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Images of the 20th Century
1920s: The Hutton Getty Picture Collection
Great black & white photos in this hardback copy. There are 393 pages with photos about--- The Jazz Age, Silent Films, Outrageous Fashion, Facism, The Depression, to name a few.
393 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1998
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Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews
January 23, 2024
1920s is a marvellous book of images from Getty Images. The book is broken into chapters:
Movers and Shakers, Haves and have-nots, Work, Leisure, Entertainment, Fashion and the Arts, Science, Transport, Sport, Children and All human life. There are some really interesting photos – for instance Athens Opera House boxes converted into living quarters during a housing shortage, 1925. Trainee fashion mannequins in London. A fascinating shot showing the crew of the yacht White Heather racing at Cowes.
With Nick Yapp’s short but succinct and sometimes tongue in cheek introductions this book is a must have for anyone interested in history.
Movers and Shakers, Haves and have-nots, Work, Leisure, Entertainment, Fashion and the Arts, Science, Transport, Sport, Children and All human life. There are some really interesting photos – for instance Athens Opera House boxes converted into living quarters during a housing shortage, 1925. Trainee fashion mannequins in London. A fascinating shot showing the crew of the yacht White Heather racing at Cowes.
With Nick Yapp’s short but succinct and sometimes tongue in cheek introductions this book is a must have for anyone interested in history.
December 28, 2016
They called it the Jazz Age but it was probably crazier than any of the razzmatazz that Jelly Roll Morton or Bix Beiderbecke produced. By 1929 and the spectacular Wall Street crash, the world had already changed so much during the preceding decade and much of that change is illustrated within these pages.
After the horrors of World War I, very few people believed that life could return to pre-war normality. And they were correct, prohibition in the United States caused problems, in Europe the peace treaties of 1919 soured international relations, in the Soviet Union millions of communists died so that the old order could be got rid of and in Germany people decorated their rooms with worthless banknotes because it was cheaper than using wallpaper (there are a couple of great images of people doing this very thing).
Nick Yapp has gathered together, with appropriate captions, a vast selection of photographs, almost 400, that demonstrate the state of the world in this tumultuous decade. And he has split them up into identifiable groups.
For instance Adolf Hitler features prominently in the 'Movers and Shakers' section with one of the most striking photographs being him posing while listening to a recording of one of his speeches. Edward Prince of Wales, Josef Stalin and the Ku Klux Klan also feature on a number of occasions.
In the 'Work' section men are seen mending the glass roof of the Crystal Palace, a job that must have kept many going for a considerable time seeing as there were two million square feet (189,000 square metres) of glass and there is what seems a rare, and particularly stylish, photograph that shows a black lady taxi driver on the streets of Paris in 1929. As for health and safety, any executive of that body would have had a shock to see construction workers taking a lunch break above the streets of London, sitting, without any protection or harness on girders suspended just outside the building line. And in a similar vein, prospective workers are seen walking along the top of the Brooklyn Bridge in New York, again without harness, so that they could be deemed fit to be employed to paint the bridge!
The 'Entertainment' section goes deliciously behind the scenes in a typical theatrical dressing room for chorus girls while C B Cochran's "Young Ladies" check in to be weighed wearing as little as possible to be decent! And a fascinating image from the 'Transport' section shows in-flight movies in 1925 and primitive is not the word. The passengers are seated, one either side of an aisle, in uncomfortable looking wicker chairs with something looking like a small early television screen in front of them but there is the added advantage of large windows alongside so that if the movie was uninspiring, one could enjoy the view!
'Sport' shows the British Grand Prix start when it was held in Belfast (I never knew it was) in 1929 and in the same year Henry Cotton is seen congratulating Walter Hagen after he had broken the course record at Muirfield in the British Open Championship. Also, one that particularly interested me in that I am a National Football League follower, is the picture of 'Hinkey' Haines of the New York Giants who shows off the new and stylish (?) headgear - he looks as though he has just auditioned for a part in the 1949 movie serial 'King of the Rocket Men'!
And so it goes on, plenty of images to whet the appetite and enjoy over and over again for there are always different things to spot in the photographs, which Nick Yapp has once again chosen splendidly.
After the horrors of World War I, very few people believed that life could return to pre-war normality. And they were correct, prohibition in the United States caused problems, in Europe the peace treaties of 1919 soured international relations, in the Soviet Union millions of communists died so that the old order could be got rid of and in Germany people decorated their rooms with worthless banknotes because it was cheaper than using wallpaper (there are a couple of great images of people doing this very thing).
Nick Yapp has gathered together, with appropriate captions, a vast selection of photographs, almost 400, that demonstrate the state of the world in this tumultuous decade. And he has split them up into identifiable groups.
For instance Adolf Hitler features prominently in the 'Movers and Shakers' section with one of the most striking photographs being him posing while listening to a recording of one of his speeches. Edward Prince of Wales, Josef Stalin and the Ku Klux Klan also feature on a number of occasions.
In the 'Work' section men are seen mending the glass roof of the Crystal Palace, a job that must have kept many going for a considerable time seeing as there were two million square feet (189,000 square metres) of glass and there is what seems a rare, and particularly stylish, photograph that shows a black lady taxi driver on the streets of Paris in 1929. As for health and safety, any executive of that body would have had a shock to see construction workers taking a lunch break above the streets of London, sitting, without any protection or harness on girders suspended just outside the building line. And in a similar vein, prospective workers are seen walking along the top of the Brooklyn Bridge in New York, again without harness, so that they could be deemed fit to be employed to paint the bridge!
