The Golden Twenties (1950) 一九二零@黄金年代

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so

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[Music] hello hello

there you are you please drop me to the american history section yes it's to the right around this post you will need any help son oh we've got a theme to write for school on any period of

recent american history gee i don't know what to pick well you have plenty to choose from here up to 1914 i guess that's pretty old

stuff for us now 1914 and 1918 the war the first one you know but that's not much fun

1918 and 1930 now those were the days things were really fine 1930s 39

that's a depression you don't want that well here the second world war oh that's not history i could remember that myself well well look here son

by and large this is your best bet chances are you'll never live through any days like those again no one seems to remember them except people my age but they were our happy times

take a look at this something will give you an idea how things were in the 20s gee thanks thanks a lot you're welcome [Music]

so [Music] i'm frederick lewis allen i'll cover the

manners and customs of the 1920s robert q lewis broadway movies theater nightclubs that's for me in any period

alan prescott the lighter moments interest me this is red bob not so old redhead we had sports in the 20s too

i'm elmer davis i'll tell you about the political climate of the twenties [Music] it was quite a party when we heard that

the first world war of our time was over the news of the armistice was a bit premature but that didn't prevent a full-scale celebration in times square

if the kaiser had been there he'd have had a rough time we blamed it all on him but now he was licked and most of us figured that there wouldn't be any more wars

[Music] we were ready for peace and when the steamship george washington moved down the north river taking president wilson to europe and the peace conference

we thought the world was about to be made safe for democracy yes that's what we thought but meanwhile we wanted to be amused [Music]

to thrill the crowds or maybe promote a cure for bunions we had the daring human flies second story men making their way up in the world

[Music] the baseball scoreboard was easier to understand and a lot more exciting than anything

happening in europe which after all was a long way off but europe was right with us in the latest french fashions especially the nightgowns which were

very daring there was a little number in mischievous satin designed for an intoxicating bride its lines both modern and parisian

women's legs came into the open for the first time but their heads stayed under cover [Music]

something new came into our lives the traffic jam when the road was clear you could legally do 20 miles an hour [Music] arguing with the cop got you nothing but

a ticket [Music] all this added up to a new age beginning and people were ready for it they were ready to play too

crowds jammed the resorts where they were amazed by the death-defying stunts of wing walkers who never knew which end was up

[Music] it looked as if the new airplane was going to be more than an attraction for weekend crowds

the navy's nc4 had flown all the way from the united states to great britain in only 54 flying hours

and there were the lighter than aircraft like the british r-34 which flew across the ocean with incredible ease you couldn't be sure whether the future

laid with the dirigible or the airplane but anyhow wasn't it a great future there weren't any commercial airlines in america but toward the end of the war the post

office department had started its air mail service and when you saw one of the little airmail planes in action and realized that aviation had plenty of

brilliant wartime pilots to draw upon men like eddie rickenbacker and bert acosta you knew that the air age must really be coming

at this point the people voted for something hopefully called prohibition and when the saloons and bars closed up early in 1920 it caused a great deal of downright grief

the trouble had started a good many years earlier when a firm old lady named carrie nation had raided the saloons with a hatchet she won and when the prohibition

amendment became the law of the land enough good hard liquor went down the drain to make you feel like crying it looked like the end the absolute end of liquor in the united

states [Music] by that time the soldiers had come back to joyful welcomes even though most of us were trying to

forget the war war heroes like sergeant alvin york got a big hand from the crowds and the top brass general black jack pershing and

admiral williams sims were showered with honorary degrees the veterans had organized the american legion which held its 1921 convention in

kansas city as usual the legionnaires took the town by storm [Applause] with them was a good display of generals

and admirals foreign and domestic men whose names everyone knew like jack of belgium matey of england and of course persia

even while the victory celebrations were going on here and there the old belligerent spirit began to seek less worthy outlets in a few cities there were riots

race riots with mobs trying to get their hands on prisoners nearly always the police and national guardsmen managed to keep the crowds under control

