Flappers During The 1920's

"The Roaring Twenties”, "The Era of Wonderful Nonsense", "The Decade of the Dollar" , "The Period of the Psyche", "Dry Decade" and the age of "Alcohol and Al Capone”, these slogans are all ways to describe the 1920’s in just a few words. (The 1920s: Lifestyles and Social Trends: Overview) The 1920’s were a decade of parties, money, and extravagant lifestyles. The decade portrayed the American Dream of women, money, alcohol, music, and partying. In the twenties dresses were shorter, alcohol was illegal, and parties were a given. New fashion trends and music, infamous and dignified names, and unforgettable scandals are what remain of the extravagant post WWI decade. If you were alive

Flapper: Flappers were northern, metropolitan, single, young, middle-class women. Many held steady jobs in the changing American economy. The clerking jobs that formed in the Gilded Age were higher than ever.The number of phone operators increased as phone usage increased. The consumer-oriented economy of the 1920s saw an increasing number of department stores. Women were needed on the sales floor to cope with the most precious customers — other women. But the flapper was not all work and play was involved. By night, flappers engaged in the active city nightlife. They would frequently visit jazz clubs and watch vaudeville shows. Speakeasies were a common destination, as the new woman of the twenties adopted the same attitude as a man. Ironically,

The stock market crash, called Black Tuesday. Unequal distribution of wealth was a key factor during the time period as well. The day know as “Black Tuesday” was the day the stock market crashed. This led to the fall of stock prices, in fear, people sold their stocks and gathered the money they could. The people who didn’t, lost all of their stocks. Those who bought them on credit, they were now in debt. Investors lost a collective amount equal to the amount spent in WWI, that’s billions of dollars gone, approximately thirty-two billion dollars (32,000,000,000). As bad as the crash was, unequal distribution of wealth did not help. The rich saw an income increase of 70%, and the poor saw an increase of 9%. More than 70% of families earned less than $2500/year. Many of these families couldn't afford household products, such as the flood of overproduced goods. Only one out of ten families owned an electric refrigerator. One thing many people overlook when on the subject of the Great Depression is the president's influence on the situation. The two presidents during this time were Herbet Hoover and Franklin D. Roosevelt. Hoover was in office during the collapse of the economy, he didn’t believe in national relief, he believed in self-prevalence and self-help. His beliefs didn’t get the confidence of the people, in 1933, a fourth of working American’s were out of a job, that’s more than fifteen million people unemployed. Many people disliked Hoover, so when they needed to make a home out of paper, glass, tin, or whatever they could find, they named the towns constructed from these items “Hoovervilles”. They were found mostly on the outside of cities. Hoover's idea of self-reliance didn’t get him reelected, he lost to Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1933. Roosevelt brought forward a new strategy to take on the economic problems, it was called the New Deal. The New Deal was a series of actions him and his

The era of the Roaring Twenties, was a time of great societal change. Many of these changes were greatly influenced by jazz music. During this time, the country was coming out of World War I and the attitude of most people was dark and dismal. Dance and music clubs became tremendously popular in an effort to improve the quality of life for many people.

Flappers in the 1920s where the girls and women that dressed less modestly. They also disobeyed the rules that most women and girls followed. They did what others would not ever think of doing in this time period.

The 20s was a time of changing and reinventing. At this time some sports were just starting out, others were broadening their horizons, while others were simply becoming more popular. New heroes were emerging in sports, new teams, and even new leagues. In the 1920's, there were many famous movies and movie actors. This was a time when films really began to become a popular past time, to watch and to star in. Also a new music style came about in the roaring twenties called jazz.

The Great Depression was a time of great economic tragedy during the 1930’s. October 24, 1929 was the day of the stock market crash, causing economical shortage everywhere, even globally, and this scared everyone, including the rich. This day was/ is known as “Black Thursday”, where over 2.9 million shares were traded. On “Black Tuesday”, five days later, more than 16 million more shares were traded in another wave of panic. Many investors then lost confidence in their banks and demanded deposits in cash which forced the banks to liquidate loans in order to supplement their on hand cash reserves. By 1933, around 15 million Americans were unemployed and nearly half of the country’s banks had failed. This stopped Americans from purchasing which then led to less production of goods and decreased the amount of needed human labor. In the end, millions of shares ended up worthless, and those investors who had bought stocks with borrowed money were wiped out completely.

