Woodrow Wilson, 28th US President
Thomas Woodrow Wilson was the twenty-eighth President of the United States (1856-1924). A devout Presbyterian, and leading intellectual of the Progressive Era, he served as President of Princeton University and then became the Governor of New Jersey in 1910. With Theodore Roosevelt and William Howard Taft dividing the Republican Party vote, Wilson was elected President as a Democrat in 1912. He proved highly successful in leading a Democratic Congress to pass major legislation that included the Federal Trade Commission, the Clayton Antitrust Act, the Underwood Tariff, the Federal Farm Loan Act and most notably the Federal Reserve System.
Warren G. Harding, 29th US President
Warren Gamaliel Harding was an American politician, and the twenty-ninth President of the United States, serving from 1921 to 1923, his term ending as he died from a heart attack at age 57. A Republican from Ohio, Harding was an influential newspaper publisher. He served in the Ohio Senate (1899–1903) and later as Lieutenant Governor of Ohio (1903–1905) and as a U.S. Senator (1915–1921).
Calvin Coolidge, 30th US President
John Calvin Coolidge, Jr. was the thirtieth President of the United States (1923–1929). A Republican lawyer from Vermont, Coolidge worked his way up the ladder of Massachusetts state politics, eventually becoming governor of that state. His actions during the Boston Police Strike of 1919 thrust him into the national spotlight. Soon after, he was elected as the twenty-ninth Vice President in 1920 and succeeded to the Presidency upon the death of Warren G. Harding. Elected in his own right in 1924, he gained a reputation as a small-government conservative.
Herbert Hoover, 31st US President
Herbert Clark Hoover, the 31st President of the United States (1929-1933), was a world-famous mining engineer and humanitarian administrator before turning to political administration. A Republican, he defeated Democrat Alfred E. Smith in the presidential election of 1928. The stock market crash of 1929 and the ensuing Great Depression overwhelmed his presidency. In spite of a wide variety of successful reforms, Hoover was held accountable for the dire economic situation and was badly defeated in his bid for a second term by Democrat Franklin D. Roosevelt.
The threat of Communism, Fascism, and Socialism.
The period between the 2 world wars was characterized by world-wide tensions and saw the rise of mass movements such as communism, fascism, and national socialism.
Political Events of 1920 - The Palmer raids, the Red Scare, a drive to rid the country of "reds," begin under the auspices of the U.S. Dept. of Justice. On January 3, the New York Times reports that 650 are arrested.
League of Nations first council in Paris. President Wilson formally convoked the Council in accordance with the League provision for the summoning of the first Assembly by the President of the United States. It was to be the last official participation by the U.S. in the entire history of the League of Nations.
The 18th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution went into effect, prohibiting the making, selling, possession, and consumption of alcoholic beverages. Prohibition, the most flouted law in history was repealed in 1933 .
The American Socialist Party nominates Eugene V. Debs for president, and he is the first candidate to mount a campaign from jail. Beginning in September he is permitted to issue weekly public statements that are then circulated by the party. He runs on the slogan, "From the Prison to the White House,"andpolls3.5percentofthevote.
U.S. POLITICS - Following the end of World War I and the freedom from the war-time economy and lifestyle, U.S. politicians focused on the social and cultural issues of the day.
People wanted an end to labor problems and racial strife, less immigration, conservative politics, a return to Christian values, and less government interference in their lives.
By the 1920s, many Americans had grown tired of war and constant attempts at reform, including numerous attempts to pass moral legislation. Many people longed for a simpler way of life. Warren G. Harding's policy of a "return to normalcy" was an attempt to capitalize on this populist feeling.
1920 U.S. ELECTION - The U.S. presidential election of 1920 was dominated by the aftermath of World War I. The wartime boom had collapsed. Diplomats and politicians were arguing over peace treaties and the question of America's entry into the League of Nations. Overseas there were wars and revolutions; at home there were strikes, riots, and a growing fear of radicals and terrorists. Disillusionment was in the air.
On June 8, 1920, the Republican National Convention meeting in Chicago nominated Warren G. Harding, an Ohio newspaper editor and United States Senator, to run for president with Calvin Coolidge, governor of Massachusetts, as his running mate.
