How did the people of USA have a good time in the1920s? THE ROARING TWENTIES How did the people of USA have a good time in the1920s? ■Growing Cities ■Radio ■Jazz ■Sports ■Cinema ■Morals ■Car Hh

GROWING CITIES In 1920 more Americans lived in towns and cities than in the country. Throughout 1920 the cities were growing fast. The skyscrapers were the symbol of the cities. But problems between rural areas and urban areas began. Many people of the country thought that their traditional values were under threat from the growing cities. So they started to pay a rearguard against the “evil” effects of the city.

Skyscrapers

RADIO Almost everyone in the USA listened to the radio. The choice of programmes grew quickly. At the beginning there was only one licensed radio station in America. One year later there were 508 of them. The most popular at that time was the network NBC

JAZZ Jazz music became an obsession among young people. Black people, who moved from the country to the cities, had brought jazz and captured the imagination of white Americans. The 1920s became known as the Jazz Age. The older generation saw jazz as a corrupting influence towards young people of USA. Some pioneers of the jazz were Louis Armstrong, King Oliver, Freddie Keppard, etc.

King O Louis Armstrong King Oliver The beginning of Jazz

SPORTS Sports was another boom area. Baseball became a big money sport with legendary teams like the New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox. Boxing was also a very popular sport, with heroes like Jack Dempsey.

CINEMA In Hollywood a major film industry was developing. The studios could produce large numbers of films or movies. New stars like Charles Chaplin and Buster Keaton were comedians. The firsts movies were comedy and thriller. Since 1927 the movies started to be spoken. Movies became a multi-billion dollar business as it is today.

Buster Keaton Charles Chaplin An old cinema

MORALS After the WWI young women began to have new attitudes. The change was most obvious in sexual morals. Before the war sex was a strange subject. After the war it became a concern for many people of USA as Hollywood started to make films. The cinema quickly discovered the selling power of sex. Today these films would be considered very dull indeed, but at that time they were considered very daring. The rural states were very worried and 36 states threatened to introduce censorship legislation. But Hollywood responded with its own censorship code. Meanwhile contraceptive advice was openly available for the first time.

Some movies of Hollywood in 1920

THE CAR The motor car was one factor that tended to make all the other features of the 1920s mentioned above more possible. Cars helped the cities to grow by opening up the suburbs. They carried their owners to and from their entertainments. They took Americans to an increasing range of sporting events, beach holidays and shopping trips. Also the races began.

A race car

Some funny videos of chaplin http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DlkdtS8OFlA http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mtZTIwSIuGw&feature=related http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1mYtNMDFyXQ&feature=related Joaquin Gonzalez Narvarte Valentín Tear Bieri Chloe Taylor