1920's and 1930's
Flappers, Expatriots and the World between the Wars
Events in America 1920-1930
Prohibition of alcohol occurs in the United States. Prohibition in the United States began January
16, 1919, with the ratification of the Eighteenth Amendment to the U.S.Constitution, effective as of
January 17, 1920, and it continued throughout the 1920s. Prohibition was finally repealed in 1933.
Organized crime turns to smuggling and bootlegging of liquor, led by figures such as Al Capone,
boss of the Chicago Outfit.
The Immigration Act of 1924 places restrictions on immigration. National quotas curbed most
Eastern and Southern European nationalities, further enforced the ban on immigration of East
Asians, Indians and Africans, and put mild regulations on nationalities from the Western
Hemisphere (Latin Americans).
The Lost Generation (which characterized disillusionment), was the name Gertrude Stein gave to
American writers, poets, and artists living in Europe during the 1920s. Famous members of the Lost
Generation include Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Zelda Fitzgerald, Ezra Pound, John Dos
Passos, Sherwood Anderson, and John Steinbeck.
The Scopes Trial (1925), which declared that John T. Scopes had violated the law by teaching
evolution in schools, creating tension between the competing theories of creationism and evolution.
Women's suffrage in the United States was achieved gradually, at state and local levels, during
the late 19th century and early 20th century, culminating in 1920 with the passage of the
Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, which provided: "The right of
citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by
any State on account of sex."
There was considerable anxiety among politicians of both parties to have the amendment
passed and made effective before the general elections of 1920, so the President called a special
session of Congress, and a bill, introducing the amendment, was brought before the House
again. On May 21, 1919, it was passed, 42 votes more than necessary being obtained. On June
4, 1919, it was brought before the Senate, and after a long discussion it was passed, with 56
ayes and 25 nays. Within a few days, Illinois, Wisconsin, and Michigan ratified the
amendment, their legislatures being then in session. Other states followed suit at a regular
pace, until the amendment had been ratified by 35 of the necessary 36 state legislatures. After
Washington on March 22, 1920, ratification languished for months. Finally, on August 18,
1920, Tennessee narrowly ratified the Nineteenth Amendment, making it the law throughout
the United States.
Events in Europe 1920-1930
Europe at the end of World War One
Major armed conflict in Ireland including Irish War of Independence (1919–1921) resulting in
Ireland becoming an independent country in 1922 followed by the Irish Civil War (1922–23).
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The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (a.k.a. the Soviet Union) is created in 1922.
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Benito Mussolini of the National Fascist Party became Prime Minister of Italy, shortly thereafter
creating the world's first fascist government. The Fascist regime restores good relations between the
Roman Catholic Church and Italy with the Lateran Treaty, which creates Vatican City. The Fascist
regime pursues an aggressive expansionist agenda in Europe such as by raiding the Greek island of
Corfu in 1923, pressuring Albania to submit to becoming a de facto Italian protectorate in the mid1920s, and holding territorial aims on the region of Dalmatia in Yugoslavia.
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In Germany, the Weimar Republic suffers from economic crisis in the early 1920s and hyperinflation
of currency in 1923. From 1923 to 1925 the Occupation of the Ruhr takes place. The Ruhr was an
industrial region of Germany taken over by the military forces of the French Third Republic and
Belgium, in response to the failure of the Weimar Republic under Chancellor Wilhelm Cuno to keep
paying the World War I reparations.
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The recently formed fringe National Socialist German Workers' Party (a.k.a. Nazi Party) led by Adolf
Hitler attempts a coup against the Bavarian and German governments in the Beer Hall Putsch, which
fails, resulting in Hitler being briefly imprisoned for one year in prison where he writes Mein Kampf.
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The Expatriots in Europe
During the 1920s and early 1930s American expatriots filled the streets of Paris.
Throughout the first twenty years of the century European artists had flocked to Paris,
considering it the cultural center of the Western World. Feeling alienated from the
conservative post-war sensibilities of their country, many young Americans moved there,
hoping to take part in the experimental advances of the artistic community. Though it
was only to last until the start of World War II, this time saw the beginning of a number
of the major European movements including Modernism, Dadaism, and Surrealism. By
1935, many artists had left Europe for the safer shores of New York and Los Angeles,
where their earlier European work became the foundation for many of the major
advances in American creative culture of the twentieth century.
Among the many greats who worked in Paris during the 1920s and 1930s were
American Masters -- Isamu Noguchi, Aaron Copland, Alexander Calder, John Cage,
Man Ray, Arthur Rubinstein, and Andre Kertesz.
