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The Roaring 20s


Many Americans spent the 1920s in a great mood. Investors flocked to a rising stock market. Companies launched brand-new, cutting-edge products, like radios and washing machines. Exuberant Americans kicked up their heels to jazz music, tried crazy stunts, and supported a black market in liquor after Prohibition. A popular expression of the time asked, “What will they think of next?”

Browse some photographs from “the age of permanent prosperity.”

http://www-tc.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/media/uploads/filmAssets/galleryImages/crash_gallery_01.jpg|http://www-tc.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/media/uploads/filmAssets/galleryImages/crash_gallery_01_t.jpg|Grauman's Chinese Theater radiates glamour at the premiere of a Hollywood movie in 1927. Silent movie stars Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks were investors in the theater.|California Historical Society/Chamber of Commerce;http://www-tc.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/media/uploads/filmAssets/galleryImages/crash_gallery_02.jpg|http://www-tc.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/media/uploads/filmAssets/galleryImages/crash_gallery_02_t.jpg|As people look on, a policeman measures the distance between a woman's knee and her bathing suit.|Library of Congress;http://www-tc.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/media/uploads/filmAssets/galleryImages/crash_gallery_03.jpg|http://www-tc.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/media/uploads/filmAssets/galleryImages/crash_gallery_03_t.jpg|Charles Lindbergh, a celebrity after his solo, non-stop transatlantic flight in May 1927, stands before his famous plane, the Spirit of St. Louis.|Courtesy Lindbergh Foundation;http://www-tc.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/media/uploads/filmAssets/galleryImages/crash_gallery_04.jpg|http://www-tc.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/media/uploads/filmAssets/galleryImages/crash_gallery_04_t.jpg|John Reynolds, the daredevil known as the "human fly," displays his talent on the flagpole of New York's Times-Herald building.|Library of Congress;http://www-tc.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/media/uploads/filmAssets/galleryImages/crash_gallery_05.jpg|http://www-tc.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/media/uploads/filmAssets/galleryImages/crash_gallery_05_t.jpg|Louis Armstrong, one of the greatest musicians of the Jazz Age, poses with his band, the Hot Five.|Courtesy of the Louis Armstrong House and Archives at Queens College;http://www-tc.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/media/uploads/filmAssets/galleryImages/crash_gallery_06b.jpg|http://www-tc.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/media/uploads/filmAssets/galleryImages/crash_gallery_06_t.jpg|Americans went car-crazy in the Twenties. Henry Ford poses with the first Ford model and the ten millionth automobile his factory produced.|Library of Congress;http://www-tc.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/media/uploads/filmAssets/galleryImages/crash_gallery_07b.jpg|http://www-tc.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/media/uploads/filmAssets/galleryImages/crash_gallery_07_t.jpg|Wing walking was one of the Twenties' ultimate stunts. Eddie Herzog and Bennie Thrash perform over Fresno, California in 1923.|Courtesy Fresno County Public Library Collection;http://www-tc.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/media/uploads/filmAssets/galleryImages/crash_gallery_08.jpg|http://www-tc.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/media/uploads/filmAssets/galleryImages/crash_gallery_08_t.jpg|Joe Kennedy, patriarch of the famous political family, relaxes in style. Kennedy famously made a fortune in the 1920s and cleverly cashed out before the Crash.|Courtesy John F. Kennedy Memorial Library;http://www-tc.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/media/uploads/filmAssets/galleryImages/crash_gallery_09.jpg|http://www-tc.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/media/uploads/filmAssets/galleryImages/crash_gallery_09_t.jpg|Moviegoers in front of Warners' Theater pose for a photo at the premier of "Don Juan," starring John Barrymore, in 1926.|National Archives;http://www-tc.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/media/uploads/filmAssets/galleryImages/crash_gallery_10.jpg|http://www-tc.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/media/uploads/filmAssets/galleryImages/crash_gallery_10_t.jpg|A woman demonstrates her garter flask, developed in response to Prohibition.|Library of Congress;http://www-tc.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/media/uploads/filmAssets/galleryImages/crash_gallery_11b.jpg|http://www-tc.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/media/uploads/filmAssets/galleryImages/crash_gallery_11_t.jpg|Crowds pack the stands to watch Yankee slugger Babe Ruth play the Chicago White Sox at Comiskey Park.|SDN-068149, Chicago Daily News Negatives Collection, Chicago Historical Society;http://www-tc.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/media/uploads/filmAssets/galleryImages/crash_gallery_12b.jpg|http://www-tc.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/media/uploads/filmAssets/galleryImages/crash_gallery_12t.jpg|A mob of bathers enjoys the beach at Lake Michigan.|National Archives
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