ABSTRACT
The ‘gay ’twenties’ were not only a reaction against the sufferings and restrictions of war-time. Young men and girls mixed much more freely. The comforts of life to which people are accustomed today also increased very quickly during these years. Small cars, for example, were soon cheap and plentiful. The Americans reduced the flying time from New York to Paris or London to twenty hours; and there was much public excitement about the efforts of Amy Johnson and other pioneers to reduce the time of air flights to Australia. The attraction of the cinema was greatly increased by the introduction of sound films, instead of the old silent films with captions. The dramatic political result of the bankruptcy of Austrian and German banks was one consequence of this. The younger generation felt ‘emancipated’. It was the great age of jazz and the cinema. Mass-produced motors enabled millions to move around.
