| Literature |
Music |
Movies |
| 1920 |
|
|
Death of
William Dean Howells
(b. 1837)
|
 (Note:
Except as noted, the songs in this square have not yet been sorted
as to year, but all were current in the 1920s.)
"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
)
"Whispering"
(John Steel;
vocal version) (RealAudio from
Popular Songs)
"Charleston" (Site no longer available)
|
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) |
| 1921 |
|
|
|
F. Scott Fitzgerald, Flappers and Philosophers (stories)
John Dos Passos, Three Soldiers
Sherwood Anderson, The Triumph of the Egg (stories)
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 congratulations
after 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.
|
 "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) (RealAudio clip from
EarlyRecordings.com)
"Crazy Blues" (performed
by Noble Sissle) (RealAudio from the Library
of Congress)  |
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) |
| 1922 |
|
|
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
|
"If I Could
Be With You One Hour Tonight" (Ruth Etting; date unknown) (RealAudio
clip from Vintage Recordings
)
"Stumbling" (Ray Miller
and Orchestra) (RealAudio clip from EarlyRecordings.com)
"Positively, Mr.
Gallagher" "Absolutely,
Mr. Shean" (Gallagher and Shean; 1922) (new URL)(RealAudio
from Robert's
Old Schmaltz Archives )
"In the Little Red Schoolhouse" (RealAudio
from the Library of Congress)
Chicago (That Toddlin'
Town) (RealAudio from
Robert's Old Schmaltz Archives )
|
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) |
| 1923 |
|
|
|
Willa Cather, A Lost Lady
Wallace Stevens, Harmonium
William Carlos Williams, Spring and All
Jean Toomer, Cane
|
"Lady-Luck Blues"
(Bessie Smith) (RealAudio file from
Redhotjazz.com
)
"Canal
Street Blues"
(King Oliver's Creole Jazz Band) (RealAudio
file from Redhotjazz.com
)
"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) |
| 1924 |
|
|
|
Eugene O'Neill, Desire under the Elms
H. L. Mencken and George Jean Nathan found The American Mercury
|
"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) |
| 1925 |
|
|
|
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 founded by Harold Ross. Its unofficial motto: "Not
for the little old lady from Dubuque."
|
"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)
|
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) |
| 1926 |
|
|
|
William
Faulkner
, Soldier's Pay
Ernest Hemingway, The Sun Also Rises
Hart Crane, The Bridge
Langston Hughes , The Weary Blues
|
"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)
|
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) |
| 1927 |
|
|
|
Willa Cather, Death Comes for the Archbishop
Countee Cullen, Caroling Dusk (anthology) and Copper Sun
|
"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
)
|
The General (Buster Keaton)
The Love of Sunya (Gloria Swanson)
Sunrise (dir. F. W. Murnau) |
| 1928 |
|
|
Eugene O'Neill, Strange Interlude
Nella
Larsen
, Quicksand |
" 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.)
|
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) |
| 1929 |
|
|
|
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
|
" 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 ) |
Note that all links under the music column require either RealPlayer,
Quicktime, or some other type of plug-in, such as Windows Media Player.
Much of this software may already be installed on your computer; if not,
various plug-ins are available for free at the following sites:
Except as noted, sheet music covers have been scanned from my collection.
If any of the artwork is still under copyright and you are the copyright
holder, please contact me and the image will be taken down immediately.
Page written and maintained by
D. Campbell
