MANHATTAN PARIS

Fashion and Arts of the Roaring Twenties

Issue 1 – Paris – New York

The Low-Cut Dress

A Symbol of Freedom in the Roaring Twenties

A NEW SILHOUETTE

The low-cut dress became one of the most striking symbols of the Roaring Twenties. Lighter, bolder and more comfortable than traditional clothing, it accompanied women’s emancipation and the emergence of a new, more independent silhouette.

A dress that frees movement even before it reveals the skin.

01

A New Tool of Seduction for Women

The 1920s were a period of profound social and cultural upheaval in Europe and the United States. After the ordeal of the First World War, a new generation longed for greater freedom and sought to break with many conventions inherited from the nineteenth century.

This transformation was reflected in many areas, especially women’s fashion. Among the decade’s emblematic garments was the low-cut dress, which broke with the rigid dress codes of previous generations.

BEFORE THE BREAK

Before the 1920s, women’s fashion was dominated by long, voluminous dresses, often worn with corsets that severely constrained the body.

The war, however, changed women’s place in society. While men were mobilized at the front, women filled many jobs and gained greater autonomy.

Lighter, shorter and bolder, the dress became the symbol of a new woman asserting her independence and personality.

At the end of the conflict, many women refused to return completely to older patterns of behavior. This evolution naturally appeared in the way they dressed.

02

The Reign of the Pearl Necklace

The Body Rediscovers Movement

This evolution in fashion had important consequences for women’s lives. First, it offered greater physical freedom. Women could walk, work, drive or take part in leisure activities with greater ease.

The popularity of modern dances such as the Charleston perfectly illustrates this transformation. Light, low-cut dresses followed fast and dynamic movements that would have been difficult in the heavier clothing of earlier decades.

Changing Attitudes

The low-cut dress became a genuine clothing revolution. Skirts gradually rose to the knee, sleeves shortened, and some cuts revealed more of the arms, shoulders or back.

Fashion designers favored straight, fluid lines that freed the body. The famous figure of the “garçonne,” or flapper, perfectly embodied this new aesthetic. Women cut their hair, abandoned the corset and adopted clothes that encouraged movement and comfort.

It expressed a desire for modernity and individual freedom. Some conservative circles considered these outfits too daring or provocative. Yet their success showed that society was changing and that women were becoming increasingly visible in public life.

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L’AUBAINE FRANcaISE

Quand l’Amérique interdit l’alcool, la France transforme la Prohibition en une extraordinaire aventure transatlantique. Découvrez les négociants, marins, diplomates et contrebandiers français qui ont profité de cette nouvelle économie clandestine.

Découvrir le livre

03

The Art of Suggestion

Beyond its social significance, the low-cut dress also possessed a powerful seductive appeal. Its main strength lay in suggesting rather than revealing everything.

Necklines and cutouts drew the eye to the shoulders, nape, back or legs while preserving a sense of elegance. This subtlety contributed greatly to the garment’s charm.

Seduction no longer relied on layers of fabric or silhouettes artificially shaped by corsets, but on a more natural celebration of the female body.

Skin appears in flashes, between the movement of fabric and the light of the salons.

04

Light Fabrics and Pearl Necklaces

The visual effect of these dresses was reinforced by their materials. Light fabrics, fringes, beads and embroidery moved with the body and created an impression of fluidity.

When women danced, the dress seemed to come alive with them. This combination of freedom of movement and elegance strongly contributed to its appeal, projecting the image of a dynamic, confident and modern woman.

Jewelry no longer closes the dress: it emphasizes the freedom of its line.

The low-cut dress of the 1920s was therefore far more than a simple garment. It represented an important stage in the history of fashion and in women’s emancipation.

By breaking with the clothing constraints of the past, it accompanied the emergence of a new female identity based on autonomy, comfort and self-assertion. Its success reflected a changing society in which women claimed greater freedom both in daily life and in their appearance.

STRAP SHOES

ART DECO PERFUME

EVENING FAN

PEARL NECKLACE

Even today, this dress continues to inspire fashion designers. Its timeless elegance, controlled boldness and ability to flatter the silhouette without excess explain why it remains associated with glamour and modernity.