[Music] others were not so easily controlled a secret organization the ku klux klan spread its poisonous influence

throughout a large part of the country and a man called mr zero in order to dramatize the helplessness of the jobless held auction sales of

human labor before crowds of fascinated bostonians [Applause] the struggle between capital and labor rose to its peak in a series of

prolonged and savage strikes prices were high men demanded increased wages which many employers refused to give them

there were many war horses of labor agitation national figures like old mother jones who believed in a fight to the finish but there were also a lot of hard-headed

practical negotiators among the leaders of organized labor men like william green and phil murray of the united mine workers and his chief john l lewis

the wave of post-war strikes came to a crisis in boston when most of the police walked out leaving the city unguarded

[Music] a volunteer police force was formed and the militia was called out to patrol the streets

once peaceful boston seemed like a city under arms

[Music] [Applause] then onto the scene stepped calvin

coolidge governor of massachusetts [Applause] he said there is no right to strike against the public safety by anybody

anywhere anytime that statement made coolidge famous overnight not long after this the wave of strikes died out

public weariness aided by a break in prices ended it and after a conference labor boss samuel gompers and industrialist charles schwab

managed a feeble smile together there was a good deal of violence during the years directly after the war the worst damage was caused when a bomb

went off in wall street just outside of jp morgan's office experts examined the bomb fragments but no one ever found out who set off the bomb though the public believed that

revolutionists were to blame it was noted that the statue of george washington just across the street escaped the blast unscathed

so did j.p morgan who was vacationing in scotland at the time even before the wall street explosion there had been nationwide raids on communist headquarters a result of the

general belief that bolsheviks were plotting to overthrow the government there was not much difference in the public mind between socialists and communists and the public seemed glad to

have any type of radical brought to trial in many cases juries found the prisoners guilty and then if they were aliens they were ordered deported

[Music] it was during this red scare that two men of italian birth were arrested and convicted for the murder of a paymaster

in south braintree massachusetts at first the question of their guilt or innocence attracted little attention but before they were executed years

later the case of sacco and vanzetti was to arouse fierce controversy throughout the world in due course hysteria died down but not until hundreds of alien radicals had

been started on their way home the hysteria ended but the melody lingered on [Music]

if you don't like the stars you know glory if you don't like the red white and blue and don't act like the curve in the

story don't find the hand that's beating you well that tune came straight out of oatville vaudeville was in its golden era still a main attraction even where

films were played a lot of the small time four a day acts were routine but good

[Applause]

[Music] on a big time you saw the great stars

like harry houdini never equalled in his line [Music] [Applause] the vaudeville circuit was the best training a lot of famous actors and actresses ever had

when they reached the top in vogueville they were in [Music] one act gallagher and sheen was so

popular that crowds mobbed them after every show [Applause] there was also the question of how to spend your spare time outdoors

the seashore was not a bad place to go if you didn't mind getting slapped in the face by the ocean even if you did there were compensations thoughtful beaches provided jazz music by bathing beauties

[Music] and there was always atlantic city where the policeman led the bathing beauty parade [Music] after the cops the girls looked good

we were just getting used to the new one-piece suits [Music] this was the heyday of the dance hall

and when some smart operator linked jazz and marathon dancing he had something good for the box office although it was a bit rough on the contestants [Applause]

all this didn't prevent the girls from going in for classical dancing in which they struck highly interesting poses bruce and dennis was the leader in that

field [Music] in ballet folkem was considered the

master [Music] anna pavlova and fedor chelyapan who had taken a powder out of russia about the

time the bolsheviki took over only fed birds for fun for a living and a dance and fedor sang the long-haired musicians

even when they had crew haircuts like rachmaninoff's were sure to be popular padarovsky not only looked like the piana's taught her look but he was one

of the few to be successful in politics too all the best in music came to america scotty gotta casazza

and enrico caruso the tenor things weren't so harmonious on the political scene president wilson had brought back to washington a peace treaty with a plan

for a league of nations both of which met opposition at home wilson campaign stubbornly for his ideas but he became ill and the opposition which was centered in

the powerful senate foreign relations committee managed to defeat it the leader of the opposition was senator henry cabot lodge senior

another great political event had taken place women had won the right to vote and they became a political force before which the stoutest politician quailed

they had tried to invade the barber shop but the customers thought they played too rough in the presidential campaign of 1920 women had their first chance to vote for

a president of the united states the republican candidate warren g harding was a very handsome man and he was careful to say nothing that might offend anyone

