Dear Friends,

In this issue of the Navigator, we will pay our respects to some of the ideas and inventions that propelled this country into the modern era starting with the 19th Amendment - a momentous first step toward breaking down centuries-long gender apartheid. 

Let us celebrate this great possibility together on September 21 at the Village’s annual benefit, “It’s the New Roaring '20s” from 5-6:15 PM on Zoom. For more information and to RSVP, click here.

Looking back, it is astonishing to realize that so much change occurred in such a relativity short period of time and how many characteristics of our current society began in the 1920’s.

Flappers embody the spirit of the 1920’s and are its most recognizable and lasting image. Flappers romped through the Roaring Twenties, with “bobbed” hair, in comfortable clothes, dancing to live jazz bands and reminded everyone it was again OK to have fun.

Flappers are also the symbol of a redefinition of womanhood. The 19th Amendment, ratified in 1919, extended voting rights to women. This was a momentous event that had been literally hundreds of years in the making. Along with achieving suffrage, a strong, independent, and accomplished "new woman" emerged. She joined the workforce in increasing numbers, participated actively in the nation’s new mass consumer culture, and enjoyed more freedom in her personal life. These women paved the way for later generations to benefit more fully from the social changes the 1920’s set in motion.

It cannot be left unsaid that voting rights for women was not the end of the voting rights story. For historian Martha Jones, the 1920 milestone "...marks for African American women a start, not a finish.” The same is true for Asian Americans who were not considered citizens until 1943 and for Native Americans who were granted citizenship in 1924 but had to secure voting rights state by state. Jones says, "One of the lessons that we learn when we compare 1920 to 2020 is that voting rights is never a given. It's never a guarantee.”

The convenience and choice we now enjoy – the ability to buy anything from a bottle of aspirin to a car, at any time, without leaving our homes - began in the 1920’s with the convergence of three transforming developments: assembly line production, the availability of credit, and mass communication.

The most important consumer product of the 1920s was the automobile. Henry Ford’s assembly line production methods led to low prices (the Ford Model T cost just $260 - $3,500 in today’s dollars) and generous credit made cars affordable luxuries; by 1929 there were over 23 million cars on American roads - one for every five Americans.

Economic historians calculate that in 1920, hardly any middle class consumers used credit to buy goods. But by the end of the decade, 70-80% of cars, furniture, radios and phonographs were purchased on the installment plan – making them a fixture in most middle class homes.

In November 1920, the first commercially licensed radio station began broadcasting live results of the Presidential election. By 1926, there were over 700 commercial radio stations, and virtually the entire country was within range of a broadcast. In addition, historians estimate that by 1929, 75% of the American population visited a movie theater every week!

Radio, along with movies, the phonograph, plus advertising and the spread of chain stores, created a mass culture with people from coast to coast buying the same goods, listening to the same music, doing the same dances, and even using the same slang! (i.e., The berries = something good; cheaters = eyeglasses; Jake = OK).

In the 1920’s 750,000 African Americans sought social and economic opportunity in the North, where they contributed enormously to the development of an urban culture reflected in the visual and performing arts. The Chicago Black Renaissance witnessed the emergence of artists, poets, authors, jazz and the rise of urban blues. In 1922, trumpeter Louis Armstrong joined King Oliver’s Creole Jazz Band in Chicago. Throughout the 1920s, Armstrong and others transformed the city into the jazz capital of the world. The Chicago Defender newspaper promoted black fine arts and publicized the works of artists and the institutions that supported and nurtured their creativity.

In New York, The Harlem Renaissance was a golden age for African American artists, writers and musicians. Never dominated by a particular school of thought but rather characterized by intense debate, the movement had an enormous impact on subsequent Black literature and consciousness worldwide. These artists took control of how the Black experience was represented in American culture and set the stage for the civil rights movement.

The longevity and lifestyle enjoyed by many older adults today would have stunned our forebears. 1920’s life expectancy for men was 58 and for women 62. People 55 years of age were considered old and those over 65 “very old.” For those in need, family was the only “safety net” which over the decade became less reliable. Families were growing smaller and the population had shifted to cities, leaving fewer people to care for their older family members in more expensive urban settings. This set the stage for the creation of Social Security which was enacted in 1935, and for Medicare in 1965. Later life was more difficult in the 1920’s, but these years also saw the birth of some major contributions to the longevity we now enjoy.

Penicillin: Arthur Fleming discovered penicillin in London in 1929, when it was considered a laboratory curiosity – it was other scientists who recognized its potential as a life-saving drug. During World War II, the United States played a major role in developing large-scale production of the drug, making it widely available and ushering in the era of antibiotics which changed forever the treatment of infectious disease.

Insulin: In the early 1920s, Frederick Banting and Charles Best discovered insulin. With the help of James Collip insulin was purified, making it available for the successful treatment of diabetes. Eli Lilly and Company took note of this, and in 1923 the company began to mass-produce insulin (derived from the pancreases of pigs and cows). They named their product “Iletin.” For the first time in human history, diabetes was not a death sentence.

   1925 – The Great Gatsby is published

4. Fads began that are still with us: crossword puzzles, nail polish, cocktails, mahjong.

Just as World War I and the 1918 flu pandemic kick-started change in the 1920’s, the Covid pandemic forced immediate change on all of us. Change breaks habits, clears our vision, and brings the opportunity for new and better ways of doing things. We are living in a time when working together toward common goals has taken on existential importance. What's at stake now is our city, our country, our planet.

Tom has created a community of thousands who know how to collaborate across generations to unlock the value of innovation. He says, “Innovation is for everyone, and we mean everyone. All ages, cultures, races, genders need to be at the table now.”

Town Hall Apartments has changed lives as the first affordable LGBTQ-friendly senior housing in Chicago. Built in collaboration with Heartland Alliance and Center on Halsted Town Hall Apartments is an important example of how creative collaboration can fill unmet needs.

Ashton Applewhite’s book, This Chair Rocks – A Manifesto Against Ageism, has helped catalyze a global movement to recognize and eliminate age bias—starting between our ears. "Aging is not a problem to be fixed or a disease to be cured," she says. "It is a natural, powerful, lifelong process that unites us all.”

Don’t miss this gala event! For more information and to RSVP, just click here.

We are collecting some irresistible items for the online auction which will run from Tuesday, September 14 through Monday, September 20.

Join us at our in-person Auction Kick-Off Party on September 14 at a beautiful Streeterville location overlooking Lake Michigan. As the online auction goes live, we'll provide food, drink, and FUN!! Tickets are $35 each and includes one raffle ticket for the Benefit! Space is limited so get your tickets for the kick-off here!

Unable to join us? No problem – there will be a free introduction to the auction and instructions on how to bid via Zoom on Tuesday, September 14 at 5 PM (CDT). Register here and you will receive the Zoom link via email.

DePaul University Provost Dr. Salma Ghanem will be the featured speaker Tuesday, August 31 as The Village Chicago examines the role of higher education will play in the future of work. Bring your own questions for an interactive Q&A!

For a full description and to RSVP, CLICK HERE.

Learn more about the Village by calling us at 773.248.8700 or click here to download the membership application form.

2502 North Clark Street, Chicago, Illinois 60614. 773.248.8700