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(dramatic sting)

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Every once in a while, there are moments

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in history that reshape the world we live in.

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2020 is one of those moments

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when our world comes to a standstill.

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(letters trilling)

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But ever wonder what happens after a global pandemic?

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(lips smacking)
(man panting)

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(woman moans)

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First thing I wanna do

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when the pandemic is over is open mouth kiss everybody.

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I mean, open mouth kiss every consenting adult.

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Just wanna make sure that's clear.

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The post pandemic world,

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people are just so full of (screams).

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(people screaming)

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Like, you know, from being cooped up for like,

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a year and a half, and we're just gonna wanna let that out.

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Bet your bottom dollar people are gonna go nutso.

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Definitely a lotta babies outta wedlock.

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These guys that have been out of the game

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for a while are a little bit itchy.

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I'll tell you that.

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A lotta booze, a lotta parties, and a lotta orgies,

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so mask-off orgies.

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(whimsical music)

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Will the post-pandemic future be full

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of wild debauchery?

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(intense electronic music)

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Sometimes a clue to the future

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can be found in the past.

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(lively 1920s music)

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The 1920s are an amazing moment in terms of world history,

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I would say culturally, as much as anything else.

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The high, wide, and handsome 1920s brought

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undreamed of prosperity.

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It's exciting.

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It's exuberant.

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It's youthful.

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(cork popping)

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(flash popping)

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For some people, it was a big party.

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People have a sense of abandon and freedom.

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They feel that now they can try anything and do anything.

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(cars roaring)

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There was this really strong pull towards the new,

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and the modern, and the fashionable.

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It really is a time of incredible prosperity.

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(lively music)
(people shouting)

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For the Wall Street guys,

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it's unprecedented in terms of the wealth,

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in terms of what's happening in this country.

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The pace of change is so incredibly fast.

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People felt that they were living in the future.

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This is the history of the roaring 20s

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{\an8}in 501 kisses,

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{\an8}1000 drag queens,

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{\an8}and two and a quarter billion beers.

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(lively music)
(gun firing)

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(percussive sounds)
(upbeat music)

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(rocket whooshing)

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(upbeat music)
(radio murmuring)

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(upbeat music)

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(old-timey violin music)

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What number best sums up a moment in time?

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In the middle of the 1920s,

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{\an8}George Taylor discovers it's the number 15.

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{\an8}George is a young college economist.

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When he's not studying his spreadsheets,

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he likes to play pool and chess.

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Rack 'em up!

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And he also has an unusual academic interest

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in women's legs.

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He's writing his PhD thesis on the hosiery industry.

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{\an8}His father was the manager of a hosiery factory,

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{\an8}so he's very interested in stockings.

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As part of his studies, he's measuring

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the height of women's skirts from the ground,

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and over the course of the 1920s,

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he's noticed hemlines have been on the rise.

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Would you look at that!

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From below the ankle, then to the calf,

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and finally above the knee.

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By 1927, they will be a full 15 inches off the ground.

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Amazing!

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And being an economist,

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George puts two and two together.

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He notices that the rise in hemlines matches the rise

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{\an8}of the Dow Jones index.

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{\an8}That's not a coincidence!

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{\an8}He calls his theory, the hemline index.

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{\an8}Super-genius!

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The hemline index is an economic index that ties

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the rise of the economy to the rise of the hemlines.

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So as the economy goes from slower to faster,

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the hemline rises accordingly up the leg

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of the skirt-wearing lady.

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(lively 1920s music)

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(calendar clicking)

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In August, 1921,

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the Dow Jones Industrial index stands on a low of 63 points.

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Come on!

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By September, 1929, it rises

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to a high of 381 points.

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That's a whopping 600% increase.

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Good gravy!

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In the same period,

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the number of advertisements for hosiery

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in Vogue Magazine nearly doubles.

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I love you.

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And the amount of flesh on display increases

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by a staggering 800%.

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Fabulous!

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(lively 1920s music)

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Apart from the hemline, women were also wearing

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less clothes, so in 1913, you were wearing

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nearly 20 yards of fabric.

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By 1925, you're wearing about seven yards of fabric,

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and these lighter, freer clothes are a reflection

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of the new lifestyle they're leading.

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(lively 1920s music)

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{\an8}It made it much easier for them to partake

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{\an8}in all of these leisure activities that were new

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and trendy in the 1920s.

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They could go bicycle riding.

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They could go golfing.

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They could do these things that would have been difficult

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to do with the old fashions,

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and they could dance.

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♪ Gimme that string, gimme that string ♪

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♪ Gimme, gimme, gimme, gimme, gimme that string ♪

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While women are liberating their hemlines,

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and dancing the Charleston,

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(filmstrip clicking)

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a Hollywood director is filming his daughter,

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Mildred Unger, 2000 feet in the air.

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There she is dancing the Charleston on the wings

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of the plane, without, as far as you can see,

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any kind of safety mechanism at all.

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It's absolutely extraordinary to watch.

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(whimsical music)

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What's going on? (laughing)

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Oh, she's on top of the plane.

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Is she on top of the plane?

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Where is Children's Services?

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That's my number one question.

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Oh, wow.

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I wanna do this so badly.

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Whose mother let her go on a plane?

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That's what I wanna know.

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And how did this conversation go?

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Like, "Hey, listen, this like, your kid?

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Oh, come here, we have a great idea." (chuckles)

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Wow.

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(whimsical music)

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It shows kind of the craziness of the period.

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{\an8}She's 10 years old, and she's 2000 feet in the air,

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{\an8}and she's dancing on the wing of an airplane.

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You don't see that every day.

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What it speaks to in the 1920s is this real appetite

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for spectacle.

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(filmstrip clicking)

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So what was it about the 20s

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that made them roar?

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And could what happened then happened again?

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(filmstrip clicking)

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It turns out that the 1920s and the 2020s are linked

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by two doctors, separated by 101 years, and 7,218 miles.

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(percussive sting)

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It's December 31st, 2019.

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In the city of Wuhan China,

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a young medical doctor named Li Wenliang notices

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a worrying rise in the incidence of a SARS-like illness.

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{\an8}He sends a message to his colleagues.

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{\an8}Those first seven cases are an alarm bell

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for what will become the worldwide coronavirus pandemic.

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(drums beating)

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(numbers clicking)

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101 years earlier, on the other side of the world,

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another doctor has also noticed

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something out of the ordinary.

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(suspenseful music)

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It's January, 1918.

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Dr. Loring Miner is a large, gruff man

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with a handlebar mustache, and an affinity for alcohol.

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His practice extends over hundreds of square miles

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across the Kansas prairie.

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Sorry about that.

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On his rounds, he notices a worrying rise

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in the number of people suffering from flu-like symptoms.

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Their skin turns blue and purple from the lack of oxygen,

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and they have a fever of 104 degrees Fahrenheit.

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Young men are dying, and this is right next

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to one of the main Army bases

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where young Americans are being trained up,

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ready to be sent to Europe to help

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in the fight against the Germans.

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(guns firing)

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At the nearby Camp Funston, a soldier reports

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to the medics with similar symptoms.

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A week later, there are another 100 cases,

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and by the end of the month, 500.

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It's the first outbreak of what history will come to know

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as the Spanish flu pandemic.

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This is a time almost for the first time

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in American history where young Americans are being sent

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abroad in large numbers, and the fact is that

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they're carrying a deadly virus.

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(explosions)

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During World War I,

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10 million soldiers are killed.

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No one knows exactly how many die from the flu pandemic,

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but estimates suggest that one third

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of the world's population is infected,

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and up to 100 million people lose their lives.

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World War I affected the entire nation,

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and so to the Spanish flu.

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It didn't spare families, and it is spread quickly,

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and it was frightening.

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People wore masks.

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Movie theaters and restaurants shut down,

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and there was a lot of separating of people,

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and there was a real shutdown of the culture.

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{\an8}In North America, there are three waves

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of the pandemic between spring 1918 and the summer of 1919,

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when it finally fizzles out.

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(lively music)

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So how does a global catastrophe on this scale end

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in a decade-long party?

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{\an8}History shows us that following times of sacrifice,

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we like to indulge.

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We just got out of World War I,

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going over the hump of the Spanish flu,

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so that's setting the stage for some wild, wild partying.

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(lively music)

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And who better to kick off the party,

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than the regiment that sacrificed 1,400 lives,

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more than any other us regimen on the Western front?

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The 369th Infantry Regiment is an African-American unit

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recruited largely from Harlem.

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When they set out for the war in 1917,

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they were refused permission to join in the farewell parade

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of New York's National Guard, known as the Rainbow Division.

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In the words of the National Guard's commander,

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black is not a color in the rainbow.

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(somber music)

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The notion was that African-American men were cowardly,

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{\an8}that they could not fight.

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{\an8}They would be afraid to fight white people, basically.

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And then wherever they went, they encountered racism

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from American troops.

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To deal with it, the United States said,

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"You know, let's just them send overseas."

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So they were like, some of the first troops to go overseas,

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and then the U.S. Army didn't know what to do with them,

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so they put them with the French.

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When they reach the Western front,

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they will spend 191 days on the line,

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and are awarded 171 Croix de Guerre,

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{\an8}the French medal for heroism.

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The unit becomes the most decorated

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of all serving American regiments.

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So great is their reputation in combat,

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the Germans give them their nickname, the Hellfighters.

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They were fierce fighters.

266
00:11:06,852 --> 00:11:07,910
They were injured, they were stabbed,

267
00:11:07,910 --> 00:11:09,750
they were bayoneted, but they fought,

268
00:11:09,750 --> 00:11:11,160
and fought against this whole regiment

269
00:11:11,160 --> 00:11:12,909
until they made them retreat.

270
00:11:12,909 --> 00:11:14,032
(triumphant music)

271
00:11:14,032 --> 00:11:16,630
(percussive flash)

272
00:11:16,630 --> 00:11:19,330
When they return, they are given pride of place

273
00:11:19,330 --> 00:11:21,720
in the New York City Victory Parade.

