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The decade of 1920-1930, called the Roaring Twenties, got its name because of the great excitement caused by good changes in the life of many Americans, and “roaring” good times. Some people called it the time of the wonderful nonsense. Years later, the 1920’s were remembered most of all as the time when many Americans had fun.
A nation on wheels. The automobile first became popular in the United States during the 1920’s. The car had been invented nearly 30 years earlier. But the first cars were expensive. Then, in 1908, Henry Ford produced a practical car called the Model T. Other people called Ford’s car the Tin Lizzie. It shook, rattled and sputtered, but it worked.
Some people said that the Tin Lizzie looked like n black box on wheels. Yet people bought the cars. Between 1908 and 1927 more than 15 million Model T’s were sold.
Henry Ford’s great achievement was making a car that many people could afford. In 1908 the Model T cost more than 800 dollars. In those days that was not cheap. But Ford used the assembly line to cut costs1. He put an assembly line in his factory in 1913. By 1916 the price of a Model T was below 400 dollars. It was the cheapest car on the road. By 1925 one Model T came off the assembly line every 10 seconds. The price was only 260 dollars.
Henry Ford had a lot of new ideas. In 1914 he announced that he would pay all his workers at least five dollars a day. Until then some of his workers earned one dollar and some earned 2.50 dollars a day. If workers had more money, said Ford, they would spend that money on cars and other goods, and then business would grow and it would be good for everybody.
The automobile changed the way of life of many Americans. Now people did not have to live close to the places where they worked. Those people who lived in the country could drive into town to visit friends or to do shopping. And people who lived in cities could go away for an afternoon in the country.
Good times. The 1920’s were considered a great time to be alive. People went out, had fun and did not worry about the future. They invented new ways to dress, new words to use and new ways to have fun.
Many women cut their hair and wore their skirts short. Young men began to wear racoon coats and straw hats. People loved a new dance known as the Charleston, where they kicked their legs and waved their arms wildly.
A new invention that appeared in the 1920’s was radio. It was very popular. Radio stations were set up all over the country. They broadcast concerts by jazz bands and symphony orchestras. They also broadcast comedies and mystery shows. Listening to the radio became a favourite family entertainment. Another entertainment was the cinema. Films in the 1920’s had no sound. Usually a piano was played along with the film. The actors’ words were printed on the screen. People enjoyed watching such film stars as Charlie Chaplin, Rudolph Valentino and Gloria Swanson . By the end of the 1920’s the first sound films, or «talkies» as they were called, were made. They were a great hit.
An age of heroes. The 1920’s was a time for heroes, especially in sports. The whole country knew the names of champions in baseball, football, tennis and other sport games. Gertrude Ederle1 became the first woman who swam from Great Britain to France across the English Channel.
One of the greatest heroes of the time was an aeroplane pilot named Charles A. Lindbergh. In 1927 Lindbergh flew his small plane from New York to Paris. He was the first person in history to fly across the Atlantic Ocean alone.
Getting rich. During the 1920’s many people made money by buying shares, or stocks, in different companies. The place where shares, or stocks, are bought and sold, is called the stock market. The price of a company’s stock depends on business conditions. If many buyers want to buy stock in a company, the price of the stock will rise. If many stock owners want to sell their stock, the price will go down. In the 1920’s stock prices seemed to go in only one direction: up. There were stories of shoeshine boys and office workers who made fortunes in the stock market in one day.
People were making more money than ever before. Companies used advertising to encourage people to buy their products. Advertising became important to business during the 1920’s.
Another way of encouraging people to buy more goods was called installment buying. When people bought a thing on the installment plan, they had to pay only a small part of the total price for the thing. Each month they paid another small sum, called an installment. People paid installments until they had paid the whole price of the thing they had bought.
People were earning a lot of money, and the system of installment buying seemed a good idea. But some experts warned that too many Americans owed too much money. If people suddenly lost their jobs, they would not be able to pay their debts. Then business would suffer. But few people listened to these warnings. Business was expanding. People kept buying on the installment plan.
Shops were offering a wide range of new products for Americans to spend their money on. New appliances, such as washing machines, refrigerators and vacuum cleaners, made housework much easier.