The 21st amendment was passed in order to repel the 18th amendment, which was the prohibition of liquor. The 18th amendment outlawed the process of brewing, delivering, and distributing liquor of any kind. During the time that this amendment was passed it was believed that alcohol was a major contributor to the crime, disruptions, as well as the loss of many people’s income. The leaders of the nation, at this time, blamed alcohol for the irresponsibility of the people who were choosing to consume it. However it seemed as if their assumptions were not completely false. This change lead to a noticeable drop in the consumption of alcohol that caused death.

The twenties saw tons of changes in mindset and showed everyone in the world that nothing was impossible if you put your mind to it. Seemingly impossible feats were accomplished in the twenties like the first ever liquid fueled rocket launch and the invention of a miracle drug. But those were not the only things that were happening then. Fashion was changing, it was more acceptable for women to show skin. Rules changed, the 18th amendment made the drinking of beer illegal, sparking the widespread desire to do just that. And the movie world was flipped upside down, leaving the first ever cartoon synchronised with sound. All of these changes had big

Tuesday, October 29, 1929 – otherwise known as Black Tuesday, is the day of the stock market crash. This crash caused a sudden and drastic change in the economy while also starting The Great Depression which lasted from1929--1940. Because of The Great Depression, President Hoover was disliked across the country, so when the people were electing a new President they choose Franklin Roosevelt. The new President was exceptionally eager to put in new laws and programs into effect to pull the country out of the depression. Although Franklin Roosevelt's policies gave the public relief, his New Deal only helped the public in a purely phycological way. Not only did the New Deal worsen the economy, it also was hastily put together, and it effected people fleeing the Dust Bowl for "better jobs" in California.

At the start of the 1920s, a new woman emerged. She drank, danced, smoked, and took risks. She didn’t hide her legs behind thick stockings, and she put on as much makeup as she desired. Her voice was loud, her personality anything but conservative. She was known as a flapper. These woman were known for many reasons; such as, their social influence, their behavior, and the way they dressed, but how did they fill these categories?

The Great Depression in the 1930s ultimately began due to the economy in the past decade. The Roaring Twenties was a decade filled with underground bars, voiding prohibition, jazz music, and elegance. People made their own rules and created their own fashion. October 29th, 1929, also known as “Black Tuesday” is the day that the roaring twenties ended with a screeching halt. This decade had been a haven for the stock markets. Black Tuesday occurred just after the day that the sellers traded in their stocks due to the panic of the falling market

We chose our topic because it had tons of factual information, interesting points, and lots of evidence. During our lifetimes, we both danced and thought a project including that type of information would really be interesting to dig into. Based on our strengths and weaknesses, we thought doing a performance would be the best and this topic really incorporated a play. This topic took place during the Roaring 20’s and thought the flappers topic about the lifestyles of women would be captivating. One of us has a family member in the dance industry that pushed us to dig deeper into dancing history. This made us want to explore origins of the flappers history.

When the citizens had bought all that they could buy, there was a decrease in demand. Suddenly, the industries had an excess of goods and no one to sell it to. At this point, the Fordney-McCumber Act began to cripple the economy of America. Other nations introduced high tariffs to boost their revenue and to spite the United States. Sadly for the United States, these high tariffs and low demand were instrumental in the depression that America experienced. When the stock market crashed on October 29th, 1929 or “Black Tuesday”, the united states, along with other nations were in economic turmoil and the widespread prosperity of the 1920s ended abruptly. The depression threatened people's jobs, savings, and even their homes and farms. During the heart of the depression, over one-quarter of the American population was out of work. For many Americans, these were extremely hard times. When Roosevelt was voted into office, he introduced the New Deal. While this plan tried to help the united states out of it’s isolationist rut, the second world war was the final solution. Mobilizing the economy for world war finally cured the depression. Millions of men and women joined the armed forces, and even larger numbers went to work in well-paying defence jobs.

The twenties were years of prodigious changes and prosperity in many areas of society; for example, revolutionary changes in music and attitude of the people. In fact, this era was so centered on music that author; F. Scott Fitzgerald titled it, “The