[Music] entertainers like al jolson helped liven the campaign and harding always posed like a regular felon

he had the august backing of charles evans hughes and the beauteous stage star of former times lillian russell plumped for harding in an appeal to the newly

enfranchised women voters his vice presidential running mate was calvin coolidge made famous by the boston police strike and it looked to them as though the

election was in the bay they were right the democratic party's candidate governor james m cox of ohio and his running mate one of the new york

roosevelts never had a chance the republicans moved in on washington with great hopes harding stood for a return to normalcy a

great contrast to wilson's idealism as they drove off to the ceremony on capitol hill [Applause] the voters now had an administration

that was willing to take things as they came andrew mellon became the secretary of the treasury and under his regime the

government debt was rapidly reduced taxes were cut and the foundation for a new period of prosperity was laid in that atmosphere a great and

nationwide upswing in productive work and in industrial techniques began [Music] [Music]

everyone liked harding who was a friendly man and when gumpers called to ask for the release of eugene debs an imprisoned socialist leader harding agreed to the

pardon and debs who had been jailed for obstructing the conduct of the war was free after all the war was over and the

problem was to get back to normal living national defense cost a lot of money and armaments were thought by some people to be one of the causes of war so harding

called for a conference for the limitation of naval armaments in that era of good feeling there seemed little likelihood that there would ever be another war

and the diplomats converged on washington in high spirits secretary of state hughes presided over the conference at which the wartime allies agreed to

reduce the number and limit the size of their warships and at the time when no threat of war existed the agreements made appeared to be sensible and logical

even if they put the japanese in effective control of the western pacific it seemed like a good idea at the time but battleship sticks could still be

cleared for action preferably for one of the new dancers like the black bottom [Music]

these were pretty fancy goings-on but after all people were letting their hair down the women were fascinated by peggy hopkins joyce

who had a habit of getting married and divorced and married again and again when the immigration authorities kept a visiting english actress the countess of

cathcart on ellis island for alleged moral turpitude it sounded as though the countess was up to something special although the charges were later dismissed

the jazz age began to get interesting the girls stopped wearing corsets and began to dance in a friendly way the younger generation discovered that

sex and ottos went well together and the pulp magazines confirmed the discovery hollywood knew all about that angle why someone cooked up an audience reaction

meter to test the voltage given off by rudolph valentino clinching with vilma banky [Applause] [Music]

the love meter almost blew a fuse [Music] things got so hot in the movies that the reputable producer signed up will hayes at 100 grand a year to clean up the

picture business and yet keep the busybodies off the industry's neck anxious reformers thought the movies were overselling girls

maybe they were they had some beauties gloria swanson was one lovely no one could ever forget and when she turned up on an incoming liner with a new husband this time a

french marquee or no one bothered about the rest of the passengers [Music] john barrymore and dolores costello were members of the royalty of stage and screen and even more than that great box

office but the star who really laid him in the aisles was rudolph valentino the great lover there are fans who will never forget him

and broadway will never forget his funeral they had to call out all the cops and even then it was almost a riot

[Music] polanegri was there and the honorary pallbearers included all the brass from hollywood

dead or alive valentino had made history in the growth of american movies [Music] as a matter of fact everything that

happened to a star was important the fans went gaga when the romance of rod lerock and vilma banky ended just like in the pictures

as a comedian charlie chaplin was already the old master [Music]

so

[Music] douglas fairbanks was the kids hero

[Music] but as a screened couple none could surpass garbo and gilbert

[Music] hey [Music] it wasn't all sex

there was will rogers who had a homespun quality that no one has ever been able to match will came up the hard way through the voteville circuits

well all i know is what i read in the paper [Music] but it was al jolson who would first crack things wild thing that really rung the heart was

prohibition 13 long years of it that beer they used to make tasted like no beer on earth in the first place and then

