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On the date

Saturday, July 10, 1920

From the day

Perspective: The Street Photographer · Sight

The July sun glares off the chrome of a parked Hudson, reflecting the sharp silhouettes of women in beaded silk and low-slung cloche hats. I adjust my lens as a newsie shouts about those automobile bandits escaping the law again, a story that sounds like pure baloney meant to sell papers to the nervous crowds. Nearby, a tinny gramophone spills the smooth, hushed melody of John Schonberger’s "Whispering" into the humid air, competing with the scent of gasoline and saltwater. I click the shutter just as a girl with a sharp bobbed haircut adjusts her T-strap heels, capturing a frame of this shimmering, lawless summer.

Memories from that day

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The Headlines

AUTOMOBILE BANDITS RETURN TO BATTLE AFTER JAIL-BREAK; One Believed Shot in Effort to Steal Cars Seized by Police in Lake Hopatcong. LINKED TO WHISKY HOLDUP Two Men Held Four Days in Lockup Identified as $100,000 Liquor Thieves. ESCAPE AS SLEUTHS WAIT Three Stolen Machines Recovered, Two in Garage on Estate of Hudson Maxim.

Read in The New York Times →

Best-selling Sheet Music

Whispering

John Schonberger

The must-have

Raggedy Andy

On This Day

Slang

Slang of the decade

General

applesaucebaloneycheaterscrush

Flapper

bee's kneescat's pajamasgiggle watershebahotsy-totsy

Gangster

big cheesebump offstool pigeongatfall guy

Catchphrases of 1920

  • Return to normalcy

Tech Check

Commercial Radio Stations (KDKA), Hair Dryer & Band-Aid.

Style of 1920

Silhouette: Straight and drop-waisted (Flapper)

Material: Beaded silk and rayon

  • Bobbed hair
  • Cloche hats
  • T-strap heels

Cost of Living (1920)

Loaf of Bread

$0.11

Gallon of Gas

$0.30

Average Home

$6,296

New Car

$575

Meanwhile

  • Post-WWI RecessionSevere deflation and collapse of agricultural prices.

Time Elapsed

38,681 days ago

(105 years, 356 days)