A legacy of the Roaring Twenties, it reminds us that a garment can be an aesthetic object, a social symbol and a powerful means of personal expression all at once.

MANHATTAN PARIS · FASHION AND STYLE

FRENCH PROHIBITION

ISSUE 01

L’article The Low-Cut Dress est apparu en premier sur FRENCH PROHIBITION.

On April 27, 1930, FC Sète wins the first Coupe de France in its history by defeating Racing Club de France 3–1 after extra time. After several lost finals, the Hérault club finally has its revenge.

At Colombes, FC Sète has finally broken the curse. Facing Racing Club de France in the Coupe de France final, the players from Sète win 3–1 after extra time. Long undecided, the match ultimately swings in favor of the Mediterranean side.

This victory has a special flavor for the club. FC Sète already knew the road to the final, but also the bitterness of defeat. In 1923 it lost to Red Star. The following year, Olympique de Marseille denied Sète the trophy. Each failure strengthened the feeling that the cup was slipping away from a team that nevertheless belonged among the best in France.

The Hour of Deliverance

The 1930 final therefore had to be the moment of release. Against a strong Parisian side, FC Sète had to be patient and draw on its reserves. At the end of regulation time, the two teams were still level. Extra time finally allowed the southern club to make the difference and secure a 3–1 victory.

When the final whistle sounded, it was not only a team that had won. An entire port city, passionate about football, saw its colors rewarded. Sète’s success crowned a persistent collective that had repeatedly returned to the final despite previous disappointments.

Back to the Mediterranean

The cup can now head south to the Mediterranean. After so much waiting, FC Sète writes its name on the competition’s roll of honor for the first time. The triumph will not remain isolated: four years later, the club will achieve the first league-and-cup double in French football history.

But in 1930, nobody is thinking about the next conquest yet. It is time to celebrate. For the players, directors and people of Sète, this victory wipes away the failures of the past. The long-awaited trophy is finally theirs.

L’article FC Sète Finally Wins the Coupe de France est apparu en premier sur FRENCH PROHIBITION.

A few weeks after the Victory Parade, a former fighter pilot carries out one of the boldest feats in French aviation history. At the controls of his Nieuport, Charles Godefroy flies through the Arc de Triomphe at full speed, defying the military authorities and entering legend.

On July 14, 1919, Paris celebrates the Allied victory with a huge military parade. Infantrymen, artillerymen and cavalrymen march down the Champs-Élysées to the cheers of the crowd. The aviators, however, receive an instruction they find deeply humiliating: they are to parade on foot.

For men who risked their lives in the skies over France, the decision is hard to accept. Many believe aviation, which profoundly transformed warfare, deserves a more prestigious place. Among them is Jean Navarre, one of France’s most famous aces. He imagines a spectacular protest: flying through the Arc de Triomphe. But a few days before the planned demonstration, Navarre is killed during a training flight. The project appears to be abandoned.

A Successful New Attempt

Another pilot nevertheless decides to revive the idea. His name is Charles Godefroy. A discreet and experienced former fighter pilot, he carefully prepares the flight. For several days he observes the site, studies the air currents and measures the opening beneath the Arc de Triomphe. The passage is about 14 meters wide. His Nieuport 11 has a wingspan of just over 7 meters. The margin for error is tiny.

On the morning of August 7, 1919, Godefroy takes off from Villacoublay. He discreetly follows the Seine before reaching the Champs-Élysées. Above the Place de l’Étoile, he suddenly drops altitude. Only a few meters above the ground, he lines up his aircraft perfectly with the arch. In a fraction of a second, the Nieuport flies through the Arc de Triomphe before the astonished eyes of motorists, coachmen and passersby.

An Aviation Pioneer

The aircraft then climbs again and disappears above the rooftops of Paris. A nearby camera records the scene, and the images quickly travel around the world. The authorities open an investigation. Many demand exemplary punishment. In the end, Charles Godefroy escapes a severe sentence. His feat is considered reckless, but his military record and the special circumstances of the postwar period bring him a degree of leniency.

