1. Entertainment
Films
Actors like Chaplin, Valentino & Pickford = stars.
a. 1927: The JAZZ SINGER = 1st 'talkie'.
b, Early 1920s: two-colour films common by late 1920s; 1932: three-colour technicolour began.
c. 1928: Disney created Mickey Mouse (1937: Snow White = 1st colour feature).
d. 1930: 100m Americans went to movies weekly.
e. Studios like MGM & United Artists → hundreds of films per year.
f. Films influenced fashion (eg SMOKING) & behaviour. Many girls copied 'It' girl Clara BOW.
Jazz
a. Originated in New Orleans; key musicians = Louis Armstrong
& Jelly Roll Morton.
b. Radio & PHONOGRAPH → jazz in homes. 1917: Dixieland Jazz Band made 1st jazz record ('race records').
c. Associated with speakeasies & Black musicians → wild, exciting reputation → popularity.
d. Influenced social trends: short skirts, dances, 'jazz poetry' (eg TS Eliot), Harlem Renaissance, Black pride.
Dances
a. CHARLESTON: fast Black-origin dance, adopted by flappers (danced solo to challenge 'drys’).
b. Black Bottom: named after Detroit’s Black Bottom area; popular after 1926.
c. Seen as immoral by many Americans.
2. Prohibition
1919: the 18th Amendment (1919): banned alcohol manufacture, transport,
& sale. The VOLSTEAD Act: defined alcohol as >5% proof.
WHY PROHIBITION? [A CRIME]
a. Anti-Saloon League: argued alcohol → wasted money, poor health, job loss, domestic violence
& neglect. bb. Christian groups (eg Women's Christian Temperance Union).
c. Rural Americans = scandalised by urban behaviour → supported.
d. Isolationist views: Money spent on beer → 'flew away to GERMANY.' e. Madness, crime, poverty, illness were blamed on Alcohol. Many signed 'PLEDGE' to abstain. f. Easy Street (1917) showed how drink damaged, and Christianity nurtured, happiness and prosperity
WHY PROHIBITION FAILED
a. Not enough enforcement agents: 4,000 for entire US.
b. Corruption: 1/10 agents sacked for bribes.
c. Public opposition: most did NOT support.
ARGUMENT 1: Prohibition was a Failure [DAMAGE]
a. Drinking continued: insufficient policing; agents sacked for corruption. b. Available ∵ Underground liquor trade → SPEAKEASIES (illegal bars), moonshine (homemade), BOOTLEGGING (smuggling). Est. 200k speakeasies in 1933.
c. Made criminals of ordinary people.
d. Adverse effects: poor-quality moonshine (eg 'Jackass Brandy' → internal bleeding). e. Gangs ran illegal trade → violence, racketeering
& corrupt law enforcement.
f. Ended 1933: 21st Amendment ended Prohibition → widely seen as failure.
ARGUMENT 2: Prohibition was a Success
a. 1929: 50m litres illegal alcohol destroyed.
b. Alcohol consumption ↓ for decades; pre-1914 levels not reached until 1971.
e. Eliot Ness and the 'UNTOUCHABLES' = symbol of incorruptible police standards.
3. Organised Crime
a. Took over brewing, speakeasies, and bootlegging.
b. Ran protection rackets, prostitution & drugs.
c. Bribed police, trade unions, judges, lawyers, Senators.
d. AL CAPONE: $100k/year from beer sales, 700 mobsters, responsible for 200+ murders.
e. Gang wars: eg 1929 St Valentine’s Day Massacre (Capone's ‘TORPEDOES’ killed 7 of Bugs Moran's rival gang).
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