Page 32 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide - New York City

30  INTRODUCING NE W Y ORK CIT Y

New York City Between the Wars

The 1920s were a time of high living for many New Yorkers.
Mayor Jimmy Walker set the pace, whether squiring chorus
girls, drinking in speakeasies, or watching the Yankees. But the
good times ended with the 1929 stock market crash. By 1932,
Walker had resigned, charged with corruption, and one-quarter
of New Yorkers were unemployed. With Mayor Fiorello La
Guardia’s 1933 election, New York began to recover and thrive. Growth of the Metropolis
1933 Today

Exotic Costumes
Chorus girls were a major
Cotton Club attraction.

The Cotton Club
This Harlem nightclub was host to
the best jazz in town, as first Duke
Ellington and then Cab Calloway
led the band. People flocked from
all over the city to hear them.

Defying Prohibition
Although alcohol was outlawed,
speakeasies – semi-secret illegal
drinking dens – still sold it.
Home-Run Hitter
In 1927, baseball star Babe Ruth
hit a then-record 60 home runs Gangsters
for the Yankees. Yankee Stadium Dutch Schultz was
(see p251) became known as Sawed-off shotgun the kingpin of an
“the house that Ruth built.” illegal booze racket.
concealed in violin case

1918 End of World War I Opening of the
1919 18th Amendment bans alcohol Holland Tunnel 1931 Empire
and launches Prohibition Era State Building
1926 Jimmy Walker becomes
1920 US women get the vote becomes mayor world’s tallest
1920 1925 1930
1924 Novelist 1927 Lindbergh flies 1929 Stock market 1930
James Baldwin is across the Atlantic; crash; Great Chrysler
born in Harlem first talking movie, Depression begins Building
The Jazz Singer, completed
1925 The New Yorker opens; Holland
magazine is launched Tunnel opens

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