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Entertainment

Imagine – no Ipods, no CDs, no DVDs, no television! What to do for entertainment?

Wind up the Victrola (yes, you need to wind it up, rather like a pencil sharpener) and put a “glass” record on the turntable and then you can listen to one song by an artist like George Gershwin, Duke Ellington, Bessie Smith, and Louis Armstrong who was not only a world-famous trumpeter but a jazz singer.
You can take a video tour of Louis’ house:

See additional lists of vocalists and groups popular in the 1920's -

For thumbnail sketches of the growth of radio and of some jazz and country singers, you might visit this site –

No Victrola on which to play your records? Well then just listen to the radio (you could make your own!) and please note that you would wear headphones!
Interesting, no? You can find a lot more information on the types and growth of radios here -

And tour the radio museum with photographs of many crystal tube radios (no computer chips then) –

And you can listen to some of the popular songs of the 1920s -

And check out the “newsy” songs about the Scopes trial and Lucky Lindy’s flight –

But enough of music and songs.

Let’s take a look at the other form of entertainment in which you might indulge in the 1920s. Movies!!! But you would have to wait until The Jazz Singer in 1927 for a movie with sound – until then, the movies were all silent films (but the theater was not really silent – check it out). This site provides not only a history of the movie studios, but also of the Academy Awards and of some of the most famous actors and actresses of the decade.

And here is probably the first action hero of film in one of the first pirate movies –

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And here you can play an interactive game of “Shoot for Stardom” (would you / could you be a movie star?) and watch videos of “America’s Sweetheart”, Mary Pickford – silent, naturally. Of course, she is the one who claimed that “Adding sound to movies would be like putting lipstick on the Venus de Milo.” Watch and make up your own mind.

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And this is a very interesting site about Hollywood’s renegades (who would have thought of Walt Disney as a renegade?)

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And for a brief article that covers entertainment and other “spectator sports” and contains great little nuggets of information –

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Questions on Music -

8. Select one musical entertainer and describe why you like his/her music/song.

9. What was the most surprising thing you learned about radio?

12. Which site provided you with the most interesting information? And what was that interesting information?

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Victrola image (Online Image) Available http://www.mutilatedmannequins.com/images/victrola.gif, July 2006

Satchmo image (Online Image) Available http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armstrong,_Louis_Satchmo, July 2006

Hank Williams at Grand Old Opry image (Online Image) Available http://www.markbrine.com/country_music_roots/images/live_at_the_grand_ole_opry_hank_williams.jpg, July 2006

Radio with headphones image ((Online Image) Available http://xroads.virginia.edu/~ug00/3on1/radioshow/1920radio.htm, July 2006

Music notes image (Online Image) Available http://thecoloringspot.com/images/music/music-notes2.jpg, July 2006

Movie camera image (Online Image) Available http://www.chriscrutcher.com/index.2ts?page=sarahbyr..., July 2006

Douglas Fairbanks image (Online Image) Available http://douglasfairbanks.org/blackpir.jpg, July 2006

Mary Pickford images (Online Images) Available http://www.cobbles.com/simpp_archive/mary-pickford_intro.htm, July 2006

Walt Disney image (Online Image) Available www.igort.com/html/disney.htm, July 2006