# data[].attributes.body
The school education level increased. from 1914 to 1926 the number of students in schools increased from 1 million to 4 million. This increase was due to immigrants moving into schools which caused a challenge for the teacher that they managed to develop to teach all those children which led the children of America being smarter.

# data[].attributes.body
"Flappers of the 1920s were young women known for their energetic freedom, embracing a lifestyle viewed by many at the time as outrageous, immoral or downright dangerous. Now considered the first generation of independent American women, flappers pushed barriers to economic, political and sexual freedom for women." This would lead to the rights of women being given and these women were the pioneers of it.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Women's Independence

Multiple factors-political, cultural and technological-led to the rise of the flappers.

During World War I, women entered the workforce in large numbers, receiving higher wages that many working women were not inclined to give up during peacetime.

In August 1920, women's independence took another step forward with the passage of the 19th Amendment, giving women the right to vote. And in the early 1920s, Margaret Sanger made strides in providing contraception to women, sparking a wave of women's rights to birth control.

The 1920s also brought about Prohibition, the result of the 18th Amendment ending legal alcohol sales. Combined with an explosion of popularity for jazz music and jazz clubs, the stage was set for speakeasies, which offered illegally produced and distributed alcohol.

Henry Ford 's mass production of cars brought down automobile prices, allowing the younger generation far more mobility than in earlier eras. Many people, a number of them young women, drove these cars into cities, which experienced a population boom.

With all these pieces in place, an unprecedented social explosion for young women was all but inevitable.

What Is a Flapper?

No one knows how the word flapper entered American slang, but its usage first appeared just following World War I.

The classic image of a flapper is that of a stylish young party girl. Flappers smoked in public, drank alcohol, danced at jazz clubs and practiced sexual freedom that shocked the Victorian morality of their parents.

Flapper Dress

Flappers were famous-or infamous, depending on your viewpoint-for their rakish attire.

They donned fashionable flapper dresses of shorter, calf-revealing lengths and lower necklines, though not typically form-fitting: Straight and slim was the preferred silhouette.

Flappers wore high heel shoes and threw away their corsets in favor of bras and lingerie. They gleefully applied rouge, lipstick, mascara and other cosmetics, and favored shorter hairstyles like the bob.

Designers like Coco Chanel, Elsa Schiaparelli and Jean Patou ruled flapper fashion. Jean Patou's invention of knit swimwear and women's sportswear like tennis clothes inspired a freer, more relaxed silhouette, while the knitwear of Chanel and Schiaparelli brought no-nonsense lines to women's clothing. Madeleine Vionnet's bias-cut designs (made by cutting fabric against the grain) emphasized the shape of a woman's body in a more natural way.

F. Scott Fitzgerald

F. Scott Fitzgerald found his place in American literary history with "The Great Gatsby" in 1925, but he had already garnered a reputation before that as a spokesperson for the Jazz Age.

The press at the time credited Fitzgerald as the creator of the flapper because of his debut novel, " This Side of Paradise," though the book didn't specifically mention flappers.

The credit stuck and Scott began to write about flapper culture in short stories for the Saturday Evening Post in 1920, opening up the Jazz Age lifestyle to middle-class homes.

A collection of these stories was published that year under the title "Flappers and Philosophers," cementing Fitzgerald as the flapper expert for the next decade.

Zelda Fitzgerald

If Fitzgerald was considered a chronicler of flappers, his wife Zelda Fitzgerald was considered the quintessential example of one.

A native of Montgomery, Alabama, Zelda was a stylish, free-spirited young woman who met Fitzgerald in 1918 while he was stationed there in the military. She was 17 at the time and-as the daughter of a prominent local judge-her hedonistic escapades scandalized her family.

The pair was married in New York City one month after "This Side of Paradise" was released and soon embarked on a lifestyle of reckless partying and publicity-seeking in Europe and across America.

Both publicly claimed that Zelda was Fitzgerald's inspiration for all his female characters, bringing her in as much demand for her insight as he was. She was soon writing articles about the "modern" flapper lifestyle.

Lois Long

Lois Long was another writer chronicling flapper culture in print. Using the pseudonym Lipstick, Long began writing for The New Yorker shortly after its inception.

Her work chronicled the life of a flapper and recounted her real-life adventures of drinking and dancing all night long. She typically wrote her column-first named "When Nights Are Bold" and "Tables For Two," launched in 1925-directly after her nights out, typing into the wee hours.

Flappers in Advertising

Recognizing that women now had disposable incomes of their own, advertising courted their interests beyond household items. Soap, perfume, cosmetics, cigarettes and fashion accessories were all the subjects of ads targeting women.

Helen Lansdowne Resor was the most powerful woman in advertising at the time. The head of women's advertising at the J. Walter Thompson Agency, she worked her way up from secretary thanks to her keen understanding of selling to women. She was the first advertising executive to push sex appeal as a method of marketing to women, often focused on getting male attention.