The Democrats, meeting in San Francisco, nominated another newspaper editor from Ohio, Governor James M. Cox, as their presidential candidate, and 37 year-old Assistant Secretary of the Navy Franklin D. Roosevelt, a fifth cousin of the late president Teddy Roosevelt, for vice president.
The presidential election of 1920 continued the debate between the nationalistic activism of Roosevelt's presidency and the global idealism of Wilson's administration. Harding, the winner, inherited major domestic and international problems that tested his leadership.
1924 U.S. ELECTION - The U.S. presidential election of 1924 was won by incumbent President Calvin Coolidge in a landslide as he presided over a booming economy at home and no visible crises abroad. Coolidge (Republican) won the election in a landslide, with Davis (Democrat) only winning the 11 former Confederate states and Oklahoma, and losing the popular vote by 25 percentage points. The Republicans did so well that they won in New York City, a feat that has not been repeated since.
1928 U.S. ELECTION - The U.S. presidential election of 1928 pitted Republican Herbert Hoover against Democrat Alfred E. Smith. The Republicans were identified with the booming economy of the 1920s and Smith, a Roman Catholic, suffered politically from anti-Catholic prejudice.
The election held on November 6, 1928 was won by Republican candidate Herbert Hoover by a wide margin on pledges to continue the economic boom of the Coolidge years.
An overview of the life and times of F. Scott Fitzgerald.
Tuesday, October 26, 2010
The music and musicians behind the "Jazz Age" of the 1920's
Jazz, Ragtime and Broadway musicals were features of 1920's music.
Jazz gained popularity in America and worldwide by the 1920s. Nothing quite like it had ever happened before in America. New exuberant dances were devised to take advantage of the upbeat tempo's of Jazz and Ragtime music.
By the mid-1920s, jazz was being played in dance halls and roadhouses and speakeasies all over the country. Early jazz influences found their first mainstream expression in the music used by marching bands and dance bands of the day, which was the main form of popular concert music in the early twentieth century.
Meanwhile, radio and phonograph records — Americans bought more than 100 million of them in 1927 — were bringing jazz to locations so remote that no band could reach them. And the music itself was beginning to change — an exuberant, collective music was coming to place more and more emphasis on the innovations of supremely gifted individuals. Improvising soloists, struggling to find their own voices and to tell their own stories, were about to take center stage. Some of the best known musicians were jazz musicians including Duke Ellington, Al Jolson, Louis Daniel Armstrong, Joseph “King Oliver” Oliver, Bessie Smith, Benny Goodman, and Ma Rainey. One other popular musician (Composer ) was George Gershwin.
In its early years jazz was considered the devils music by diverse segments of the American public. Vigorous public debate raged between supporters and detracters.
Public dance halls, clubs, and tea rooms opened in the cities. Strangely named black dances inspired by African style dance moves, like the shimmy, turkey trot, buzzard lope, chicken scratch, monkey glide, and the bunny hug were eventually adopted by the general public. The cake walk, developed by slaves as a send-up of their masters' formal dress balls, became the rage. White audiences saw these dances first in vaudeville shows, then performed by exhibition dancers in the clubs.
The popular dance music of the time was not jazz, but there were early forms taking shape in the evolving blues-ragtime experimental area that would soon turn into jazz. Popular Tin Pan Alley composers like Irving Berlin incorporated ragtime influence into their compositions, though they rarely used the specific musical devices that were second nature to jazz players—the rhythms, the blue notes. Few things did more to popularize the idea of hot music than Berlin's hit song of 1911,"Alexander's Ragtime Band," which became a craze as far from home as Vienna. Although the song wasn't written in rag time, the lyrics describe a jazz band, right up to jazzing up popular songs, as in the line, "If you want to hear the Swanee River played in ragtime...."
The 1920's were Broadway's prime years, with over 50 new musicals opening in just one season. Record numbers of people paid up to $3.50 for a seat at a musical. It was also a decade of incredible artistic developments in the musical theatre.
Even in the 1920's the lights of Broadway lit up the billboards at night in a huge splash of color that was immortalized in song. The dazzling lights were an attraction in their own right that compared with the shows in popularity.
The Broadway shows were produced by showmen who took musical theatre seriously and tried to provide quality entertainment while making a profit at the same time. This attitude kept the musical theatre booming right through the 1920s. Among the hundreds of popular musical comedies that debuted on Broadway in the early 1920s, two classic examples epitomize the Broadway musical of that era – Sally and No, No, Nanette.