274
00:11:21,720 --> 00:11:25,127
An estimated 5 million people lined Manhattan's Fifth Avenue

275
00:11:25,127 --> 00:11:28,373
from 23rd Street to 143rd.

276
00:11:29,320 --> 00:11:32,640
3000 surviving Hellfighters march as heroes

277
00:11:32,640 --> 00:11:35,030
in close formation with regimental band leader,

278
00:11:35,030 --> 00:11:38,380
{\an8}James Reese Europe, who's the first black American officer

279
00:11:38,380 --> 00:11:40,113
{\an8}to have led troops into combat.

280
00:11:40,980 --> 00:11:43,920
James Reese Europe was the foremost musician

281
00:11:43,920 --> 00:11:45,560
of that period.

282
00:11:45,560 --> 00:11:47,030
{\an8}And after seven miles,

283
00:11:47,030 --> 00:11:50,110
they reach Harlem at last, and James commands

284
00:11:50,110 --> 00:11:52,960
the regimental band to stop playing marching music,

285
00:11:52,960 --> 00:11:57,007
and instead, they burst into jazz.

286
00:11:57,007 --> 00:12:00,007
(lively jazz music)

287
00:12:00,960 --> 00:12:04,550
{\an8}Jazz music encompasses the roaring 20s

288
00:12:04,550 --> 00:12:06,060
{\an8}more than any other music genre.

289
00:12:06,060 --> 00:12:07,397
It is the soundtrack.

290
00:12:07,397 --> 00:12:10,397
(lively jazz music)

291
00:12:11,358 --> 00:12:13,540
{\an8}It sets the mood for the whole decade,

292
00:12:13,540 --> 00:12:15,330
{\an8}and it spreads all around the world.

293
00:12:15,330 --> 00:12:17,639
Jazz music is the tightest (bleep).

294
00:12:17,639 --> 00:12:18,472
(trumpet playing)

295
00:12:18,472 --> 00:12:20,720
It can be so spiritual, and it can be like so elemental.

296
00:12:20,720 --> 00:12:21,801
It can be ridiculous at times.

297
00:12:21,801 --> 00:12:24,360
(scatting a tune)

298
00:12:24,360 --> 00:12:25,415
I love me a good trumpet.

299
00:12:25,415 --> 00:12:26,560
(trumpet playing)

300
00:12:26,560 --> 00:12:27,919
It's like whiskey,

301
00:12:27,919 --> 00:12:28,752
(liquid pouring)

302
00:12:28,752 --> 00:12:29,922
smooth whiskey.

303
00:12:29,922 --> 00:12:30,921
(ice clinking)

304
00:12:30,921 --> 00:12:32,520
When you listen to jazz, it's like a mysterious man comes

305
00:12:32,520 --> 00:12:33,780
up to you with a bouquet of flowers,

306
00:12:33,780 --> 00:12:35,060
and then your mom magically appears,

307
00:12:35,060 --> 00:12:36,260
and tells you she's proud of you,

308
00:12:36,260 --> 00:12:38,047
and then your boss says that you're his boss now,

309
00:12:38,047 --> 00:12:39,380
and you can wear a power suit.

310
00:12:39,380 --> 00:12:40,360
That's what jazz feels like.

311
00:12:40,360 --> 00:12:41,979
It's just a wild ride from start to finish.

312
00:12:41,979 --> 00:12:45,430
(lively 1920s music)

313
00:12:45,430 --> 00:12:47,190
The thing that makes jazz so amazing, first of all,

314
00:12:47,190 --> 00:12:50,280
it's the freedom, the improvisational nature of it.

315
00:12:50,280 --> 00:12:52,110
(trumpet playing jazz)

316
00:12:52,110 --> 00:12:54,230
It's also something people had not heard before.

317
00:12:54,230 --> 00:12:55,400
It was a new music.

318
00:12:55,400 --> 00:12:58,721
It was a new way of thinking about what music could do.

319
00:12:58,721 --> 00:13:00,470
(lively jazz music)

320
00:13:00,470 --> 00:13:02,638
It's music for an urban jungle.

321
00:13:02,638 --> 00:13:05,060
(lively jazz music)

322
00:13:05,060 --> 00:13:08,000
It's got that kind of planning dissonance, in a sense,

323
00:13:08,000 --> 00:13:09,410
that feels very modern.

324
00:13:09,410 --> 00:13:12,660
It's not easy, it's not harmonic, it's not soothing.

325
00:13:12,660 --> 00:13:17,076
It's jangling, and jarring, and exciting, and sexy.

326
00:13:17,076 --> 00:13:18,460
(squeaking sting)
(lively jazz music)

327
00:13:18,460 --> 00:13:20,160
The birth of jazz coincides

328
00:13:20,160 --> 00:13:22,880
with the first great migration, where waves

329
00:13:22,880 --> 00:13:24,990
of African-Americans left the South,

330
00:13:24,990 --> 00:13:27,243
and headed to the urban centers of the North.

331
00:13:28,310 --> 00:13:31,593
A million African-Americans came north from 1914 to 1919,

332
00:13:32,840 --> 00:13:36,180
and that changed the whole dynamic of what cities would be,

333
00:13:36,180 --> 00:13:40,060
like Chicago, Detroit, Philadelphia, New York,

334
00:13:40,060 --> 00:13:43,490
where large populations grow.

335
00:13:43,490 --> 00:13:45,820
There were a lot of challenges that came with this,

336
00:13:45,820 --> 00:13:47,070
{\an8}the tremendous overcrowding,

337
00:13:47,070 --> 00:13:49,612
{\an8}and underemployment, and poverty,

338
00:13:49,612 --> 00:13:53,860
but an upside that happened as this flowering of the arts,

339
00:13:53,860 --> 00:13:56,149
and jazz music was really influential.

340
00:13:56,149 --> 00:13:58,930
(scatting with jazz music)

341
00:13:58,930 --> 00:14:01,610
It's very much an African-American art form,

342
00:14:01,610 --> 00:14:03,770
but it's something that is totally embraced

343
00:14:03,770 --> 00:14:07,607
by the young, white urban population.

344
00:14:07,607 --> 00:14:09,770
(lively jazz music)

345
00:14:09,770 --> 00:14:12,020
People thought that they were edgy, and attractive,

346
00:14:12,020 --> 00:14:14,850
and interesting, and so jazz music drove

347
00:14:14,850 --> 00:14:18,106
social integration in a way that hadn't been seen before,

348
00:14:18,106 --> 00:14:20,800
(lively jazz music)

349
00:14:20,800 --> 00:14:23,810
but it also seeded a lot of anxiety.

350
00:14:23,810 --> 00:14:25,139
A secret organization,

351
00:14:25,139 --> 00:14:29,380
the Ku Klux Klan, spread it poisonous influence

352
00:14:29,380 --> 00:14:31,380
throughout a large part of the country.

353
00:14:31,380 --> 00:14:33,630
The 20s were a time when people came together,

354
00:14:33,630 --> 00:14:36,680
but the 20s were a time when the KU Klux Klan was rising up,

355
00:14:36,680 --> 00:14:38,200
and becoming really influential,

356
00:14:38,200 --> 00:14:40,350
especially in the first part of the decade.

357
00:14:41,970 --> 00:14:45,800
{\an8}By 1924, it is spread to maybe 2 million members,

358
00:14:45,800 --> 00:14:48,260
{\an8}and people were overtly part of the Klan,

359
00:14:48,260 --> 00:14:51,240
and that was a real demonstrable example

360
00:14:51,240 --> 00:14:54,943
of a group trying to go backwards in time.

361
00:14:54,943 --> 00:14:57,779
(somber marching music)

362
00:14:57,779 --> 00:14:59,160
(typewriter clicking and dinging)

363
00:14:59,160 --> 00:15:02,023
There are even a lot of efforts to suppress freedoms,

364
00:15:02,023 --> 00:15:04,940
and there's this real trend in the 1920s

365
00:15:04,940 --> 00:15:07,470
where people seem to think that they could legislate

366
00:15:07,470 --> 00:15:11,920
their way to a moral, just, peaceful, innocent world.

367
00:15:11,920 --> 00:15:14,320
January, 1920,

368
00:15:14,320 --> 00:15:15,860
new legislation is passed,

369
00:15:15,860 --> 00:15:19,290
and the 18th amendment is enshrined in the constitution,

370
00:15:19,290 --> 00:15:22,993
banning the manufacturer and sale of intoxicating liquor.

371
00:15:24,210 --> 00:15:26,190
Prohibition is a movement that happens

372
00:15:26,190 --> 00:15:27,023
in the United States,

373
00:15:27,023 --> 00:15:28,190
and it's actually started much earlier.

374
00:15:28,190 --> 00:15:32,750
Remember, our roots in this country are puritanical.

375
00:15:32,750 --> 00:15:34,670
A lot of the early settlers really think

376
00:15:34,670 --> 00:15:36,590
that drink is wicked.

377
00:15:36,590 --> 00:15:38,293
Drink is the devil's brew.

378
00:15:39,323 --> 00:15:42,277
To pass a certain public house,

379
00:15:42,277 --> 00:15:44,610
a tavern of unsavory repute.

380
00:15:45,461 --> 00:15:47,727
(lapping drinks)

381
00:15:47,727 --> 00:15:50,280
I mortgaged my home, and my family too.

382
00:15:50,280 --> 00:15:53,840
It was really born out of a sense that drinking was

383
00:15:53,840 --> 00:15:55,810
the source of all kinds of social evils.

384
00:15:55,810 --> 00:15:59,210
So if the drink were eradicated, then there would be

385
00:15:59,210 --> 00:16:01,220
less trouble, there'd be less violence,

386
00:16:01,220 --> 00:16:04,446
and it was really seen as sort of a moral imperative.

387
00:16:04,446 --> 00:16:05,444
Prohibition,

388
00:16:05,444 --> 00:16:08,480
America's unique attempt to legislate morality

389
00:16:08,480 --> 00:16:11,296
in an age that wasn't really interested in it.

