 No longer working from dusk-dawn like on farms  45 hour workweek in cities by 1930! w/ salaries rising, this left a lot of opportunity to go out and enjoy themselves!

 Hollywood, CA emerged as the epicenter for movie production Had control over the industry  million Americans attended movies each week  Mostly silent films  helpful w/large immigrant population Cheap to attend

 Charlie Chaplin: most famous silent movie star b/c of his dynamic character  1927: The Jazz Singer released First ever movie w/ sound synchronized to the action Jazz-Singer-The-Movie-Clip-You-Ain-t-Heard- Nothin-Yet-.html Jazz-Singer-The-Movie-Clip-You-Ain-t-Heard- Nothin-Yet-.html The first of the “talkies”

 Radios + phonographs created a mass culture Standardized across the country  Radio invented by Guglielmo Marconi (1890) KDKA – first radio station for public use out of Pittsburg, PA in 1920 Music, religious sermons, lectures, advertising

 1927 – Boxing match b/w Jack Dempsey and Gene Tunney Broadcasted over the radio! Entire nation listened in om/watch?v=- OeeCfbahwQ om/watch?v=- OeeCfbahwQ  Phonographs allowed ppl to listen to music from the radio whenever!

 Hollywood stars competed for popularity with sports heroes!

 Major sports games were covered by newspaper and radios  Babe Ruth – Yankees homerun slugger! The Great Bambino!  Journalists captured the “Golden Age of Sports!” Turned athletes into gods Looking for lofty dreams + feats after WWI  gave Americans hope!

 Charles Lindbergh: first solo, non-stop flight across the Atlantic Flew on the Spirit of St. Louis from Long Island, NY to Paris, France  Instantly a hero as French radio broadcasted world wide!

 Why did the change occur? Pull of cities = leaving home Right to vote Jobs during the war

 Women  1920’s Flapper Zbs Zbs  Clara Bow I I

 Flapper = rebellious youth not widespread reality, many youth did not agree with the idea People scorned the young women for their rebelliousness + loose morals  Double standard because men had always acted this way and it was accepted

 Despite giving up jobs to men after the war, some women took on new roles Teachers Nurses Librarians Clerks Secretaries  By million women were earning wages (few in high positions though)  Experienced discrimination in the workplace  Equal Rights Amendment - NWP

 Decline in amount of children:

 Social and technological innovations made household tasks simpler: Ready-made clothes at stores Sliced bread + canned foods  Public agencies supported elderly, sick and unemployed who could no longer work  Freed up homemakers (most often mothers) Time for book clubs and shopping > housework

 ∴ women experienced greater equality in marriage The number of divorces doubled  Children spent days at school and in organized activities  Technology in urban homes  Working-class + college educated women experienced the difficulty of working and raising a family Rebellious teens made this harder

 The Arts Reflect a Mood of Uncertainty Greatly influenced by the war Before the war  belief in progress, after the war this was much less certain Pessimism about the course of civilization known in the arts as modernism  Sigmund Freud – contributed to modernism in art and literature Human behavior not driven by rational thought, but by unconscious desires

 Modernist art experimented with more abstract styles  Georgia O’Keefe:

 1920s writers: “Lost Generation” b/c they no longer believed in Victorian ideals Of hope, faith in human progress,  Search for new truths and the emergence of some of the greatest writers in history!

 Themes: American Dream WWI Wealth Focus on the subconscious Success and failure  Writers: Ernest Hemmingway – Farewell to Arms Edith Wharton – first woman to receive Pulitzer Prize Sinclair Lewis, T.S. Elliot, F. Scott Fitzgerald – The Great Gatsby and coined the term “Jazz Age.” AND MORE!