Click on the category to learn more about the era of the Great Gatsby.....

The Jazz Age saw a new change in music. While musicians like Aaron Copland and George Gershwin offered key changes to American music, African Americans offered the most significant contributions to the evolution of jazz.

Jazz moved from Louisiana and Kentucky to northern cities such as Chicago and New York where it flourished.

Blues, a subset of Jazz was a key vehicle for African American expression of angst and despair with the dominant white society of the time. The Harlem Renaissance, period where African American arts flourished provided an important backdrop to scholars, authors, artists, and musicians devoted to making the African American voice heard.

Interested in learning more on Jazz in the 1920's? Check out some of these links:

* “Talkies” refer to films with spoken words. The first, The Jazz Singer appeared in 1927

*Al Jolson, who plays Jack Robinson, the main character, appears in blackface. Blackface refers to white actors painting their faces black with exaggerated features to mimic African Americans in a highly stereotyped manner. This was done in part because African Americans were not often welcomed to work in Hollywood in a mainstream position.

* The Oscars were born in 1928

Best Picture 1928: Wings (Paramount)

Best Picture 1929:The Broadway Melody (Metro Goldwyn Meyer) 

You can't say sports in the 1920's without giving proper respect to:

Babe Ruth was born on February 26, 1895, in Baltimore, MD. Although he lived with his parents, they showed little affection towards him and he went to boarding school at age seven where he learned and perfected baseball.
Besides the Yankees, Ruth also played for the Orioles and the Red Sox.

Visit www.baberuth.com for more information on one of the greatest players to ever play the game.....