1920s Research

 

1920s Research:

 

The 1920s was “the age of cinema” and it was also labelled as the roaring twenties and golden age of sports due to large groups of people paying to watch others play sports for the first time (NCPedia, No Date). Women also began to break the rules of society and they were given the name ‘flappers,’ these were women who were very energetic, and they were known for pushing the “barriers in economic, political and sexual freedom for women” (History, 2018). They went to jazz clubs and smoked cigarettes, openly drank alcohol, danced provocatively, and dated freely (Acting out theatre, 2013), society deemed this behaviour outrageous and possibly even dangerous, women also wore short skirts exposing their calves and bobbed their hair. Due to WW1 there was a difference in the number of men in comparison to women which meant that women had to compete for attention, thus making makeup more desirable.










1920s makeup (Pinterest, No Date)

Makeup products were being produced and women were using mascara, eyeshadow, lipstick, compact powders, and pan-sticks rather than harmful lead products used in previous decades. Women also desired dark eye looks and it was very desirable to have thick dark lashes, at the beginning of the 1920s women would mix petroleum jelly with soot, coal or ink to create a dark gel which was applied with a fine brush, in the muddle of the decade blocks of mascara were being produced and this had to be headed before applying and then it was mixed with water to create a gel which was applied to make the lashes darker but eyelash curlers were used to create volume (Acting out theatre, 2013).

Eyeliner was made from a mixture of soot, lead and goose grease which was then applied around the eyes and smudged outwards, the eyelids were then coated with a gray eyeshadow, however, turquoise and green was also popular. Thin eyebrows were also desirable and it was common for women to completely pluck out their eyebrows and draw them out with a pencil, they were often higher than the natural brows and would slope downwards (acting out theatre, 2013).

Lipstick began being produced in tubes making it easier to apply and it was available in shades of plum and red, metal stencils were also being produced in various sizes. Women would apply their lipstick slightly outside their natural lip line, however, they wouldn’t apply lipstick to the corners of their mouth. Helena Rubenstien created “Cupid’s Bow” which was a product that created ‘the perfect cupid’s bow when applied,’ (Acting out theatre, 2013) this look then became desirable and a harsh cupid’s bow became popular.














1920s lips (Morley Makeup Artistry, 2016)

Blusher was known as rouge and it came in multiple forms including creams, liquid, and powders. This was applied to the apples of the cheeks and blended out to create a flushed look and the lips would often match the rouge, rouge would often be applied to the under-eyes and under the brows as this was thought to create a youthful look (Hair and Makeup Artist Handbook, 2015). Rolling down your stockings was considered ‘sexy’ and often rouge was applied to the knees to draw attention to them and the fact they’re exposed, they were also considered to be pretty and healthy looking (Acting out theatre, 2013).

Actresses had a lot of influence on the hair and fashion of the decade but they also demonstrated acceptable behaviour, the faces of women such as Clara Bow, Gloria Swanson, Louise Brooks, Greta Garbo were copied and admired (Hair and Makeup Artist Handbook, 2015).














Colleen Moore on the cover of Photoplay (Jan 1926).













Clara Bow (1927).











Faces from 1920s magazines, showing the flushed rosy cheeks and thin eyebrows.

Cinema was a huge industry in the 20s, the films released include:

  • ·         The Jazz Singer

  • ·         Safety Last!

  • ·         Metropolis

  • ·         Nosferatu

  • ·         The Kid

  • ·         Pandora’s Box

  • ·         The Circus

  • ·         Greed

  • ·         The Gold Rush

  • ·         Flesh and the Devil

  • ·         Underworld

  • ·         The Phantom of the Opera

  • ·         Sherlock Jr

  • ·         7th Heaven

  • ·         The Phantom Carriage

  • ·         The King of Kings

  • ·         The Black Pirate

  • ·         The Hunchback of Notre Dame

In 1917 the president of America instituted a prohibition to save grain for food and the 18th amendment banned the manufacture, transportation, and sale of alcohol and in 1919 the Prohibition Act was put forward, this then increased crime rates specifically in bootlegging and speakeasies (History, 2009) which was the illegal production of home brew alcohol and secret underground bars.

On 29th October 1929, the Wall Street Crash happened, and this started the Great Depression, billions of dollars were lost, and thousands of investors lost their money. The Great Depression was “the deepest and longest-lasting economic downturn in the history of the Western industrialized world up to that time” (History, 2010). This was a global economic collapse and thousands of people lost their jobs, unemployment rates rose extremely quickly especially in Britain and the US.

There were lots of serial killers active during the 1920s, this included Alonzo Robinson. He was a cannibal who was accused of murdering and eating several young women in Michigan, however, police were never able to convict him of those crimes. Before this occurred, he was arrested and sentenced for sending obscene letters to women, however, he didn’t serve any of his sentence due to escaping on his way to jail with a bullet hole in his shoulder. Police gained knowledge of his whereabouts when he was arrested in 1926 for stealing a girl’s corpse from a graveyard. During his 8-year sentence he became the suspect of another murder. While he was in jail, police found more bodies and they were all decapitated women, he was labelled as the number 1 suspect, but police had no evidence to convict him of these murders. He was released in 1934 and that same year he murdered a couple by attacking them with an axe before shooting them, a month and a half later the police approached him in connection with more letters and when they were searching him they found the mans pocket watch and some of the woman’s flesh which was seasoned with salt and had bite marks in it. While he was being interrogated, they found his truck which contained decapitated women’s heads. He was sentenced for murdering the couple and executed on March 5th, 1935 (Film Daily, 2020).
























Bibliography:

NCPedia (No Date) Sports in the 1920s Available at: https://www.ncpedia.org/sports/golden-age-sports#:~:text=The%201920s%20has%20been%20called%20the%20Golden%20Age%20of%20American%20Sports.&text=For%20the%20first%20time%2C%20large,national%20pastime%E2%80%9D%20in%20the%201920s (Accessed: 13th October 2020)

History (2018) Flappers Available at: https://www.history.com/topics/roaring-twenties/flappers (Accessed: 13th October 2020)

Acting out theatre (2013) Road to Chicago~ Rouge Your Knees!… And All That Jazz… Available at: https://actingouttheatre.wordpress.com/2013/04/08/road-to-chicago-rouge-your-knees-and-all-that-jazz/ (Accessed: 13th October 2020)

Pinterest (No Date) 1920s Makeup Available at: https://www.pinterest.co.uk/pin/526499012680814108/ (Accessed: 13th October 2020)

Morley Makeup Artistry (2016) 1920s Lips Available at: https://morleymakeupartistry.weebly.com/hairandmakeupthroughouthistory/1920s-lips# (Accessed: 13th October 2020)

Hair and Makeup Artist Handbook (2015) Women’s 1920s Makeup: An Overview Available at: https://hair-and-makeup-artist.com/womens-1920s-makeup/ (Accessed: 13th October 2020)

History (2009) Prohibition Available at: https://www.history.com/topics/roaring-twenties/prohibition (Accessed: 13th October 2020)

History (2010) Stock Market Crash of 1929 Available at: https://www.history.com/topics/great-depression/1929-stock-market-crash (Accessed: 13th October 2020)

Film Daily (2020) Alonzo Robinson: Cannibal left a trail of corpses before being caught Available at: https://filmdaily.co/news/alonzo-robinson/ (Accessed: 14th October 2020) 


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