1920-1929 |
Music |
Movies |
Literature |
1920 |
"Swanee" (Al Jolson) (RealAudio from jolson.org )
"A Good Man is Hard to Find"(RealAudio clip from Vintage Recordings )
"Lovin' Sam (The Sheik of Alabam')" (RealAudio clip from Vintage Recordings)
"You're the Cream in my Coffee"(RealAudio clip from Vintage Recordings )
"When the Midnight Choo-Choo Leaves for Alabam'"(RealAudio clip from Vintage Recordings )
"Whispering" (1920) (Paul Whiteman)  (RealAudio file from Redhotjazz.com )
"Blues My Naughty Sweetie Gives to Me" (Raderman's Jazz Orchestra at archive.org)
"Myona-Hawaiian Waltz" (Library of Congress) |
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (starring John Barrymore)
The Mark of Zorro (starring Douglas Fairbanks)
Way Down East (D. W. Griffith)
Pollyanna (Mary Pickford)
Get Out and Get Under (Harold Lloyd)
The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari
One Week (Buster Keaton; 22 minutes)
The Last of the Mohicans
|
Sinclair Lewis, Main Street
Edith Wharton, The Age of Innocence and In Morocco
F. Scott Fitzgerald,This Side of Paradise
Anzia Yezierska, Hungry Hearts
Ezra Pound, Hugh Selwyn Mauberly. For informaton on Pound and other modernist poets, visit the "Petals on a Wet, Black Bough" exhibit at the Beinecke Museum.
Eugene O'Neill, The Emperor Jones
Robert Frost, Mountain Interval
Death of William Dean Howells (b. 1837)
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1921 |
 "Kitten on the Keys" (RealAudio from the Library of Congress)
"Ain't We Got Fun?" (Benson Orchestra of Chicago)(Note F. Scott Fitzgerald's use of this song in The Great Gatsby)
"Crazy Blues" (performed by Noble Sissle) (RealAudio from the Library of Congress)
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Sherlock Holmes (starring John Barrymore)
The Kid (Charlie Chaplin)
Orphans of the Storm (D. W. Griffith)
The Lotos-Eater (John Barrymore and Colleen Moore)
Little Lord Fauntleroy (Mary Pickford)
Never Weaken (Harold Lloyd)
Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse and The Sheik (Rudolph Valentino)
The Playhouse (Buster Keaton)
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F. Scott Fitzgerald, Flappers and Philosophers (stories)
John Dos Passos, Three Soldiers
Sherwood Anderson, The Triumph of the Egg (stories); "The Egg"
Edith Wharton wins the Pulitzer Prize for literature for The Age of Innocence. Although some of the judges wished to award the prize to Sinclair Lewis's Main Street, others believe Lewis's book to be too negative in its representation of small-town America. Lewis sends Wharton a gracious note of congratulationsafter his loss, and she responds by praising Main Street.
James Joyce's Ulysses is published in Paris; 500 copies imported to America are seized by the U. S. Post Office as obscene material and burned. |
1922 |
"If I Could Be With You One Hour Tonight" (Ruth Etting; date unknown) (RealAudio clip from Vintage Recordings )
"Stumbling" (Paul Whiteman and Orchestra)
"Positively, Mr. Gallagher" "Absolutely, Mr. Shean" (Gallagher and Shean; 1922) (archive.org)
"In the Little Red Schoolhouse" (RealAudio from the Library of Congress)
|
Douglas Fairbanks in Robin Hood
Moran of the Lady Letty (from the novel by Frank Norris) and Blood and Sand (Rudolph Valentino)
Cops (Buster Keaton)
Nosferatu (dir. F. W. Murnau)
|
F. Scott Fitzgerald,The Beautiful and Damned
T. S. Eliot, The Waste Land (1921-1922)
Sinclair Lewis, Babbitt
Anzia Yezierska, Salome of the Tenements
Eugene O'Neill, The Hairy Ape
Willa Cather, One of Ours
Edith Wharton, The Glimpses of the Moon
Katherine Anne Porter, "Maria Conception" (Century)
T. S. Eliot founds Criterion magazine (1922-1939)
Booth Tarkington wins the Pulitzer Prize for Alice Adams
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1923 |
 "Lady-Luck Blues" (Bessie Smith) (RealAudio file from Redhotjazz.com )
"Canal Street Blues" (King Oliver's Creole Jazz Band) (RealAudio file from Redhotjazz.com )
Old King Tut
"Snake Hips" (Memphis Five) (RealAudio file from Dismuke's Site.)