The 'Entertainment' section goes deliciously behind the scenes in a typical theatrical dressing room for chorus girls while C B Cochran's "Young Ladies" check in to be weighed wearing as little as possible to be decent! And a fascinating image from the 'Transport' section shows in-flight movies in 1925 and primitive is not the word. The passengers are seated, one either side of an aisle, in uncomfortable looking wicker chairs with something looking like a small early television screen in front of them but there is the added advantage of large windows alongside so that if the movie was uninspiring, one could enjoy the view!
'Sport' shows the British Grand Prix start when it was held in Belfast (I never knew it was) in 1929 and in the same year Henry Cotton is seen congratulating Walter Hagen after he had broken the course record at Muirfield in the British Open Championship. Also, one that particularly interested me in that I am a National Football League follower, is the picture of 'Hinkey' Haines of the New York Giants who shows off the new and stylish (?) headgear - he looks as though he has just auditioned for a part in the 1949 movie serial 'King of the Rocket Men'!
And so it goes on, plenty of images to whet the appetite and enjoy over and over again for there are always different things to spot in the photographs, which Nick Yapp has once again chosen splendidly.
February 24, 2024
Great pictures, but the author is a pretentious ass and some of his ridiculous captions had me scratching my head.
May 27, 2019
This book captures the 1920’s beautifully; from silent films to the Depression, from the Jazz Age to economic chaos. There are over 300 black-and-white photos that show it all and explain things in English, German and French.
The section, “The Haves and the Have Not’s” is a particularly poignant group of photos. We tend to see films with famous actors in their later years; this book offers early views of Jimmy Cagney, Noel Coward, Joan Crawford and Marlene Dietrich.
This is an engaging book that brings to the reader the grotesque and gorgeous era in America’s history. The entire series is worthwhile but this book really gives a broad view of an exciting and frightening age.
The section, “The Haves and the Have Not’s” is a particularly poignant group of photos. We tend to see films with famous actors in their later years; this book offers early views of Jimmy Cagney, Noel Coward, Joan Crawford and Marlene Dietrich.
This is an engaging book that brings to the reader the grotesque and gorgeous era in America’s history. The entire series is worthwhile but this book really gives a broad view of an exciting and frightening age.
April 23, 2019
An excellent source for a reflection on the 1920's. A remembrance of World War I, stock market crashes, vaudeville, The Charleston, bathing suits that had enough material to make twenty now, 100 year old fashion and much more. The photos are first class Getty photos and the commentary excellent. A fun change of pace from most everyday reading.
March 22, 2023
People lived, people worked, people danced, people struggled and fighted.
Something very eery embarrasses a reader watching the photographs of happy to be in the XXth century survivors of the WW I long ago perished in the time to date.
Something very eery embarrasses a reader watching the photographs of happy to be in the XXth century survivors of the WW I long ago perished in the time to date.
October 11, 2018
inflation, job loss, poverty, all contributed the rise of Hitler and buried the seed of WW2.
September 22, 2020
La fotografia che ho preferito:
Parrot at wedding, 1924
Parrot at wedding, 1924
December 5, 2020
Captioned photographs. Exquisite.
December 19, 2020
A more peaceful time for the world. So many arts and artists flourished during this time.
July 20, 2024
A lot of the pictures are focused on Europe and I guess I was expecting the focus to be more on the US.
Nonetheless I enjoyed both the pictures and the history lessons that came with them!
Nonetheless I enjoyed both the pictures and the history lessons that came with them!
January 20, 2012
Photographs ranging from joyous to depressing, from fascinating to utterly boring. The transport section particularly wasn't that interesting for me personally, unlike the entertainment section (Ivor Novello, how handsome you were!). Due to the nature of the collection - being a mere cross section of the decade - there's quite a little material, because there are chapters for each area in life. If there was a separate book for each of these chapters, it would look more focused and instead of snippets there would be more room for background information. Still, a fascinating collection with some quite unusual photos, and a must-read for everyone interested in the 1920s.
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August 4, 2011Possibly the best book in the Getty Images of the 20th Century series, this book holds hundreds of photos from the Roaring 20's. Useful as a resource tool even though there is hardly any context given for individual pictures. You definitely have to know the fads and fashions of the period to understand some of the more bizarre photos.
December 9, 2011
This is a neat, thick little book of photographs from the Getty archives. It's a terrific visual reference of the sorts of images that showed up in newspapers and magazines, full of fashion, social history, labor relations, and plenty of odd little details of life at the time, in Europe and the United States.
April 12, 2012
Oh, I hope my library has more of the books in this series. The photographs were amazing, and all the text was duplicated in German and French, which was really cool. I'm just in love with this kind of thing.
April 28, 2016
A nice variety of photos that give a pretty good snap shot view of life in the 1920's that covers a nice variety of every day life to the more famous and celebrity with just enough information in the accompanying blurb to let you know what is going on, printed in English, German and French.
July 12, 2009
my favourite of these series (among the ones i've read)
September 13, 2009
this is a fascinating book,filled with photo's from the 1920's.a brilliant social account of the times.
April 10, 2008
My favorite in the series. Great format, so many pictures.
October 20, 2016
4 1/2 stars
Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews