"I hope she'll be a fool--that's the best thing a girl can be in this world, a beautiful little fool... You see, I think everything's terrible anyhow... And I know. I've been everywhere and seen everything and done everything." - F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby, Ch. 1
The 1920's saw an intense era of social change, personafied by the flapper. Sporting short skirts and short hair, with turned-down hose and powdered knees - the flapper was the antithesis of everything the women (and even men) of the generations before them stood for. She didn't let herself be confined to the house and simple tradition, she wanted more out of life like a higher education and her own job. She used make-up (which she sometimes even put on in public!) and wore baggy dresses which many times exposed things like her arms and her legs from the knees down, which was simply appalling to her elders. To those who came before her she was fast and brazen, a wildchild in a world that was just beginning to emerge from Victorian values, and worst of all, she was everywhere. However, flappers did more than symbolize a revolution in fashion and morals - they embodied the modern spirit of the Jazz Age.
Illustrator John Held Jr. caputred the image of the flapper almost perfectly in his famous charicatures featured in magazines like Time. Even today his drawings are considered to be an integral point of study when examining the era because they captured the flapper spirit so well. A real life example from this group of these Jazz Age pioneers was the silent film star Louise Brooks. Before her career in Hollywood, Brooks acted in such New York stage productions as the George White Scandals and Zeigfield Follies which introduced her to many wealthy, artistic, and socially glamourous figures of the 1920's. Brooks' enourmous social circle included many iconic figures who we now consider to have defined the era - for example the writer F. Scott Fitzgerald and the composer George Gershwin. She was photographed by Edward Steichen, painted by Vargas, and was the basis for John H. Striebel's long running flappercartoon, "Dixie Dugan." Young "flappers" across the nation were envious of her highly publicized carefree and exciting lifestyle and she became an inspiration to many of them.
To add to the fact that her real life was so glamorous, they even cast her as a flapper like character in the Hollywood movies she acted in! The 1926 film A Social Celebrity was her first major role but Brooks also starred as a flapper in Love 'Em & Leave 'Em (1926) and Rolled Stockings (1927). She was far from the only one, but Brooks is clearly a shining example of the glamorous flapper lifestyle that was brought about during the Jazz Age.
To get more of a sense of what the flappers were all about - especially regarding how they dressed, check out these entertaining articles written in the 1920's:
- An attempt to bridge the generation gap: "A Flapper's Appeal to Parents" from Outlook magazine (December 6th, 1922)
- An article on "Flapper Jane" from The New Republic (September 9th, 1925)
- And this excellent page on 1920's Fashions
While there are other authors who were popular during the era and if read now would give a good example of how life was back then - such as Elinor Glyn (author of It) - the writer most remembered for capturing the spirit of the roaring 20's is the above mentioned F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896 - 1940). Known to be a sociable and attractive man, Fitzgerald became famous soon after the publication of his first novel This Side of Paradise (1920). The author was among the first writers to describe post-World War I life, including new phenomena like petting parties and youthful love affairs. His writing gave the flapper and swinger lifestyle an air of Victorian sophistication that was quickly adopted by the youth of the era. Fitzgerald's books were so successful that he became like a king to the nation's youth and his queen was the beautiful, witty and emotionally unstable (which only added to the intrigue and popularity) wife Zelda.
Over time this celebrity couple became as well known for their unusual antics as they were for his ability to write. They were commonly seen doing things like riding on the hoods of taxis, laughing obnoxiously at the sad parts of plays, swimming in public fountains, and hosting lavish drunken parties, a major taboo during prohibition. Fitzgerald was able to afford this outrageous lifestyle by writing dozens of short stories for the leading magazines of the day as well as a number of novels which usually became smash hits, like the timeless classic, the Great Gatsby. His novels and stories helped to both shape and document the spirit of the period. For further information on F. Scott Fitzgerald visit these other links.
- The F. Scott Fitzgerald Centenary pages from South Carolina University
The 1920's brought about massive social change and a break from the Victorian Era ideals. The womans suffrage movement began in the 1920's and the era is considered a predecessor to other major cultural changes such as the rise in Hippie Culture and the growth of the Civil Rights movement. To sum up this golden age of change, I leave you with this well written poem, and a few more links for further reading.
THE FLAPPER
by Dorothy Parker
The Playful flapper here we see,
The fairest of the fair.
She's not what Grandma used to be, --
You might say, au contraire.
Her girlish ways may make a stir,
Her manners cause a scene,
But there is no more harm in her
Than in a submarine.
She nightly knocks for many a goal
The usual dancing men.
Her speed is great, but her control
Is something else again.
All spotlights focus on her pranks.
All tongues her prowess herald.
For which she well may render thanks
To God and Scott Fitzgerald.
Her golden rule is plain enough -
Just get them young and treat them rough.
RELATED LINKS
- The Roaring 20's - a checklist of books
- The Roaring 20's in a Nutshell
- Life in the Roaring 20's: A Quiz
Written by Michael S. Atwood