Even today, the flight remains one of the most famous episodes in aviation history. It symbolizes an era when pilots were seen as adventurers capable of pushing every limit. Other feats would soon follow: crossings of the English Channel and the Atlantic, followed by speed and altitude records. In 1919, the sky still belongs to the pioneers. Charles Godefroy has reminded France that the heroes of the Great War sometimes prefer to fly rather than walk.

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Charlie Chaplin, Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks and D. W. Griffith join forces to create their own distribution company. Faced with producers who control contracts, salaries and film distribution, four of cinema’s biggest stars want to regain control of their work.

In Hollywood, the photograph looks almost like a coup staged in business suits. Around a table, four of the world’s most famous artists sign the documents creating United Artists. Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks, Charlie Chaplin and director D. W. Griffith no longer want to depend entirely on the major companies already dominating the film industry.

American cinema is undergoing a profound transformation. Films are becoming longer, more expensive and more popular. Producers seek to control the entire chain, from production to movie theaters. Actors and directors, even famous ones, remain tied to contracts that restrict their artistic and financial choices.

A Star Short of Cash

Chaplin already knows this frustration. Despite his enormous success, he struggles to secure the budgets and time needed to make films on his own terms. Mary Pickford, known as “America’s Sweetheart,” is one of the country’s highest-paid actresses, but she wants to choose her projects and control their distribution. Douglas Fairbanks wants to preserve the freedom behind his adventure comedies. Griffith, meanwhile, is determined to protect his independence as a director.

United Artists will not quite be a traditional studio. Its main purpose is to allow the founders to produce their own films and then distribute them without relying on rival companies. They can therefore retain ownership of their work and negotiate directly with theater operators. The Academy Museum describes this revolution as giving artists greater control over their creative work and earnings as the studio system expanded.

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Admiration and Jealousy

The trade press watches the initiative with a mixture of admiration and anxiety. According to a phrase that became famous, an industry executive is said to have declared that “the inmates are taking over the asylum.” The image is perfect: the stars whom producers thought they controlled have just built their own exit.

The venture remains risky. Each founder is expected to supply new films regularly, while Chaplin and Griffith work slowly. United Artists does not yet possess the vast theater network enjoyed by its competitors. Yet its creation permanently changes the balance of power in Hollywood.

The Benefits for Creators

For the first time, leading artists openly assert that a film does not belong only to the person who finances it. It also belongs to those who imagine it, make it and give it a face.

In the America of 1919, where industrialists, moral leagues and public authorities increasingly seek to regulate society, four stars have signed a small declaration of independence. United Artists is officially founded on February 5, 1919.

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MANHATTAN PARIS

Fashion and Arts of the Roaring Twenties

Issue 2 – Paris – New York

Two-Tone Shoes

The Graphic Elegance of the Roaring Twenties

THE ACCESSORY THAT SET THE 1920s DANCING

In the 1920s, two-tone shoes became one of the defining signs of a generation in love with movement, dance and modernity. Most often combining white with black, brown or beige, they appealed both to elegant men and to women breaking free from older dress codes.

Two colors, a few perforations, and all the elegance of the Roaring Twenties at your feet.

01

When Shoes Step Out of the Shadows

At the beginning of the twentieth century, shoes still played a relatively discreet role in the female silhouette. Long dresses largely concealed them, while most available styles favored dark colors. Their purpose remained primarily practical: protecting the foot and completing an outfit without drawing much attention.

Fashion changed rapidly after the First World War. Skirts gradually became shorter, sometimes rising to the knee. For the first time, shoes were fully visible. No longer a minor detail hidden beneath clothing, they became a genuine element of style.

FASHION BECOMES VISIBLE

The spread of shorter dresses gave shoes a new importance. The Metropolitan Museum of Art notes that this change in silhouette, which began in the late 1910s, encouraged the emergence of a far wider range of styles and materials.

This transformation encouraged manufacturers and designers to multiply shapes, materials and contrasts. Patent leather, suede, canvas, kid leather and satin could now appear on the same shoe. Color also entered the shop windows.