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/database/paris.html
The "Lost Generation" is a term used to refer to the generation, actually a cohort, that came of
age during World War I. The term was popularized by Ernest Hemingway who used it as one of
two contrasting epigraphs for his novel, The Sun Also Rises. In that volume Hemingway credits
the phrase to Gertrude Stein, who was then his mentor and patron.
In A Moveable Feast, which was published after Hemingway and Stein were both dead and
after a literary feud that lasted much of their life, Hemingway reveals that the phrase was
actually originated by the garage owner who serviced Stein's car. When a young mechanic
failed to repair the car in a way satisfactory to Stein, the garage owner shouted at the boy, "You
are all a "génération perdue." Stein, in telling Hemingway the story, added, "That is what you
are. That's what you all are ... all of you young people who served in the war. You are a lost
generation." This generation included distinguished artists such as F. Scott Fitzgerald, T. S.
Eliot, John Dos Passos, Waldo Peirce, Alan Seeger, and Erich Maria Remarque.
The Lost Generation
Les Annees Folles
The unpleasant conditions that were so evident in the
immediate post-war years at the national level seemed
to be contradicted by the developments in popular
culture. Here there was a sense of exuberance and
freedom unmatched by any attitude previously
generated, certainly since the French Revolution. The
social upheaval of the world war had produced a
revolution in public behavior. The destruction of
authoritarian government in Germany and Austria,
the readjustment of sexual mores and general ethical
standards brought about by the fact that the majority
of young men were fighting at the front, and the
large-scale employment of women in wartime industry
were important factors in the collapse of what has
been called "Victorian morality."
Perhaps there is no term like the "Roaring Twenties"
that can be applied to all of Europe at the time. The
French did call their epoch les annees folles, the wild
years. Indeed, there was a lot of frenzied activity. One
contemporary critic noted that Europe seemed to be
moving merrily along the road to hell.
http://www.britannia.com/history/euro/3/1_2.html
A symbol of young women's freedom and independence, the
flapper redefined how a new generation of women
expressed femininity. Lively and full of energy, she was
single but eligible. She dared to shorten her skirts (at first
just to the ankles, eventually up to the knees) and bob her
hair in a short cut - like a boy's, but longer. Just as the
flapper rejected her mother's long hair, she also discarded
Victorian fashions, especially the corset, which accentuated
women's curves. Flappers preferred to be slender, even if it
meant dieting or binding their breasts and wearing
restrictive undergarments to create appear thin, flatchested, and long-limbed.
Cultivating a flapper image and adhering to modern beauty
standards also involved purchasing and applying cosmetics.
Wearing lipstick, rouge, and eyeshadow, flappers resembled
prostitutes to an older generation. These young women
further blurred the boundaries between respectable and
depraved by their public activities; swearing, smoking
cigarettes, drinking alcohol, dancing, and dating were
among her pastimes. Condemned by most of her elders, the
athletic, independent, and sexual young woman nevertheless
found affirmation-and pleasure-within a thriving peer
culture.
Edith Marks Wilson's Dress
Beaded “flapper” evening dress
worn by Edith Marks Wilson,
wife of Law Professor Lyman P.
Wilson at the formal Inaugural
Dinner given by the Trustees and
Faculty to President and Mrs.
Livingston Farrand in the Old
Armory for about 700 people,
including Trustees, Faculty, and
delegates and their wives,
October 20, 1921.
The Flapper
By Dorothy Parker
The Playful flapper here we see,
The fairest of the fair.
She's not what Grandma used to be, -You might say, au contraire.
Her girlish ways may make a stir,
Her manners cause a scene,
But there is no more harm in her
Than in a submarine.
She nightly knocks for many a goal
The usual dancing men.
Her speed is great, but her control
Is something else again.
All spotlights focus on her pranks.
All tongues her prowess herald.
For which she well may render thanks
To God and Scott Fitzgerald.
Her golden rule is plain enough Just get them young and treat them
Rough.
The "Boyish" Look
It's said that the flapper look started when Coco Chanel put on a
man's sweater one morning and wrapped a belt around the waist.
Chanel's seemingly unimportant act, turned into an entire fashion
craze which defined 1920s fashion.
Society was ready for a major change. Women rebelled against the
status quo. They not only began driving, smoking drinking, and
having sex just like men, but they also appropriated his clothes.
But it's not that women stopped being sexy during this period.
Through their reinvention of fashion in the 1920s, women
redefined what "sexy" was.
While Chanel's clothing had a "masculine" influence that
revolutionized and defined 1920s fashion, another French
designer, Madeline Vionnet made dresses that celebrated the
female form and revolutionized modern clothing as well.
