Society

Question 1

Why did the entertainment industry enjoy surge in popularity?

Answer 1

• people had more disposable income
• Advertising meant the people are more aware of shows and events
• Radio adverts, broadcast events and interviews with celebrities.
• More cars meant people could easily get to cinemas and sporting events
• Women had more independence and free time
• Technology meant that the entertainment became easier and cheaper to me and there were movies.
• There was investment in buildings e.g. Roxy theatre has a capacity of 6000 seats

Question 2

What was a flapper?

Answer 2

• Women who rebelled against the way women were treated at that time
• Likely was started because women were able to work in factories during the war and they were given the right to vote in 1920
• Wore revealing clothes, smoked cigarettes and drank alcohol in public and some even had sex before marriage
• The rejected societies traditional views and expectations of women

Question 3

Why did the lives of some women change in the 1920s?

Answer 3

• Were able to vote in 1920
• During the war were allowed to work in factories and now that the war was over, their labour was cheaper as they were paid less and so they continued to work. Due to mechanisation strength no longer mattered. This gave them independence.
• The number of women in employment increased by 25% to 10 million by 1929 and office work and manufacturing accounted for much of the increase and in some industries such as electronics, women were preferred.
• Corsets were abandoned and women began wearing shorter lighter skirts and dresses.
• Flappers criticised the way society saw women and started to dismantle the idea that women were just mothers and wives.
• Women began smoking, drinking and kissing in public and chaperones were no longer required.
• Women drove cars and it was suggested that in 1925 Henry Ford introduced coloured cars as a response to the female market.
• As they could earn money for themselves, they didn’t feel the need to get married and have children as early or at all. The divorce rate increased from 100,000 in 1914 to 205,000 in 1929
• However for most women in the south, nothing changed as they had no way of making their own money.

Question 4

How were women encouraged to become consumers ?

Answer 4

• MORE FREE TIME -> Labour- saving devices and an increase in food that could be bought meant women had more free time to then become consumers.
• MASS MARKETING -> There were magazines, radios and cinemas all of which had advertising in them and all of which knew lots of their potential clients were women.
• MODEL T -> Had adverts specifically for women

Question 5

Why were some Americans alarmed by the behaviour of ‘flappers’ and how did they oppose them?

Answer 5

• Worried about the decline of moral and good family values.
• Worried for family lives as if there are no women willing to be wives and mothers, how will families be made.
• Americans formed the anti-flirt league to protest against their behaviour.

Question 6

What was inequality like in the southern states?

Answer 6

• Racial discrimination was generally worse in the north as these were states that had previously depended on slavery.
• In many southern states there were laws to enforce segregation of the black population
• These laws were known as the ‘Jim Crow’ laws
• Black people lived in fear of violence and intimidation from murdering white linch mobs, who escaped punishment as the justice system was also white.
• Early in the 1920s there were about 50 lynchings a year.

Question 7

What was inequality like in Northern Cities?

Answer 7

• Due to the bad living standards in the south, a large black population moved to the cities in the North in the 1920s.
• The black population in New York doubled from 150,000 to 300,000 between 1910 and the 1920s.
• Living conditions in the north were still poor, many black people lived in poverty in tenement ghettoes, struggled to find jobs and were paid the lowest wages.
• There was still violence against them too, white gangs often beat them up for trying to use public facilities.
• Violence riots were at 23 riots per year in 1919.

Question 8

What was the KKK?

Answer 8

• The Klu Klux Klan enjoyed a surge of popularity in the North in 1915 after being revived in Georgia by William Simmons, which lasted until the mid 1920s. It received this popularity because of its exploitation of the anti-immigrant feeling of Americans in the 1920s.
• It increased from 100,000 members in 1920 to 5 million in 1925.
• This was a secrete organisation first founded in the southern states in the 1860s, that would terrorise the black population mostly made up of newly freed slaves.
• During it’s surge later on, the KKK would carry out night raids, targeting the black population. They claimed to protect decent American values and basically only supported WASP values and people.
• 1915 a film called The Birth of the Nations presented the KKK as the heroes who saved white families from black gangs entent on looting and rape.
• In the South the Governor of Alabama and the senator from Texas were part of the KKK
• Membership declined in 1925 when one of their leaders was found guilty of rape of a female assistant and was sentenced to life in prison.

Question 9

What was the Red Scare ?

Answer 9

• Although in 1920 there were only 150,000 communists and anarchists, Americans were terrified of them blaming them for strikes and the assassination of President William McKinley in 1901
• PALMER RAIDS -> Attorney-General Mitchel Palmer’s house was included in a series on bomb attacks on politicians by communist groups. He committed to getting rid of communism and began a series of police raids in homes of suspected communists and anarchists and over 6000 people were arrested .
• SACCO AND VANZETTI

Question 10

What were the monkey trials?

Answer 10

• A Tennessee biology teacher, John Scopes, deliberately break laws by teaching evolution.
• His trial took place in July 1925 and it became a showcase for the arguments for and against evolution.
• Scopes was offended by leading criminal lawyer, Clarence Darrow, what the prosecution was led by fundamentalist, William Jennings Bryan.
• Scopes is found guilty and fined $100, the trial was widely regarded as a time for the evolution as Bryan was ridiculed when he tried to defend Bible version of the creation of mankind.

Question 11

Why did the USA introduce prohibition?

