Boom Times

Economic Prosperity

1922-1929

• New Technology

• New Production Methods

• New Business Practices

• New Consumers

The economy is driven by the AUTO

Model T (1908-1927) 15,000,00040% of sales 1926

Stop and Reflect

• List everything in your neighborhood dependent on the automobile.

• glass, steel, rubber

• concrete and asphalt roads

• gas stations, mo-tels, roadside business

• camp grounds / tourism

• suburbs• chain stores

Electrify !!• By 1927, 70-80% of mechanical energy is

supplied by electricity

• Nightlife!!• Magazine Sales• New appliances

Appliance Companies• American Flyer• Bissell• Black &

Decker• Carrier• Electrolux• Eveready• Frigidaire• General Electric• Hamilton Beach• Hoover• Hotpoint• Kelvinator• Kitchen Aid• Lionel• Maytag• Proctor-Silex• Roper• S. C. Johnson• Schick• Singer• Sunbeam• Tappan• West Bend• Westinghouse

Do you have any products from these?

Communications

•Radio– Harding’s election results

• He’s a listener

– Coolidge speaks to 23 million

• first presidential speech on radio

– RCA founded– 500 stations by 1922

– FDR’s “Fireside Chats”, later

1. Children’s Stories

2. Stories

3. Music

4. News

Movies• Silent Films

• 1st “talkie” The Jazz Singer

MOVIE PALACES

also, vaudeville remains popular

Top 10

• The Big Parade (1925) • The Four Horsemen of the

Apocalypse (1921) • Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ

(1925) • The Ten Commandments

(1923) • What Price Glory? (1926) • The Covered Wagon (1923) • Way Down East (1921) • The Singing Fool (1928) • Wings (1927) • The Gold Rush (1925

Stop and Answer

• What are the significant new technologies of the 20’s? Any others?

• What are the innovations that will drive our next big economic boom?

AUTOMOBILES, ELECTRIFICATION, RADIO AND MOVIES

New Production Methods

• Assembly Line– Moving line perfected by Ford 1913– adopted by other manufacturers– Benefits

• costs of production are lowered• less skilled workers required• Increased employment for managers and clerical

workers• Assembling the Model T, 1916

• Scientific Management– Frederick Winslow Taylor– Raise production by analyzing worker tasks. – Revise tasks for optimal performance.

• Productivity increases up to 60%

(All these new methods really create more than Americans can consume.)

New Business Models

• Bigger Businesses– “economies of scale”– CORPORATIONS

• a legal entity with stockholders• able to raise capital to grow the business

– Management and Ownership separated• new levels of management needed “white

• clerical opportunities for women collar”

New Consumers

• Improved transportation– suburbs– chain stores

WHAT ABOUT WAL-MART?

• Credit– Installment plan

• autos• household appliances

– Jobs in sales skyrocket

• Advertising– Becomes a major industry– Creating demand for the products of American

industry– Magazine prices fall from 35¢ to 5¢

• (Increases in advertising pay costs)

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http://indymotorspeedway.com/cigs/images/zoom28Camel.jpg

ConsumerismAdvertising

Credit

Overproduction

All this comes stumbling to a halt following the Stock Market

Crash in 1929

• Have we seen evidence that might help us predict the Great Depression?

• What happened??????

overproduction, credit, loss of small business

REVIEW- What elements define the 1920’s BOOMTIMES?

New Technology __________________ __________________ __________________

New Production Methods __________________ __________________

New Business Models __________________ __________________

New Consumer Behaviors __________________ __________________

• Connect this to what you already know about the 20s.– Rise of Nativism– Red Scare– Prohibition– Labor Unrest– Farm Problems– Isolationism– Conservative

Government

Contradictory Trends Underlie the “Jazz Age”