Flapper style regularly graced the covers of magazines like Vanity Fair and Life, drawn by artists like John Held and Gordon Conway.

Flappers on Film

Anita Loos' book "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes" and its follow-up "But Gentlemen Marry Brunettes" were famous satires of the world of flappers. The books focused on flapper Lorelei Lee and her male conquests. The first film version of "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes" was released in 1928 (another version was released in 1953, starring Marilyn Monroe and Jane Russell).

The popularity of movies exploded during the 1920s, though the screen versions of flappers were typically less permissive than the real-world versions. The first popular flapper movie was "Flaming Youth," released in 1923 and starring Colleen Moore, who was soon Hollywood's "go-to" actress for playing flappers onscreen.

Louise Brooks auditioned for a part in "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes" but failed. Nonetheless, the image of Brooks and her precise bob has become the archetypal vision of a flapper. The Hollywood portion of her film career featured several starring flapper roles before she moved on to more serious dramas.

The 'It' Girl

Clara Bow 's nickname was "the It Girl," referring to her 1927 film "It," which was adapted from a magazine article by Elinor Glyn. Bow was the most successful screen flapper, beloved for the unpretentious manner of her portrayals and her frank sex appeal.

Anna May Wong broke barriers as the first Chinese-American movie star. Her image as a flapper off-screen was encouraged by movie studios to increase her appeal beyond the exotic roles in which they cast her.

Dancing was a crucial part of flapper culture. The Charleston and the Black Bottom were popular and considered more suggestive than any moves that had come before. The acclaimed 1923 British play "The Dancers," which starred Tallulah Bankhead, examined the dance obsessions of two flappers.

Criticism of Flappers

Not everyone was a fan of women's newfound sexual freedom and consumer ethos, and there was inevitably a public reaction against flappers.

Utah attempted to pass legislation on the length of women's skirts. Virginia tried to ban any dress that revealed too much of a woman's throat and Ohio tried to ban form-fitting outfits.

Women who populated beaches in bathing suits that were deemed inappropriate were escorted off the beach by police or arrested if they refused.

Popular Washington, D.C., hostess Mrs. John B. Henderson attempted to start a mass movement against what she considered vulgar fashions, appealing to prominent women's clubs and colleges for help.

Clergymen like Rabbi Stephen S. Wise and Baptist pastor Dr. John Roach Straton became known for their tirades against young women's fashions.

Flappers also received criticism from women's rights activists like Charlotte Perkins Gilman and Lillian Symes, who felt flappers had gone too far in their embrace of licentiousness.

End of the Flappers

The age of the flapper came tumbling down suddenly on October 29, 1929, with the stock market crash and the beginning of the Great Depression. No one could afford the lifestyle any longer, and the new era of frugality made the freewheeling hedonism of the Roaring Twenties seem wildly out of touch with grim new economic realities.

Many film-star flappers had already met their end two years earlier with the advent of talking film, which was not always kind to them. The Hays Code in 1930, which severely limited sexual themes in movies, made independent women in the flapper mold almost impossible to portray onscreen.

Sources

Flapper. Joshua Zeitz.
Flappers: A Guide To An American Subculture. Kelly Boyer Sagert.
Flappers and the New American Woman. Catherine Gourley.
A Perfect Fit: Clothes, Character, and the Promise of America. Jenna Weissman Joselit.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Multiple factors-political, cultural and technological-led to the rise of the flappers. During World War I, women entered the workforce in large numbers, receiving higher wages that many working women were not inclined to give up during peacetime. In August 1920, women's independence took another step forward with the passage of the 19th Amendment, giving women the right to vote.

# data[].attributes.body
"The automobile played into the 1920s pop culture because it granted people independence. It delivered Flaming Youth from the rural areas to the big city and back again. It made speakeasies and jazz clubs accessible to aspiring musicians." This lead to the creation of most of the gas cars we use today.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
1920s pop culture reflected the huge changes of the Roaring '20s.
"All rides are guaranteed to get you back in one piece, your money back if you get killed."

From widespread acceptance of the automobile, which one famous person said would never catch on (tell that to someone in L.A. Traffic), to flappers sitting for days at the top of a flagpole, 1920s pop culture was a crazy and bizarre mix of sports, events, economy and spectacles.

The American Symbol of Freedom - 1920s Automobiles

In the 1920s cars were a symbol of independence more than the fashions, the jazz, the booze, because they made those things possible.

The Soundtrack of the 1920s: Music & The Jazz Age

The 1920s is inseparable from the music that became popular with the youth of the decade.

Jazz shaped the age, it set the move, it was the soundtrack of a new era. It became the theme song to flappers dancing on rooftops, gangsters hanging in smokey speakeasy's, it was the track running behind Steamboat Willy's trip down the ol' Mississippi.