390
00:16:11,296 --> 00:16:12,129
(alcohol splashing)

391
00:16:12,129 --> 00:16:13,800
It's the beginning of prohibition,

392
00:16:13,800 --> 00:16:18,430
and America officially goes dry, but unofficially-

393
00:16:18,430 --> 00:16:19,880
When prohibition is passed,

394
00:16:19,880 --> 00:16:22,900
they hope it's going to improve society, improve behavior,

395
00:16:22,900 --> 00:16:25,360
make people harder-working, and more virtuous.

396
00:16:25,360 --> 00:16:27,510
The problem is no one wants to practice it.

397
00:16:27,510 --> 00:16:29,494
Everybody still wants to drink.

398
00:16:29,494 --> 00:16:31,600
(whimsical music)

399
00:16:31,600 --> 00:16:32,780
People didn't stop drinking.

400
00:16:32,780 --> 00:16:37,510
{\an8}They just started supporting illegal, illicit activities

401
00:16:37,510 --> 00:16:39,918
{\an8}that would get them drink.

402
00:16:39,918 --> 00:16:41,880
(1920s piano music)

403
00:16:41,880 --> 00:16:44,930
The 1920s is the age of the speakeasy,

404
00:16:44,930 --> 00:16:48,190
where alcohol is plentiful for those who know the password,

405
00:16:48,190 --> 00:16:50,723
and there are plenty who do.

406
00:16:53,159 --> 00:16:54,097
[Speakeasy Keeper] Come right on in,

407
00:16:54,097 --> 00:16:55,660
and name your poison.

408
00:16:55,660 --> 00:16:57,310
All you really needed to open

409
00:16:57,310 --> 00:16:59,500
your own speakeasy was a couple of bottles of liquor,

410
00:16:59,500 --> 00:17:00,690
and a room to have it in,

411
00:17:00,690 --> 00:17:03,040
and that's exactly what it was like.

412
00:17:03,040 --> 00:17:05,100
One of the statistics about the twenties is that

413
00:17:05,100 --> 00:17:08,730
for every bar that closes, three speakeasies open.

414
00:17:08,730 --> 00:17:10,910
So that tells you something about the number of people

415
00:17:10,910 --> 00:17:13,360
that are going, the success of these kinds of places.

416
00:17:13,360 --> 00:17:14,320
(paper tearing)
(numbers trilling)

417
00:17:14,320 --> 00:17:17,040
By the end of the 1920s, New York boasts

418
00:17:17,040 --> 00:17:19,850
32,000 speakeasies.

419
00:17:19,850 --> 00:17:23,560
That's one illegal bar for every 390 people,

420
00:17:23,560 --> 00:17:26,880
or three times as many as legal bars today,

421
00:17:26,880 --> 00:17:29,350
and that's only the ones we know about.

422
00:17:29,350 --> 00:17:31,130
The number that go under the radar is

423
00:17:31,130 --> 00:17:35,390
probably double that again, upwards of 100,000.

424
00:17:35,390 --> 00:17:36,850
You don't see that every day.

425
00:17:36,850 --> 00:17:38,480
{\an8}Another revealing statistic is

426
00:17:38,480 --> 00:17:42,260
{\an8}how many policemen were able to amass large savings,

427
00:17:42,260 --> 00:17:44,385
even when their salaries were quite modest.

428
00:17:44,385 --> 00:17:46,079
{\an8}(lively jazz music)
(knocking on door)

429
00:17:46,079 --> 00:17:47,375
{\an8}[Speakeasy Keeper] What's the password?

430
00:17:47,375 --> 00:17:48,208
{\an8}Stinky food.

431
00:17:48,208 --> 00:17:49,041
In Boston,

432
00:17:49,041 --> 00:17:52,400
there are four operational speakeasies on the same street

433
00:17:52,400 --> 00:17:54,361
as the Boston Police Department.

434
00:17:54,361 --> 00:17:55,194
I dunno, Captain,

435
00:17:55,194 --> 00:17:56,660
everybody seems drunk in this neighborhood.

436
00:17:56,660 --> 00:17:59,030
And in 1927, the prosecution

437
00:17:59,030 --> 00:18:00,920
of a San Francisco hotel clerk,

438
00:18:00,920 --> 00:18:03,724
accused of selling liquor, has to be abandoned.

439
00:18:03,724 --> 00:18:07,010
Maybe he could be innocent and guilty.

440
00:18:07,010 --> 00:18:09,059
When nine members of the jury are caught

441
00:18:09,059 --> 00:18:10,759
drinking the evidence.

442
00:18:10,759 --> 00:18:12,230
(drinker laughing)
(alcohol pouring)

443
00:18:12,230 --> 00:18:14,160
Honestly, if alcohol was banned,

444
00:18:14,160 --> 00:18:15,480
if I learned anything in the pandemic,

445
00:18:15,480 --> 00:18:18,190
that I can't go a week without it,

446
00:18:18,190 --> 00:18:19,581
I would just make it myself.

447
00:18:19,581 --> 00:18:20,579
(slurping) Yeah!

448
00:18:20,579 --> 00:18:22,550
Maybe I'd just make my own moonshine,

449
00:18:22,550 --> 00:18:23,880
just in my basement or something,

450
00:18:23,880 --> 00:18:26,170
like how people were doing sourdough bread

451
00:18:26,170 --> 00:18:28,890
during the pandemic, just start making my own booze.

452
00:18:28,890 --> 00:18:29,979
I'll ferment everything.

453
00:18:29,979 --> 00:18:33,479
I'd ferment alcohol in my bathtub and just bathe in it.

454
00:18:33,479 --> 00:18:35,270
(water splashing and pouring)

455
00:18:35,270 --> 00:18:36,780
Boys in prison have figured it out.

456
00:18:36,780 --> 00:18:37,790
They're making they own the hooch

457
00:18:37,790 --> 00:18:39,261
in these toilet balls out here.

458
00:18:39,261 --> 00:18:40,094
(liquid pouring)

459
00:18:40,094 --> 00:18:43,430
I'm sure I am just as creative as your average inmate,

460
00:18:43,430 --> 00:18:46,330
so (chuckling) I can definitely work something out.

461
00:18:46,330 --> 00:18:48,710
If alcohol was banned, I would still find a way to get it,

462
00:18:48,710 --> 00:18:50,130
as long as it was safe.

463
00:18:50,130 --> 00:18:51,400
Just wanna make sure I don't get like,

464
00:18:51,400 --> 00:18:52,796
moonshine that blinds me.

465
00:18:52,796 --> 00:18:53,850
(slurping)

466
00:18:53,850 --> 00:18:56,510
Between 1920 and 1929,

467
00:18:56,510 --> 00:19:00,820
up to 9 million gallons of pure alcohol were consumed.

468
00:19:00,820 --> 00:19:02,250
That's the equivalent of two

469
00:19:02,250 --> 00:19:05,236
and a quarter billion standard-size beers.

470
00:19:05,236 --> 00:19:08,236
(lively jazz music)

471
00:19:10,680 --> 00:19:13,990
But booze is only part of the story.

472
00:19:13,990 --> 00:19:16,890
The speakeasy is where Americans come to drink,

473
00:19:16,890 --> 00:19:19,920
listen to music, and to dance,

474
00:19:19,920 --> 00:19:23,010
but to dance, you also need a partner,

475
00:19:23,010 --> 00:19:26,450
and what the number 18 did for jazz and black musicians,

476
00:19:26,450 --> 00:19:28,943
the number 19 will do for women.

477
00:19:32,325 --> 00:19:33,200
(percussive trilling)

478
00:19:33,200 --> 00:19:36,800
August, 1920, the 19th amendment

479
00:19:36,800 --> 00:19:39,650
to the United States Constitution is ratified.

480
00:19:39,650 --> 00:19:41,110
The ladies appeared at the polls

481
00:19:41,110 --> 00:19:44,100
on election day by the hundreds of thousands.

482
00:19:44,100 --> 00:19:46,400
They had won their right to vote.

483
00:19:46,400 --> 00:19:47,700
It's the culmination

484
00:19:47,700 --> 00:19:49,790
of a decades-long struggle,

485
00:19:49,790 --> 00:19:52,960
finally granting women the right to vote.

486
00:19:52,960 --> 00:19:56,070
For so many years, American men did not want

487
00:19:56,070 --> 00:19:57,130
women to vote.

488
00:19:57,130 --> 00:20:00,020
{\an8}For instance, Woodrow Wilson was against women voting

489
00:20:00,020 --> 00:20:05,020
{\an8}in 1913, but by 1918, after having gone through World War I,

490
00:20:06,351 --> 00:20:07,790
he had a whole different attitude.

491
00:20:07,790 --> 00:20:08,730
He said, "You know, women have sacrificed.

492
00:20:08,730 --> 00:20:10,790
They've created a whole mobilization

493
00:20:10,790 --> 00:20:12,077
to help the war effort."

494
00:20:14,260 --> 00:20:18,120
During the war, women go to work while men are away.

495
00:20:18,120 --> 00:20:20,470
The fact that they get the vote very quickly

496
00:20:20,470 --> 00:20:22,690
{\an8}after the war is a reflection, I think,

497
00:20:22,690 --> 00:20:26,340
{\an8}of the contribution they've made to society in that time.

498
00:20:26,340 --> 00:20:29,030
But their suffrage was not experienced the same way.

499
00:20:29,030 --> 00:20:31,730
{\an8}While white women had much more opportunities to vote,

500
00:20:31,730 --> 00:20:33,260
{\an8}African-American women did not.

501
00:20:33,260 --> 00:20:35,310
Women in other minorities did not.

502
00:20:35,310 --> 00:20:37,960
Many women had to wait for decades more to be given

503
00:20:37,960 --> 00:20:40,380
their right to vote, but for the first time,

504
00:20:40,380 --> 00:20:42,920
women become equal participants

505
00:20:42,920 --> 00:20:45,700
in American society, equal citizens.

506
00:20:45,700 --> 00:20:47,630
The 19th amendment gives the vote

507
00:20:47,630 --> 00:20:50,450
to 26 million women.

508
00:20:50,450 --> 00:20:52,440
In the next decade, The number of women

509
00:20:52,440 --> 00:20:57,440
in the workplace will rise from 8.3 to 11 million.