Jazz gained popularity in America and worldwide by the 1920s. Nothing quite like it had ever happened before in America. New exuberant dances were devised to take advantage of the upbeat tempo's of Jazz and Ragtime music.
By the mid-1920s, jazz was being played in dance halls and roadhouses and speakeasies all over the country. Early jazz influences found their first mainstream expression in the music used by marching bands and dance bands of the day, which was the main form of popular concert music in the early twentieth century.
Meanwhile, radio and phonograph records — Americans bought more than 100 million of them in 1927 — were bringing jazz to locations so remote that no band could reach them. And the music itself was beginning to change — an exuberant, collective music was coming to place more and more emphasis on the innovations of supremely gifted individuals. Improvising soloists, struggling to find their own voices and to tell their own stories, were about to take center stage. Some of the best known musicians were jazz musicians including Duke Ellington, Al Jolson, Louis Daniel Armstrong, Joseph “King Oliver” Oliver, Bessie Smith, Benny Goodman, and Ma Rainey. One other popular musician (Composer ) was George Gershwin.
In its early years jazz was considered the devils music by diverse segments of the American public. Vigorous public debate raged between supporters and detracters.
Public dance halls, clubs, and tea rooms opened in the cities. Strangely named black dances inspired by African style dance moves, like the shimmy, turkey trot, buzzard lope, chicken scratch, monkey glide, and the bunny hug were eventually adopted by the general public. The cake walk, developed by slaves as a send-up of their masters' formal dress balls, became the rage. White audiences saw these dances first in vaudeville shows, then performed by exhibition dancers in the clubs.
The popular dance music of the time was not jazz, but there were early forms taking shape in the evolving blues-ragtime experimental area that would soon turn into jazz. Popular Tin Pan Alley composers like Irving Berlin incorporated ragtime influence into their compositions, though they rarely used the specific musical devices that were second nature to jazz players—the rhythms, the blue notes. Few things did more to popularize the idea of hot music than Berlin's hit song of 1911,"Alexander's Ragtime Band," which became a craze as far from home as Vienna. Although the song wasn't written in rag time, the lyrics describe a jazz band, right up to jazzing up popular songs, as in the line, "If you want to hear the Swanee River played in ragtime...."
The 1920's were Broadway's prime years, with over 50 new musicals opening in just one season. Record numbers of people paid up to $3.50 for a seat at a musical. It was also a decade of incredible artistic developments in the musical theatre.
Even in the 1920's the lights of Broadway lit up the billboards at night in a huge splash of color that was immortalized in song. The dazzling lights were an attraction in their own right that compared with the shows in popularity.
The Broadway shows were produced by showmen who took musical theatre seriously and tried to provide quality entertainment while making a profit at the same time. This attitude kept the musical theatre booming right through the 1920s. Among the hundreds of popular musical comedies that debuted on Broadway in the early 1920s, two classic examples epitomize the Broadway musical of that era – Sally and No, No, Nanette.
The Economic Conditions of the 1920's
The powerful economy might of America from 1920 to October 1929 is frequently overlooked or simply submerged by the more exciting topics such as prohibition and the gangsters, the Jazz Age with its crazies, the KKK etc. However, the strength of America was generated and driven by its vast economic power.
In this decade, America became the wealthiest country in the world with no obvious rival. Yet by 1930 she had hit a depression that was to have world-wide consequences. But in the good times everybody seemed to have a reasonably well paid job and everybody seemed to have a lot of spare cash to spend.
One of the reasons for this was the introduction of hire-purchase whereby you put a deposit on an item that you wanted and paid installments on that item, with interest, so that you paid back more than the price for the item but did not have to make one payment in one go. Hire-purchase was easy to get and people got into debt without any real planning for the future. In the1920’s it just seemed to be the case that if you wanted something then you got it.
But simply buying something had a major economic impact. Somebody had to make what was bought. This was the era before robot technology and most work was labor intensive i.e. people did the work. The person who made that product would get paid and he (as it usually was in the1920’s) would not save all that money. He, too, would spend some of it and someone somewhere else would have to make that and so he would get paid. And so the cycle continued. This was the money flow belief of John Maynard Keynes. If people were spending, then people had to be employed to make things. They get paid, spent their money and so the cycle continued.