Laughing Record (Henry's Music Lesson), performed by Miss Sally Stembler & Edward Meeker (comedy routine) (RealAudio from the American Memory Home Page at the Library of Congress) |
Our Hospitality (Buster Keaton)
The Glimpses of the Moon (from the Edith Wharton novel; dir. Allan Dwan)
Prodigal Daughters (Gloria Swanson)
Safety Last (Harold Lloyd)
|
Willa Cather, A Lost Lady
Wallace Stevens, Harmonium
William Carlos Williams, Spring and All
Jean Toomer, Cane |
1924 |
 "I Want to Be Happy" from No, No, Nanette (RealAudio file from Dismuke's Site.)
"California, Here I Come!" (Al Jolson)(RealAudio from jolson.org )
"All Alone" (sung by Al Jolson)(RealAudio from jolson.org )
"Everybody Loves My Baby" (RealAudio file from Dismuke's Site.)
"Linger Awhile" (Paul Whiteman and His Orchestra)(RealAudio file from Dismuke's Site.)
"What'll I Do" (Southampton Serenaders) (RealAudio file from Dismuke's Site.)
"Rhapsody in Blue" (Written by George Gershwin and commissioned by Paul Whiteman, who introduced the piece) (1924) (RealAudio file from Redhotjazz.com )
It Had to be You"(RealAudio from Robert's Old Schmaltz Archives ) |
The Thief of Baghdad (Douglas Fairbanks)
Sherlock, Jr. (Buster Keaton)
The Perfect Flapper (Colleen Moore)
So Big (Colleen Moore)
The Age of Innocence (from the Edith Wharton novel; dir. Wesley Ruggles)
Girl Shy (Harold Lloyd)
|
Edith Wharton, Old New York (novellas)
Eugene O'Neill, Desire under the Elms
H. L. Mencken and George Jean Nathan found The American Mercury, which ceases publication in 1951. |
1925 |
"Milenberg Joys" (The Cotton Pickers) (RealAudio file from Dismuke's Site.)
"When My Sugar Walks Down the Street" (RealAudio file from Redhotjazz.com )
" Dinah " (sung by Cliff "Ukulele Ike" Edwards)(RealAudio file from Redhotjazz.com )
"Yes, Sir! That's My Baby!" (Carlton Coon and Joe Sanders(RealAudio file from Redhotjazz.com )
Collegiate(Fred Waring and his Pennsylvanians)(RealAudio from Redhotjazz.com)
"Charleston"(Golden Gage Orchestra from Archive.org)
"Paddlin' Madeline Home" (Whitey Kaufman at archive.org) |
The Gold Rush (Charlie Chaplin)
Don Q, Son of Zorro (Douglas Fairbanks)
Romola (Lillian Gish)
Greed (version of Frank Norris's
McTeague, dir. Erich von Stroheim)
Seven Chances (Buster Keaton)
The Freshman (Harold Lloyd)
The Dark Angel (Ronald Colman)
The Phantom of the Opera (Lon Chaney)
The Merry Widow (Erich von Stroheim)
The Unholy Three (dir. Tod Browning; starring Lon Chaney)
The Phantom of the Opera (with Lon Chaney)
|
F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby
Ernest Hemingway, In Our Time
Willa Cather, The Professor's House
Theodore Dreiser, An American Tragedy
Gertrude Stein, The Making of Americans
Alain Locke, The New Negro
Anzia Yezierska, Bread Givers
John Dos Passos, Manhattan Transfer
Edna Ferber's So Big wins the Pulitzer Prize.
The New Yorker is founded by Harold Ross. Its unofficial motto: "Not edited for the old lady in Dubuque" (James Thurber, The Years with Ross, 75). |
1926 |
"Sunday" (RealAudio file from Dismuke's Site.)
 "Original Jelly-Roll Blues" (Jelly Roll Morton)(RealAudio file from Redhotjazz.com )
"My Baby Knows How" (California Ramblers) (1926) (RealAudio file from Dismuke's Site.)
"I Love the College Girls" (Fred Waring's Pennsylvanians)(RealAudio file from Redhotjazz.com )(New URL)
"Black Bottom" (Sung by Annette Hanshaw) (RealAudio at RedHotJazz.com )
"Poor Papa"(RealAudio clip from Vintage-Recording.com)
"Baby Face" (at archive.org.) |
The Sea Beast (version of Moby-Dick starring John Barrymore; Barrymore made a "talking picture" version in 1930 called Moby-Dick)
The Scarlet Letter (Lillian Gish as Hester Prynne)
Sparrows (Mary Pickford)
Son of the Sheik (Rudolph Valentino)
The Show Off (with Louise Brooks)
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William Faulkner, Soldier's Pay
Ernest Hemingway, The Sun Also Rises
Hart Crane, The Bridge
Langston Hughes, The Weary Blues |
1927 |
"On the Sunny Side of the Street"(RealAudio clip from Vintage-Recording.com)
" Hotter than That" (Louis Armstrong and the Hot Five) (RealAudio file from Redhotjazz.com )
"Button Up Your Overcoat" (Fred Waring and the Pennsylvanians) (RealAudio file from Redhotjazz.com )
"Any Time" (Clarence Williams) (RealAudio file from Redhotjazz.com )
"Beale Street Blues" ( Jelly Roll Morton)(RealAudio file from Redhotjazz.com )
Lindbergh (The Eagle of the U.S.A.)(RealAudio file from Dismuke's Site.)
