The USA was incredibly rich in natural resources. There was much Iron mined in Iowa, Minnesota, Wisconsin and Chicago, whilst vast amounts of coal were mined in Illinois, Missouri and Kentucky. Due to the resources found in Texas, America became the world’s leading Oil producer. It’s textile industry - which had appeared around the time of the industrial revolution and had been growing since - and its newer chemical industry, bloomed. America’s huge population provided an abundance of workers, and a huge and varied consumer market that was hungry for the new goods being produced. America was foremost in developing new technology. Refrigerators, freezers, motorcars, the vacuum cleaner, electric lighting and telephones revolutionised American’s way of life. Food could be stored in people’s homes now, whereas before daily shopping trips had had to be undertaken so that the food wasn’t left to go off quickly – especially as some of the areas in America have very hot and extreme climates. The brand ‘Hoover’ became a household name – housework was greatly reduced by this invention, and even today vacuum cleaners are often referred to as ‘Hoovers’, whatever brand they are made by. Electric lighting changed the Americans’ concept of daytime, since this meant that activities usually demanding bright light could be undertaken whatever the time of day or year may be. The telephone meant communication for social and business use was revolutionised, altering the way businesses performed, and even changing the way relationships worked between people, shortening distances. The USA lead the film world – it had Hollywood, and movies quickly replaced theatres. Going to the cinema became the hobby of Americans, and by the end of the 1920s, 100 million cinema tickets were being sold every week. Even poor families spent half their leisure budget on around three weekly visits to the cinema. Poorer people would visit their local cinema, at around $0.10 a ticket, but those who were better off could afford to travel and see films at the nearest town or city, where the cinema itself and film quality would have been better. This time was known as ‘The Slapstick Comedy Golden Age’. The movie popularity led to rise of movie stars like Charlie Chaplin and Harold Lloyd – showing the Americans that anyone could get rich! Silent movies were soon replaced by the new ‘talkies’, where the actors actually talked. With all these industries’ strength and production had to speed up to match.
The rate of production had to be improved, and to do this, new technology had to be brought in. The assembly line was born. This production line and conveyer belt idea put the work onto machines. No skilled workers were needed – just people to do one or two very simple jobs on the product in progress as it travelled past them. Goods that had previously taken skilled men weeks to finish were being made by a series of untrained men and being finished quickly, making the products increasingly cheaper and more and more easily available to the public. One of the industries most benefited by the new methods of production was the huge industry of cars.
The biggest producer of cars was Henry Ford. By using an assembly line an assembly line that he introduced in 1913, he needed fewer workers, which cut the cost of wages. To cut production costs further, he standardised cars – only one colour and one engine size were available. It was the car industry that – more than any other industry, helped make America prosperous in the 1920s. And the car industry profited America’s other industries as well. To produce the cars, 20% of America’s steel, 80% of her rubber, 75% of her plate glass and 65% of her leather were used, creating more jobs in these industries. As a result of the amount of cars on the roads, Seven billion gallons of petrol was consumed a year – benefiting the Texan oil producers. Road construction jobs were created building and repairing the new roads needed to keep up with the amount of cars on them, and Garages and petrol stations along with roadside motels, restaurants and hot-dog stands popped along these roads to provide the motorists with the services they now needed. New professions in traffic policing and driving instructing were created – as well as increased car mechanic work to service the cars. And the attraction of the biggest-selling car – the Model T Ford, was that its price just kept on falling. The car had cost $1 200 in 1908 but by 1928 was down to $295. By this time there was one car to every 4.5 Americans – at least one family in every three owned a car. Even at the beginning of the 1920s, America had more cars than the rest of the world put together, and at the height of it’s prosperity in the 1920s, one car every three minutes was coming off the factory line. From the 4000 cars made in 1900, 4.8 million were produced in 1929. Though the Tin Lizzie – the Model T, was slow, ugly and difficult to handle, not only was it cheap but its popularity meant it was easy to get spare parts for it. Ford’s prosperity was reflected in the high wages paid to it’s workers – the promise of no less than five dollars a day meant workers flocked from far and wide to acquire jobs working for Ford. The car meant a new way of life for the American’s. From family trips to the cinema, to holiday travel, along with telephones, the car was another way of shortening distances. Travelling had never really been possible before, but now people explored – visiting places and moving around like they had never been able to before. Young people were given the freedom to get away from their parent’s watchful gaze – a thing much disapproved of by many older people. To accompany the new growing industry of cars, ways had to be discovered to sell them to the public.
For American’s, the advertiser and the salesman became key figures in their newfound world of prosperity. The advertisers were quick to pick up on the medium of cinema, placing advertisements before films. Promoters took over radio programmes, and put new life into magazines and newspapers. By Mail Order catalogue, shops put their whole list of goods onto paper to be viewed, and bought by telephone – it was possible for companies to not have a show premises at all. Billboards along highways, roads, and in towns and cities became a common sight; and product names were written in coloured lights along the sides of skyscrapers. Door-to-door salesmen reached women in their homes, demonstrating the goods they were selling to show the people what they were missing. This personal contact with salesmen and possible customers proved very effective as a selling technique. To encourage customers who did not have the money to pay for something, the concept of ‘Hire Purchase’ was introduced. It was a way of paying for an item over a period of time, with instalments. Eight out of ten radios and six out of ten cars were bought using this scheme. This led to increased sales of many expensive, and inexpensive items.
State of mind accompanied the prosperity of the1920s. A whole change of attitude came over America; they now believed in a right to prosperity – and their lives were focused on their material things. All many American’s aim was, was to have a nice house, a good job, plenty to eat and to be able to buy the latest consumer items. The people wanted to enjoy themselves and put World War 1 behind them. This was especially true of some young women, who rebelled against the strict rules and examples that they had been set. They cut their hair bobbed, wore make up and rid themselves of the rigid clothing women of their past had had to wear – showing more flesh than was socially acceptable at the time. They would even smoke in public and court men without chaperones. These young women were known as ‘flappers’. Due to the new jobs available for women, they now had independence and wanted to spend their money on enjoying themselves. Among other things, these women spent their money on clothes; thus fashion was born. And it boomed! Being in with the latest fashions became very important to some people, and Americans were constantly chasing fun and fads. New, exciting forms of music and dance became popular. Some people found the new dances like ‘The Charleston’ and ‘The Tango’ shocking. Crazes became common – different games like crossword puzzles and mah-jong were popular for a while, and Americans would enter dancing marathons. Spending money was increasingly seen as part of being an American – whereas in earlier decades being ‘thrifty’ and ‘saving for a rainy day’, had been responsible, the public opinion moved – suddenly spending was seen as better than saving.
It was a range of factors that caused the boom of the 1920s - and not only did these factors accompany and enable each other, they relied on each other. Without the new methods of selling, the cars wouldn’t have been sold, without the cars the industry wouldn’t have been so huge, without the industry there wouldn’t have been so many jobs, without the jobs there wouldn’t have been so much prosperity, without the prosperity, there wouldn’t have been a large market to sell things to, without a market to sell things to, there wouldn’t have been any new technology made, without any new technology, you couldn’t have sold it. All these things sparked the state of mind in America, which continued to fuel the consumer market. Maybe it was because America was an isolationist that she had such great prosperity in this time, but it was only due to her size and resources that she could even survive as an isolationist. The time of the 1920s brought in things that had never been seen there before – young people rebelling in their thousands, and people focusing and measuring themselves on their material things – seeing spending as better than saving. Heywood Broun is quoted as saying ‘The Jazz Age was wicked and monstrously silly. Unfortunately, I had a good time.’