Collector's Item: #5 A Trunk Talks of the Twenties 1920 -1928

so what are you going to look for lost you know blaming you say did I tell you the faculty is throwing a party a come as you were party and the theme is the roaring 20s oh that I'll have to see but you know you'll have to find a way to lose a few pounds to go where you were a Coonskin coat can cover a multitude of calories you know I put it there to keep the chance to wear it well maybe the more so weren't going to a faculty dance either here help me into it try it off you can get into this again or not hey that's alright that's my older needs my pen is now off to the football game oh well they got carried away a little bit help me all this thing where is this party to be over the party yes it's to be next Friday night and costumes and songs and dances are all out to be over 20 doing a Charleston oh I don't know we can still Charleston you know oh hey maybe we better sit that one out let's say there's they're still there but shimmy you know and over the black bottle go find something to wear you know I don't think I have a thing oh you'll find something up there you can drag out Howard I do remember that little green train you and me in the goalposts I don't think she's going to get into that little green dress yeah if you find something though they've got an attic full of trunks up there enough stuff to supply a costume shop you know as they yield a lot of interesting material to work with though now for instance in this trunk I've got pictures and all kinds of antique items they should be kind of interesting to browse through again let's see what I have well here I don't top a drawing by John Hale jr. now just look at it now this is a starting point for showing how the arts were reflecting the life and times of the period just look at that the Coonskin coat the rolled stockings the short skirt and the blaring saxophone all signs of the times the flagrant ballyhooed loud hectic Jazz Age you know I wonder sometimes how did this Jazz Age suddenly get started after our earlier years of idealism and reform let's look at it for a minute the war had turned our youth loose for really the first time and many of the taboos and traditional restraints were broken now the generation after the war craved excitement and speed new sensations they were ready to play and almost everyone was tired of what he thought had been fighting someone else's war people were disillusioned we'd lost faith in President Wilson who had formerly been our hero just as we had lost faith in his peace trees yes this lost generation which survived the war felt like celebrating there was one kind of celebrating that couldn't be done legally not since 1921 the 18th amendment came in and Along Came prohibition now in those 14 years that America was legally dry thousands of forms of beating the law were divided here this whole hip flask it originated in the Prohibition era and the speakeasies the forerunner of our nightclub sprang up the owner peered out at the caller through a tiny peephole and if you knew Joe are you usually got in illegal whiskey and bathtub gin made big bills when the goods were found they were just dumped out that illegal brew was mighty high-priced stuff and prohibition agents appeared on the scene and became the law of the land Moke Smith and Sen Stein became most famous agents through much new favorite publicity but along with nabbing the flask these two ingenious Rascals from New York's Lower East Side became known all over the country loved by the drives feared with the bartenders but laughed at by all nothing was too much for them no disguise too great well well hey happened once he heard that some soda fountains near Cornell University were not confining their sales from soda pop soul he disguised himself as an undergraduate put on a little white cap and white linen knickers and for five-foot 255 pound is either knickers weren't so little but he strolled around the campus and addressed everybody with a mustaches fest everybody that had a beard was Dean then having established himself as a student he dashed one by one into the soda fountains which sold liquor shouting sizzle boom sizzle boom rah rah rah you know that sort of thing The Laughing speakeasy boys thought he was quite a character and gladly sold him liquor and he gave them in return one of his own special kind of diplomas here they are is he a mole well all of the effects of prohibition weren't that funny sometimes people die from drinking homemade Brews gangsterism flourish the effects on our national morals tell me other things were happening in our national scene too in 1920 the first voted the independent woman helped elect Warren Harding his president suffragettes had finally won their battle when Harding was elected he promised a return to normalcy no more Foreign Wars no more problems Harding was just about the friendliest man to enter the White House his popularity was just unbelievable was until after his death that the trouble started that's that's another story it was Harding who dedicated the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier 1921 here I have some pictures of some sculpturing from my files I'd like to school yes here we are you know the years of the early 20s found many of our prominent sculptors working on war memorials of course there were those who created pieces of sculpturing to express the hopes of mankind and to comment on the life around them now this first picture is the work of paul manager he is known for his decorative sculptor this is one figure on a monument in honor of the men who fought in the First World War and is located at the American Academy control this is another of his works called the Indian hunter and as we see here man ships works aren't entirely realistic and tend to be somewhat classical in nature this is called dancer and gazelles another one of the sculptors are doing a great deal of work during the 20s was Joe Davidson now in contrast to the work of Manship Joe Davidson was a sculptor who worked in rugged realistic Meijer he made a series of vivid portrait busts of notables of the World War and a great many of the world's famous people sat for him here is he's busted dr. Albert Einstein just one of the many famous people he's portrayed a prolific sculptor of war memorials was Joseph