510
00:20:57,530 --> 00:21:01,230
Corset sales will decline by two thirds, and the number

511
00:21:01,230 --> 00:21:04,420
of women buying cigarettes will more than double.

512
00:21:04,420 --> 00:21:07,250
For the first time, they can go out into the world,

513
00:21:07,250 --> 00:21:08,800
and in the 1920s, you see

514
00:21:08,800 --> 00:21:11,950
so many amazing female role models, from movie stars,

515
00:21:11,950 --> 00:21:15,740
to anthropologists, to writers, to doctors.

516
00:21:15,740 --> 00:21:18,960
This is a time when women really understand,

517
00:21:18,960 --> 00:21:20,950
and properly begin to live the idea

518
00:21:20,950 --> 00:21:23,673
that they don't just have to be wives and mothers.

519
00:21:23,673 --> 00:21:26,590
(triumphant music)

520
00:21:28,570 --> 00:21:29,403
(filmstrip clicking)

521
00:21:29,403 --> 00:21:30,400
For one young woman,

522
00:21:30,400 --> 00:21:33,360
it proves to be a particularly dramatic shift,

523
00:21:33,360 --> 00:21:36,283
which in her case is marked by the number one.

524
00:21:37,470 --> 00:21:39,340
Her best friend calls her pie-face,

525
00:21:39,340 --> 00:21:41,080
because she likes apple pie.

526
00:21:41,080 --> 00:21:44,740
{\an8}She's an unfashionable, wannabe dancer and actress.

527
00:21:44,740 --> 00:21:45,610
{\an8}I got an idea!

528
00:21:45,610 --> 00:21:47,080
She escapes the Midwest,

529
00:21:47,080 --> 00:21:48,690
and comes to the Big Apple

530
00:21:48,690 --> 00:21:52,251
in pursuit of a dream, and expensive clothes.

531
00:21:52,251 --> 00:21:53,140
(lively 1920s music)

532
00:21:53,140 --> 00:21:55,390
She ends up dancing in the Ziegfeld Follies,

533
00:21:55,390 --> 00:21:58,280
which is scantily clad ladies doing high kicks on stage.

534
00:21:58,280 --> 00:21:59,840
It was a pretty established route to go

535
00:21:59,840 --> 00:22:01,390
into the movies from.

536
00:22:01,390 --> 00:22:02,710
You're fired!

537
00:22:02,710 --> 00:22:05,100
Oh, booger.

538
00:22:05,100 --> 00:22:06,980
When she's fired from the stage,

539
00:22:06,980 --> 00:22:10,292
her best friend decides she's in need of a make-over.

540
00:22:10,292 --> 00:22:11,620
(whimsical music)

541
00:22:11,620 --> 00:22:12,880
She's very down in the dumps.

542
00:22:12,880 --> 00:22:13,880
She loses a job.

543
00:22:13,880 --> 00:22:15,700
She doesn't get a job she hoped for,

544
00:22:15,700 --> 00:22:17,650
and her friend takes her off to have a haircut.

545
00:22:17,650 --> 00:22:18,483
Come on in.

546
00:22:18,483 --> 00:22:20,120
But instead of a woman's hairdresser,

547
00:22:20,120 --> 00:22:22,694
their destination is a barber shop.

548
00:22:22,694 --> 00:22:23,813
A little here, a little there.

549
00:22:23,813 --> 00:22:24,770
The barber shortens her bangs

550
00:22:24,770 --> 00:22:26,400
in a line above her eyebrows.

551
00:22:26,400 --> 00:22:27,233
Terrific!

552
00:22:27,233 --> 00:22:28,670
He shapes the sides into points

553
00:22:28,670 --> 00:22:31,270
at her cheekbones, and at the nape of her neck,

554
00:22:31,270 --> 00:22:33,470
he uses a number one razor.

555
00:22:33,470 --> 00:22:34,303
Voilà!

556
00:22:34,303 --> 00:22:36,960
It's the world's first shingle bob.

557
00:22:36,960 --> 00:22:37,793
That's great!

558
00:22:37,793 --> 00:22:39,420
Her name is Louise Brooks,

559
00:22:39,420 --> 00:22:40,970
and it's not long after she steps

560
00:22:40,970 --> 00:22:43,078
off the barber's swivel chair that she will see

561
00:22:43,078 --> 00:22:45,334
her name in lights in Hollywood.

562
00:22:45,334 --> 00:22:48,143
Thank you very much!

563
00:22:50,485 --> 00:22:53,700
The independence of the 1920s is kind of encapsulated

564
00:22:53,700 --> 00:22:55,870
by this one haircut that Louise Brooks has,

565
00:22:55,870 --> 00:22:58,690
and she becomes the archetypal flapper.

566
00:22:58,690 --> 00:23:00,120
She also becomes one

567
00:23:00,120 --> 00:23:03,200
of the biggest Hollywood stars of the silent movie era,

568
00:23:03,200 --> 00:23:07,520
inspiring a whole generation of young female imitators.

569
00:23:07,520 --> 00:23:09,909
At one point it's said that in New York alone,

570
00:23:09,909 --> 00:23:13,053
{\an8}2000 women a day are getting the shingle.

571
00:23:13,980 --> 00:23:16,560
All over America in the 20s, girls are getting

572
00:23:16,560 --> 00:23:18,080
their hair shingled or shorn.

573
00:23:18,080 --> 00:23:19,810
They have them with a marcel wave.

574
00:23:19,810 --> 00:23:22,210
Ironically, of course, they're quite hard to maintain.

575
00:23:22,210 --> 00:23:23,755
You have to go to the hairdresser more often,

576
00:23:23,755 --> 00:23:26,790
and it's part of the explosion in the cosmetics

577
00:23:26,790 --> 00:23:29,470
and beauty industry that happens in the 1920s as well.

578
00:23:29,470 --> 00:23:32,262
Women are suddenly the object of marketing then.

579
00:23:32,262 --> 00:23:34,750
(lively 1920s music)

580
00:23:34,750 --> 00:23:36,300
In 1920, there are

581
00:23:36,300 --> 00:23:39,790
only 5,000 hairdressing salons in the United States.

582
00:23:39,790 --> 00:23:44,150
Just four years later, there are 21,000.

583
00:23:44,150 --> 00:23:46,690
At the start of the decade, makeup was for women

584
00:23:46,690 --> 00:23:49,940
of doubtful reputation, and there was no such thing

585
00:23:49,940 --> 00:23:52,483
as getting a facial at a beauty salon.

586
00:23:53,670 --> 00:23:55,000
But by the end of the decade,

587
00:23:55,000 --> 00:23:57,970
there are 18,000 salons nationwide,

588
00:23:57,970 --> 00:24:02,125
offering 1,300 brands and shades of face powder.

589
00:24:02,125 --> 00:24:02,958
Woo!

590
00:24:02,958 --> 00:24:04,060
350 rouges.

591
00:24:04,060 --> 00:24:04,893
Terrific!

592
00:24:04,893 --> 00:24:06,370
And a hundred red lipsticks.

593
00:24:06,370 --> 00:24:07,203
Fabulous!

594
00:24:07,203 --> 00:24:08,670
Female beauty has become

595
00:24:08,670 --> 00:24:11,238
a $52 million industry.

596
00:24:11,238 --> 00:24:12,520
(commenter laughing)

597
00:24:12,520 --> 00:24:14,970
Free at last, she not only dressed freely,

598
00:24:14,970 --> 00:24:16,940
but was lavished with makeup, chewed gum,

599
00:24:16,940 --> 00:24:18,620
and even smoked in public.

600
00:24:18,620 --> 00:24:20,410
And the one place these coiffed

601
00:24:20,410 --> 00:24:24,850
and confident young women can go to is the speakeasy.

602
00:24:24,850 --> 00:24:27,010
Yes, I know, knock three times,

603
00:24:27,010 --> 00:24:28,460
and tell them you're friends with Charlie.

604
00:24:28,460 --> 00:24:30,063
Speakeasies are a place where,

605
00:24:30,063 --> 00:24:32,070
almost for the first time,

606
00:24:32,070 --> 00:24:34,762
women are able to go and have a drink.

607
00:24:34,762 --> 00:24:37,720
I think the fact that you get music and dancing

608
00:24:37,720 --> 00:24:39,680
quite often in a speakeasy makes it a place

609
00:24:39,680 --> 00:24:41,830
that's very attractive to women.

610
00:24:41,830 --> 00:24:43,490
And part of what happened

611
00:24:43,490 --> 00:24:45,140
in speakeasies was dating.

612
00:24:45,140 --> 00:24:47,590
Dating was new in the United States.

613
00:24:47,590 --> 00:24:50,090
They can now go out without a chaperone.

614
00:24:50,090 --> 00:24:53,365
They can go on dates with fellas. (chuckles)

615
00:24:53,365 --> 00:24:56,910
They can neck, they can flirt, and it doesn't destroy

616
00:24:56,910 --> 00:24:59,090
their reputations, because in some ways,

617
00:24:59,090 --> 00:25:01,149
the best way to say it is everybody's doing it.

618
00:25:01,149 --> 00:25:01,982
(lively 1920s music)

619
00:25:01,982 --> 00:25:05,024
Only 14% of women born before 1900 said

620
00:25:05,024 --> 00:25:09,386
they had premarital sex before the age of 25.

621
00:25:09,386 --> 00:25:14,386
By the 1920s, that number has more than doubled to 34%.

622
00:25:15,281 --> 00:25:19,360
In the course of the decade, the birth rate actually drops

623
00:25:19,360 --> 00:25:22,780
by 20%, which may be explained by the fact

624
00:25:22,780 --> 00:25:26,151
that during the same period, condom sales double.

625
00:25:26,151 --> 00:25:26,984
(lively 1920s music)

626
00:25:26,984 --> 00:25:30,360
But how many times do you have to kiss a boy to change

627
00:25:30,360 --> 00:25:31,900
the course of history?

628
00:25:31,900 --> 00:25:35,733
For Lottie Gee, that number proves to be 501.

