1920's

     I always love learning new things about the 1920's.  I almost wish I was born in the 20's, except for that whole stock market crash and great depression.  That would not be too fun, but it sounds like great fun to be a flapper back then.  My mission on my blog today is to explain the origin of "jazz," "black face performers," and the effects of the stock market crash..dun dun dun. 

       The word jazz used to be spelled as "jass."  According to the, Complete Idiot's Guide to the 20th Century, the word jazz is probably derived from a slang term for sexual intercourse. I found out in article, called "Brass tracks: Getting down to he origins of Jazz," that African Americans first started playing jazz in New Orleans.  I would have definitely thought New York first.  After New Orleans jazz became big in Chicago in 1915 and then in the 1920's it made it's debut in New York.  Jazz was a combination of African American beat and European rhythm. 
  
          I found an interesting, yet completely legitimate quote from Frederick Douglass that sums up a black face performer pretty well, "...the filthy scum of white society, who have stolen from us a complexion denied them by nature, in which to make money, and pander to the corrupt taste of their white fellow citizens." Black face performers were white people who actually pained their faces black. They also emphasized creating their lips look bigger.  The performers spoke in a different accent and wore rugged attire.  However, by the 1840s African Americans even participated in black face performers. 

    The first "black face" performer was a white comedian Thomas D. Rice who introduced the look in 1828 when he sang about Jim Crow Laws.  The black face performing shows were referred to as minstrelsy or a minstrel show.  In the 1920's even famous females blues singers such as singers Ma Rainey and Bessie Smith dressed up as "black face" performers.  By mid 1920's minstrel shows died out.    
     The stock market crash not only brought an end to Broadway but also everything that made the twenties roar.  There were no more extravagant outfits, Unemployment rates were the absolute worst, businesses and banks failed everywhere and even the wealthy were struggling.   People had been predicting that stock market prices were way too high, and when they plummeted people literally lost everything.  World War II had also put America is greater debt.  No one was buying anything from us, trading decreased tremendously.

      It is interesting how there are parallels between the recession going on now and the great depression.  Unemployment rate in April 2010 was 9.9% (according to an article, "Why a Rising Unemployment Rate is Good News," by Rick Newman) .  The unemployment rate in 1931 was still worse than now, but by not by too much.  The president now is trying to take ideas from Roosevelt, which I think is wise but I still think he should think more outside of the box. 

     I love learning about Broadway!