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The Roaring Twenties: Difference between revisions
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Style is almost exclusively [[Art Deco]] ''moderne'', all minimalist lines and coolly fluid shapes. (Side point- Art Deco's fascination with streamlining household objects whose actual wind resistance is irrelevant proved popular because levelling incomes led for the first time to a group of people who could afford good design but not household servants. It seems that a streamlined Art Deco lamp is easier to ''dust'' than a frilly Victorian one...)
Dresses are short and so is ladies' hair. ([[Bob Haircut|Bobbed hair]] had actually emerged earlier and was popularized during the earlier 20's, while hemlines gradually rose to knee-length by 1925. And despite those costumes you buy these days, above-the-knee hemlines were nonexistent at any time. And contrary to the costumes you buy, not all dresses were tasseled and figure-hugging. Dresses had a boxy and boyish silhouettes, had dropped waists and were minimally or highly decorated depending on the occasion.)
Characters include gangsters and G-men, flappers and their sheiks (sort of proto-[[Metrosexual]] young males), languid white movie idols and jolly black jazz singers and dancers, and lots of cheery collegiate types who wear huge fur coats and play ukuleles while shouting "[[23]] skidoo!" The basic idea was to shock, amaze and amuse at all costs; there were apparently some women of the era who would greet their guests ''in the bath''.
The fun and excitement is only heightened by the fact that much of it is totally illegal, at least in the USA. There Prohibition is in full swing, so gin is made in bathtubs, smuggled by the likes of [[Al Capone]] and served only in 'speakeasies', hole-in-the-wall bars highly prone to raids by stolid, humourless cops. Unless you're Eliot Ness or one of his [[The Untouchables|Untouchables]], be extra cautious to never insult a tough-looking Italian in a sharp suit, or you'll find yourself looking down the barrel of a Tommy Gun.
As for entertainment, [[Silent Age of Hollywood|silent films]] starring the likes of [[Charlie Chaplin]], [[Mary Pickford]], and [[Buster Keaton]] gained enormous popularity, though the fact that they didn't have sound meant that movies still hadn't killed off [[Vaudeville]] or [[Minstrel Shows]] just yet. The advent of sound later in the decade finished the job, however. Radio progressed quickly through the last of its experimental phases and was firmly established as a mass-market medium by the end of the decade, while ultra-low-def mechanical television had brief success with early adopters (essentially beta-testing it) before [[The Great Depression]] and the advent of (relatively) high-definition all-electronic TV killed it off by the mid-30s.
During all this, of course, the relics of [[The Gay Nineties]], now doughty dowagers and grumpy old Colonels, look on disapprovingly, from short skirts and hair, to make-up and swimming wear.
One should also note that while things were just swell in America, Britain and much of Western Europe (where it was dubbed [[The Golden Twenties]] across [[The Pond]]), if you were in an area hard hit by [[World War I]] (say, [[Weimar Republic|Germany]], [[Fascist Italy|Italy]], Russia, Turkey or the entire Caucasus Mountains region before the Soviets annexed it) this was ''not'' a fun time. However, it doesn't mean that they didn't try, once they were able to pull themselves together again. However, in Germany, there are
For example, [[The Soviet Twenties|Soviet Russia]] (called USSR since 1922), after a devastating civil war, experienced a short period of economic growth thanks to the NEP (new economic policy), a series of reforms that allowed free enterprise and private property. A new Soviet bourgeoisie was born, with a penchant for over-the-top parties and a slavish fascination with American fashion, music and dance. The Soviet [[Nouveau Riche]] (typically called a ''nepman'') was a stock character in 20's Russian satire.
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Also see: [[The Great Depression]], [[The Forties]], [[The Fifties]], [[The Sixties]], [[The Seventies]], [[The Eighties]], [[The Nineties]], [[Turn of the Millennium]], and [[The New Tens]] for more decade nostalgia.
{{examples|Twenties Slang}}
'''This ain't baloney, this is [[Serious Business|Serious Beeswax]], as most words and phrases originated from this decade, so here are some examples:'''
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* ''[[Baccano!]]'' (technically 1930, but essentially the same.)
* ''[[Chrono Crusade]]''
* ''[[Fushigi Yuugi Genbu Kaiden]]'' - The prequel to ''[[Fushigi Yuugi]]'', featuring Takiko aka Genbu No Miko, who lived in this decade's [[Imperial Japan]] before being [[Trapped in Another World]].
* ''[[Golden Days]]''
* ''[[Sakura Gari]]''
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* ''[[Chicago]]'' (based on a 1926 play)
* ''[[Some Like It Hot]]''
* ''[[Singin' in the
* ''[[Miller's
* ''The Roaring Twenties''
* ''The Public Enemy''
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* Some of [[Ernest Hemingway]]'s work,
** Including his (actual) debut novel,''[[The Sun Also Rises]]'' (1926). ''The Torrents of Spring'' being a blatant [[Springtime for Hitler]].
* ''[[Winnie-the-
* ''[[Hardy Boys]]''. Series started in June, 1927.
* ''[[Miss Marple]]''. First appeared in December, 1927. Starred in a number of short stories.
* ''[[Lady Chatterley's Lover]]'' (1928)
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* ''[[The Princess 99]]'' (c. 2009) takes place in 1924, in New Orleans...but with wizards!
=== [[Live
* ''[[Doctor Who]]'', episodes "Black Orchid" and "The Unicorn and the Wasp".
* [[Poirot]], the TV series; the books actually span a much longer period. (The ''Miss Marple'' series, meanwhile, is set in a different version of this trope - what might be called the suburban one. Middle-aged housewives sit around musing how hard it is to get good help since The War gave the rabble ideas.)
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=== Music ===
* [[Louis Armstrong]] rose to fame in this decade.
* [[Al Jolson]] was really big during this era.
* [[George Gershwin]] wrote two of his most popular works, "Rhapsody In Blue" and "An American In Paris" during this decade.
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[[Category:Hollywood History]]
[[Category:The Twentieth Century]]
[[Category:
{{DEFAULTSORT:Roaring Twenties, The}}
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