Books 2014 - The Jazz Age: the 20s

[byslantedlight]

I've had a lovely morning doing nothing other than reading, all through the rain on the window, the rushing past of dramatic clouds, and into what is now the sunshine. Although actually I've also been working, because that's what made me pick up this book, and since this is an unpaid part of my job, at least it's an enjoyable part!
It feels odd including this here too, because this is not only non-fiction, but also a Time Life book, and so it consists largely of pictures - but I did read it from cover to cover, and there was plenty of blurb and history to go along with the pictures, and it's nicely done so that it feels like I've spent the morning transported back in time...

And of course the 1920s are one of those interesting ages (well, I think so anyway), particularly in the US where everything seemed for so many to be going so well, except that on any slightly deeper level it really wasn't... So I read about youth rebellion, the boom in radio sales and tabloid newspapers and booze - and the prohibition that fuelled the latter boom - and about Harlem and Scopes and the Piggly Wiggly (which I'd only ever heard of in the film Sweet Home Alabama, but which turns out to have been the first ever supermarket-style shop (or grocetaria, as they were first called) and pole sitting and bootleggers and the talkies, and many other things and people...

I think we're still in that age, really - has anything happened since, that's surpassed the power of flight, the cinema, sports and other celebrities, advertising, the newspapers, supermarkets, and our Anglo-American (American-Anglo?) quest for more entertainment, at almost any cost? Okay, we now have television and the internet and mobile phones and e-readers - but they're really just more of the same, allowing more of the same, more conveniently. Hmmn... maybe fast foreign travel's been added - that's changed our lifestyles. It started out as entertainment, but perhaps it's widened our eyes to humanity - whether or not we individually choose to do anything further with it. But even that really started in the 1920s... What else...?

Comments

[golden-bastet.livejournal.com]

Yay! The 20s is one of my favorite decades! :D

I will insert a plug for silent movies here: complex as any modern film (and more complex than many), though often projected at wrong speeds and in need of restoration, silent movies often get unfairly maligned. There's a particular sensibility to them that is easy to understand with familiarity, and they open a window onto what 1920s culture was really like (while movies aren't historical documents, they do shed light on social expectations both physical and political).

They reflect the first peak in the art form - so many things in the genre taken for granted today first came up in the teens and twenties. And it really was a true peak: the movies made in around 1926-28, right before widespread retrofitting theaters for sound began, overall were technically unmatched for a good ten years. Even though every era has great and godawful films, I would put the top films from the silent era against any other period and have no concern for how they compared.

One note: Ernst Lubitsch's early film So This is Paris shows a jazz dance contest scene. That scene is incontrovertible proof that you can have dance in a silent film and depict the frenzy perfectly.

There's a really intriguing film: A Cottage On Dartmoor. In it, the protagonists (and, actually, the Bad Guy in the row behind) go on a date to see a double feature. The first film is a silent film; the second is one of those newfangled talkies. Is it incredibly fascinating to see the audience (and musicians') actions and reactions in the theater, and see the huge effect sound films must have made at the time.

...Boy, I didn't mean to go on quite like that. (And I'm out of practice writing about film.) But I do love me some silent film.

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

Oh, interesting - I've never watched a silent movie all the way through, and I really should (and some of the early talkies, too...) One of the film stars mentioned in the book was Clara Bow, the It girl of the silent movies. People lost interest in her after the Wall Street Crash and the decline of flappers - but apparently also because the talkies meant they'd heard her thick Brooklyn accent... how sad!

And hee - you go on about film any time, this all sounds very interesting. I'll have to find out where these early films are available - I'm guessing the British Film Institute, and there's a hub in our local library if they're not online, so... Thank you!

[golden-bastet.livejournal.com]

Clara Bow had a *really* screwed up childhood, but she came across as a very happy, fun-loving personality. I think she also married someone around the dawn of the talkies (who eventually ran for or became lieutenant governor or atty general of Nevada - something like that) and retired pretty comfortably. I don't think her voice was too much of an issue; it may have been the technology change itself. Or so I've heard (this is from my memory and Wikipedia).

BTW the voice transition thing was used a number of times by the studios to get rid of actors they thought were problematic / pains in the butt (Louise Brooks, John Gilbert). :D

Well, So This is Paris is a little hard to locate, but A Cottage on Dartmoor (which incidentally is British) is pretty easily found, and in fact is on Amazon. Generally, you should be able to find big pockets of silent films for sale, although they may be from smaller distributors (and I can get you names if you'd like).

One of the best things: they often cursed up a storm on set. After awhile you can read lips and see these things. :D

If you can get your hands on a 10-part documentary by Kevin Brownlow (who I got to meet once and is a great, kind person) and David Gill called Hollywood, it is an excellent look at Hollywood during the silent era (they also did a shorter version about European silents). Brownlow had the huge ability to interview a good number of silent actors in the 1960s and 70s (which he also put into a book, The Parade's Gone By), before they really started dying off. Only problem is that the set is only on VHS; he tried to release it on DVD and couldn't get the rights clearances for the hundreds of clips that had shot up in value between the VHS and DVD versions. Wah. ;_;

Oh, and Pre-Codes : Baby Face with Barbara Stanwyck and Love Me Tonight (the best Lubitsch not made by Lubitsch) are good places to start. :D

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

Oh, thanks for all the recs - I must bookmark this page!

I remember the name Clara Bow from around, and it may be that her voice wasn't the only reason she started losing work, but it was certainly cited in the book as one of the reasons. Glad to hear she ended up okay (well, as long as she wasn't also a horrible person deep down, or anything... *g*) I know I've seen films/read books where it was claimed that this or that silent star never worked again when talkies took over, because of their voice.

Actually there's a fab send-up of that kind of attitude, which I remember from years ago on telly in Manchester... let's see if I can find it on YouTube... Nothing to do with silent films or talkies really, but... the story of Clara Bow reminded me of them! *g*


Ha - and another one.