Crazes of the Era

[Shangas]

Raccoon coats and ukuleles. The ukulele certainly had its heyday in the 1920s with Ukulele Ike, Wendell Hall, Johnny Marvin, and all the rest.

You reminded me of this song, from 1928...

[video=youtube;7Uf-AgE0yes]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Uf-AgE0yes[/video]

 

[LizzieMaine]

And speaking of the twenties, let's not forget the most dangerous fad of the decade -- rampant, unregulated speculation in the stock market by millions of people who had no idea what they were doing, and whose ignorance was ruthlessly exploited. Andy, meet the Kingfish.

It's interesting that the twenties thus ended very much the same way they began -- in 1920, the "Ponzi" craze swept the country, with a great many people getting caught up in Charles Ponzi's pyramid scheme involving speculation in International Reply postal coupons. Commodities speculation was another big deal that year -- thousands lost their shirts speculating in sugar futures. People often describe the eighties as the Decade of Greed, but the twenties didn't miss many tricks in that area.

 

[Fading Fast]

And speaking of the twenties, let's not forget the most dangerous fad of the decade -- rampant, unregulated speculation in the stock market by millions of people who had no idea what they were doing, and whose ignorance was ruthlessly exploited. Andy, meet the Kingfish.

It's interesting that the twenties thus ended very much the same way they began -- in 1920, the "Ponzi" craze swept the country, with a great many people getting caught up in Charles Ponzi's pyramid scheme involving speculation in International Reply postal coupons. Commodities speculation was another big deal that year -- thousands lost their shirts speculating in sugar futures. People often describe the eighties as the Decade of Greed, but the twenties didn't miss many tricks in that area.

Nor did the 2000s housing market miss many greed or Ponzi-like tricks.

Wasn't there also a fad (i'm sure not a craze) of using Radium as a "cure" or "medicine" by the fast set as it initially gave one vigor and energy - before, if used long enough, it killed you?

 

[LizzieMaine]

Oh yes, radium was a big deal in the twenties and into the early thirties. The most notable product was a quack patent medicine called "Radithor," which was basically tap water laced with a tiny amount radium. It was supposed to be a general tonic and health-builder, and among its most enthusiastic customers was man named Eben Byers -- who drank it by the case, until his jaw rotted off. He died of radiation poisoning in 1932, and the circumstances of Byers' death prompted scientist Frederic Schlink and consumers' rights activist Arthur Kallet to write the book "100,000,000 Guinea Pigs," which laid out the case in favor of vastly strengthening the Food and Drug Administration's regulatory powers.

Byers, meanwhile, remains alive in his own way. He was buried in Pittsburgh in a lead-lined coffin, but his bones have been exhumed at intervals over the years to study the rate of radioactive decay in the human body. When he was last above ground, he could still make the Geiger counter click.

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

Raccoon coats and ukuleles. The ukulele certainly had its heyday in the 1920s with Ukulele Ike, Wendell Hall, Johnny Marvin, and all the rest.

Funny, I seem to remember an episode of Dennis the Menace that had to do with Mr Wilson's old raccoon coat from his college days.

 

[Fading Fast]

Oh yes, radium was a big deal in the twenties and into the early thirties. The most notable product was a quack patent medicine called "Radithor," which was basically tap water laced with a tiny amount radium. It was supposed to be a general tonic and health-builder, and among its most enthusiastic customers was man named Eben Byers -- who drank it by the case, until his jaw rotted off. He died of radiation poisoning in 1932, and the circumstances of Byers' death prompted scientist Frederic Schlink and consumers' rights activist Arthur Kallet to write the book "100,000,000 Guinea Pigs," which laid out the case in favor of vastly strengthening the Food and Drug Administration's regulatory powers.

Byers, meanwhile, remains alive in his own way. He was buried in Pittsburgh in a lead-lined coffin, but his bones have been exhumed at intervals over the years to study the rate of radioactive decay in the human body. When he was last above ground, he could still make the Geiger counter click.

fanfreakin'tastic - that's horrible at a human level, but absolutely fantastic as a cultural oddity.

 

[Fading Fast]

I did a small amount of internet research and the Polo coat did come of age in America in the 1920s. It was originally worn by Polo players between "chukkers" (since I have no knowledge of Polo, my best guess is that a chukker is a break between play). It was originally a wrap coat (no buttons, just a belt to close it - which makes sense as the players we're probably just throwing them on and off) and made of camel hair.

Then, in the '20s, the players started to wear them casually and they were picked up by the college kids and, then, the general public going to winter sporting events like football. One of the articles I read said that it basically replaced the raccoon coat as the football fan's coat of choice and that it was the biggest thing in men's coat fashion in the '20s.

 

[Fastuni]

[the Polo coat] basically replaced the raccoon coat as the football fan's coat of choice

A vast improvement for sure.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Babe Ruth was one of the earliest advocates of the polo coat. He wore no other coat in public from the twenties onward, perhaps because it helped conceal his bay window.

 

[Stanley Doble]

Lizzie do you have a definition for "jelly bean"? All I know is that it was a term used in the South, and had something to do with a flapper's boyfriend or the male equivalent of a flapper. It was considered rather insulting but I don't know why, or exactly what it means.

 

[LizzieMaine]

A jellybean liked to think of himself as a suave lover-boy, but he was actually more of a fop. He tended to view his girlfriends as accessories to his own sartorial magnificence rather than as human beings in their own rights.

 

[Stanley Doble]

So a regional variant of "sheik"?

 

[LizzieMaine]

Somewhat, but a lot more perjorative. In some neighborhoods, calling someone a "jellybean" was tantamount to calling him a pimp.

 

[vitanola]

Somewhat, but a lot more perjorative. In some neighborhoods, calling someone a "jellybean" was tantamount to calling him a pimp.

"He's a curbstone cutie
His Mama's pride and beauty
They call him Jelly Bean!
He parts his hair in the middle
And brushes it down
Then he struts his little Jelly Bean all around town.
The girls all love him
They think he's a riot!
(You know what I mean!
He don't drink Bevo, Beer or Wine.
He craves his ice cream sodas all of the time
He's a curbstone cutie, his Mama's pride and beauty
They call him Jelly Bean, say
They call him Jelly Bean.

 

[St. Louis]

I don't know if this amounts to a craze, but I see a lot of letter-shaped buttons and decorations on young women's girls and blouses in Sears Catalogues and women's magazines of the late 30s and early 40s. A girl could specify the letters she wanted (I assume her first name) on a mail-ordered dress.

I gather they weren't functional.

 

[scotrace]

Egyptian themed gloves, 1920s.

 

[scotrace]

"Bumper Surfing?"

 

[Trapped in T-wilight Zone]

Could you ask those girls to move over? I would like to get a better look at that car! It looks great, but I don't know what make it is.
By the way. I have a raccoon coat (although I do NOT advocate the continued manufacture of such things) and ukulele (upon which I cannot play a decent note because I have absolutely NO musical talent whatsoever). I really do enjoy much of what that decade offered in the way of expanding the "modern" era. General entertainment and education reached levels never before seen among the common people.

 

[1930artdeco]

It is a GM car, probably a high end Chevy or Olds? I think it is a posed picture as there is very little to stand on when it comes to those bumpers. I have a hard time doing that on my car when she is not moving.

Mike

 

[up196]

1923 Peerless Touring Car