My first thought regarding the era of the 1920’s is mainly The Great Depression. Although it happened at the end of the decade, it still created an insurmountable amount of turmoil, not just in the United States but across the world. It was so detrimental to the economy and propagated feelings of desperation and discouragement in society. It was a pivotal moment in history, and helped to change and fix the stock exchange and the way that we handle banks and money. The end of World War I also was a huge historical event that comes to mind. Black and white images of these events are usually the first in my ideas of this time.
One of the main subjects that I think of from popular culture include gangsters like Al Capone and others. There is an older movie named Public Enemy starring James Cagney that I had watched when I was younger with my grandma and it was riddled with shootings and illegal activities. The protagonist works his way up the mob hierarchy, until he is killed in the end. It cultivated my main ideas of mobs/organized crime and misconduct and it made me think that this time was full of corruption and wrongdoings. Prohibition and speakeasies as well as bootlegging was prevalent, and goes hand-in-hand with the mobs and organized crime. Some other popular culture subjects include the book The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald. It was a novel I was required to read in high school, and I actually found it very interesting! It paints pictures of the time period and the grand parties, as well as other social changes and issues. Of course flapper dresses also come to mind, since that is a pretty big symbol of the time. Silent movies also started becoming a new form of entertainment. I just think that it was a huge historical time period, filled with not only change and innovation, but fun and whimsy.
After looking at images of the 1920’s, I think that most of the pictures shown confirmed my impressions, as well as expanded my ideas of this time. I was unaware that Amelia Earhart flew her plane around this period, and also how the fashion was extremely prevalent- women showed more skin. It is also showing many images from Gatsby-like parties, as well as from the Gatsby movie itself. Cars are also a big part of this search, as well as big, flashy theaters and dance clubs. The party scene seemed to be huge at this time, considering the amount of entertainment establishments and outfits. There were many images of prohibition strikes and signs that indicate an establishment has “no booze”. There weren’t any images of the gangsters or mobs while I was looking, which I thought was interesting. I assumed that it would be a bit more rampant throughout my search. Although I knew the majority about the 20’s, there’s a few things that I didn’t realize were popular at that time. I am excited to do a deep dive into this extravagant era!
Citations:
- Oct 29, 1929 CE: Black Tuesday. n.d.Website. National Geographic. Accessed January 27, 2024. https://education.nationalgeographic.org/resource/black-tuesday/.
- Public Enemy 1931 Movie Poster. 2018Website. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:The_Public_Enemy_1931_Poster.jpg.
- Schild, Darcy. n.d. “50 Nostalgic Photos of What the World Looked like in the 1920s.” Business Insider. https://www.businessinsider.com/photos-of-1920s-100-years-ago-2020.
