1920s DETAILS

A

Albert Snyder Murder

March 19, 1927 - Magazine editor Albert Snyder is murdered in Long Island, New York, by his wife Ruth "Momsie" Snyder and her lover Judd Gray. The Murder weapon is a window-sash weight. The most covered trial of the decade, mainly because of the incredible clumsiness in how the murder was committed with obvious evidence left everywhere, a double indemnity insurance policy had been taken out, etc., it was a sensational display of histrionics, sexual innuendo and dramatic, conflicting testimony. The jan 12, 1928 execution of Ruth Snyder, in the electric chair at Sing Sing prison, was the subject of one of the most famous news photos in history. It was taken by a reporter for the New York Daily News, with a hidden camera.

[mar 1927][jan 1928]

Anna Anderson

1928 - A woman who goes by the name of Anna Anderson Manahan becomes a public curiosity in New York when she claims to be Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolayevna, the daughter of Czar Nicholas II, who was executed with his family during the Russian Revolution. The Anastasia claim was eventually proved to be a hoax. After Anna Anderson's death in 1984, a 1993 comparison between her DNA and samples unearthed of the Romanov family showed no genetic link.

[1928]

Art Deco Fair

jul 18, 1923 - First comprehensive art deco fair opens in Paris. The very term comes from the name of the fair, the Exposition Internationale des Arts Decoratifs et Industriels Modernes. From clothes, jewelry, furniture, art and more, the event showcased an emerging new design style, that would have a major impact especially in architecture.

[jul 1925]

B

Black Sox

sep, 1920 - "Shoeless" Joe Jackson and 7 other members of the Chicago White Sox baseball team are accused of conspiring to lose the 1919 World Series as part of a deal with gamblers. On September 28, 1920, three players confessed and implicated the other five before a grand jury. On November 12, 1920, Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis is appointed baseball commissioner, and is granted dictatorial control to restore the game's reputation. On August 02, 1921, a Chicago jury acquits the players of wrongdoing, but commissioner Landis ignores the court and bans Jackson and other Chicago players from baseball forever.

[sep 1920]

D

Daddy and Peaches

January 25, 1927 - The "Daddy and Peaches" separation trial begins in New York. An ongoing saga, the sex-drenched tale of the courtship and stormy marriage of millionaire Edward West "Daddy" Browning (age 52) and his 15-year-old child-wife Frances Belle "Peaches" Heenan, was one of the most publicized stories of the decade that gripped the lurid imaginations of the press and public, despite its complete unimportance. Peaches sued Daddy for separation, claiming mental anguish from practical jokes and sexually perverse behavior. The judge ruled that Peaches' testimony was not credible and Daddy won the case.

[jan 1927]

The Dawes Plan

Germany accepts The Dawes Plan, which sliced war reparations into more easily payable installments and provided for foreign loans; designed to fix the German banking system, ease hardship to the German economy and arrest rampant hyperinflation. It was adopted August 16 by a London conference. The plan's co-authors, Charles G. Dawes of the U.S. and Sir J. Austen Chamberlain, won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1925 for the plan.

[1925][Nobel Peace Prize]

G

Gandhi ?+!

Dates

[aug 1920][dec 1921][feb 1922][mar 1922][feb 1924][1933]

L

Fritz Lang

Fritz Lang [b.1890-d.1976], an Austrian-American motion-picture director, who developed narrative and created atmosphere through expressionistic, symbolic sets and lighting, as well as through editing.

Since Lang is a self-proclaimed, “visual person” German expressionism was the perfect style for him to work from for his epic science fiction film, Metropolis. This 1926 silent, tinted film relies on innovative visual imagery that was well ahead of its time. It was produced by UFA (Universum-Film-Aktiengesellschaft), directed by Fritz Lang, and his wife Thea Von Harbou. Cinematography was by Karl Fruend and Guenther Rittau. The production design was by Otto Hunte, Erich Kettelhut, and Karl Vollbrecht. The fantastically creative costume design was the work of Aenne Willkomm. Metropolis was produced by Erich Pommer.

