Chicago Tale of the 20s and 2000s 3

Blues music embodied the African-American experience during segregation and spoke of “work, rambling, crime, gambling, imprisonment, alcohol, disasters, hard times… and commented on universal themes of troubled relationships and sexual desire” (Drowne & Huber, 2004, p. 206-7). Ma Rainey, mother of the blues, had flamboyant expensive gowns and very ostentatious jewelry—the mother of “bling,” she had a necklace of $20 gold pieces and her ears dripped diamonds. America’s newfound attraction to African-derived culture went beyond music; suntans became stylish, while and the fascination with primitive cultures increased. There was wild curiosity for anything in the realm of the erotic and Margaret Meade’s book about Samoans who had recreational sex became a best seller.

In 1926, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes opened on Broadway and Show Boat opened the following year. Musicals and musical comedies appeared on Broadway because audiences preferred the “beautiful, funny fantastical world of song and dance into which they could escape for a few hours” (Drowne & Huber, 2004, p. 224). The world of musical theater evolved from vaudeville, Broadway soon eclipsed vaudeville during this decade, with fifty musical shows a season. Broadway musicals, and their later Hollywood counterparts had elaborate sets, glamorous costumes and elaborate dance numbers, which lavishly illuminated the silver screen in the late 1920s and early 1930s.

Maurine Dallas Watkins’s play Chicago began its successful Broadway run in December 1926, having been inspired by actual events in occurring in Chicago in 1924. The first musical comedy, Ain’t Misbehavin’ debuted on Broadway in 1929. On a more classical note, Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue” debuted in 1923, and “American In Paris” premiered in 1928 along with Ravel’s “Bolero.”

On the sports and discovery scenes, the 1920s saw the opening of Yankee Stadium in New York and Wembley Stadium in London in 1923, with Babe Ruth hitting his 60^th home run in 1927. Gertrude Ederle, an American was the first woman to swim the English Channel in 1926, while Johnny Weissmuller, the future Tarzan, set 67 records during his career from 1921-1929. It was a decade of crazes and fads, from dance marathons, to crossword puzzles (1924), mahjong (1922), and flagpole sitting. King Tut’s tomb was discovered in 1922, leading to increased popularity in Egyptian motifs, and in 1926, a lost Mayan city was found in the Yucatan jungles.

Capital Ideas, Inventions and Innovations

The Grand Canyon Park was dedicated in 1920; In Washington DC, the Tomb for the Unknown Solider and the Lincoln Memorial were dedicated in 1921 and 1922 respectively. America was a nation on the move, and in 1921, Congress passed the Federal Highway Act that gave matching funds for the establishment of a national network of two lane highways. The Holland Tunnel opened in 1927 and the first cloverleaf was constructed in 1928.

Aviation experienced a few firsts during this decade, too. The first transcontinental airmail service between New York and San Francisco began in 1920, Goodyear launched its first advertising blimp in 1925 (which used helium instead of flammable hydrogen), while TWA, under a prior name began airline passenger service in 1926. Charles “Lucky Lindy” Lindberg flew the first solo nonstop trip across the Atlantic Ocean in 1927 in 33 1/2 hours, and the Graf Zeppelin established service between Germany and New York in 1928.

Interesting inventions included the polygraph in 1921 and RADAR in 1922. Muzak also made its debut that year in order to calm anxious elevator riders. In 1923, neon advertising signs were introduced and the night sky of the city was never the same. The wind tunnel was also invented in 1923. The Computing, Tabulating and Recording Company, finally finished changing its name and became IBM in 1924.

Insulin was used to treat diabetes in 1922, penicillin was discovered in 1928, and the iron lung was invented the same year. Although the EEG was invented in 1924, the first EEG recording on humans took place in 1929.

In 1923, Bell and Howell introduced a 16 mm handheld camera, and 16 mm color film came out in 1928, so generations of families could sit through hours and hours of home movies. Shick got a patent for the electric razor in 1923, and Kleenex was invented in 1924.