when they spiked it with alcohol and ether you needed some support flasks were worn in the best circles and you just didn't criticize what a

man's bootlegger had sold him even if it almost killed you to drink the stuff

[Music] the most disturbing thing about prohibition was the contribution it made to general lawlessness

there were of course a lot of notorious criminals in the early like gerald chapman who had no connection with the traffic in illegal liquor chapman had murdered a policeman in

connecticut and when he was brought to trial no one thought of him as a big man he was just another bandit with a twisted mind and he was condemned to death

but in many american cities especially chicago gangs of hoodlums in the pay of wealthy bootleggers might be arrested but it was sure they would be as quickly

freed chicago's mayor at this time was big bill thompson a greedy politician who was less interested in curbing the

gangsters than in holding office he got himself re-elected in one campaign on the slogan bust king george in the snoot a slogan which after all didn't have

much to do with conditions in the city of chicago while big bill was mayor a gangster named al capone ruled as undisputed boss of the chicago

underworld when he was jailed years later it was for income tax evasion but crime was abhorrent to most american citizens

millions of whom were wholehearted churchgoers there were great numbers of people whose religious instincts were stirred by the emotional exaltation of billy sunday a

ball player who would become a famous evangelist when billy pitched the gospel a congregation never forgot it brightening the twilight zone between

faith and science was emile cue a french pharmacist who taught that one grew in strength by chanting every day and every way i'm getting better and better

and when the austrian surgeon dr adolf lawrence demonstrated his bloodless surgery technique in america his work met with wide approval

science was leaping forward madame curie already famed co-discoverer of radium arrived to accept a gift of a gram of the magical metal about which so little

was then known and whose full possibilities were not imagined and thomas edison now old and deaf best in the respect of everyone for his

invention of the incandescent electric light a scientific milestone yet suddenly religion and science collided

john scopes a young teacher of tennessee had taught contrary to state law darwin's theory of evolution the tennessee country people believed

this was contrary to biblical doctrine and scope's trial got worldwide publicity with the tennessee fundamentalists lined up against the liberals and intellectuals of america

william jennings bryan old and full of oratory defended the beliefs of the fundamentalists he was aided by the prosecuting zeal of

old judge ben mckenzie a local politician influential in the area who helped to make the trial an inquisition the courtroom was packed as the case

reached to climax arthur garfield hayes defending scopes explained darwin's theory of evolution and dudley field malone another liberal

added his plea for tolerance to the cause of freedom of thought then the defense threw in another artful veteran clarence darrow for what turned

out to be the cross-examination of brian daryl in the shirt sleeves analysis reduced the elder statesman's antiquated ideas to intellectual rubble

[Music] but still the court found scopes guilty and so ended a preposterous case [Music]

on the political scene there had been some changes harding's death came as a great shock to the nation it was entirely unexpected and the american people sincerely and

affectionately mourned the passing of this kind and friendly man now calvin coolidge became the nation's chief executive he was an old-fashioned yankee acid and

thrifty hardly the type you would expect to find in professional politics [Applause] soon after he became president certain well-hidden irregularities of the

harding administration began to be revealed the chief scandal concerned the secret lease of government-owned naval oil fields

secretary of the interior albert fall had been induced to lease an oil field to the mammoth oil company headed by harry f sinclair already a millionaire oil magnate

bit by bit other truths came out some from fall's friend playboy ed mclean in testimony before a congressional investigating committee

enormous bribes were revealed but in the end the acaperrius fall got off with a fine and a year in jail the scandals of the harding regime never

touched coolidge he was incorruptible and in 1924 he was elected president in his own right the vice presidency went to the eminent

charles gates dawes chicago banker who had helped to set up the united states government's present budget system now the republicans had really come to town

and at the inaugural ball they celebrated in style

[Music] they had an honest careful man in the white house

dawes to be a popular figure and hughes to lend his dignity to the administration and business was booming especially it boomed in florida a fine

place to go for a winter vacation elaborate hotels were being built and the city of miami throw mightily soon people all over the country were

buying florida house lots and immediately selling them at huge profits a rush to get to the new el dorado began and the pioneers couldn't wait for

houses to be built they had to be in on the ground floor and they didn't mind such minor inconveniences as the lack of a roof over one's head

it didn't matter where you lived when you were within reach of those dazzling profits you and your family might become millionaires overnight

