that's pretty old stuff for us no 1914 to 1918 the war the first one you know but that's not much fun 1918 and 1930 are those were the days things were really fine 1930s 39 that's a depression you don't want that here oh that's not I could remember that myself oh look here son by and large this is your best bet chances are you'll never live through any days like those again no one seems to remember them - except people my age but they were our happy times take a look at this something will give you an idea how things were in the toilets thank you [Music] I'm Fredrick Lewis salad I'll cover the manners and customs of the 1920s Robert Q Lewis Broadway movies theater nightclub that's for me in any period Allen Preston the lighter moment it was me this is red ball not so old redhead we had sports for the truckies - I am Elmer Davis I'll tell you about the political climate of the twenties it was quite a party when we heard that the First World War of our time was over the news of the Armistice was a bit premature but that didn't prevent a full-scale celebration in Times Square had been there he'd have had a rough time we blamed it all on him but now he was licked and most of us figured that there wouldn't be any more Wars [Music] we were ready for peace and when the steamship George Washington moved down the north river taking President Wilson to Europe and the Peace Conference we thought the world was about to be made safe for democracy yes that's what we thought but meanwhile we wanted to be amused the drill the crowds or maybe promote a cure for functions we had the daring human flies second point men making their way up in the world the baseball scoreboard was easier to understand and a lot more exciting than anything happening in Europe which after all with a long way off but Europe was right with us in the latest French fashion especially the knife count which were very daring there was a little number in mischievous satin designed for an intoxicating bride its wines both mother and Parisian woman's legs came into the open for the first time but their heads stayed undercover something new came into our lives the traffic jam when the road was clear you could legally do 20 miles an hour arguing with the cop got you nothing but a ticket all this added up to a new age beginning and people were ready for it they were ready to play to crowds jam the resort where they were amazed by the death-defying stunts of wing-walker who never knew which end was up [Music] it looks as if the new airplane was going to be more than an attraction for weekend crowd the navy's mc4 had flown all the way from the United States to Great Britain in only 54 flying hours and with the lighter-than-air craft like the british r34 which flew across the ocean with incredible ease you couldn't be sure whether the future lay with the dirigible or the airplane but anyhow wasn't it a great future to work any commercial airlines in america but toward the end of the war the post office department had started its airmail service and when you saw one of the little airmail planes in action and realized that aviation had plenty of brilliant wartime pilots to draw upon men like Eddie Rickenbacker and Burt Acosta you knew that the air age must really be coming at this point the people bought it for something hopefully called prohibition and when the saloons and bars closed up early in 1920 it caused a great deal of downright grief the travel had started a good many years earlier when a firm old lady named Carrie nation had raided the saloons with a hatchet she won and when the prohibition amendment became the law of the land enough good hard liquor went down the drain to make you feel like crying it looked like the end the absolute end of liquor in the United States by that time the soldiers had come back to joyful welcomes even though most of us were trying to forget the war or heroes like sergeant Alvin York got a big hand from the crowds in the top brass general blackjack Pershing and Admiral William Simms were showered with honorary degree the veterans had organized the American Legion which held its 1921 convention in Kansas City as usual the Legionnaires took the town by storm with them was a good display of generals and admirals foreign and domestic men whose names everyone knew by jack of belgium lady of england and of course Pershing while the victory celebrations were going on here and there the old belligerent spirit began to speak less worthy outfit in a few cities there were riots race riots with mobs trying to get their hands on prisoner nearly always the police and National Guardsmen managed to keep the crowds under control [Applause] others were not so easily controlled a secret organization the Ku Klux Klan spread its poisonous influence throughout a large part of the country and a man called mr. zero in order to dramatize the helplessness of the jobless held auction sales of human labor before crowds of fascinated Bostonians struggle between capital and labor rose to its feet in a series of prolonged and savage strikes prices were high men demanded increased wages which many employers refused to give them there were many war horses of labor agitation national figures like old mother jones who believed in a fight to the finish but there were also a lot of hard-headed practical negotiators among the leaders of organized labor men like William green and Phil Murray of the United Mine Workers and his chief Jarnell Lewis the wave of post-war strikes came to a crisis in Boston when most of the police walked out leaving the city unguarded a volunteer police force was formed and the militia was called out to patrol the streets once peaceful Boston seemed like a city under arms [Music] then on to the scene stepped calvin coolidge governor of massachusetts he said there is no right to strike against the public safety by anybody anywhere