1. 1920s
A Business Boom

2. Consumer Economy
Massive economic growth fueled by consumers buying things…consumer spending
Truer than ever before in the 1920s

3. Installment Plan
Paying for items in installments over time (usually monthly)…credit
This was NEW
60% of all cars…70% of all furniture…80% of vacuums, radios and refrigerators…90% of sewing machines and washing machines

4. Electric Power
New appliances created a surge in demand for electricity
number of homes with electricity quadrupled
Number of people with electric lights jumped form 16 – 63%
MOSTLY IN CITIES

5. By 1925 only 4% of American farms had electricity
Evidence of growth of the electricity industry…
General Electric (GE) company value from $1 billion - $2.3 billion

6. Automobile
HENRY FORD
Ford Idea – cut the price of Model T in half (from $ to $390.00)
Double wages of employees
Assembly line – Ford did NOT invent it, but he perfected it.
MODEL T

7. MODEL T Model T every 24 seconds in early 1920s
Ford built over ½ the cars produced in the world (16,750,000)
ALL cars were identical…any color…
Some assembled at dealer
Vertical consolidation…52 hour car

8. MASS MEDIA Newspapers: 1920-1930 circulation increased 42%
Movies: Theatres 5,000 – 22,
90 million people per week went to the movies at a time when the total population was only 125 million
Movie making was the 4th largest industry in the USA
1927 – “Talkies”
Increase of 125%

9. RADIO In 1919 only 20,000 homes had a radio INCREASE OF… 68,650%
* In 1930… 13.5 million homes had a radio
INCREASE OF… 68,650%