629
00:25:37,430 --> 00:25:39,210
It's 1921.
(lively 1920s music)

630
00:25:39,210 --> 00:25:43,070
A new show opens on Broadway called Shuffle Along.

631
00:25:43,070 --> 00:25:46,420
It's the first Broadway musical with a book, music,

632
00:25:46,420 --> 00:25:49,370
dance, and cast created wholly by African-Americans,

633
00:25:49,370 --> 00:25:53,544
including Noble Sissle, a veteran of the Harlem Hellfighters

634
00:25:53,544 --> 00:25:56,764
who, with Eubie Blake, wrote the music.

635
00:25:56,764 --> 00:26:01,420
Shuffle Along was the music sensation of 1921,

636
00:26:01,420 --> 00:26:03,730
and it never should have made it to Broadway,

637
00:26:03,730 --> 00:26:06,370
but it changed Broadway.

638
00:26:06,370 --> 00:26:07,203
It's essentially

639
00:26:07,203 --> 00:26:10,260
your old-fashioned, boy-meets-girl, musical romance,

640
00:26:10,260 --> 00:26:13,010
only in this case, it's portraying black romance

641
00:26:13,010 --> 00:26:15,433
on par with white, which is a gamble.

642
00:26:16,610 --> 00:26:20,165
Before this period, the notion of a black love scene

643
00:26:20,165 --> 00:26:23,480
on stage is considered anathema to white audiences.

644
00:26:23,480 --> 00:26:25,285
They cannot stand the idea

645
00:26:25,285 --> 00:26:26,118
of black people loving each other.

646
00:26:26,118 --> 00:26:27,570
So Sissle and Blake, of course,

647
00:26:27,570 --> 00:26:29,100
write a number of love scenes into this,

648
00:26:29,100 --> 00:26:30,810
'cause it's about black life,

649
00:26:30,810 --> 00:26:31,970
and black culture, black joy.

650
00:26:31,970 --> 00:26:34,320
We love each other, but they're terrified

651
00:26:34,320 --> 00:26:36,350
that the audience is going to stampede out.

652
00:26:36,350 --> 00:26:37,910
{\an8}Ladies and gentlemen.

653
00:26:37,910 --> 00:26:40,220
{\an8}It's May 23rd, 1921,

654
00:26:40,220 --> 00:26:44,100
{\an8}opening night at the Daly's 63rd Street Theater.

655
00:26:44,100 --> 00:26:46,630
Onstage in the limelight, the young lovers,

656
00:26:46,630 --> 00:26:49,260
Lottie Gee and Roger Matthews are about to sing

657
00:26:49,260 --> 00:26:51,960
{\an8}their duet, Love Will Find a Way.

658
00:26:51,960 --> 00:26:53,670
{\an8}Backstage, the composer,

659
00:26:53,670 --> 00:26:57,040
{\an8}Noble Sissle can hardly bear to watch.

660
00:26:57,040 --> 00:27:00,500
He stands by the stage door, one foot inside the theater,

661
00:27:00,500 --> 00:27:03,310
the other on the street pointing north toward Harlem,

662
00:27:03,310 --> 00:27:06,780
afraid that if the song bombs, they'll be run out of town.

663
00:27:06,780 --> 00:27:09,763
The song is received in silence,

664
00:27:10,610 --> 00:27:14,640
until suddenly, Sissle hears wild applause break out,

665
00:27:14,640 --> 00:27:17,030
and an encore is called for.

666
00:27:17,030 --> 00:27:21,460
{\an8}Shuffle Along will run for another 501 performances,

667
00:27:21,460 --> 00:27:24,700
{\an8}becoming one of the longest-running musical shows

668
00:27:24,700 --> 00:27:25,903
of the decade.

669
00:27:26,820 --> 00:27:28,510
Shuffle Along is a phenomenon.

670
00:27:28,510 --> 00:27:31,627
It creates a desire to see African-American music,

671
00:27:31,627 --> 00:27:35,420
and culture, and it leads people to go up to Harlem

672
00:27:35,420 --> 00:27:36,388
who've never been before.

673
00:27:36,388 --> 00:27:39,480
Harlem at night has been a symbol

674
00:27:39,480 --> 00:27:41,603
the world over for jazz and cabaret life.

675
00:27:41,603 --> 00:27:45,180
It's at a time when, as Langston Hughes famously puts it,

676
00:27:45,180 --> 00:27:46,662
the Negro was in Vogue,

677
00:27:46,662 --> 00:27:48,387
(lively jazz music)

678
00:27:48,387 --> 00:27:53,120
and suddenly what they are creating is seen as valuable,

679
00:27:53,120 --> 00:27:57,540
and important, and part of American life.

680
00:27:57,540 --> 00:28:00,507
It's seen as integral to it for the first time.

681
00:28:00,507 --> 00:28:03,507
(lively jazz music)

682
00:28:04,610 --> 00:28:05,530
Harlem becomes

683
00:28:05,530 --> 00:28:08,398
the cultural Mecca of Manhattan,

684
00:28:08,398 --> 00:28:11,821
♪ That's how it is ♪

685
00:28:11,821 --> 00:28:12,827
♪ That's how it is ♪

686
00:28:12,827 --> 00:28:16,290
and the underground subculture comes out of the closet,

687
00:28:16,290 --> 00:28:20,240
dressed in sequined gowns, and white tuxedos.

688
00:28:20,240 --> 00:28:22,210
One of the things that Harlem is known for

689
00:28:22,210 --> 00:28:24,570
{\an8}in the twenties is not just the great music,

690
00:28:24,570 --> 00:28:26,030
{\an8}and the sort of great nightlife.

691
00:28:26,030 --> 00:28:28,430
{\an8}It's also a place where gender

692
00:28:28,430 --> 00:28:31,440
and sexual roles can be transgressed,

693
00:28:31,440 --> 00:28:32,860
and played with a little bit.

694
00:28:32,860 --> 00:28:37,860
(filmstrip clicking)
(smoky jazz music)

695
00:28:40,370 --> 00:28:43,920
The Stonewall riot in 1969 is often considered

696
00:28:43,920 --> 00:28:46,240
the beginning of the gay rights movement,

697
00:28:46,240 --> 00:28:49,030
but more than 50 years earlier,

698
00:28:49,030 --> 00:28:52,450
Harlem's famous drag balls are part of a flourishing,

699
00:28:52,450 --> 00:28:55,849
highly visible LGBTQ nightlife.

700
00:28:55,849 --> 00:28:58,450
(whimsical music)

701
00:28:58,450 --> 00:29:01,300
{\an8}It's February 26th, 1926,

702
00:29:01,300 --> 00:29:04,820
{\an8}the biggest night of Harry Walter's life.

703
00:29:04,820 --> 00:29:08,180
{\an8}Outside, two feet of snow blankets the ground.

704
00:29:08,180 --> 00:29:09,490
Ladies and gentlemen.

705
00:29:09,490 --> 00:29:11,300
But inside, the heat is on

706
00:29:11,300 --> 00:29:13,820
at the Renaissance Ballroom and Casino in Harlem

707
00:29:13,820 --> 00:29:17,030
for the 58th Annual Hamilton Lodge Ball.

708
00:29:17,030 --> 00:29:20,250
{\an8}1000 of New York's finest, dressed in tuxedos,

709
00:29:20,250 --> 00:29:23,490
{\an8}and gorgeous ball gowns crowd the dance floor,

710
00:29:23,490 --> 00:29:25,050
and as midnight strikes,

711
00:29:25,050 --> 00:29:28,100
it's time for the grand parade in front of the judges.

712
00:29:28,100 --> 00:29:29,000
And the rest costume is-

713
00:29:29,000 --> 00:29:32,320
First prize goes to Harry,

714
00:29:32,320 --> 00:29:34,260
best dressed drag queen of them all.

715
00:29:34,260 --> 00:29:36,070
{\an8}Thank you very much.

716
00:29:36,070 --> 00:29:38,220
What's really interesting about these drag balls,

717
00:29:38,220 --> 00:29:40,830
these fairy balls, is that they weren't just

718
00:29:40,830 --> 00:29:43,430
for an underground subculture.

719
00:29:43,430 --> 00:29:44,390
They were for everyone.

720
00:29:44,390 --> 00:29:46,610
They're reported about in the popular media,

721
00:29:46,610 --> 00:29:47,818
and the popular press.

722
00:29:47,818 --> 00:29:49,090
(lively jazz music)

723
00:29:49,090 --> 00:29:51,620
A lot of the attendees are straight,

724
00:29:51,620 --> 00:29:54,710
and they're just going to be part of this world.

725
00:29:54,710 --> 00:29:57,660
There's nothing strange in it.

726
00:29:57,660 --> 00:29:59,730
Drag shows, drag balls, parties that happen

727
00:29:59,730 --> 00:30:01,100
in queer spaces and queer parties are like,

728
00:30:01,100 --> 00:30:02,240
just the best parties.

729
00:30:02,240 --> 00:30:04,590
Glitz and glam, it's always a party.

730
00:30:04,590 --> 00:30:07,037
Lots of sequins, lots of bright lights,

731
00:30:07,037 --> 00:30:08,720
lot of Whitney Houston covers.

732
00:30:08,720 --> 00:30:10,250
There's just so much flair, and color,

733
00:30:10,250 --> 00:30:11,090
and people are voguing.

734
00:30:11,090 --> 00:30:13,820
The swag of it all, like, there's a level of confidence

735
00:30:13,820 --> 00:30:15,610
that it takes, I don't have it.

736
00:30:15,610 --> 00:30:17,100
I don't do well with eyeshadow.

737
00:30:17,100 --> 00:30:19,100
I'm envious of drag queens in balls.

738
00:30:19,100 --> 00:30:21,718
I wanna look as good as they do, like (bleep).

739
00:30:21,718 --> 00:30:24,845
(wolf whistle)

740
00:30:24,845 --> 00:30:29,060
{\an8}In the 1920s, the LGBTQ community was much more open

741
00:30:29,060 --> 00:30:31,432
than many of us might realize.

