New Fads: 

          The 1920's had many new fads.  One of the more popular inventions was the radio.  Since there was was no T.V, the radio acted as a televison of the 20s.  It had the news, game shows, music, talk shows, and even dramas.  In every home you were sure to find a radio blasting.  Jazz was very popular in the 20's.  People loved to dance to the music and some of their dance moves include the Charleston, Fox-trot, and the shimmy.  Dance marathons were very popular.  A fun fact about the 1920's was that the peanut butter and jelly sandwhich had become famous.  Books were also popular.  The #1 book on the best seller list was Manners by Emily Post.  This was the decade of entertainment.  Rin-Tin-Tin became the most famous movie dog of the 20's, and mickey mouse had made his apperance.  While the 20's was an amazing decade full of laughter and entertainment, on October 24, 1929 the stock market crashed. Many people lost thousands of dollars and their jobs.  What a sad ending to this wonderful decade. 

     Ralph Samuelson of Minnesota invented waterskiing in 1922. After many unseccesful attempts of skiing on water with barrel staves and snow skis, the 18-year old tried out pinewood boards with curved tips. For the tips, Samuelson applied boiler steam to the 8' x 9" wooden boards.

Sports:

     In 1920 William "Big Bill" Tatem Tilden II  became the first american to win a Wimbledon title. He would recapture this tile in 1921 and in 1930 as well. Expanding his list of victories, Tilden was crowned U.S. Champion on seven occasions.

         On July 2nd, 1921, American boxer Jack "the Manassa Mauler"  Dempsey fought his challenger Georges Carpenteir, a Frenchman, in New Jersey. Originally William Harrison Dempsey, The American was world heavy weight champion at the time and "The Orchard Kid"  or "Gorgeous George"  Carpentier was Euorpean champion.

 Important People

          During the 1920’s the concept of a celebrity was formed, ^[1]people such as Babe Ruth Charlie Chaplin and more were house hold names. Several Authors also became well know including Langston Hughes and F. Scott Fitzgerald who wrote The Great Gatsby in 1925.

     Henry Ford became very well off with his inception of the assembly line.  By September 1927, all steps in the manufacturing process from refining raw materials to final assembly of the automobile took place at one factory, characterizing Henry Ford's idea of mass production. ^[2] Charlie Chaplin came to America in 1912, quickly appearing in many films and being an instant success, and he later went on to direct and write his own work.

 Movies:

          In the 1920's movies were starting to take their big part in entertainment. People like Charlie Chaplin were making names for themselves as directors. Movies in the 20s were considered to be the "pre-sound era." Movies like Peter Pan, Metropolitis, and The Kid, a movie by Charlie Chaplin, were released in the 20s. The "pre-sound era" mean't that most of the movies that were made in the 20s had no sound. They were just films with no talking, sounds or music. Not all movies were considered "silent" films, but most of them were.

       After the 1924 Olympics in Paris, France, the following athletes (just to name a few) accomplished amazing feats: Erik Liddell ran the 400 meters in 47.6 seconds, a new world record. Douglas Lowe would go on to repeat his 800 meters gold-metal victory from the 1924 olympics in 1928.

       Babe Ruth Breaks Home Run Record (1927)

George Herman Ruth (1895- 1948), often known to his fans as Babe Ruth, hit a total of 60 home runs in 1927. This record-breaker would remain a record itself until 1961, when Roger Eugene Maris hit 61 home runs 

 The Record has since been broken by Sammy Sosa with 66 home runs, and Mark Mcgwire of the St. Louis Cardnials with 70 in the same year.