Transcript 1920’s
1920’s
“The Roaring Twenties”
“The Jazz Age”
Mini- Projects
1). “All that Jazz”
2). Silent Movies and “Talkies”
3). The Poetry of Langston Hughes
4). Prohibition and Al Capone
5). The Affordable Automobile
“All that Jazz”
• Read “The Jazz Age” (pp. 704-706) in your SS textbook.
• After reading, click on this link and listen to at least two songs by
Duke Ellington. Write down the titles of the songs you listened to.
(Some songs have lyrics, others do not.)
• Next click on this link and listen to at least two songs by Bessie
Smith. Write down the titles of the songs you listened to.
• Listen closely to the lyrics and the instrumentation. What
words/message do you hear? How does this type of music make
you feel?
• In a two paragraph response, explain why you think the people of
the 1920’s enjoyed listening to this type of music in one paragraph
(be sure to use specific examples from the text and the songs), and
in the second paragraph, compare the themes and rythms of jazz to
any current type of music you listen to. How are they alike, how are
they different? Can you think of any ways that jazz and blues may
have influenced the current types of music you listen to.
Back to mini-project list.
Silent Movies and “Talkies”
• Read the “Entertainment” section (pp 703-704) in your SS textbook.
• After you’ve read, click on this link to view a short film from the early
1900’s that had no sound. Take some notes about this film as well
as what you found difficult about viewing the film.
• Next, click on this link to view a horror film from the 1920’s titled
Nosferatu (a re-telling of Stoker’s novel Dracula) to get a better feel
for what the 1920’s moviegoer was used to with a movie that had no
sound. The movie is over an hour, I think five to ten minutes of
viewing should do the trick. You should start your viewing at 1:30
once the credits are over. Take notes about the use of “text screens”
between scenes to display dialogue.
• Last, click on this link to see some photos from the inside of the
Rialto Theatre in Joliet and read about the grandeur of the design
from its opening in 1926. Link for History.
Link for virtual tour
Click to read about the rest of the project.
Silent Movies and “Talkies”
• Truly, we are spoiled and take our current movie going experience for
granted with our options of seeing movies in 3-D or IMAX and hearing
them in Dolby Digital Surround Sound. Going to the movies in the 1920’s
was a different kind of “experience”.
• Imagine only having seen movies without sound, only piano/orchestra
accompaniment, and the next week going to see a movie where you could
hear the characters’ voices and music playing in the background!
• Write a two paragraph response explaining why you feel that movie
popularity increased so drastically in the mid to late 1920’s and why
moviegoers became so attached to movie stars in the first paragraph (using
examples from the text or movies you viewed). In the second paragraph,
explain whether or not you would want to go back in time for one night to
see a movie at the Rialto in the late 1920’s (having experienced modern
theaters and viewed modern movies). Be sure to provide specific reasons to
support your choice.
Back to mini-project list
The Poetry of Langston Hughes
• Link to “Ballad of the
Landlord”
• Link to “I, Too”
– Be sure to check out
the extended bio at the
bottom and click on
the audio display at
the top to hear Hughes
read his poem.
Back to mini-project list
-Read the sections “labor
unrest” and “racial unrest”
in your SS textbook (pp
690-692)
-Read both Langston
Hughes poems.
- Write a 8-12 sentence
paragraph explaining how
the two poems exemplify
the ideas presented in the
sections you read from
the text.