The Flappers!

featured lenses 

The Pansy Craze

The Pansy Craze was a period in the late 1920s and early 1930s in which gay clubs and performers (known as pansy performers) experienced a surge in underground popularity in the United States. In this period, there were drag performers such as Ray B...

The Talking Machine

victrola (plural victrolas) In common usage, any upright or console model phonograph from the early 1900s, usually with a wooden cabinet body and an interior horn for the projection of sound, that plays 78 rpm records using a steel needle.

The Jazz Age

The Jazz Age describes the period from 1918-1929, the years between the end of World War I and the start of the Roaring Twenties; ending with the rise of the Great Depression, the traditional values of this age saw great decline while the American st...

Everything Vintage!

vin·tage adj.   Of or relating to a vintage. Characterized by excellence, maturity, and enduring appeal; classic.

Vintage Sheet Music

A BRIEF HISTORY OF SHEET MUSIC People have always loved music. It is said that almost anywhere one goes in the world, there will be somebody playing some kind of rhythm and tune, even if it is just hitting two sticks together! In the early 1900s, p...

The Jumping Flea

The ukulele (Hawaiian: ukulele, IPA pronunciation: ukulele, sometimes spelled ukelele (particularly in the UK) or uke, is a chordophone classified as a plucked lute; it is a subset of the guitar family of instruments, generally with four strings or f...

Cigarette Cards

Cigarette cards are trade cards issued by tobacco manufacturers to stiffen cigarette packaging and advertise cigarette brands. History Beginning in 1875, cards depicting actresses, baseball players, Indian chiefs, and boxers were issued by the Al...

Red Hot Jazz

JAZZ -noun 1. music originating in New Orleans around the beginning of the 20th century and subsequently developing through various increasingly complex styles, generally marked by intricate, propulsive rhythms, polyphonic ensemble playing, improvis...

VAUDEVILLE!

Vaudeville was a genre of variety entertainment prevalent on the stage in the United States and Canada, from the early 1880s until the early 1930s. It developed from many sources, including the concert saloon, minstrelsy, freak shows, dime museums,...

Crooners and Songbirds

The Jazz Age! Tin Pan Alley!! The Great White Way!!!   croon    ( P )  Pronunciation Key  (krn) v. crooned, croon·ing, croons v. intr. 1.    To hum or sing softly. 2.    To sing popul...

Bessie Love

Bessie Love c. 1916 Born Juanita Horton September 10, 1898 Midland, Texas Died April 26, 1986 (aged 87) London, England Spouse(s) William Hawks

ON THIS DAY in JAZZ AGE MUSIC

* THE ROARING TWENTIES! * * TIN PAN ALLEY! * *PROHIBITION! * * RED HOT JAZZ! * Grab Yourself some Moonshine and c'mon In! FEATURING: * MUSICIAN BIO'S * IMAGES GALORE * MP3'S * VIDEOS * RESOURCES * LINKS

Lee Morse

"She was 5 feet tall. She was less than 100 lbs "soaking wet". She spent her childhood in Oregon and Idaho yet was proud of her family's Southern roots. She could hunt and fish and, if you deserved it, she could punch your lights out! She was Lee Mor...

Marlene Dietrich

Marlene Dietrich (December 27 1901-May 6 1992) was a German-born American actress, singer and entertainer. She is considered to be the first German actress to flourish in Hollywood. Dietrich managed to remain popular by continually re-inventing hers...

Dolly Sisters

BIOGRAPHY The Dolly Sisters, twins Rosika (Rose) and Jansci (Jenny) Deutsch, were born October 25, 1892 in Hungary, and emigrated to the United States in 1905. They perfected a single-sex "tandem" dance act - practicing in front of mirrors - under...

Vernon and Irene Castle

Vernon and Irene Castle were a husband-and-wife team of ballroom dancers of the early 20th century. They are credited with invigorating the popularity of modern dancing. Vernon Castle (May 2, 1887 - February 15, 1918) was born William Vernon Blyth i...

Elsie Carlisle

Originally from Manchester, Elsie became extremely popular during the 1920s and 30s, recording with many of the big dance bands of the time, as well as solo. She recorded very little after the beginning of the Second World War, and retired from the e...

Suzy Solidor

Suzy Solidor (1900-1983) was a French singer and actress, appearing in films such as La Garconne.

Ruth Etting

                  Ruth Etting on the cover of Radio Mirror magazine, June 1932.   Ruth Etting (November 23, 1896 – September 24, 1978) was an American singing star of the 1930s, who had over sixty hit recor...

Annette Hanshaw

Birth name Annette Hanshaw Born October 18, 1901 Origin USA Died March 13, 1985 Genre(s)Jazz Occupation(s) Singer Instrument(s) Vocals Annette Hanshaw was one of the first great female jazz singers. In the late 1920s she ranked alongside Ethel...

Libby Holman

Libby Holman was an American torch singer and stage actress who was, in her time, considered both a scandalous tarnished lady and a tragedy-prone millionairess. Born: Elizabeth Lloyd Holzman May 23, 1904(1904-05-23) Cincinnati, Ohio Died: June 18,...

Florence Mills

Florence Mills, born Florence Winfrey (January 25, 1896 - November 1, 1927), known as the "Queen of Happiness," was an American cabaret singer, dancer, and comedian known for her effervescent stage presence, delicate voice, and winsome, wide-eyed bea...

Nancy Cunard

Nancy Clare Cunard (March 10, 1896 - March 17, 1965) was an English writer, editor and publisher, political activist, anarchist and poet. She was born into the British upper class but strongly rejected her family's values, devoting much of her life t...

Jane Green

Jane Green (2 January 1897 - 28 August 1931) was a United States singer popular in the 1920s. Green was born in Kentucky as Martha Jane Greene. She appeared in the Ziegfeld Follies and recorded over 30 phonograph records, and appeared in s...

Kiki de Montparnasse

Alice Ernestine Prin (October 2, 1901 - April 29, 1953), was a French artists' model, nightclub singer, actress and painter. Her chosen name was simply Kiki, but she was also referred to as Reine de la Montparnasse ("the Queen of Montparnasse") and K...

Ethel Waters

Background information: Born October 31, 1896(1896-10-31) Chester, Pennsylvania, USA Died September 1, 1977 (aged 80) Chatsworth, California, USA Genre(s): Jazz Occupation(s): Actress, singer Instrument(s): Vocals Years active: 1925-1977 Associated acts: Be...

Josephine Baker

Background information Birth name Freda Josephine Carson Born June 3, 1906, St. Louis, Missouri Died April 12, 1975, Paris, France Genre(s) Cabaret, Music Hall, French pop music Occupation(s) Singer, Dancer Josephine Baker (June 3, 1906 - April 12...

Sophie Tucker

Birth name Sonia Kalish Born January 13, 1884 Origin Czarist Russia Died February 9, 1966 Genre(s) Jazz vaudeville Occupation(s) Singer/Comedian   Sophie Tucker (January 13, 1884–February 9, 1966) was a singer and comedian, one of th...

Bricktop

Ada Beatrice Queen Victoria Louise Virginia Smith, better known as Bricktop (Aug 14, 1894 - Feb 1, 1984) was an African-American dancer, singer, vaudevillian, and saloon-keeper who owned the nightclub Chez Bricktop in Paris from 1924 to 1961, as well...