The Year Was 1923
THE YEAR WAS
BY SHERI FENLEY
A Monthly - Weekend With Shades - Column
The "Roaring 20's" and the "Jazz Age" were in full swing - bathtub gin, Flappers, speakeasies, dance marathons. Americans in the 1920s were the first to wear ready-made, exact-sized clothing. Women smoking cigarettes, cosmetics, and synthetic fabrics such as rayon, newspaper gossip columns, illuminated billboards, commercial airplane flights--all were novelties during the 1920s.
The youth of America challenged traditional notions of proper behavior. For the first time, adolescents become known as a separate entity in American society. They also developed their own language. Some of the words and phrases that originate from this time:
Spifflicated - Drunk. The same as canned, corked, tanked, primed, scrooched, jazzed, zozzled, plastered, embalmed, lit, potted, ossified or fried to the hat
"Moon Mullins" by comic-strip artist Frank Willard makes its debut June 14, 1923 featuring the adventures of a roughneck ne'er-do-well, his kid brother Kayo, Uncle Willie, Aunt Mamie, and Lord and Lady Plushbottom.
The Noble Prize for Medicine was awarded to Sir Frederick Banting (Canada) and John J. R. Macleod (Scotland) for the discovery of insulin.
LAW AND LAWLESSNESS
In 1923 the Supreme Court in its infinite wisdom, ruled that "Not all Caucasians are white." Its decision in the case of U.S. v. Bhagat Singh Thind (261 U.S. 204 ), deemed that Asian Indians are ineligible for citizenship because U.S. law allowed only free whites to become naturalized citizens. The court conceded that Indians were “Caucasians” and that anthropologists considered them to be of the same race as white Americans, but argued that “the average man knows perfectly well that there are unmistakable and profound differences.”
FASHION
What the "Really Good Girls" were wearing -
SPORTS
On 2 August 1923, Warren G. Harding dies in office at the Palace Hotel in San Francisco. He may be best known as America’s worst president. This may very well be true, however, he certainly kept busy while he was in office.
President Harding was the first President to:
and even though he wasn't the first president to have an extramartial affair, he might very well be the first to have had TWO affairs going on simultaneously. Carrie Fulton Phillips was one of his lovers who just happened to be a close friend of Florence Harding - the president's wife. The other was Nan Britton who was the daughter of one of the president's friends. President Harding and his wife never had any children of their own, but he did father a daughter with Nan Britton.
It is no wonder then that when he died, the rumour mill went into overtime. Gossips suggest that Mrs. Harding, the last person to be with him that evening, had poisoned him after learning of his extra-marital affairs, or that he committed suicide rather than face inquiries about the scandals involving his cabinet members (The Teapot Dome Scandal). Her refusal to allow an autopsy of the President only fed the rumors.
Dapper - a Flapper's dad
Bank's Closed - no kissing or making out - i.e. - "Sorry, Mac, the bank's closed"
Fire Extinguisher - A chaperone
Bee's Knees - An extraordinary person, thing, idea; the ultimate
Hotsy - Totsy - Seemingly excellent, outstanding. He thinks that just because he drives some hotsy-totsy Stutz Bearcar, he's the cat's meow.
Sinker - a doughnut
Wet Blanket - a solemn person, a killjoy
"Moon Mullins" by comic-strip artist Frank Willard makes its debut June 14, 1923 featuring the adventures of a roughneck ne'er-do-well, his kid brother Kayo, Uncle Willie, Aunt Mamie, and Lord and Lady Plushbottom.SCIENCE and MEDICINE
Scopolamine, previously used as a childbirth anesthetic, is found to act as a "truth" serum after tests on convicts at San Quentin Prison.
The Noble Prize for Medicine was awarded to Sir Frederick Banting (Canada) and John J. R. Macleod (Scotland) for the discovery of insulin.
16 February 1923 - Howard Carter, an English Egyptologist, became the first person to enter the burial chamber of King Tut in over 3000 years.
LAW AND LAWLESSNESS
28 May 1923 - Attorney General Harry M. Daugherty says, "It is legal for women to wear trousers anywhere." When I read this I had to investigate further. I asked the esteemed Craig Manson, "Was there really a law that made it illegal for women to wear trousers?" I was astonished by his reply:
"There were laws in several states that made it illegal for women to wear pants in public. Most such laws eventually were repealed, but it still remained legal for employers to order women not to wear pants at work. California did not change its law on this matter (the "no pants for women at work" rule) until 1995! True fact . . . ."
