Popular Fads In The 1920s

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The postwar decade celebrated as the Roaring Twenties, or the Jazz Age, was a time of meaning social alter. With World War I over, Americans welcomed a period of prosperity and revelry. It was a time of jazz music, dancing and speakeasies where bootleg liquor flowed during Prohibition. Money flowed, too, leading to a stock market nail and wild speculation on Wall Street. A number of crazes and fads swept the nation. At the same time, people sought refuge from all the giddiness and unpredictability. For that, they turned their focus to national heroes, sports champions and other role models who embodied traditional American values.

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Dance Crazes
Fashion Trends
Pop Culture Fads and Pastimes
Aviators and Sports Heroes

1 Dance Crazes

With the appearance of radio, American popular music and dances reached a coast-to-coast audition. An energetic new dance chosen the Charleston became all the rage in the nation's ballrooms and dance halls. Immature people were eager to prove off their skills, sprightliness and stamina. Another popular craze was the round-the-clock trip the light fantastic marathon. A homo endurance competition, a dance marathon required couples to movement their feet practically nonstop for dozens or even hundreds of hours, competing for greenbacks prizes.

2 Way Trends

In the 1920s new chapeau styles emerged for men, forth with argyle socks and raccoon fur coats. Merely Jazz Age fashion trends were more than noteworthy for women, whose clothing and hairstyles reflected shifts in social attitudes. Women'southward skirts and bathing suits got shorter, every bit did their hair. Young women who danced the Charleston, wore skimpy dresses and bobbed their locks were nicknamed flappers. Silent picture star Louise Brooks popularized the shingle cutting, while jazz vocaliser Josephine Bakery modeled a daring Eton crop. After the kickoff Miss America pageant in 1921, beauty contests came into vogue. Beauty was no longer the domain of the leisure form. Even housewives and working women shopped for the latest fashions and cosmetics in the Sears catalog or at chain stores similar Woolworth's.

3 Popular Culture Fads and Pastimes

Many 1920s Americans spent their free fourth dimension enjoying new games and activities, along with a few fads. One of the most notorious fads of the decade was flagpole sitting, in which a person would climb the local flagpole and sit on peak of information technology for as long as possible. Similar a dance marathon, flagpole sitting was a test of endurance. Back on the ground, mah-jongg, a Chinese game, became a wildly popular pastime. Simon and Schuster published the first crossword puzzle book, which launched a nationwide crossword craze. Two stylish new periodicals, Time and Reader's Digest, striking the newsstands. Meanwhile, the Volume-of-the-Month Club lured thousands of gorging readers into literary give-and-take groups.

iv Aviators and Sports Heroes

In 1927 Charles Lindbergh became the showtime homo to complete a solo transatlantic flight. He became an overnight sensation and a national hero. The story of his courageous flight filled the front pages of newspapers around the earth, while his Midwestern modesty overjoyed the nation. Equally a pioneering female aviator, Amelia Earhart inspired millions. Athletes like golfer Bobby Jones and boxer Jack Dempsey likewise became celebrities, while baseball legends Ty Cobb and Infant Ruth served every bit role models for a generation of American youth. Heroes like these gave Americans a sense of security in a time of sweeping social change and doubtfulness.

About the Author

Shannon Leigh O'Neil, a New York City-based arts and culture writer, has been writing professionally since 2008. Her articles have appeared in "GO Magazine," "The New York Blade" and "HX Mag," besides as online media. O'Neil holds a Master of Arts in modernistic art history from the City College of New York, where she as well studied French and minored in classical languages.