"In a Mist (Bixology) " (Bix Beiderbecke) (RealAudio file from Redhotjazz.com )
"Showboat Shuffle" (King Oliver's Dixie Syncopators) (RealAudio file from Redhotjazz.com )
" 'Deed I Do" (Al Lentz's Dance Orchestra)(RealAudio file from Dismuke's Site.)
"Stardust" (Hoagy Carmichael and his Pals) (RealAudio file from Redhotjazz.com )
"Varsity Drag"
(Cass Hagen and His Park Central Hotel Orchestra at archive.org)
"Side by Side" (archive.org) |
The General (Buster Keaton)
The Love of Sunya (Gloria Swanson)
Sunrise (dir. F. W. Murnau)
|
Willa Cather, Death Comes for the Archbishop
Countee Cullen, Caroling Dusk (anthology) and Copper Sun |
1928 |
" I Want to Be Loved by You" (Helen Kane) (RealAudio clip from Vintage-Recording.com)
"St. James Infirmary" (Louis Armstrong and his Savoy Ballroom Five) (RealAudio file from Redhotjazz.com )
"My Suppressed Desire" (Paul Whiteman Orchestra, featuring the Rhythm Boys [including Bing Crosby ]) (RealAudio file from Dismuke's Site.)
"Speak Easy Blues" (King Oliver) (RealAudio from RedHotJazz.com )
"Sonny Boy"(RealAudio clip from Vintage-Recording.com)
"After You've Gone" (Ruth Etting)(RealAudio clip from Vintage-Recording.com)
"Body and Soul" (Ruth Etting)(RealAudio clip from Vintage-Recording.com)
"Let's Misbehave" (Song by Cole Porter; performed by Irving Aaronson and his Commanders) (RealAudio from RedHotJazz.com )
"Mammy" (Al Jolson) (RealAudio from jolson.org )
"Dinah" (Joe Venuti's Blue Four) (RealAudio file from Dismuke's Site.)
"My Blue Heaven" (Vaughn Deleath at archive.org); another version, with less whistling, is Paul Whiteman's.
"Henry's Made a Lady out of Lizzie" (about the introduction of the Model A Ford) |
The Circus (Charlie Chaplin)
The Wind (Lillian Gish)
Steamboat Bill, Jr. (Buster Keaton)
Sadie Thompson (from W. Somerset Maugham's story "Rain"; Gloria Swanson)
Speedy (Harold Lloyd)
|
Eugene O'Neill, Strange Interlude
Nella Larsen, Quicksand |
1929 |
" A Good Man is Hard to Find" (Marion Harris)(RealAudio clip from Vintage Recordings )
"After You've Gone" (Louis Armstrong and his Orchestra) (RealAudio file from Redhotjazz.com )
"If I Had a Talking Picture of You"(RealAudio file from Dismuke's Site.)
"I'll Get By (As Long As I Have You)" (Ipana Troubadors; Bing Crosby, vocal) (RealAudio file from Dismuke's Site.)
"Happy Days are Here Again" (Leo Reisman and His Orchestra) (RealAudio file from Dismuke's Site.)
"Singin' in the Rain" ( Gus Arnheim and His Orchestra) (RealAudio file from Dismuke's Site.)
"St. Louis Blues" (Written in 1914 by W. C. Handy; here as recorded in 1929 by Louis Armstrong's Orchestra with vocals by Bessie Smith)(RealAudio file from Redhotjazz.com )
"Broadway Melody" (Ben Selvin and His Orchestra) (1929)(RealAudio file from Dismuke's Site.)
"It Makes My Love Come Down" (Bessie Smith) (1929)(RealAudio file from Dismuke's Site. )
"Little White Lies" (1930) (Sung by Annette Hanshaw) (RealAudio from RedHotJazz.com ) |
Pandora's Box (dir. Ernst Pabst, starring Louise Brooks)
The Taming of the Shrew (sound picture starring Douglas Fairbanks & Mary Pickford)
The Letter (Jeanne Eagels; from the play by W. Somerset Maugham)
 Our Modern Maidens (Joan Crawford; image courtesy of Bruce Calvert's Internet Silent Film Still Archive )
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William Faulkner, The Sound and the Fury and Sartoris
Ernest Hemingway, A Farewell to Arms
Katherine Anne Porter, "Flowering Judas"
Countee Cullen, Black Christ and Other Poems
Nella Larsen, Passing |