742
00:30:31,432 --> 00:30:36,020
People describe going to Harlem, and going into a bar,

743
00:30:36,020 --> 00:30:38,790
or a speakeasy, and seeing a table where you've got

744
00:30:38,790 --> 00:30:41,360
two black boys, two white boys,

745
00:30:41,360 --> 00:30:43,130
and they're all dressed as women,

746
00:30:43,130 --> 00:30:45,740
and up on the dance floor are two girls,

747
00:30:45,740 --> 00:30:48,130
dressed in tuxedos, dancing together.

748
00:30:48,130 --> 00:30:51,310
Identity is fluid, gender is fluid,

749
00:30:51,310 --> 00:30:53,740
and it feels quite modern.

750
00:30:53,740 --> 00:30:55,070
That isn't to say that there was

751
00:30:55,070 --> 00:30:56,890
widespread acceptance everywhere.

752
00:30:56,890 --> 00:30:58,600
Although they were allowed to exist,

753
00:30:58,600 --> 00:31:00,060
they were also really complicated,

754
00:31:00,060 --> 00:31:03,280
and problematic for a mainstream culture as well.

755
00:31:03,280 --> 00:31:07,330
{\an8}Gene Malin is six feet tall and 200 pounds,

756
00:31:07,330 --> 00:31:10,470
{\an8}and one of new York's most famous female impersonators

757
00:31:10,470 --> 00:31:13,274
who wins prizes for wearing costumes made up entirely

758
00:31:13,274 --> 00:31:15,970
of pink and gold feathers.

759
00:31:15,970 --> 00:31:18,230
One night, he wanders into a Greenwich cafe

760
00:31:18,230 --> 00:31:20,391
in full drag wig and makeup.

761
00:31:20,391 --> 00:31:21,530
(patron laughing)

762
00:31:21,530 --> 00:31:23,730
Four rough birds begin to heckle him,

763
00:31:23,730 --> 00:31:25,980
and as he shimmies by their table,

764
00:31:25,980 --> 00:31:27,955
they throw a pitcher of water on him.

765
00:31:27,955 --> 00:31:30,210
What's the matter with you?

766
00:31:30,210 --> 00:31:32,315
Gene barely bats a false eyelash

767
00:31:32,315 --> 00:31:33,956
before fighting back.

768
00:31:33,956 --> 00:31:34,789
(banging)

769
00:31:34,789 --> 00:31:37,719
Three of them he beats to a pulp.

770
00:31:37,719 --> 00:31:40,330
(banging and grunting)

771
00:31:40,330 --> 00:31:42,590
The fights spills out onto the street,

772
00:31:42,590 --> 00:31:45,308
and the fourth heckler is only saved from Malin

773
00:31:45,308 --> 00:31:48,129
by two passing taxi drivers.

774
00:31:48,129 --> 00:31:49,160
What the hell you doing over there?

775
00:31:49,160 --> 00:31:51,980
Afterwards, Malin had tears in his eyes.

776
00:31:51,980 --> 00:31:54,920
When asked why, he pointed out that during the fight,

777
00:31:54,920 --> 00:31:56,848
he had ripped his gowns.

778
00:31:56,848 --> 00:32:00,510
(Malin sobbing)
(lively jazz music)

779
00:32:00,510 --> 00:32:03,930
{\an8}Gene Malin is exactly 12 pounds heavier

780
00:32:03,930 --> 00:32:06,120
{\an8}than boxing champion, Jack Dempsey,

781
00:32:06,120 --> 00:32:08,010
but unlike Malin's punch,

782
00:32:08,010 --> 00:32:11,975
Dempsey's right hook will be heard right across America.

783
00:32:11,975 --> 00:32:14,355
(loud punching)

784
00:32:14,355 --> 00:32:16,010
After a great deal of pre-fight ballyhoo,

785
00:32:16,010 --> 00:32:18,350
the two men met at historic Boyle's Thirty Acres

786
00:32:18,350 --> 00:32:19,183
in New Jersey.

787
00:32:20,220 --> 00:32:22,820
It's called the fight of the century,

788
00:32:22,820 --> 00:32:25,130
Dempsey versus George Carpentier

789
00:32:25,130 --> 00:32:27,736
for the world heavyweight title.

790
00:32:27,736 --> 00:32:29,650
80,000 people filled every inch

791
00:32:29,650 --> 00:32:31,160
of Boyle's Thirty Acres.

792
00:32:31,160 --> 00:32:33,750
But these spectators are only a fraction

793
00:32:33,750 --> 00:32:36,930
of what will be the largest audience so far in history,

794
00:32:36,930 --> 00:32:40,300
because this is the first sporting event ever broadcast

795
00:32:40,300 --> 00:32:42,073
to a mass audience on the radio.

796
00:32:42,073 --> 00:32:45,551
(triumphant music)

797
00:32:45,551 --> 00:32:47,192
It's the top and Jack Dempsey is flying

798
00:32:47,192 --> 00:32:50,694
against Georges Carpentier, a truly great fighter.

799
00:32:50,694 --> 00:32:53,608
Round four (indistinct) freshman,

800
00:32:53,608 --> 00:32:57,091
who's virtually helpless in the hands of Dempsey,

801
00:32:57,091 --> 00:33:00,190
but Carpentier rises again with fighting hard.

802
00:33:00,190 --> 00:33:01,830
It's estimated that commentary

803
00:33:01,830 --> 00:33:04,290
of Dempsey's fourth round knockout punch is heard

804
00:33:04,290 --> 00:33:08,700
by more than 300,000 people in 61 cities

805
00:33:08,700 --> 00:33:10,372
across Atlantic America.

806
00:33:10,372 --> 00:33:13,430
(triumphant music)

807
00:33:13,430 --> 00:33:15,180
Radio, originally a feeble means

808
00:33:15,180 --> 00:33:17,570
of communication, grew from this small shack,

809
00:33:17,570 --> 00:33:18,880
the first commercial station in America

810
00:33:18,880 --> 00:33:21,180
to a gigantic proportion.

811
00:33:21,180 --> 00:33:23,870
One of the great technological and cultural developments

812
00:33:23,870 --> 00:33:25,590
of the 1920s is the radio.

813
00:33:25,590 --> 00:33:27,240
People use it for listening to news.

814
00:33:27,240 --> 00:33:28,330
They listen to music.

815
00:33:28,330 --> 00:33:31,068
They listen most of all to sporting events.

816
00:33:31,068 --> 00:33:32,200
(upbeat music)

817
00:33:32,200 --> 00:33:34,370
{\an8}Radio transformed sport, because it allowed people

818
00:33:34,370 --> 00:33:38,330
{\an8}to experience games in real time as they were happening,

819
00:33:38,330 --> 00:33:39,350
so you didn't have to read about them

820
00:33:39,350 --> 00:33:40,610
in the paper the next day.

821
00:33:40,610 --> 00:33:42,150
(crowd cheering)

822
00:33:42,150 --> 00:33:46,500
Baseball, boxing, and horse racing,

823
00:33:46,500 --> 00:33:48,940
you sat by your radio, you could hear the Yankees play,

824
00:33:48,940 --> 00:33:51,440
even if you didn't go to the game in person.

825
00:33:51,440 --> 00:33:55,240
The great sportsmen of the 1920s become household names,

826
00:33:55,240 --> 00:33:59,350
because radio brings them into everybody's household.

827
00:33:59,350 --> 00:34:02,190
Babe Ruth, Babe Ruth was the biggest celebrity,

828
00:34:02,190 --> 00:34:03,520
the most famous person in America,

829
00:34:03,520 --> 00:34:04,750
more so than the president.

830
00:34:04,750 --> 00:34:06,455
Break it now, with only two games left.

831
00:34:06,455 --> 00:34:08,451
(upbeat music)
(bat knocking)

832
00:34:08,451 --> 00:34:10,024
(crowd cheering)

833
00:34:10,024 --> 00:34:11,980
He did interviews, and he was in the movies,

834
00:34:11,980 --> 00:34:16,520
{\an8}and so he had this multidimensional presence in media,

835
00:34:16,520 --> 00:34:19,600
{\an8}and it was just really exciting, and we couldn't have had

836
00:34:19,600 --> 00:34:21,551
celebrities like this before without all the technologies

837
00:34:21,551 --> 00:34:23,491
that brought them into our homes.

838
00:34:23,491 --> 00:34:26,245
(whimsical music)

839
00:34:26,245 --> 00:34:27,550
(calendar clicking)

840
00:34:27,550 --> 00:34:29,410
In 1921, the year

841
00:34:29,410 --> 00:34:31,700
the first sporting event was broadcast,

842
00:34:31,700 --> 00:34:35,260
there are only five radio stations across the U.S.

843
00:34:35,260 --> 00:34:38,670
By the end of the decade, there are 606.

844
00:34:38,670 --> 00:34:41,010
The ensuing program is and all-star-

845
00:34:41,010 --> 00:34:44,410
Annual radio sales increased from 60 million

846
00:34:44,410 --> 00:34:48,654
to $843 million, and by the end of the decade,

847
00:34:48,654 --> 00:34:52,180
{\an8}20 million households have a radio receiver.

848
00:34:52,180 --> 00:34:56,049
{\an8}That's nearly 40% of all American families.

849
00:34:56,049 --> 00:34:58,150
(lively music)

850
00:34:58,150 --> 00:35:00,520
This is the era of innovation,

851
00:35:00,520 --> 00:35:03,300
and it's not just radio that's transforming lives.

852
00:35:03,300 --> 00:35:08,300
The 1920s sees extraordinary technological advances,

853
00:35:09,310 --> 00:35:11,500
which benefit people's lives.

854
00:35:11,500 --> 00:35:13,890
In the house, we have all sorts of domestic appliances

855
00:35:13,890 --> 00:35:15,000
which we never had before,

856
00:35:15,000 --> 00:35:18,230
the vacuum cleaner, the dishwasher, the toaster,

857
00:35:18,230 --> 00:35:20,380
but also you have the transformation

858
00:35:20,380 --> 00:35:22,890
from a coal-based economy and a steam based economy

859
00:35:22,890 --> 00:35:27,890
into a petrol and oil-based economy, and this means cars.