On a more serious note, in science, Einstein won the Nobel Prize for Science in 1921 and Bohr the following year. 1927 was a busy year for quantum physics: Heisenberg formulated the uncertainty principle, which states that we can know either the momentum or the location of a subatomic particle, but not both at once; Bohr proposed the complementarity principle to explain the wave particle duality, which led to the realization that the observer has an effect on the observed, thus nothing is really objective after all, and the Solvay Conference which took place in Brussels Belguim in October led to the adoption of the Copenhagen Interpretation of Quantum Physics. During the 1920s, LeMaître proposed the “Big Bang” theory, and Muller found that x-rays create mutations.

What Will They Think Of Next? Our Favorite Foods

I’m not sure what the greatest invention was before this, but sliced bread, what everything has been compared to since, arrived on the scene in 1928. Among other popular culinary classics were candy bars including Baby Ruth in 1920, Milky Way Bars and Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups in 1923, and Butterfingers in 1926. Kool Aid (originally Kool-Ade) was introduced in 1927 and 7-Up fizzed onto the scene in 1928, containing lithium to cure depression. Some notables in the breakfast cereal category include Quick Quaker Oats in 1921, Bran Flakes in 1922, Wheaties in 1924, and Rice Krispies in 1928.

Although Wonder Bread was on the shelves in 1921, and Land O’ Lakes Butter arrived in 1925, you could not have a Peter Pan Peanut Butter sandwich or my childhood sandwich of choice (a Velveeta processed cheese grilled cheese sandwich) until 1928. Gerber’s baby food appeared in 1928, along with the chewier Double Bubble Bubble Gum, the nation’s first bubble gum. Eskimo Pies, Klondike Bars, and Popsicles debuted in 1921, 1922, and 1924 respectively.

On a healthier note, Birdseye pioneered flash freezing fish in 1924, but the first commercially packaged frozen fruits and vegetables were not available until 1930. Green Giant introduced canned peas in 1925 and Niblets Corn in 1929. Three famous salads made the scene in the 1920s: the Green Goddess salad in 1923, the Caesar Salad in 1924, and the Cobb Salad in 1926. Sanka, decaffeinated coffee debuted in 1927.

The first fast food restaurants appeared, White Castle Hamburgers and the A&W Root Beer Stand in 1921 and 1922, bringing imitators and standardization in their wake. By the end of the decade, the hamburger became the favorite fast food, surpassing the hot dog. Another light moment: although Macy’s began its famous Thanksgiving Day parade in 1924, the first helium balloons did not debut in the parade until 1927.

Radio and Television Rule the Airwaves While Movies Modernize

Although radio had been invented around the turn of the century, it was not until 1920 that the first public radio broadcast occurred. In 1922, the first sound effects were used on radio, while in 1923, the BBC broadcast the first daily weather report, and Columbia University first used radio for educational purposes. In 1924, the first long range radio broadcast occurred from New York City to San Francisco and Manchester England. NBC and CBS premiered in 1926 and 1927, and Amos and Andy, the first comedy radio series premiered in 1929, featuring two white vaudevillians stereotypically impersonating African-Americans. Shows for children also appeared late in the decade. Commercial radio had a tremendous influence on American popular culture (Drowne & Huber, 2004, p. 195). The increasing role of radio broadcasting followed closely the expansion of the electric power network across America, as 17 million homes were wired for electricity in 1928 and most of those homes turned on their radio for entertainment.

Television was invented in 1923, but wasn’t publicly demonstrated until 1926 in London, with the first long range television transmission between Washington DC and New York occurring in 1927, and the first transatlantic broadcast from London to New York occurring in 1928. Bell Labs demonstrated color television in 1929.

Technicolor was invented in 1922, and De Forest invented a device that would enable sound and image to be recorded on the same film. Movies were all the rage and the movie experience transitioned from the nickelodeons of the early century to the luxurious movie palaces of the 1920s, some of which held over five thousand people and had sumptuous settings based on exotic themes. By 1925, there were over 1,000 such venues in the United States. Some of them even had kennels and babysitting services. Sid Graumann had the idea in 1927 to put footprints of stars in cement as a publicity stunt, and so began a long tradition at the Chinese Theater that bears his name.