[Music] pyramiding publicity with the stress on girls girls and more girls helped keep the boom alive

[Music] then the smash up came and then a hurricane hit florida wrecking the waning dreams of the last

speculators [Applause] but florida wasn't done for miami wasn't done for slowly they recovered to build again on

a more rational basis but the great florida land boom was over it had been quite a binge if florida had been struck a temporary

blow most of the rest of the country hummed with prosperity and was having itself a good time welcoming distinguished visitors for instance among these was the prince of

wales an attractive young man heir to the british crown and a veteran with a good war record [Applause] he liked to enjoy the pleasures of the

rich and was much in demand among them being the world's most eligible bachelor when he came to the united states new york had hardly learned how to stage a

really razzle dazzle welcome that we had mastered a few years later when the great ship leviathan steamed into new york harbor with queen mary of

romania aboard she was a decorative lady undeniably a queen and her welcome set a standard for all future distinguished visitors

first came the parade up broadway at the noon hour when you could always raise a crowd [Applause]

then came the official greeting by mayor jimmy walker on the steps of city hall there were other attractions too those were really the golden days for

sports fans the giants trained at sarasota and the giants were always good frankie frisch was among the idols and you can always count on their manager

john j mcgraw being on hand to run things [Music] the dodgers trained at clearwater florida coached by ben egan with zach

wheat as captain and wilbert robinson his manager top and springs was one training ground of the saint louis browns and they had one of the best of the old timers george

sisler their player manager when the season really got underway there were other headliners williams hornsby and killiper of the cardinals and walter johnson of the

senators and maze of the yankees but the best of them all was babe ruth when he wrapped his hands around a bat

and got his feet set right great things could happen in the 1927 world series wilson moore pitched for the yankees and carmen hill for the pirates

[Music] judge landis and colonel jake rupert were on hand that was the year the babe knocked out

60 home runs and the yankees won the series in four straight games [Applause] [Music]

there were other record breakers bobby jones and atlanta georgia boy who was to win the british open and the british amateur and the same year take the american open and the american

amateur championships a clean sweep of the field bobby had iron control especially with that putter of his calamity

jane then there was manowar one of the great race horses of all time as a two-year-old big red started in ten

races one nine of them and came in second in the one race he didn't win as a three-year-old he started 11 times 11 times

earl sandy was the top money jockey he won so often and got to be a habit polo was in its heyday with boxes at 275 apiece

and the international matches were the great events in that magnificent sport a hard one to beat for speed coordination and horsemanship [Music]

football turned out some stars who'll never be forgotten red grange of illinois the galloping ghost was almost impossible to stop

[Applause] knute rockne notre dame's great coach was on the crest of the wave

it wasn't often that rock's teams lost a game the east had its stars too albe both of yale was one of the best

running backs the game produced in those days they were hanging up new records on the track nermey the flying fin raced for the stopwatch in his hands

johnny weissmuller was another natural athlete his record of 51 seconds for the 100 yard freestyle stood untouched for 16 years that made him the fastest swimmer in the

world [Music] [Music] the champion water baby americans really

went wild about was a girl get true natalie the first woman to swim the english channel it took her only 14 and a half hours a new record

[Music] and when trudy got home new york went wide this 18 year old girl had succeeded

where several men had failed at city hall mayor jimmy walker compared our crossing of the channel with moses crossing the red sea caesar crossing the rubicon at

washington crossing the delaware in tennis it was tilden long master of the courts among the women there were the american

champion mala mallory and the frenchman suzanne langland but after a while there was only one the little girl with the eye shade and the poker face helen wills

she won 15 championships british and american

[Music] most rugged of all the champions was jack dempsey the manassa malla when dempsey worked out with his

sparring partners he had to hold back if jack was training for a big bout he took every workout in dead earnest [Music]

dempsey tangled with purple the wild bull of the pamphlets and in two rounds almost everything happened purpo knocked dempsey out of the ring