Polya remember the national sculpture society most of his memorials are to be found in the New England states here a soldier looking at the grave of his buddy is but one of many of his shirring honors with the best known sculptures of America since 1900 is Daniel French for his tribute to the soldiers of the world war he created several pictures of figures this is his work called in Flanders field but Daniel French is perhaps best known for his statue of Lincoln which sits in this Greek temple in Washington DC and inside is the massive 20-foot high seated figure made of Georgia marble this statue truly measures a great man and is simple beautiful and dignified in character the Lincoln Memorial is a case for architect painter and sculptor worked together to produce a handsome symbol it was in the early part of the 1920s that Lorado Taft completed his fountain of time in Chicago this is a sculpture a group of figures symbolize the various conditions of mankind they rise like the motion of waves as in review and sync back again into the earth and watching over all the scene is the brooding figure symbolizing eternity and so our sculptors worked commenting on life in its meaning building memorials portraying our great men there were so many other sculptures that I haven't mentioned the names of zorak and Lachey and Barnard and young and Epstein are among them well you can see that during the early 20s the war remained in the minds of many of our sculptors and they like all Americans were anxious to get back to normal and this Americans strive to regain this normalcy they became pleasure seekers the search for pleasure was a main part of our lives and it was a great era for stage reviews and huge musical extravaganzas those light operas musicals and stage reviews have always been a source of our popular songs and the music during the 20s was no exception either but there was something else in the air and that something was jazz and that music probably more than any other kind serves to describe the spirit of the 20s usually the jazz musicians deliberately sought to produce unusual notes the tempo of the music was rapid and exciting in fact the expression jazz it up came to mean just that to put excitement into any activity and along with the rapid music the odd notes there was an erratic syncopation the melody didn't fall on the beat and the rhythm was as one song called it crazy rhythm well this was the era of jazz which many have named the folk music of America it was flying high during these years when Jelly Roll Morton and King Oliver and Louie Armstrong their bands were playing in Chicago what bands they were they have got small recordings made in the 20s let's see what we can find among them you know one thing the violins which used to take the leads in the orchestras were eliminated and the saxophone became the heart and soul of the jazz band why those saxophones could make imitations they could Blair and blast even cool sound very sensuous well here's here's a spot on this one and I think you would like to hear it'll tell you just what I mean now listen for the sax Wow wasn't that jazzy yo along with the but jazz bands toward the latter part of the 20s came the torch singer in Helen Morgan with her husky voice sang ten cents a dance Libby Holman just lit fires with her body and soul but of course you can't forget the male singers this was the starting of the heyday of the crooners Rudy Vallee with his creamy tenor used to have all the ladies swooning when he used his megaphone they've got a picture of him here with that famous megaphone Rudy was the man who revived the main Stein song kind of an ironic twist during the days of prohibition wouldn't you say but most of the songs were all commenting on the times with frankness earthiness and daring the college students probably reflected the times as much as any single group there was one song which really showed their attitude toward life and especially their clothes it was called collegiate one of the lines went like this something Chargers baggy and our clothes look raggy and that's just about the way they dress too although they had enough money this was a time when parents were just spending lavishly on their children but the courage people just chose to wear their clothes like that there were a lot of nonsensical songs too sprang up during this era of the 1920s oh yes we have no bananas it's plucked over the country crazy over horses and mr. Gallagher and mr. Sheen all were songs of fun and songs which reflected a light headed surface of society hanamichi wonder how old man River from showboat could fit in and survive seems as though it portrayed an inner spirit of the times a longing for rest well I don't know let's see anymore toons are the twenties in here oh yes one we can't forget the Charleston that's one so remember that swept the country with a rage of waving arms and knock knees and bed elbows and twisty feet of course only the most energetic acrobatic types could even attempt to do it here listen to this well I'll give you some idea of what it sounded like oh well so you did find something after wait a minute let my turn this thing off thank you we still do the Charleston well I'm not going to worry about that yeah I'll be lucky if I have something to wear well I see you found the dress anyway yeah but look at it Oh would you believe it well perhaps we'll have to forget about the voyage look for now at least I'll have something well you can always find a little fur coat or something to finish off repack well I got to playing some old tunes from the 20th over here got a little drunk you're certainly going all out for this party you know I wouldn't think too much about it because well I doubt it very many of the faculty members will be doing the Charleston well admittedly they're not as young as they were then you know I'd like to see them try that marathon dance marathon dance you say I'd forgotten all about that see that's an idea for us lets us go as the marathon dancers after they're all say their $3,000 of dancing you know you've got a picture of it here somewhere though let's find that and use that as a mom all right what's right here under the mahjong set oh yeah well no on second thought I don't think we'd better hey didn't think you play any slow oh good old you know really slow folk music