anytime that statement made Coolidge famous overnight not long after this the wave of strikes died out public weariness aided by a break in prices ended it and after a conference labor boss Samuel Gompers and industrialist Charles Schwab managed at feeble smiled together there was a good deal of violence during the years directly after the war the worst damage was caused when a bomb went off in Wall Street just outside of JP Morgan zones experts examined the bomb fragments but no one ever found out who set off the bomb though the public believed that revolutionists were to blame it was noted that the statue of George Washington just across the street escaped the blast unscathed so did JP Morgan who was vacationing in Scotland at the time even before the Wall Street explosion there had been nationwide rage on communist headquarters the result of the general boy that Bolsheviks were plotting to overthrow the government there was not much difference in the public mind between socialists and communists and the public seemed glad to have any type of radical brought to trial in many cases juries found the prisoners guilty and then if they were aliens they were ordered deported it was during this Red Scare that too man of Italian birth were arrested and convicted for the murder of a paymaster in South Braintree Massachusetts at first the question of their guilt or innocence attracted little attention but before they were executed years later the case of Sacco and Vanzetti was to arouse fierce controversy throughout the world in due course hysteria died down but not until hundreds of alien radicals had been started on their way home the hysteria ended but the melody lingers all Oh [Music] and no time [Music] blacktone came straight out of vote to vote bill was in its golden era still a main attraction even where films were played a lot of the small time for a day act were routine but good [Music] on a big time you saw the great stars like Harry Houdini never equaled in his life the vaudeville circuit was the best training a lot of famous actors and actresses ever had when they reached the top in vaudeville they were in [Music] 1-act Gallagher and Sheen was so popular that clouds marked them after every show [Music] there was also the question of how to spend your spare time outdoors the seashore was not a bad place to go if you didn't mind getting slapped in the face by the ocean even if you did they were compensation thoughtful features provided jazz music by bathing duty and there is always at Latics itti where the policeman led the bathing beauty parade after the cops the girls look good we were just getting used to the new one-piece suit [Music] this was the heyday of the dancehall and when some smart operator linked jazz and marathon dancing he had something good for the box office although was a bit rough on the contestant [Applause] [Music] all this didn't prevent the girls from going in for classical dancing in which they struck highly interesting poses Bruce and Dennis was the leader in that field in ballet Fokine was considered the master [Music] Anna Pavlova infared or celli often with taken a powder out of Russia about the time the Bolshevik he took over only fed birds for fun for living and a dance and fedor sang the long-haired musicians even when they had crew haircuts like Rachmaninoff's was sure to be popular that arrestee not only looked like to be honest otter look but he was one of the few to be successful in politics - all the best in music came to America Scotty got a Kasasa and Enrico Caruso lieutenant ladies weren't ceremonious on the political scene President Wilson had brought back to Washington a peace treaty with a plan for a League of Nations both of which meant opposition at home Wilson campaign stubborn eye for his ideas but he became ill and the opposition which was centered in the powerful Senate Foreign Relations Committee that needs to defeat it the leader of the Opposition was Senator Henry Cabot Lodge stinger another great political event had taken place women had won the right to vote and they became a political force before which the stoutest politician Quayle they had tried to invade the barber shop with the customers thought they played too rough [Applause] in the presidential campaign of 1920 women had their first chance to vote for a president of the United States the Republican candidate warren g harding was a very handsome man and he was careful to say nothing that might offend anyone entertainers like Al Jolson helped live in the campaign and Harding always posed like a regular fella he had the old US backing of Charles Jews in the beauty of stage star of former times Lillian Russell bumper Harding in an appealed of a newly enfranchised women voters his vice-presidential running mate was Calvin Coolidge made famous by the Boston police strike and it looked to them as though the election was in the bag they were right the Democratic Party's candidate governor James M Cox of Ohio and his running mate one of the New York Roosevelt's never had a chance the Republicans moved in on Washington with great hopes parties stood for a return to normalcy a great contrast to Wilson's idealism as they drove off to the ceremony on Capitol Hill voters now had an administration that was willing to take things as they came Andrew Mellon became the secretary of the Treasury and under his regime the government debt was rapidly reduced taxes were cut and the foundation for a new period of prosperity was laid in that atmosphere a great nationwide upswing in productive work and in industrial techniques began [Music] [Applause] everyone liked Harding who was a friendly man and one Gompers called who asked for the release of eugene debs an imprisoned socialist leader arting agreed to the part and dance who had been jailed for obstructing the conduct of the war was free after all the war was