[Applause] but dempsey bounced back and flattened purple for the count

[Applause] he was champ for over seven years and then there was a new champion gene tunney beat dempsey in philadelphia

but dempsey got a second crack at him in chicago and the old timers are still talking about this fight and the long count here it is

dempsey knocks tony down the referee won't start his count until dempsey moves to a neutral corner three four five

six seven waits to the count of nine and then goes on to win by a decision but thousands of fight fans thought

dempsey had been robbed by that long cow gene got the official welcome at city hall and then after defeating tom heaney he retired from the ring [Applause]

[Music] tony it appeared liked books and so did a great many other americans

they read the works of michael ireland and were spellbound by the superb style of joseph conrad a pole who had learned to write in english

hundreds of thousands of americans bought the outline of history by that tremendously productive englishman h.g

wells another great english writer john galsworthy delighted the american reading public with his chronicles of the foresight family [Music]

there were scores of popular books by american authors too and a few brilliant ones for it was a time of fresh and energetic creation in american writing

[Music] a new sort of gadget began to cut into reading time it had been known as the wireless but it gradually changed its name to radio

the early broadcasters operated pretty much like the present ones except that now they have air conditioning in the studios it didn't take long for the new gadget to catch on

especially when there were so many new jazz bands on the air [Music] you could get most of the sensational news from radio too

there was the hall mills case complete with a pig woman she was a key witness in a murder mystery that had everybody baffled

mrs hall's husband a preacher had been killed in a jersey back road and so had the wife of james mills no one ever figured out why floyd collins was another great

dramatic story collins had been trapped in a kentucky cave by a falling boulder and the whole nation wanted to know from hour to hour

what progress his rescuers were making the youth had been exploring the narrow twisting entrance to the cave when the rock had fallen and pinned his foot so

he couldn't move the rescuers planned to sink a shaft to intercept the tunnel at the point where collins was trapped but before they could finish it collins

died after 18 days in the tunnel the nation felt a genuine sense of frustration and defeat tops on broadway or even at a picnic

were the glamorous stars of the metropolitan opera lawrence tibbett was one of the promising homegrown baritones and rosa poncell was one of the best of the

native warblers madame schumann heinke was a concert landmark but she had made her early fame in wagnerian opera [Music]

an early missouri thrush was marion talley meteoric soprano at the metropolitan opera house [Music]

and grace moore the girl from tennessee one of the loveliest of them all [Music]

american music was growing up fast george gershwin the most gifted of the young composers moved back and forth between broadway and the concert stage

was equally at home in both [Music] meanwhile irving berlin went on turning out smash hits legit theater boomed along with the rest

of the nation there were plenty of good shows to take in plenty of customers at the box office

[Music] visiting entertainers from europe if they were as gifted as harry lauder star of the english music halls were certain

of a generous reception in the united states

[Music] [Applause] but americans were loyal to their own products too the girls had just about what they have

now earl carol was the first to treat it on a deadpan mathematical basis make 12 and a half [Music]

plus 34 and a half [Music] waist 23 and a half hips 35

there was a craze for speed and more speed at the automobile races you could never tell when something would happen [Music]

but ralph de palma and peter apollo were always the indestructible unbeatable ones aviation was still kind of hazardous too

you see people had strange ideas which almost worked and there was one that looked like an auto work

and one man who had theories about wings but couldn't run quite fast enough [Applause]

[Music] but in spite of real danger aviation's pioneers kept on trying

some experimented with gliders towed by planes [Music]

[Applause] [Music] [Applause]

[Music] the best professionals had their troubles too rene funk a french war ace started out to fly from new york to paris

[Music] he gunned his big plane heavily loaded down the runway tried hard to get her off the ground but couldn't make it

two crewmen were lost in the crash but funk lived to fly again but no flyer received a tenth of the adulation that came to charles augustus

lindbergh who set off alone in a tiny plane to fly from new york to paris

[Music] in paris lindbergh was taken in tow by ambassador herrick

and french american relations reached a new peak of friendliness back in new york lindbergh was given the greatest reception that anyone had ever had

the admiration for him in american hearts and minds was both deep and hysterical

[Applause]