860
00:35:28,110 --> 00:35:29,580
The 20th century has raced

861
00:35:29,580 --> 00:35:34,580
again to a new era, the era of the Tin Lizzy, the Model T.

862
00:35:34,690 --> 00:35:38,010
Henry Ford had 10,000 dealerships in this country,

863
00:35:38,010 --> 00:35:41,232
and there were 13 million cars on the road,

864
00:35:41,232 --> 00:35:43,600
incredible mobility happening.

865
00:35:43,600 --> 00:35:45,315
It is Henry Ford's own invention

866
00:35:45,315 --> 00:35:48,710
that is placing a nation behind the wheels of adventure.

867
00:35:48,710 --> 00:35:50,990
Two generations ago, you might've never really left

868
00:35:50,990 --> 00:35:52,370
the county where you were born,

869
00:35:52,370 --> 00:35:56,210
and with an automobile, your range increased tremendously.

870
00:35:56,210 --> 00:35:57,760
Now the whole family could get away

871
00:35:57,760 --> 00:35:59,820
from the noise and the heat of the city.

872
00:35:59,820 --> 00:36:02,040
The idea that you could buy a car,

873
00:36:02,040 --> 00:36:05,454
which would then let you drive around the entire country

874
00:36:05,454 --> 00:36:09,860
independently becomes something to aspire towards,

875
00:36:09,860 --> 00:36:12,560
and that really transformed American society,

876
00:36:12,560 --> 00:36:15,440
because it brings with it a network of roads, motels,

877
00:36:15,440 --> 00:36:18,680
and petrol stations, and people can get into cities to work.

878
00:36:18,680 --> 00:36:22,780
It transformed every single aspect of American society.

879
00:36:22,780 --> 00:36:24,970
Technology will not only transform

880
00:36:24,970 --> 00:36:28,310
day to day life, it will make the most unlikely

881
00:36:28,310 --> 00:36:29,992
of dreams come true.

882
00:36:29,992 --> 00:36:33,242
(plane engine roaring)

883
00:36:36,430 --> 00:36:40,190
When Bessie Coleman is six years old in 1898,

884
00:36:40,190 --> 00:36:43,200
no one has yet flown in an airplane.

885
00:36:43,200 --> 00:36:45,290
The 10th child of a Cherokee father

886
00:36:45,290 --> 00:36:48,340
and African-American mother from Waxahachie, Texas,

887
00:36:48,340 --> 00:36:51,090
she walks four miles each day to

888
00:36:51,090 --> 00:36:54,190
and from her one-room, segregated school,

889
00:36:54,190 --> 00:36:56,690
and works in the cotton fields at harvest time.

890
00:36:56,690 --> 00:36:59,810
After the great war, she can only afford one semester

891
00:36:59,810 --> 00:37:02,140
at college, but then she hears the stories

892
00:37:02,140 --> 00:37:04,820
of Air Force pilots returning from France,

893
00:37:04,820 --> 00:37:07,170
and her dream is born.

894
00:37:07,170 --> 00:37:10,143
{\an8}As a Young girl, she decides she wants to learn to fly.

895
00:37:11,780 --> 00:37:13,890
{\an8}But she can't get flying lessons in the United States

896
00:37:13,890 --> 00:37:15,270
{\an8}to get qualified as a pilot,

897
00:37:15,270 --> 00:37:17,580
{\an8}'cause she's a person of color.

898
00:37:17,580 --> 00:37:20,580
So she decides to learn French at night school,

899
00:37:20,580 --> 00:37:23,140
and then travels to Paris to learn to fly.

900
00:37:23,140 --> 00:37:24,604
Bon jour.

901
00:37:24,604 --> 00:37:26,610
{\an8}Where she earns her pilot's license in 1921,

902
00:37:26,610 --> 00:37:30,640
{\an8}two years before Amelia Earhart.

903
00:37:30,640 --> 00:37:32,060
When she returns to the states,

904
00:37:32,060 --> 00:37:34,550
she becomes a barnstorming stunt flier.

905
00:37:34,550 --> 00:37:37,420
She wows crowds across America, and becomes

906
00:37:37,420 --> 00:37:41,100
an instant media sensation, and her favorite stunts?

907
00:37:41,100 --> 00:37:44,954
The loop-di-loop, and the highly dangerous figure eight.

908
00:37:44,954 --> 00:37:46,330
I'm flying!
(airplane buzzing)

909
00:37:46,330 --> 00:37:49,210
Bessie Coleman is the first American woman

910
00:37:49,210 --> 00:37:52,610
of African-American and Native American descent both

911
00:37:52,610 --> 00:37:55,760
to have a pilot's license, and to actually fly,

912
00:37:55,760 --> 00:37:58,280
and perform as a stunt pilot in America.

913
00:37:58,280 --> 00:37:59,757
It's absolutely extraordinary.

914
00:37:59,757 --> 00:38:02,690
(airplane running)
(lighthearted music)

915
00:38:02,690 --> 00:38:07,050
There was a notion in the 20s that Bessie caught onto

916
00:38:07,050 --> 00:38:10,200
that she could become who she wanted to be.

917
00:38:10,200 --> 00:38:13,830
To have this sense of incredible freedom of possibility,

918
00:38:13,830 --> 00:38:16,780
whether you're a woman or man, black or white,

919
00:38:16,780 --> 00:38:20,407
and Bessie Coleman is the epitome of,

920
00:38:20,407 --> 00:38:24,330
"I'm gonna fly into my dream."

921
00:38:24,330 --> 00:38:25,990
Bessie Coleman is the pioneer

922
00:38:25,990 --> 00:38:29,130
of what will become a brand new industry,

923
00:38:29,130 --> 00:38:31,193
commercial air travel.

924
00:38:32,137 --> 00:38:34,340
(lively music)

925
00:38:34,340 --> 00:38:36,470
The first international passenger flights

926
00:38:36,470 --> 00:38:41,100
from Key West, Florida to Havana, Cuba take off in 1920.

927
00:38:41,100 --> 00:38:44,800
{\an8}In 1926, the total number of airline passengers

928
00:38:44,800 --> 00:38:47,900
{\an8}in the United States is less than 6,000.

929
00:38:47,900 --> 00:38:49,553
But by the end of the decade,

930
00:38:49,553 --> 00:38:53,182
{\an8}that number leaps for 173,000.

931
00:38:53,182 --> 00:38:56,099
{\an8}(numbers trilling)

932
00:38:57,040 --> 00:38:58,780
{\an8}Air travel makes anything possible.

933
00:38:58,780 --> 00:39:00,460
{\an8}Think about it this way.

934
00:39:00,460 --> 00:39:02,999
{\an8}In 1903, the Wright brothers made their first flight.

935
00:39:02,999 --> 00:39:06,850
{\an8}In 1969, we land on the moon.

936
00:39:06,850 --> 00:39:10,510
{\an8}Within literally 66 years, we went from flying

937
00:39:10,510 --> 00:39:12,890
to flying to space.

938
00:39:12,890 --> 00:39:15,540
Traveling in air in the 1920s gave us that feeling

939
00:39:15,540 --> 00:39:18,430
that nothing's impossible, you know, the sky's the limit.

940
00:39:18,430 --> 00:39:19,694
That's why we say that.

941
00:39:19,694 --> 00:39:22,611
(triumphant music)

942
00:39:24,448 --> 00:39:26,875
♪ Let's make lots of money ♪

943
00:39:26,875 --> 00:39:29,750
The 1920s is the decade

944
00:39:29,750 --> 00:39:31,980
where the sky does seem limitless,

945
00:39:31,980 --> 00:39:33,460
as the number of shares traded

946
00:39:33,460 --> 00:39:35,310
on the New York stock exchange grows

947
00:39:35,310 --> 00:39:39,072
from 200 million to over a billion.

948
00:39:39,072 --> 00:39:40,630
♪ It is knocking at your door ♪

949
00:39:40,630 --> 00:39:43,622
American society in the 20s is propelled

950
00:39:43,622 --> 00:39:47,010
by this huge sense of optimism.

951
00:39:47,010 --> 00:39:49,680
Business is gonna be the answer to all our problems.

952
00:39:49,680 --> 00:39:53,510
Salesmen are the kind of angels of American society,

953
00:39:53,510 --> 00:39:56,600
and people are making so much money

954
00:39:56,600 --> 00:39:58,499
on things like stocks and shares.

955
00:39:58,499 --> 00:40:00,277
♪ Let's make lots of money ♪

956
00:40:00,277 --> 00:40:01,930
♪ That's what they all said ♪

957
00:40:01,930 --> 00:40:05,540
The stock market is soaring like never before,

958
00:40:05,540 --> 00:40:07,177
and people don't really understand,

959
00:40:07,177 --> 00:40:09,810
but the stock market is like a horse race.

960
00:40:09,810 --> 00:40:12,470
It's a gamble, and so at a certain point,

961
00:40:12,470 --> 00:40:13,913
your horse is not gonna win.

962
00:40:15,890 --> 00:40:18,170
They can't believe that something that's been going

963
00:40:18,170 --> 00:40:21,610
so well for a decade could tumble off a cliff,

964
00:40:21,610 --> 00:40:22,760
just like that.

965
00:40:22,760 --> 00:40:24,830
One man who does believe it is

966
00:40:24,830 --> 00:40:26,440
an investor on Wall Street.

967
00:40:26,440 --> 00:40:28,990
After making a bundle in the bull market,

968
00:40:28,990 --> 00:40:30,960
the story goes that he decides to get

969
00:40:30,960 --> 00:40:33,050
his Oxford brogues polished up.

970
00:40:33,050 --> 00:40:34,350
Tobacco's doing good.

971
00:40:34,350 --> 00:40:36,730
But when the shoe shine boy begins to give him

972
00:40:36,730 --> 00:40:40,690
stock tips, it's not so much a light bulb moment.