A good example was the motor car industry. The 3 big producers were Ford, Chrysler and General Motors.
A boom in the car industry came from Ford’s with the legendary Ford Model -T.
This was a car for the people. It was cheap; mass production had dropped its price to just $295 in 1928. The same car had cost $1200 in 1909. By 1928, just about 20% of all Americans had cars. The impact of Ford meant that others had to produce their own cheap car to compete. The benefits went to the consumer. Hire-purchase made cars such as these very affordable. But there were major spin-offs from this one industry as 20% of all American steel went to the car industry; 80% of all rubber; 75% of all plate glass and 65% of all leather. 7 billion gallons of petrol were used each year and, of course, motels, garages, restaurants etc. all sprung up and all these outlets employed people and these people got paid.
To cope with the new cars new roads were built which employed a lot of people. But not everybody was happy with cars. Critics referred to cars as "prostitution on wheels" as young couples courted in them and gangsters started to use the more powerful models as getaway cars after robberies. But cars were definitely here to stay.
Not only were cars popular. Radios (10 million sold by 1929), Hoover’s, fridge’s and telephones sold in huge numbers.
By 1928 even the president, Hoover, was claiming that America had all but rid itself of poverty. The nation was fulfilling a previous president's pronouncement: "The business in America is business" - Calvin Coolidge.
But 2 groups did not prosper at all :
1) The African Americans were forced to do menial labor for very poor wages in the southern states. They lived lives of misery in total poverty. The KKK made this misery worse. In the northern states, decent jobs went to the white population and discrimination was just as common in the north as it was in the South (though the Klan was barely in existence in the north and the violence that existed in the South barely existed in the north) and many black families lived in ghettoes in the cities in very poor conditions. In the 1920’s the black population did not share in the economic boom. Their only real outlet was jazz and dancing though this was done to entertain the richer white population, and sport, especially boxing.
2) The share croppers of the south and mid-Americas. These people rented out land from landlords or got a mortgage together to buy land to farm. When they could not afford the rent or mortgage payments they were evicted from the land. There was such a massive boost in food production that prices tumbled as farmers desperately tried to sell their produce and failed. The European market was out of the question. Europe had retaliated at tariffs on their products going into the American market by putting tariffs on American goods destined for the European market thus making them far more expensive - this included grain. Many farmers in the mid-west lost their homes. Unmarried male farmers became the legendary hobos - men who roamed the mid-American states on trains looking for part-time work.
These two groups were frequently forgotten in the "Jazz Age". To many people, they were "out of sight and out of mind". It appeared that everybody had money - even factory workers and shoe-shine boys on city streets. In fact, people had spare money with nothing to do with it. They invested whatever they could in the Stock Market in Wall Street, New York. There were huge fortunes to be made here and many invested money they could ill afford to lose. However, the lure was too great and everybody knew that there was money to be made.
Stockbrokers were at fault as they were happy to accept a ‘margin’ to buy shares for a person ; this was accepting just 10% of the cost of the shares that were to be purchased for a customer. The rest was to be collected when the price of shares went up - as they would, of course.... By 1929, over 1 million people owned shares in America.
In October 1929, the Stock Market crash (also known as Black Friday)occurred. Its impact was felt worldwide and led to the Great Depression of the 30’s and 40’s.
In this decade, America became the wealthiest country in the world with no obvious rival. Yet by 1930 she had hit a depression that was to have world-wide consequences. But in the good times everybody seemed to have a reasonably well paid job and everybody seemed to have a lot of spare cash to spend.
One of the reasons for this was the introduction of hire-purchase whereby you put a deposit on an item that you wanted and paid installments on that item, with interest, so that you paid back more than the price for the item but did not have to make one payment in one go. Hire-purchase was easy to get and people got into debt without any real planning for the future. In the1920’s it just seemed to be the case that if you wanted something then you got it.
But simply buying something had a major economic impact. Somebody had to make what was bought. This was the era before robot technology and most work was labor intensive i.e. people did the work. The person who made that product would get paid and he (as it usually was in the1920’s) would not save all that money. He, too, would spend some of it and someone somewhere else would have to make that and so he would get paid. And so the cycle continued. This was the money flow belief of John Maynard Keynes. If people were spending, then people had to be employed to make things. They get paid, spent their money and so the cycle continued.
