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Crazes of the Era

LizzieMaine

Bartender
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32,962
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Where The Tourists Meet The Sea
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.
 
Last edited:
Messages
16,814
Location
New York City
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

Bartender
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32,962
Location
Where The Tourists Meet The Sea
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.
 
Messages
16,814
Location
New York City
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.
 
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16,814
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New York City
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.
 

Stanley Doble

Call Me a Cab
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2,808
Location
Cobourg
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

Bartender
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32,962
Location
Where The Tourists Meet The Sea
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.
 

vitanola

I'll Lock Up
Messages
4,254
Location
Gopher Prairie, MI
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

Practically Family
Messages
613
Location
St. Louis, MO
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

Head Bartender
Staff member
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14,373
Location
Small Town Ohio, USA
Egyptian themed gloves, 1920s.

Gloves_20s.jpg
 
Messages
88
Location
Grass Valley, Califunny, USA
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

Practically Family
Messages
671
Location
oakland
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
 

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