Fritz Lang made more than 30 films in Germany and the United States, his first successful one being Der müde Tod (Weary Death, 1921), issued in the U.S. as Between Worlds. Lang's masterpieces include Metropolis (US release,1927),  in which a magnificent futuristic city is maintained by workers enslaved underground; M (1931), his first sound film, a psychological thriller about a compulsive murderer; and two studies of the criminal mind, Dr. Mabuse (1922) and The Last Will of Dr. Mabuse (1933). The latter won the approbation of Nazi officials who sought Lang's collaboration. Lang, who was half Jewish, fled Germany immediately. He became an American citizen in 1935. Among his films made in the U.S. were Fury (1936), about a lynch mob; You Only Live Once (1937); Rancho Notorious (1952); and Beyond a Reasonable Doubt (1956).

[jan 1927]

Lebensunwertesleben

In Germany, psychiatrist Karl Binding and magistrate Alfred Hoche argue for the killing of those who are "Ballastexistenzen," i.e. whose lives are seen merely as ballast, or dead weight, within humanity. The concept of Lebensunwertesleben, or "lives unworthy (or undeserving) of life," becomes central to Nazi race policy in 1933, when a law incorporating this same phrase is issued by Hitler on July 14 that year.

[1920]

M

Amie Semple Macpherson

[b oct 09, 1890 - d sep 27, 1944 ] Converted by her first husband, Robert Semple, a pentecostal evangelist, she joined him in revival campaigns and then in the mission feild in asia. When he died in 1910, she returned to the U.S. with her infant daughter and married a rhode island grocery salesman, Harold MacPherson.

After settling in Los Angeles in 1918 she opened the Angelus temple, a 5,300 seat auditorium in 1923. She also founded a radio station, a Bible college, an evangelistic association and the International Foursquare Gospel [1927].

Scandal touched her life repeatedly, most notably in 1926 when she disappeared for a month, reappeared with the story that she had been kidnapped, later speculation was that she was actually in hiding with a lover. She was tried for perjury, but the case was dismissed. She died from an overdose of barbituites.

[may 1926][1927]

Miss America

sep, 1921 - A "bathing beauty" pageant is held in Atlantic City, N.J.; an event that would soon be known as the Miss America Pageant. With the invention the year before of the Jantzen elasticized one-piece bathing suit, more comfortable and revealing swimwear was becoming popular. Though not the first bathing beauty contest, this event was the first to feature women in skin-tight suits with knees exposed. Reporters and photographers played up the event with sensational coverage, and it was the impetus for the swimsuit show craze of the twenties. Miss Washington, Margaret Gorman, 16 years old, was the first winner, with measurements of 30-25-32, judged the finest specimen of womanhood.

[sep 1921]

R

Red Scare

jan 02, 1920 - The Red Scare continues. U.S. Attorney-General A. Mitchell Palmer orders Justice Department raids on meeting halls and homes in 30 cities nationwide to round up all suspected communists. 2,700 people arrested without being charged with any explicit crime. In all, more than 6,000 are arrested. The raids end after a May 5 government ruling that mere membership in the party is not in itself a crime. Most arrested are released; few real anarchist criminals are found. Hysterical propaganda by Palmer and others set the tone for the rest of the twenties, spurring a spate of anti-immigration laws.

[jan 1920][apr 1920]

Romani, Sinti

Gypsies are a people dispersed over the world known for their distinctive customs and migratory way of life. Many Gypsies speak Romany and call themselves Rom. Others do not speak this language but are still recognizable as gypsies because of their origins and lifestyles. Those known as manouches in France and sinti in germany they speak a languge similar to Romany but with a large mixture of German terms.

It is thought that the Gypsies originated from northwest India in the 1st millennium. The first written reference of them in Europe is from the 14th century. By the 16th century they had been encountered in every part of Europe.

Russo-Polish War

apr 25, 1925 - The Russo-Polish War begins. Poles attempt to take Ukraine from the Bolsheviks, themselves preoccupied with civil war. The conflict see-saws for about six months with little territory gained. The Treaty of Riga, mar 18, 1921, sets the border of Russia and Poland until World War II in 1940.