A good example was the motor car industry. The 3 big producers were Ford, Chrysler and General Motors.
A boom in the car industry came from Ford’s with the legendary Ford Model -T.
This was a car for the people. It was cheap; mass production had dropped its price to just $295 in 1928. The same car had cost $1200 in 1909. By 1928, just about 20% of all Americans had cars. The impact of Ford meant that others had to produce their own cheap car to compete. The benefits went to the consumer. Hire-purchase made cars such as these very affordable. But there were major spin-offs from this one industry as 20% of all American steel went to the car industry; 80% of all rubber; 75% of all plate glass and 65% of all leather. 7 billion gallons of petrol were used each year and, of course, motels, garages, restaurants etc. all sprung up and all these outlets employed people and these people got paid.
To cope with the new cars new roads were built which employed a lot of people. But not everybody was happy with cars. Critics referred to cars as "prostitution on wheels" as young couples courted in them and gangsters started to use the more powerful models as getaway cars after robberies. But cars were definitely here to stay.
Not only were cars popular. Radios (10 million sold by 1929), Hoover’s, fridge’s and telephones sold in huge numbers.
By 1928 even the president, Hoover, was claiming that America had all but rid itself of poverty. The nation was fulfilling a previous president's pronouncement: "The business in America is business" - Calvin Coolidge.
But 2 groups did not prosper at all :
1) The African Americans were forced to do menial labor for very poor wages in the southern states. They lived lives of misery in total poverty. The KKK made this misery worse. In the northern states, decent jobs went to the white population and discrimination was just as common in the north as it was in the South (though the Klan was barely in existence in the north and the violence that existed in the South barely existed in the north) and many black families lived in ghettoes in the cities in very poor conditions. In the 1920’s the black population did not share in the economic boom. Their only real outlet was jazz and dancing though this was done to entertain the richer white population, and sport, especially boxing.
2) The share croppers of the south and mid-Americas. These people rented out land from landlords or got a mortgage together to buy land to farm. When they could not afford the rent or mortgage payments they were evicted from the land. There was such a massive boost in food production that prices tumbled as farmers desperately tried to sell their produce and failed. The European market was out of the question. Europe had retaliated at tariffs on their products going into the American market by putting tariffs on American goods destined for the European market thus making them far more expensive - this included grain. Many farmers in the mid-west lost their homes. Unmarried male farmers became the legendary hobos - men who roamed the mid-American states on trains looking for part-time work.
These two groups were frequently forgotten in the "Jazz Age". To many people, they were "out of sight and out of mind". It appeared that everybody had money - even factory workers and shoe-shine boys on city streets. In fact, people had spare money with nothing to do with it. They invested whatever they could in the Stock Market in Wall Street, New York. There were huge fortunes to be made here and many invested money they could ill afford to lose. However, the lure was too great and everybody knew that there was money to be made.
Stockbrokers were at fault as they were happy to accept a ‘margin’ to buy shares for a person ; this was accepting just 10% of the cost of the shares that were to be purchased for a customer. The rest was to be collected when the price of shares went up - as they would, of course.... By 1929, over 1 million people owned shares in America.
In October 1929, the Stock Market crash (also known as Black Friday)occurred. Its impact was felt worldwide and led to the Great Depression of the 30’s and 40’s.
The Major Events and Influences of the life of F. Scott Fitzgerald
1850 Irish Immigrants are the people whom his mothers family decends from and whom influenced his upbringing in St. Paul Minnesota. His father was a Southern gentleman whose persona he used to develop the character of Nick Carraway in the Great Gatsby.
St.Pauls academy was the prep school that Fitzgerald attended along with other young men from affluent families. He was not well liked because of his writings for the school newspaper.
1911 Princeton football team which made him choose to attend Princeton. Football was an important part of young mens life and Fitzgerald endevoured to play for Princeton even though he was small and not very adept at the game.
1913 He enters Princeton as an undergraduate. 
The begining of the war provides a convient opportunity for Fitzgerald to leave Princton; where he is neglecting his studies because of writing for the school paper and drama club, to become a second lieutenant for the American Army.
1918 F Scott Fitzgerald meets Zelda Sayre an 18 year old Alabama belle who he falls in love with and will eventually marry. This picture was taken right after their marriage.
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