over and the problem was to get back to normal living national defense cost a lot of money and armaments were thought by some people to be one of the causes of war so Harding called for a conference for the limitation of naval armaments in that era of good feeling there seemed little likelihood that there would ever be another war and the diplomats converged on Washington in high spirits Secretary of State Hughes presided over the conference at which the wartime allies agreed to reduce the number and limit the size of their warships and at the time when no threat of war existed the agreements made appeared to be sensible and logical even if they put the Japanese in effective control of the western Pacific seemed like a good idea at the time but battleships decks could still be cleared for action preferably for one of the new dances like the Black Bottom these were pretty fancy goings-on but after all people were letting their hair down the women were fascinated by Peggy Hopkins Joy's weird habit of getting married and divorce and married again and again when the immigration authorities kept a visiting English actress the Countess of Cathcart on Ellis Island for alleged malled turpitude it sounded as though the countess was up to something special although the charges were later dismissed the Jazz Age began to get interesting the girls stopped wearing corsets and began to dance and a friendly word the younger generation discovered that sex and our hoes went well together and the pulp magazines confirmed the discovery [Music] Hollywood knew all about that angle why someone cooked up an audience reaction meter to test the voltage given off by rudolph valentino clinching with Vilma Banky [Music] the love meter almost blew a fuse things got so hot in the movies of the reputable producers signed up will haze 100 grand a year to clean up the picture business and yet keep the busy bodies off the industry's neck anxious reformers thought the movies were over selling girls maybe they were they had some beauties Gloria Swanson was one lovely no one could ever forget and when she turned up on an incoming liner with a new husband this time a French Marquis for no one bothered about the rest of the passengers John Barrymore and Dolores Costello were members of the royalty of stage and screen and even more than that great box-office the star who really laid him in the aisle was Rudolph Valentino the great lover there are fans who will never forget him and Broadway will never forget his funeral they had to call out all the cops and even then it was almost a riot [Music] Pola Negri was there and the honorary pallbearers included all the brats from Hollywood Dead or Alive Valentino had made history in the growth of American movies [Music] matter of fact everything that happened to a star was important the fans went gaga in the romance of Rod LaRoque and Dilma banky and it just like in the pictures as the comedian Charlie Chaplin was already the old master [Music] Douglas Fairbanks was the kid's hero [Music] but as the screen couple none could surpass garble and Gilbert [Music] it wasn't all sex there was Will Rogers who had a homespun quality that no one has ever been able to match will came up the hard way through the vote build circuits well all I know is what I read in the papers but it was Al Jolson would first crack things wide open for the new sound movies when he starred in the jazz singer [Music] thing that really wrung the heart was prohibition 13 long years that beer they used to make tasted like no beer on earth in the first place and then when they spiked it with alcohol and ether you needed some support flasks were worn in the best circle and you just didn't criticize what a man's bootlegger had sold him even if it almost killed you to drink the stuff the most disturbing thing about prohibition was the contribution that made to general lawlessness who were of course a lot of notorious criminals in the early 20s like gerald Chapman who had no connection with the traffic in illegal liquor Chapman had murdered a policeman in Connecticut and when he was brought to trial no one thought of him as a big man he was just another bandit with a twisted mind and he was condemned to death but in many American cities especially Chicago gangs of hoodlums in the pay of wealthy bootleggers might be arrested but it was sure they would be as quickly freed Chicago's mayor at this time was Big Bill Thompson a greedy politician who was less interested in curbing the gangsters than in holding office he got himself re-elected in one campaign on the slogan bust King George in the flute his slogan which after all didn't have much to do with conditions in the city of Chicago while big dill was mayor a gangster named Al Capone ruled as undisputed boss of the Chicago underworld when he was jailed years later it was for income tax evasion but crime was abhorrent to most American citizens millions of who were wholehearted churchgoers there were great numbers of people whose religious instincts were stirred by the emotional exaltation of Billy's Sunday a ballplayer who had become a famous evangelist when Billy pitched the gospel a congregation never forgot it frightening the twilight zone between faith and science with emial hue a French pharmacist who taught that one grew in strength by chanting every day and every way I'm getting better and better and then the Austrian surgeon dr. Adolf Florence demonstrated his bloodless surgery technique in America his work met with wide approval science was leaping forward Madame Curie already famed co-discoverer of radium arrived to accept a gift of a gram of the magical metal about which so little was then known and whose full possibilities were not imagined and Thomas Edison now old and dead best in the respect of everyone for his invention of the incandescent electric light a scientific milestone