Answer 11

• From 1920 it was illegal to manufacture, transport or sell alcoholic drinks. This ban was enforced by the Volstead Act of 1919 which defined alcoholic drinks as those that contained more than 0.5% alcohol.
• The Temperance Movement was a group that wanted the ban of alcohol consumption. They were joined by the Anti-Saloon League and the Women’s Christian Temperance Movement, who were mainly religious groups that believed drinking was something that lead to sinful actions.
• Alcohol was blamed for crime, death and home wrecking and it was particularly influential in rural areas of the South and Midwest and by 1914 some states had been convinced to ban alcohol.
• Politicians were under pressure to support the temperance movement as it was extremely popular and any politician who didn’t support it, could expect to lose thousands of votes.
• WWI gave temperance movement a propaganda boost as not only were most brewers of German heritage but alcohol used grain which could instead be sent to struggling nations.
• Some industrialists such as Nelson Rockefeller argued that prohibition would reduce absenteeism and promote hard work

Question 12

Why did Prohibition fail?

Answer 12

• 1933 the legislation was repealed by the 21st Amendment.
• As it was not illegal to purchase or consume alcohol, drinking continued. Speakeasies became increasingly common and there were 32000 of them in 1929 in NYC
• There weren’t enough officials to enforce it as there were 4500 Prohibition agents and 100 million Americans and 30,000km of border.
• Gangs of criminals moved into the bootleg business and they made so much money that they could bribe the authorities. Nearly 10% of agents were sacked for taking bribes.

Question 13

What were the consequences of Prohibition?

Answer 13

• More organised crime -> Illegal distribution of alcohol provided opportunities for criminal gangs. They organised smuggling rum from the West Indies and whisky from Canada ensuring the speakeasies were supplied with ‘Bootleg’ liquor. Gang wars broke out and between 1926 and 1927 there were 130 gangland murders in Chicago for which the killers escaped without punishment. In the St Valentine’s Day Massacre in 1929, seven members of a gang were gunned down by rivals in Chicago garage.
• Increased alcohol consumption -> number of illegal distilleries seized was 9746 in 1921 and 15,794 in 1929, the gallons of distilled spirits seized was 414,000 in 1921 and 1,186,000 and the number of arrests was 34,175 in 1921 and was 66,878 in 1929.

Question 14

Stats for alcohol consumption

Answer 14

• In 1925, Americans Drunk 200 million gallons of spirits, 685 million gallons of malt liquor and 118 million gallons of wine.
• By 1933 there were 200,000 speakeasies in America and in NYC alone there were 32,000 which is more than double to amount of saloons before prohibition which was 15,000.
• Increased deaths from alcohol as there was more alcohol poisoning from dangerous moonshine with higher percentages. Government added poisons to industrial alcohol. In 1920 only 98 people died while in 1926 760 people died.
• More women went out drinking as there could be no rules imposed in speakeasies as they were illegal and so there was a greater demand for alcohol.

Question 15

Explain Organised Crime during prohibition

Answer 15

• Gangs took charge of supplying alcohol to US citizens and gangsters profited from this, some making about $2 billion per year.
• Al-Capone controlled Chicago as he got his own man elected mayor and made $60-100 million. Was eventually convicted for tax evasion but was never linked to a violent crime.
• With these profits they were able to expand into other organised crimes such as illegal gambling, prostitution and racketeering.
• There was an increase in violent crime -> 1926-7 130 gangland murder in Chicago and no one was convicted, St Valentine’s Day Massacre (1929) when Capone’s gang shot dead 7 members of Morau’s gang.
• Bribery and corruption increased and was no longer seen as a crime.

Question 16

Describe the events in the film industry…

Answer 16

• Cinema was an opportunity for escapism for many Americans and audiences more than doubled during the 1920s reaching 95 million in 1929
• Stars such as Charlie Chaplin, Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks and Rudolf Valentino became come of the worlds first celebrities,
• ‘ Talkies’ arrived in 1927 and millions flocked to watch and hear Al Jolson in The Jazz Singer
• There were concerns that films were corrupting public morals and the industry introduced a restriction (amongst others) that limited the length of on-screen kisses and banned nudity.

Question 17

Describe the events in the jazz industry…

Answer 17

• Jazz music became popular in the 1920s giving rise to the term ‘ Jazz Age’
• Along with the blues music, it originated from the African American community of the south. It was often performed by black musicians who had migrated to the northern cities of New York, Philadelphia and Chicago.
• Jazz linked to dance music and led to the formation of nightclubs such as the Cotton Club of Harlem, New York which launched the career of Duke Ellington
• Jazz appealed to young white Americans who found it exciting, dynamic and modern. Older Americans found it threatening as it broke tradition and was seen as a corrupting influence.

Question 18

Describe the events in the Radio industry…

Answer 18

• By 1930, 40% of American households had radios
• The first national network (NBC) was set up in 1926 following the establishment of more than 500 local commercial radio stations.
• Radio was used to broadcast light musical entertainment to a mass audience, producing the age of the Great dance bands.
• Radios also provided a fresh start for some of the artists such as comedians, impersonators, instrumentalists and vocalists of the declining vaudeville or variety theatres.

Question 19

Why were the lives of many women unchanged?

Answer 19

• Women living in smaller communities and in rural areas continued their traditional roles.
• Many Women influenced by conservative and religious values strongly opposed the new changes.
• Labour saving devices only effected a minority and by 1930 70% of households didn’t have vacuums and 76% didn’t have washing machines.
• Women continued to be paid less for similar work to men

Question 20

Who were Sacco and Vanzetti?

Answer 20

• SACCO AND VANZETTI -> 5th May 1920 both were arrested and charged with a wages robbery in which in which two guards were shot dead. They were sentenced to death and executed on 24 August 1927, presumably because of their anarchist beliefs. There were protests against the judges decision as 107 witnesses swore to seeing they somewhere else at the time.