The Most Popular Forms of Entertainment in the 1920's

The most popular forms of Entertainment in the 1920's

The 1920s represented thhe era of greatest output in the US movie market.
In the 1920's Rin-Tin-Tin the movie dog, became the most famous dog ever to star in the movies. Rin-Tin-Tin was a starving German Shepherd dog during the Great War. Metro Goldwyn Mayer film making studio was founded. A new Pooh Bear story by A.A. Milne was a big hit for little children. Mickey Mouse became everyone's favorite cartoon character in Steamboat Willie. The first raido broadcast ever came out in November 1920 as well asthe first Miss America contest on September 8, 1921. The first talking movie came out in 1927 and was produced by Warner Brothers and was called The Jazz Singer.
Silent movies entertained and made people laugh, making the world a happier place to live in after the horrors of WW1. In the 1920's movie stars were really stars - with huge salaries, the fashions and activities of the Hollywood greats echoed around the world and 100,000 people would gather in London and even in Moscow to greet Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks on their triumphal tour of Europe.
Although many atempts were made to bring sound to the movies it was not till 1923 that they finaly had the first sound track for the movie before then they would be accommpanoed live by a piano or organ. It would still be many years before talking movies would finally replace silent movies. Francis X. Bushman caused fluttering hearts, Theda Bara wrecked homes, Charlie Chaplin and Fatty Arbuckle and Mack Sennett set zany standards, never to be excelled, and a host of beautiful ladies smiled and wept and were alluring.
Once silent movies gave way to talking pictures the issue of profanity was raised. The anti-war play (also made into a movie), "What Price Glory?", was the first to use bad language in a realistic representation of World War 1 soldiering. What the authors of that play set down in bitter revolt against war, then started to be accepted as the necessary vehicle of any and every phase of dramatic composition. The debate on realism and bad language has endured to the present day with profit increasingly put ahead of common decency. The Capitol Theater in New York City seating 8,000, became the biggest cinema in the world in 1921. Oscar Deutsch opened his first Odeon cinema in the UK in 1920. By 1930 the Odeon was a household name and still thrives today across Britain with a vast array of purpose built cinema.
Some of the brightest stars of the1920s were "Jazz Singer" Al Joisen, Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton, Greta Garbo, John Brrymore, Gary Cooper, Lillian Gish, Mary Pickford, Morma Shearer, and Gloria Swdanson pluse many more.
Many traditions of the twenties entertainment carry on today.

library.thinkquest.org/J0111064/20entertain.htm www.kyrene.org/schools/brisas/sunda/decade/1920.htm http://www.1920-30.com/movies
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