Youthful CultureCosmo Girl The Look Electrified High-Rise Music and Talkies Billboard jungle |
| ||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||
Women up Front Throughout the era, women feature prominently in every aspect of public life, including magazines. The ad at left is for Arrow men's shirts, but the spotlight is on the woman. Marlboro cigarettes, which will later be transformed into a macho-cowboy product, gets its start as a woman's cigarette. Fashion is the venue where women make their big splash, and men love them for it. | |||||||||
| |||||||||
Just Flip a Switch It's hard to overstate just how important electricity is in transforming American life during the Roaring Twenties. Electric vacuum cleaners, washing machines, refrigerators and stoves get all the attention, but it's electric lights that make the night come alive. The new breed of high-rise buildings would not even be possible without electric elevators. | |||||||||
| |||||||||
Another Transformation What automobiles do for personal mobility, the radio does for entertainment, bringing it to virtually every home in America. Even farm families can afford one. Radio waves can travel great distances, especially at night, reaching homes far from the big cities where transmitters are located. | |||||||||
| |||||||||
Rampant Commercialism Billboard advertising blankets many cities, and nighttime illumination extends the coverage of advertising messages. America is going commercial in a big way, and cities are the center of the action. | |||||||||
| |||||||||
Anything You Might Need By now, the Sears catalog has so many pages that the company begins offering separate catalogs devoted entirely to just plumbing and wiring. There's a lot to advertise. | |||||||||