you know sorry to say most unfortunate there were no ballads the temple the 20s is just too fast for him surely there must have been something in the classical vein let me think yes there's a copy of it here in this trunk wraps it in blue oh yes well that's scarcely a class you see that's more along the line of symphonic jazz but how could you come dressed as the Rhapsody in Blue Oh we'll have better stick with the flapper dresses well here's the music right here oh well that's got a picture of Judge Bushman on it I thought all the time it would be a picture Paul - no Paul Whiteman's closely associated with the piece because his band introduced it you see that's about the time he was trying to civilize jazz well you can't deny the importance of Gershwin anyway I don't suppose I'll get them mixed up again mm-hmm well I better get this trunk packed up and get it out of here well don't ask me to help you because I'm going to fix this dress and well if I can I'm just going to make it a wee bit larger good luck well oh it reminds me hollers old times get out this old music in these costumes and things but it was a time of light and frivolous of surface fun you know under the frivolity and fun of the Charleston dances the lively music there began to creepy sinister and disquieting under-told americans heard ugly rumors of a huge Bolshevik conspiracy against the United States now partly because of the Russian Revolution in 1919 when the Bolsheviks overthrew the Tsar's millions of Americans seriously thought that a red revolution might begin in America at any time but a rumor slept across the country in early 1919 that a nationwide Bolshevik plot was afoot to murder every outstanding public official who had in any way involved himself in a labor case sounds fantastic to us now but remember the revolution in Russia had made our sphere full of anything that sounded like a labor revolt packages containing bombs have been found addressing many prominent individuals including attorney general Palmer at a short time later Palmer's house was bombed well the result was that Palmer started his now infamous raids and within two months almost 5000 aliens had been rounded up families were separated people seized in the dead of night on suspicion only prisoners denied the right to a lawyer and eventually 550 of these radicals were deported now this mass hysteria was all helped along by labor unrest labour was reluctant to lose the gains it had made during the war the worst outbreaks were the great steel strikes in Chicago Gary Indiana in 1919 1920 the workers were fighting for a union that would help that would really do something about the very bad conditions in the steel industry they held out even after federal troops were brought in but eventually they had to return to work without their union they had very little public support you see because these were the years of the Big Red hunt and the press was portraying the labor leaders as Bolsheviks during the early years of the 1920s a mass hysteria was at its peak here let me dig into my rogues gallery over here people both famous and infamous I have two pictures here one of Sacco and Vanzetti and the other of characters in the play but price glory now the first Sacco and Vanzetti these were perhaps two victims of the mass hysteria which was highest in early 1920 a payroll robbery and murder occurred in Massachusetts these two men Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti were arrested and that case dragged out for seven years before they were finally executed and I'm telling you I don't think there's ever been a better example of hysteria at work you see the evidence against these men was pretty flimsy and people are still undecided as to whether or not they were guilty but here's the point they were both radicals and they had helped to organize strikes well in the great public argument that sprang up concerning them people claimed that they were being executed for their political beliefs and it became such an issue that letters to the governor picket lines and demonstrations of one kind another were formed the slogan saved Sacco and Vanzetti was on the lips of most of the Americans by now the Red Scare was diminishing with scarcely a year after they were executed the first of two plays about them appeared on Broadway they were both written by the same man Maxwell Anderson now his first was gods of the lightning and he cried out passionately some people thought too passionately against this mass hysteria the second play was Winterset will discuss that again wonderful play but before he had written either of these plays Anderson collaborated with Lawrence Stallings in writing what price glory and here we have the second picture from my drawer this was the first American play to portray modern war and soldiers in a realistic way tremendously popular but it stunned audiences with its hard-boiled cynicism when rowdy language now Maxwell Anderson and others in his time Sidney Howard George Kelly deliberately set out to bring real maturity to the theater by commenting on the American scene but sometimes a playwright can make justice telling a comment even if he isn't directly concerned with social criticism and this is where Eugene O'Neill comes into the picture only use plays will always be a part the list of American classics and he wrote a great many during the 20s there was beyond the horizon Emperor Jones our wilderness the hairy a desire under the Elms these are just a few his plays weren't anything like the conventional waves of the times they used all kinds of Dramatic tricks and techniques which at times confused the audience and still they were successful and why because O'Neill was telling the people about themselves he looked at the flappers and the sheets and he saw the sickness from which all America was suffering sickness which Anil believed was caused by a complete lack of any real meaning to our lives at the time his plays were built around that central theme and they seemed to mean something to the bewildered pleasure-seeking Americans of the 20s well there you have it people in the fields of music drama and sculptor commenting on the life and times of the 1920s quite a remarkable period well I better get these trunk packed up when you call in again we'll talk some more about these fabulous twenties by now