Not everything was "boyish" about 1920s fashion, women still
carried their femininity with style and grace, the package had just
changed a little.
Humor was used to assist in acceptability.
One popular American song was "Masculine
Women, Feminine Men." It was released in
1926 and recorded by numerous artists of the
day and included the following lyrics:
Masculine women, Feminine men
Which is the rooster, which is the hen?
It's hard to tell 'em apart today! And, say!
Sister is busy learning to shave,
Brother just loves his permanent wave,
It's hard to tell 'em apart today! Hey, hey!
Girls were girls and boys were boys when I
was a tot,
Now we don't know who is who, or even
what's what!
Knickers and trousers, baggy and wide,
Nobody knows who's walking inside,
Those masculine women and feminine men!
Oxford Baggies originated on the campus of Oxford
University, England, during the summer of 1925. The
full cut of these pants and cuff with a circumference of
22 inches allowed students to easily slip them on over
their beloved knickers, which had been banned by the
University. Oxford Baggies were more socially
accepted and worn by the masses.
Jazz clothing surfaced in 1919 as a new music
called Jazz was first being performed. This
JAZZ SUIT, identified by it's extremely trim,
tight/pinched look, was worn by those in the
theatrical profession. As seen in World War One
uniforms the jacket has a unique waist seam.
European Social Changes
Against the general background of economic instability and managerial concern, there occurred some important
modifications in the social order. While at no time in the modern age was European society firmly fixed, class
structure did have a certain consistency before the war. It was said of France, but it might as well have been said
of most of Europe, that an ambitious individual could move upward from one social stratum to another, but no
one could not expect the strata themselves to be altered. Yet the war changed this general condition also.
First, because it was most visible, there was a political decline of the aristocracy. With the collapse of the Russian,
Austrian, and German Empires, the social order in which were maintained the greatest privileges of this class
disappeared. Moreover, the poor performance of the English aristocracy as leaders on the war front-- notably the
senior officers who badly bungled many of the charges-- caused a considerable diminution in the general respect
which this group had been accorded earlier. The political authority that the aristocrats had been able to maintain
as a class even in the age of European democratization declined.
Throughout the nineteenth century, men of noble title had occupied positions of great importance in the various
foreign offices. Some critics have argued that such individuals had a particular European vision, unimpaired by
domestic party strife, that therefore allowed them to perform more wisely than would have individuals from other
classes. True or not, the aristocrats lost their hold in this domain. Moreover, the mediating functions they had also
performed in domestic politics narrowed in significance.
http://www.britannia.com/history/euro/3/1_2.html
British Royal Family - King George V - 1920
HM King George V passing down the lines of the heroes who have been awarded the Victoria Cross for conspicuous
gallantry. On the right is Prince Henry.
American Social Changes
Sandwiched between the giddy 1920's and World War II, the 1930s saw a huge disparity in the
lifestyles of the common man and those considered High Society.
Innovation and increased efficiency at home and at work allowed for more leisure time and
people embraced cultural and social pursuits such as literature, film, music and partying.
Women were also gaining their independence and making their mark outside the home.
But the good times came to a crashing halt on “Black Friday”, October 29, 1929 when the
stock market crashed. Within a year 5,000 banks collapsed and six-million workers lost their
jobs. By 1933 more than 15-million people – one-quarter of the workforce – were unemployed.
The Great Depression was partly caused by the great inequality between the rich who
accounted for a third of all wealth and the poor who had no savings at all. As the economy
worsened many lost their fortunes, and some members of high society were forced to curb their
extravagant lifestyles.
But for others the Depression was simply an inconvenience especially in New York where the
city’s glamorous venues – places to see and be seen – such as El Morocco and The Stork Club
were heaving with celebrities, socialites and aristocrats.
The John D. Rockefeller, Jr. Family ca. 1922 (l to r):
Laurance, Abby, John D. III,Abby, David, Winthrop, John D. Jr, Nelson.
The Kennedy Family, in much happier times, Hyannis Port, September 4th, 1931
L-R: Robert Kennedy, John F. Kennedy, Eunice Kennedy, Jean Kennedy (on lap of) Joseph P. Kennedy Sr.,
Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy (behind) Patricia Kennedy, Kathleen Kennedy, Joseph P. Kennedy Jr. (behind)
Rosemary Kennedy. Dog in foreground is ‘Buddy’. Photograph by Richard Sears
High Society Wedding
An Art Deco Brooch and Earrings, by JDB
1920S-1930S
Beautiful 1920s / 1930s Brilliant Round Antique Engagement Ring.
A vintage, unique, classical art deco original.
Art deco bracelet dating back to the 1920-1930s.