The 1920s is known for it's famous musicians like Louis Armstrong, Bessie Smith, Duke Ellington and Bix Biederbeck who all became famous names in The Jazz Age. And countless other nameless musicians who helped shape jazz into what it has become.

The Rise of the Criminal Celebrity: 1920s Crime, Bootleggers & Gangsters

Prohibition was signed into law in 1919, and took effect in 1920. It gave rise to a new culture of criminal businessmen: bootleggers and gangster crime bosses who began to dominate entire cities with their illegal booze, racketeering, prostitution, gambling, etc.

Al Capone ran the city of Chicago with an iron fist, with his underground tunnels supplying the south side of the city with booze and broads. In 1920s pop culture, he turned the criminal lifestyle into something to be glamorized and romanticized in the tabloids.

Lucky Luciano was also brought up in "The 5 Points Gang" wit Al Capone. He went onto be the boss of the Genovese crime family.

One of the biggest moments in 1920s popular culture was the Saint Valentine's Day massacre on February 14, 1929. Al Capone's gang carried out a plan to kill his rival "Bugs" Moran, while Moran was not killed 7 of his men were.

The Birth of The Silver Screen: 1920s Movies

By 1920 over 2000 movie theaters existed across the United States.

Hollywood and New York became meccas for this new type of entertainment. Warner Bros., Fox Film Corp. (later 20th Century Fox), and Metro-Goldwyn Mayer, were three of the largest an most powerful production companies in the world.

Hollywood sold sexuality to a sex hungry marketplace.
They began to employ some of the most handsome and beautiful actresses of the time and turned them into stars. 1920s pop culture began ushering in a new type of celebrity.

Gloria Swanson, Clara Bow, Mary Pickford, Colleen Moore, Louise Brooks, Charlie Chaplin, Al Jolson, Douglas Fairbanks Jr. all became household names.

The movies truly gave rise to the culture that valued beauty and fashion, and sparked the entire cosmetic and fashion industries into gear.

Weird Stunts Involving Everything From Airplanes To Really Tall Poles

From the files of "WTF? 1920s pop culture" People did a lot of weird stuff to get in the news in the Roaring 20s.

Because of cameras these spectacles are readily available for us to laugh at.

Flagpole Sitting

Was a craze across the country. For reasons unknown to me people would climb to the top of a tall pole and sit there on a little platform for as long as possible. Sounds like a really boring time, with horrible consequences if you fall asleep. I'm not sure how much you'd have to pay me.

Dance Marathons

For some inexplicable reason people would dance until they dropped. Usually for some charity or contest, these dance-a-thons were very popular with the youth of the 1920s and were widely covered by the media.

Barnstorming

Made famous by daredevil Mabel Cody's Flying Circus it seems anything was fair game when it came to death-defying feats in the 1920s.

From chasing an airplane down in a automobile and grabbing onto a rope ladder attached to the plane's wing, to hanging on for dear life while the plane does aerial tricks, barnstormers did it all.

Go to the top of our 1920s Pop Culture Page

Read Much More about the 1920's on Our Homepage

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
1920s pop culture was a mixed bag of beautiful celebrites, 1920s automobiles, and weird stunts like flagpole sitting and barnstorming.

# data[].attributes.body
The radio was mainly used for important communication but during the 1920s the use of radio for recreation purposes such as listening into music and sports broadcasts. Many people used these to listen which changed the way we used radios and media today.

# data[].attributes.body
"New artistic and cultural movements blossomed including new forms of art, movies, and music. African American jazz and blues exploded onto the scene and the flapper redefined the modern look for American women."

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
American Culture in the Roaring 20s

The Roaring Twenties was a period of economic prosperity and great cultural changes in America, particularly in major cities like Chicago and New York.

New artistic and cultural movements blossomed including new forms of art, movies, and music. African American jazz and blues exploded onto the scene and the flapper redefined the modern look for American women.

In the wake of the patriotism of World War I, President Warren G. Harding promoted a "return to normalcy". However, the spirit of the Roaring Twenties was marked by breaking with tradition and new, modern tastes.

Everything seemed possible with modern technology. This included automobiles, moving pictures, and radio that brought "modernity" to a large part of the population. At the same time, jazz and dancing rose in popularity, in opposition to the mood of World War I. As such, the period often is referred to as the Jazz Age.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Roaring 20's Culture: Flappers, Music, Sports, & Movies

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
An overview of Roaring 20's Culture, including jazz and blues music, sports, movies, flappers, and more.

# data[].attributes.body
During the 1920s the popularity of sports blew up with the increase of wanting to watch them. This brought up many of the big names we know today such as Babe Ruth and Helen Willis.

# data[].attributes.body
The 1920s has had a huge effect on pop culture in many of the ways that we have stated. It has drastically changed the way we view and do thing today. It was very beneficial during the time and now as well. That is how the 1920s has had a huge affect on pop culture.