In 1923 the Supreme Court in its infinite wisdom, ruled that "Not all Caucasians are white." Its decision in the case of U.S. v. Bhagat Singh Thind (261 U.S. 204 ), deemed that Asian Indians are ineligible for citizenship because U.S. law allowed only free whites to become naturalized citizens. The court conceded that Indians were “Caucasians” and that anthropologists considered them to be of the same race as white Americans, but argued that “the average man knows perfectly well that there are unmistakable and profound differences.”
A rebel against injustice and abuse and a hero to the people, Pancho Villa was considered an outlaw to authorities. He was assassinated in Parral, Chihuahua on 20 July 1923, three years after he had ended his revolutionary actions.
On 5 May 1923, the states of Montana and Nevada become the first to enact old age pension laws.
FASHION
What the "Good Girls" were wearing -
What the "Really Good Girls" were wearing -
SPORTS
April 18, 1923 – Yankee Stadium opens its doors in the Bronx, NY. Completed in 284 days, the total cost was $2.5 million dollars. If you were a fan, your expenses were not quite as much. A seat in the grandstands - $1.10, a program - 15 cents and a baseball glove from the Sears Roebuck catalog - $4.20. Getting their very own stadium was worth the price, the New York Yankees won their first World Series hammering the New York Giants 4 games to 2.
POLITICS
On 2 August 1923, Warren G. Harding dies in office at the Palace Hotel in San Francisco. He may be best known as America’s worst president. This may very well be true, however, he certainly kept busy while he was in office.
President Harding was the first President to:
* Pay taxes
* Have a radio in the White House and the first to broadcast a presidential message on the radio
* Know how to drive a car before taking office
* First president to ride to his inauguration in a limo
* First president born after the Civil War;
and even though he wasn't the first president to have an extramartial affair, he might very well be the first to have had TWO affairs going on simultaneously. Carrie Fulton Phillips was one of his lovers who just happened to be a close friend of Florence Harding - the president's wife. The other was Nan Britton who was the daughter of one of the president's friends. President Harding and his wife never had any children of their own, but he did father a daughter with Nan Britton.
It is no wonder then that when he died, the rumour mill went into overtime. Gossips suggest that Mrs. Harding, the last person to be with him that evening, had poisoned him after learning of his extra-marital affairs, or that he committed suicide rather than face inquiries about the scandals involving his cabinet members (The Teapot Dome Scandal). Her refusal to allow an autopsy of the President only fed the rumors.
President Harding and First Lady Florence Harding
Carrie Fulton Phillips and Nan Britton
On a brighter note, Harding's successor Calvin Coolidge lit the first White House Christmas tree on Christmas Eve 1923 starting a tradition that still exists. Upon learning of the death of President Harding, Calvin Coolidge, was sworn into office by his father, a Vermont judge who read the oath of office from a copy of the World Almanac.
CATASTROPHES and CALAMITIES
On the evening of September 8, 1923, seven U.S. Navy destroyers ran aground off the California coast in what is now called the Honda Point Disaster. It was the largest peacetime loss of U.S. Navy ships.
The Great Kanto earthquake devastated Tokyo killing 142,807 people and destroying 1/3 of Tokyo. It had a magnitude of 8.4 on the Richter scale when it hit the city at noon on September 1, 1923.
ENTERTAINMENT
Popular music in 1923
"Down-hearted Blues" sung by Bessie Smith
"Yes! We Have No Bananas"
"King Porter Stomp" by Ferdinand "Jelly Roll" Morton
"When You Walked Out Someone Else Walked Right In" by Irving Berlin
"I Won't Say I Will But I Won't Say I Won't" by Ira and George Gershwin
Books that were published in 1923:
The Voyages of Doctor Dolittle - Hugh Lofting
The House at Pooh Corner - A.A. Milne
Men Like Gods - H. G. Wells
Movie-goers were treated to "The Hunchback of Notre Dame" starring Lon Chaney, Cecil B DeMille's 1st version of "Ten Commandments" and "Safety Last" starring everyone's favorite Harold Lloyd.
Photo of Bessie Smith - 1923, by Edward Elcha, Courtesy of Macmillian Publishing Co., Inc.
Photo of Tokyo Earthquake - Donated by Corbis-Bettmann to http://aboutjapan.japansociety.org/index.cfm