In 1925, Goldwyn merged with Mayer to create MGM, and Cecil B. DeMille’s epics the Ten Commandments and King of Kings, as well as Ben Hur wowed audiences everywhere with their sheer spectacle. Metropolis, another stunning film classic, was released in 1926. Although Rin Tin Tin, a German Shepherd, was the most popular film performer in 1926, by the decade’s end, gangster films outnumbered westerns, with the classic Underworld of 1927 a prime example. The film’s director, von Sternberg, commented that it was “an experiment in photographic violence and montage” (Allen, 1979, p. 95).

Most memorable of all, was the debut of talkies. Prior to this, all films had been silent, or accompanied by a score played by live musicians. The Jazz Singer in 1927 marked the first widely seen talkie, in which Al Jolson, in black face, both sang and talked. That same year, Clara Bow, building on her mega-hit, Mantrap, starred in the movie “It,” Bow achieved fame as the “It girl,” and “it” was synonymous with sexual attraction, self confidence, and style. Speaking of “it,” Mae West was previously jailed for indecency for her film Sex in 1925. Fox Movietone News released the first sound-synchronized newsfilm, which was the future basis of television news. In 1929 the first Academy Awards ceremony was held, and the first musical film, Broadway Melody was released.

Laurel and Hardy debuted in 1927 with their slapstick comedies, and Buster Keaton was also popular. While most movies provided escapist entertainment, the Marx Brothers’s first full length film, Cocoanuts, released in 1929, was a slapstick comedy that contained “a most biting criticism of America’s political conservatism and crass materialism” (Drowne & Huber, 2004, p. 234).

Although Felix the Cat was the first big animated star in 1923, and was also the first to be merchandised, Walt Disney created his first animation cartoons in the 1920s, beginning with the Alice In Cartoonland series between 1923 and 1927, which featured live action mixed with animation. After copyright complications with Oswald the Rabbit, Disney created Mickey Mouse in 1928 who starred in his first films The Galloping Gaucho and Plane Crazy, and the first sound animation film Steamboat Willie. The world has never been the same since Mickey first whistled his way into the hearts of millions. Mickey Mouse is reportedly the world’s most recognized icon.

During the 1920s, motion pictures became a significant component of social life in America. Some found them deeply disturbing, and overtly sexual and movies were blamed for causing “early sophistication.” The motion picture industry matured during this decade and the star system was a full-fledged cultural phenomenon. The industry set up its own self-censorship code, now known as the Hays code. No other commercial entertainment exerted more influence than the movies: popularizing hairstyles, clothing, speech, behavior, and causing a revolution in manners and morals.

Psychology Becomes Popular

In 1922, retired French pharmacist, Dr. Emile Coué rose to prominence, with his famous phrase: “day by day in every way I’m getting better and better.” Coué's Self Mastery through Auto Suggestion, was based on a hypnosis course he had taken. The book was a best seller, and was the first popular self-help book (Jenkins, 1974). People reported having “coue-ed away” their headaches and other maladies. Another famous saying of his was “ça passe,” – “it will soon be over,” unfortunately so was his life, as Coué died in 1926.

Edward Bernays, Freud’s nephew, opened his New York office in 1919, and was one of the fathers of the public relations industry. Bernays’s book Crystalizing Public Opinion in 1923 is a classic in the field, and Bernays fashioned himself as “a kind of psychoanalyst to troubled corporations." Seen by some as a shameless self-promoter, Bernays used his familial association with Freud to the fullest, slipping it into the conversations at the first opportunity. He also conceived of the Ivory Soap contest, in 1923, when he was hired by Procter and Gamble to help children, the “enemies of soap,” to see soap in a more positive light. But more importantly, Bernays handled the publicity for the NAACP's 1920 Atlanta Conference, where media action was used to help advance civil rights:

The goals of the campaign were to use the Atlanta Convention as a "springboard for publicity to make the South and North realize that we are in earnest in battling for the civil rights of the Negro." These "rights" were considered revolutionary: "abolish lynching, segregation, and Jim Crow railroad cars; and obtain equal education, industrial opportunities, and voting rights . . . ."

"For the first time in the history of the country," Bernays said, "under the dateline of the South's industrial metropolis, news was published throughut the country alerting the people of the United States that whites and negroes alike were seeking new status for the Negro." (PR Museum, n.d., online) http://www.prmuseum.com/bernays/bernays_1920.html

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