[Excerpt Capone's "Fortress West"]

After taking some hard hits during the years prior to 1920, the resilient and hardworking American people were rallying with a gusto. WWI had ended—there were more than 16,000,000 deaths world wide. The Spanish Flu was finally over—after killing 20% of those that were infected. There was a lot to celebrate.

Keeping pace with the heightened feelings the music became more driving, jubilant, and hectic, as did the wild dances and free-wheeling lifestyles.

Breaking with tradition, the word of the day was modern. Everything seemed attainable. Consumerism was born as mass production made technology affordable to the middle class. Radios were in every living room and not only provided news and entertainment but became the driving mass marketer for industry cranking out vacuums, washing machines, autos, toothpaste, shampoo. Electricity, telephones, Wall Street tickers, radios, silent films, automobiles.

Henry Ford’s Model T. By 1918, half of all the cars in America were Model T’s selling for less than $400—about six month’s wages for the average worker. Over 15,500,000 were sold just in the United States. A complete chassis was turned out in 93 minutes—the assembly line was born—workers were paid a whopping $5.00 a day

A lifestyle that was previously available only to the rich became affordable and within easy reach of the common worker.

Women learned they could survive without a man to take care of them. During the war they successfully managed their households and children while working in munitions factories, as clerks, or having enlisted in the Army and Navy Nursing Corps. It was a liberating experience that had a profound affect on the future of industry and social interactions.

With this new found independence, women started experimenting—smoking, drinking, cutting their hair, and slowly bringing up the hemlines of their long dresses. Corsets disappeared and women bound their breasts providing some modesty while they gyrated and shimmied to the new dances.

The silent film industry was in full swing as movie theaters cropped up in every town and hamlet all over the nation. For just a nickel, people were mesmerized by the silent flickering reels depicting comedy, tragedy, romance, musicals, and slap stick antics. The silent films were accompanied by musical scores played on organs or pianos emphasizing the emotions and characters portrayed with exaggerated movements and facial expressions. Movie stars, fan clubs, and movie magazines were driving fashions. Newsreels were bringing the world to life right before their eyes in theaters across the nation.

My mother, Gladys Walton, was one of those movie stars skyrocketing to instant fame with her first movie at age sixteen—cranking out ten or more movies a year at $500/week. The average Joe was earning $22/week.

The Roaring 20’s was the American Renaissance. Everything was in overdrive and changing drastically by the minute. Experimentation and research was not limited to material things but encompassed social issues as well.

Prohibition was one of the most earthshaking of the changes in the American way of life.

Often referred to as the “Noble Experiment” —the intent was to save mankind from the “evils of alcohol.” It failed miserably.

“ ... In fact, the more things are forbidden,

the more popular they become.”
- Mark Twain's Notebook, 1895