[Music] the governor of new york al smith was proud and happy to be allowed to stand

beside him in keeping with the liveliness of the period president coolidge accepted an honorary chieftancy from the sioux indians amid ceremonial merriment at their south

dakota reservation [Music] chief leading eagle was but mildly amused

[Applause] [Music] everybody was having a happy time the automobile industry for example was

booming the cars themselves had certain features of a utilitarian order such as running boards driver visibility and fresh air

the prices were right too the flipper was a thing of beauty and when henry ford turned out his 15 millionth car we knew the automobile age had really arrived

the earliest autos had become museum pieces and henry ford father of the american assembly line technique sat proudly in his own first car which he had made by

hand production in industry was steadily increasing and with it came a steady rise in national income and in international trade

under the guidance of charles dawes and owen d young considerable efforts were made to help solve such naughty problems as europe's

war debts and reparations claims during such prosperous times everyone thought of peace the kellogg-brian pact negotiated to outlaw war as an

instrument of national policy seemed too many to make perfect sense in those days if coolidge was not wildly enthusiastic it was probably because he realized that

if the pact had been a good gesture politically it was also a futile one good political moves like the negotiation of the pact were not to be

lightly regarded at that time the presidential campaign of 1928 had been a tough one democrats had convened at houston texas and al smith was their choice for

president he was nominated by franklin roosevelt who lauded him as the happy warrior al smith was a fighter and a man of character but the odds against him were

too great the republicans had nominated herbert hoover and hoover was just what the country seemed to need an engineer honest and competent who

knew commerce and industry that's what the people wanted and on election night in times square the crowds waited excitedly for the results to come in

[Applause] the cheers were for four more years of

prosperity with the unbeatable republican ticket hoover and curtis [Music] now it became hoover's turn to ride up

to the capitol to take the oath of office [Music] [Applause] [Music]

[Music] [Applause] it seemed to most americans as if the years of prosperity would go on forever and the crowd before the capital was in

a holiday mood as the ceremony got underway then the rain began to fall but the spectators listened on quietly to hoover's inaugural address

another sort of storm was gathering that day but it still hadn't broken when the coolidges pulled out of washington headed for retirement

americans with a bankroll could make summer last the year round arthur hammerstein wintered in palm beach and so did mrs george m cohan mrs sam harris

irene castle famed as a dancer added glamour flozigfeld with his wife billy burke and his daughter patricia went in for the nautical life most of broadway showed up in florida at

one time or other [Music] helen morgan was one of the standbys she was a star of showboat she could make any song famous [Music]

the girls and the men too got a kick out of the fashion parades and the dresses were well they looked fine then

[Music] so

[Music] you could always count on finding his honor jimmy walker mayor of new york in the middle of things jimmy was always dapper and lively with

a smile for all comers [Music] the florida press agent's ideas got wackier and wackier

[Music] [Applause]

[Music] but florida had no patent on wackiness you could whip up a charleston contest

anywhere in the country

[Music]

it was a long broad way that the nightlife was really jumping there were plenty of customers the butter and egg men with bankrolls they were steaming to get rid of you could

always make more make it in the market spend it in the name band clubs

[Music]

each morning [Music] [Music] the speakeasies did a land office business and texas dining with her gals

kept customers roaring i is really the sugar coating on the cake of trouble and many a sucker has cut himself too big a piece of cake you

understand [Music]

[Applause] [Music] [Music] somehow it didn't last forever

the time came when the ticker tape in the broker's office told a new story it was panic 16 and a half million shares of stock

sold in a single day sold hopelessly desperately at any price it was the forerunner of depression and crisis

[Music] so ended the golden play time of the twenties but beneath the froth it was a decade of great achievements in many fields of work

[Music] in science in industry in education no one was wise enough to turn the peace and prosperity of that decade into

permanent peace and prosperity but the nation had lived for a few brief years in a new kind of world where there was happiness and peace

and if that brief world ended rudely and abruptly there was still left in its pattern the hope of an america of abundance and fun of peace and accomplishment to be

created again in other golden days still to come [Music] [Music]

you