[apr 1925]

S

Sacco & Vanzetti

Dates

[apr 1920][may 1920] [jul 1921][aug 1927]

Scopes Trial

may 05, 1925 - Another "trial of the decade;" John T. Scopes is arrested for teaching evolution in a Tennessee school in violation of state law. He was indicted may 25. The "Scopes Monkey Trial" pitted the country's best lawyer, Clarence Darrow (representing Scopes), against the formidable politician William Jennings Bryan for the prosecution. The fiery oratory and clash of ideologies, mixed with venomous name-calling and personal attacks, made for one of the century's great debates. The guilty verdict for Scopes on jul 21 was anticlimactic; he was ordered to pay $100 plus court costs, but his fine and the case were dismissed on a technicality on appeal in jan 1927 by the Tennessee Supreme Court.

[may 1925][jul 1925]

Shenandoah Crashes

sep 03, 1923 - The navy dirigible Shenandoah crashes in Ohio and kills 14 airmen, setting up a confrontation between U.S. Air Service General William "Billy" Mitchell and the military establishment. Mitchell, a hero of World War I and early air power advocate, was long a thorn in the side of his older superiors, most of whom didn't believe that airplanes would ever be decisive factors in warfare. When Mitchell criticized government administration of its air fleet as incompetent, following the airship crash, superiors summoned him to Washington on sep 21 to testify. His criticisms continued and he was subsequently found guilty by court martial of insubordinate conduct on dec 17. He resigned his commission rather than agree to a five-year suspension. His prophetic view of air power, that came to pass with World War II, made Mitchell a legendary martyr in the annals of military history.

[sep 1925]

T

Teapot Dome Scandel

feb 25, 1920 - Passage of the Oil and Coal Land Leasing Act lays the foundation for the biggest Washington scandal of the decade, the Teapot Dome affair uncovered in 1923. The act opens up mineral deposits on public lands to private mining interests, a system that would later become rife with bribery and corruption.

[feb 1920]

may 10, 1921 - U.S. President Harding issues executive order transferring management of the navy's emergency oil field deposits to the Department of the Interior. One of the oil fields was located at Teapot Dome, Wyoming. The rationale was that private development of the lands would protect emergency military oil stocks from being siphoned off by wells on adjacent lands. The deal is thought to be a win-win situation, allowing developers to profit from the oil while setting aside part of it in reserve for naval emergencies.

[may 1921]

apr 07, 1922 - Secretary of the Interior Albert B. Fall leases the Navy's Teapot Dome oil field secretly, without competitive bidding, to Harry F. Sinclair and the Mammoth Oil Co. Later, on apr 25 and dec 11, Fall leases the Elk Hills Reserve to Edward L Doheny in similar fashion. It was later found in investigations that Fall had taken bribes for these transactions.

[apr 1922]

oct 23, 1923 - Teapot Dome Affair heats up as U.S. Senate investigative committee grills Interior Secretary Fall about alleged payments to him from oil interests in exchange for oil leases. Fall denies the charges.

[oct 1923]

feb 28, 1927 - After years of court wrangling, the U.S. Supreme Court declares oil contracts and leases granted to Edward Doheny by Interior Secretary Albert Fall in 1921 as illegal and fraudulent.

[feb 1927]

oct 10, 1927 - U.S. Supreme Court upholds lower court rulings that Teapot Dome oil leases with Harry Sinclair's Mammoth Oil Co. were fraudulently obtained and should be declared illegal. Earlier, on feb 28, the court ruled that oil contracts and leases granted to Edward Doheny by Interior Secretary Albert Fall in 1921 to be illegal and fraudulent.

[oct 1927]

apr 08, 1929 - After seemingly ceaseless court appeals and congressional inquiries, the Teapot Dome scandal nears an end with the U.S. Supreme Court upholding lower court contempt judgments against Harry Sinclair of Mammoth Oil Co. for his earlier refusal to answer congressional questions about his governmental oil deals. His jail sentence began may 6.

[apr 1929]

November 01, 1929 - Former U.S. Interior Secretary Albert Fall convicted of accepting a bribe in the Teapont Dome oil lease deal and is sentenced to year in prison.

[November 1929]

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