THE GOLDEN TWENTIES

the go-to reservation teeth leading eagle everybody was having a happy time the automobile industry for example was booming the cars themselves had certain features of a utilitarian order such as running boards driver visibility and fresh air prices were right to the plumber was a thing of beauty and report turned out his 15 million car we knew the automobile age had really arrived the earliest autos had become museum pieces and Henry bored father of the American assembly line technique said proudly in his own first car which he had made by production in industry was steadily increasing and with came a steady rise in national income and an international trade under the guidance of Charles Dawes and Owen DeYoung considerable efforts were made to help solve such naughty problems as Europe's war debts and reparations claims during such prosperous times everyone thought of peace the kellogg-briand pact negotiated to outlaw war as an instrument of national policy seemed to many to make perfect sense in those days if Coolidge was not wildly enthusiastic it was probably because he realized that if the pact had been a good gesture politically it was also a futile one good political moves like the negotiation of the pact were not to be likely regarded at that time presidential campaign of 1928 had been a tough one Democrats had convened at Houston Texas and Al Smith was their choice for president he was nominated by Franklin Roosevelt who lauded him as the happy warrior cowslip was a fighter and a man of character the arts against him were too great the Republicans had nominated Herbert Hoover and Hoover was just what the country seemed to me an engineer honest and competent who knew Commerce and Industry that's what the people wanted and on election night in times where the crowds waited excitedly for the results to come in [Applause] the chairs were for four more years of prosperity the unbeatable Republican ticket uber and Kurtis how it became Hoover's turned to ride up to the Capitol to take the oath of office [Music] it seemed to most Americans as if the years of prosperity would go on forever the crowd before the capital was in a holiday mood as the ceremony got underway then the rain began to fall but the spectators listened on quietly to Hoover's inaugural address another sort of storm was gathering that day but it still hadn't broken when the Coolidge is pulled out of Washington headed for retirement Americans with a bankroll could make summer last year on offer Hammerstein wintered in Palm Beach so did mrs. George M : mrs. San Paris Irene castle famed as a dancer added glamour closing felt with his wife Billy Burke and his daughter Patricia went in for the nautical life most of Broadway showed up in Florida at one time or other [Music] Ellen Morgan was one of the standby she was a star of show book the girls and the men too got a kick out of the fashion parade and the dresses were will they look fine then [Music] you always count on finding his honor Jimmy Walker mayor of New York in the middle of things Jimmy was always dapper and lively to smile for all comers [Music] the Florida press agents ideas got whackier and whackier [Music] but Florida had no patent on wackiness he could buffer Charleston contest anywhere in the country it was a long broad way that the nightlife was really jumping there were plenty of customers the butter and egg men with Bank rolls they were steaming to get rid of you could always make more make it in the market spend it in the name band club you you [Music] Damien and a robber [Music] the speakeasies did a land office business Texas Guinan with their gals and customers rule is really the sugar coating on the cake of trouble and many a trucker has cut himself too big a piece of cake yet a fence [Music] [Applause] didn't last forever a time game when the ticker-tape and the brokers office told a new story it was penny 16 and a half million shares of stock sold in a single day sold hopelessly desperate at any price the forerunner of depression and crisis [Music] so ended the golden playtime of the planet but beneath the froth it was a decade of great achievements in many fields of work in science in industry in education no one was wise enough to turn the peace and prosperity of that decade into permanent peace and prosperity but the nation had lived for a few brief years in a new kind of world where there was happiness and peace and if that brief world ended rudely and abruptly there was still left in its pattern the hope of an America of abundance and fun of peace and accomplishment to be created again in other go [Music]