973
00:40:40,690 --> 00:40:42,710
It's an alarm bell.
(alarm ringing)

974
00:40:42,710 --> 00:40:46,200
He realizes that if a shoe shiner has an opinion on stocks,

975
00:40:46,200 --> 00:40:48,680
they are becoming dangerously popular,

976
00:40:48,680 --> 00:40:51,080
and it's time to get out.

977
00:40:51,080 --> 00:40:54,383
He does exactly that, returns to his office,

978
00:40:54,383 --> 00:40:58,620
unloads his stocks, and withdraws from the market.

979
00:40:58,620 --> 00:41:03,620
His name is Joe Kennedy, father of the future President JFK.

980
00:41:04,170 --> 00:41:07,593
He's one of the few lucky ones to save his fortune.

981
00:41:08,570 --> 00:41:11,080
The New York stock exchange was in a turmoil.

982
00:41:11,080 --> 00:41:13,620
Frantic investors had scrambled to unload

983
00:41:13,620 --> 00:41:15,658
their securities at any price.

984
00:41:15,658 --> 00:41:16,491
(words trilling)

985
00:41:16,491 --> 00:41:18,590
On October 24th, 1929,

986
00:41:18,590 --> 00:41:23,260
newspaper headlines announced the end of the roaring 20s.

987
00:41:23,260 --> 00:41:25,110
The line can't always go up on the graph,

988
00:41:25,110 --> 00:41:26,630
and when it came down,

989
00:41:26,630 --> 00:41:29,225
it came down fast, and it came down hard.

990
00:41:29,225 --> 00:41:32,480
The great bubble had burst of the 1920s.

991
00:41:32,480 --> 00:41:35,310
It goes down in history as Black Thursday,

992
00:41:35,310 --> 00:41:39,080
when the Dow Jones index falls by 11%.

993
00:41:39,080 --> 00:41:44,080
{\an8}On Black Monday, it loses another 12.82%.

994
00:41:44,420 --> 00:41:49,420
On Black Tuesday, yet another 11.7, 3% disappears,

995
00:41:49,460 --> 00:41:53,310
{\an8}which represents $14 billion in losses,

996
00:41:53,310 --> 00:41:57,343
{\an8}the equivalent of $213 billion today,

997
00:41:58,290 --> 00:42:02,510
and the slide will continue until July 8th, 1932,

998
00:42:02,510 --> 00:42:05,030
when the index bottoms out after losing

999
00:42:05,030 --> 00:42:09,740
a whopping 89.2% of its value.

1000
00:42:09,740 --> 00:42:10,930
A feeling of apprehension,

1001
00:42:10,930 --> 00:42:13,910
even fear replaces the unchecked optimism

1002
00:42:13,910 --> 00:42:15,040
Americans once felt.

1003
00:42:15,040 --> 00:42:16,080
That's the end of the 20s.

1004
00:42:16,080 --> 00:42:18,065
We have the great crash,

1005
00:42:18,065 --> 00:42:20,000
and we're leading to the great depression.

1006
00:42:20,000 --> 00:42:21,710
Millions and millions of people were out of work.

1007
00:42:21,710 --> 00:42:22,870
They didn't understand why.

1008
00:42:22,870 --> 00:42:25,130
Common terms, food, clothing,

1009
00:42:25,130 --> 00:42:27,880
shelter take on a new importance.

1010
00:42:27,880 --> 00:42:30,170
They were shacks where people had to live,

1011
00:42:30,170 --> 00:42:33,180
and they had to have food lines, and soup lines,

1012
00:42:33,180 --> 00:42:34,138
and soup kitchens to feed them,

1013
00:42:34,138 --> 00:42:35,688
because they were going hungry.

1014
00:42:36,610 --> 00:42:38,646
By 1933, nearly half

1015
00:42:38,646 --> 00:42:42,320
of America's banks have failed, and unemployment approaches

1016
00:42:42,320 --> 00:42:46,849
{\an8}15 million people, or 30% of the workforce.

1017
00:42:46,849 --> 00:42:50,449
And just as the hemline provided an index of growth

1018
00:42:50,449 --> 00:42:54,490
in better times, the rise of the shoe shine is an index

1019
00:42:54,490 --> 00:42:55,733
of the great depression.

1020
00:42:55,733 --> 00:42:58,795
(upbeat music)

1021
00:42:58,795 --> 00:43:02,390
Before the crash, the New York Times reported

1022
00:43:02,390 --> 00:43:04,430
there were only a handful of shoe shines

1023
00:43:04,430 --> 00:43:06,119
on the streets of New York.

1024
00:43:06,119 --> 00:43:10,540
By 1932, the New York Police Department reports

1025
00:43:10,540 --> 00:43:14,080
there are now more than 7,000 desperately trying to earn

1026
00:43:14,080 --> 00:43:15,403
a living on the streets.

1027
00:43:17,100 --> 00:43:20,000
In a single block on West 43rd Street,

1028
00:43:20,000 --> 00:43:24,134
the newspaper now counts 19 shoe shines plying their trade.

1029
00:43:24,134 --> 00:43:25,272
Nice job, here you go.

1030
00:43:25,272 --> 00:43:26,105
(coin clinking)

1031
00:43:26,105 --> 00:43:28,140
In better times, the going rate was a dime

1032
00:43:28,140 --> 00:43:29,510
with a nickel tip,

1033
00:43:29,510 --> 00:43:32,400
and now they're happy if they get a single nickel.

1034
00:43:32,400 --> 00:43:33,880
Sorry, that's all I got.

1035
00:43:33,880 --> 00:43:35,950
{\an8}And before, the shoeshine boy used to be

1036
00:43:35,950 --> 00:43:37,750
{\an8}under the age of 17.

1037
00:43:37,750 --> 00:43:40,933
Now it's common to see men over 70.

1038
00:43:42,820 --> 00:43:45,260
{\an8}No one was unscathed by the effects

1039
00:43:45,260 --> 00:43:46,320
{\an8}of the Great Depression.

1040
00:43:46,320 --> 00:43:49,370
The culture changed, entertainment industries changed,

1041
00:43:49,370 --> 00:43:51,900
fashions changed, music changed,

1042
00:43:51,900 --> 00:43:53,500
and it didn't all happen overnight,

1043
00:43:53,500 --> 00:43:55,993
but you can see the beginnings of the end.

1044
00:43:56,860 --> 00:43:58,850
At the start of the 1930s,

1045
00:43:58,850 --> 00:44:00,700
prohibition is repealed.

1046
00:44:00,700 --> 00:44:03,760
Bars and nightclubs are once more regulated.

1047
00:44:03,760 --> 00:44:07,180
The LGBTQ community is pushed underground.

1048
00:44:07,180 --> 00:44:08,880
Hollywood is censured,

1049
00:44:08,880 --> 00:44:12,020
and women's skirt lengths plunge downward.

1050
00:44:12,020 --> 00:44:15,943
The roaring 20s have come to an inauspicious end.

1051
00:44:15,943 --> 00:44:18,693
(dramatic music)

1052
00:44:21,748 --> 00:44:23,250
(intense electronic music)

1053
00:44:23,250 --> 00:44:26,420
So we move into the 2020s,

1054
00:44:26,420 --> 00:44:29,460
will we see history repeat itself?

1055
00:44:29,460 --> 00:44:33,970
Will this be the decade of the roaring 20s, 2.0?

1056
00:44:33,970 --> 00:44:37,100
Will the 2020s be like 1920s?

1057
00:44:37,100 --> 00:44:38,680
Absolutely.

1058
00:44:38,680 --> 00:44:43,543
The idea of unbridled prosperity, pandemics,

1059
00:44:44,453 --> 00:44:49,420
racial strife, all these elements are back in play,

1060
00:44:49,420 --> 00:44:52,130
and so it makes you feel like there's a cycle.

1061
00:44:52,130 --> 00:44:54,500
History shows us that following war,

1062
00:44:54,500 --> 00:44:56,197
we always want peace.

1063
00:44:56,197 --> 00:44:57,450
Black lives matter!

1064
00:44:57,450 --> 00:44:59,350
Following sacrifice in solitude,

1065
00:44:59,350 --> 00:45:01,683
we always want celebration and indulgence.

1066
00:45:03,399 --> 00:45:05,530
(glasses clinking)

1067
00:45:05,530 --> 00:45:08,100
Maybe we'll get our own version of the 1920s,

1068
00:45:08,100 --> 00:45:09,480
a hundred years later.

1069
00:45:09,480 --> 00:45:10,860
The young taking center stage,

1070
00:45:10,860 --> 00:45:14,790
the sense of freedom and excitement, a sense of modernity,

1071
00:45:14,790 --> 00:45:16,410
I think we can expect all those things

1072
00:45:16,410 --> 00:45:18,238
in the decade to come.

1073
00:45:18,238 --> 00:45:20,938
I think we're gonna party like it's 1920, literally,

1074
00:45:23,330 --> 00:45:25,530
just now we're gonna see it on social media.

1075
00:45:27,898 --> 00:45:30,981
(lively 1920s music)

1076
00:45:32,730 --> 00:45:34,960
Hopefully we're heading towards a roaring twenties.

1077
00:45:34,960 --> 00:45:37,262
I have my flapper dresses ready, like, I really do.

1078
00:45:37,262 --> 00:45:38,095
(laughing)

1079
00:45:38,095 --> 00:45:40,540
Smog all the time, and floods, and typhoons,

1080
00:45:40,540 --> 00:45:42,250
and wealth inequality is gonna get worse,

1081
00:45:42,250 --> 00:45:43,580
but that's going to make people want to party more

1082
00:45:43,580 --> 00:45:45,100
when we can, so those are going to be nuts.

1083
00:45:45,100 --> 00:45:47,196
Billionaires are trying to leave the Earth right now.

1084
00:45:47,196 --> 00:45:49,460
(chuckles) When the richest people on the planet are trying

1085
00:45:49,460 --> 00:45:51,980
to get off of it, it's probably not a good sign.

1086
00:45:51,980 --> 00:45:54,737
If we're not heading into another roaring 20s,

1087
00:45:54,737 --> 00:45:56,763
I will shave my head.