An Instantly Recognizable Look

Among all these innovations, the two-tone shoe stood out for its instantly recognizable appearance. Alternating light and dark sections emphasized the construction of the shoe and drew the eye toward the feet. Shoes now accompanied every moment of the day: walking, sport, work, receptions or evenings on the dance floor. They had to match the outfit while also expressing the personality of the wearer.

02

The Birth of the “Spectator Shoe”

From the Playing Field to the City

The era’s most iconic two-tone style became known in the English-speaking world as the “spectator shoe.” It was characterized by two contrasting colors or materials across the upper.

Its development was closely tied to leisure activities enjoyed by affluent groups. First worn at cricket matches, golf games and fashionable outdoor gatherings, it quickly moved into the city. It appeared as an Oxford, Derby or pump, with contrasting panels emphasizing the toe, heel or quarters.

A Striking Form of Masculine Elegance

For men, two-tone shoes were initially associated with leisurewear and the summer season. They were worn with light trousers, a sports jacket or a lightweight suit. Their bold contrast gave them a more daring appearance than traditional black shoes.

At seaside resorts, private clubs and holiday destinations, they signaled a new taste for relaxed dressing without abandoning elegance. Black and white produced the most spectacular effect, while white and brown or beige and black were easier to wear.

Their conspicuous appearance was not universally admired. In more conservative circles, they were sometimes considered too eccentric. Paradoxically, that reputation helped make them popular with artists, dancers and young men eager to display a modern look.

LIVRE

LA PROHIBITION AmerICAINE
L’AUBAINE FRANcaISE

Quand l’Amérique interdit l’alcool, la France transforme la Prohibition en une extraordinaire aventure transatlantique. Découvrez les négociants, marins, diplomates et contrebandiers français qui ont profité de cette nouvelle économie clandestine.

Découvrir le livre

03

Shoes Made for Dancing

During the Roaring Twenties, dance occupied a central place in social life. The Charleston, fox-trot, shimmy and black bottom swept through cabarets, dance halls and ballrooms. In New York as in Paris, the body broke free from older conventions and adopted faster, freer movements.

Shoes had to follow this evolution. They became lighter, more flexible and more secure on the foot. Women particularly appreciated styles with straps across the instep or around the ankle, which stayed in place despite vigorous movement.

Women’s fashion also borrowed from menswear. The flapper adopted the Oxford and spectator shoe, preserving their graphic construction while adapting them to the female silhouette. Heels grew higher, while cutouts and perforations became more delicate.

On the dance floor, contrasting leather moves to the rhythm of jazz.

04

A Pattern of Geometry and Art Deco

The two-tone shoe fit perfectly into the Art Deco aesthetic that flourished during the 1920s. Like the architecture, furniture and posters of the period, it favored clean lines, sharp contrasts and geometric compositions.

Different pieces of leather could form a wing over the toe, a wavy line along the sides or a series of decorative perforations. Contrasting materials mattered as much as contrasting colors: smooth leather with light canvas, patent leather with matte suede, solid panels beside perforated surfaces.

The two-tone shoe was never designed to disappear: every step became a statement of style.

In New York, these shoes belonged to the world of jazz, clubs and Broadway shows. They appeared on musicians, dancers and fashionable men. In Paris, they joined a style fascinated by speed, sport and influences arriving from the United States.

In both cities, two-tone shoes embodied a new elegance: less solemn, more mobile and decisively urban. Their design suited both outdoor leisure and nights spent in restaurants, grand hotels and jazz clubs.

TWO-TONE OXFORD

SPECTATOR SHOE

SPORTS DERBY

STRAP PUMP

Two-tone shoes crossed the decades without losing their graphic power. Regularly revived by fashion, they remain associated with jazz, dance halls and the elegance of the 1920s and 1930s. They should not, however, be confused with Gabrielle Chanel’s famous beige pump with a black toe, created much later, in 1957.

A legacy of the Roaring Twenties, the two-tone shoe evokes an era when fashion stepped into the street and onto the dance floor. More than an accessory, it became a way of moving forward with confidence, elegance and a slight taste for provocation.

MANHATTAN PARIS · FASHION AND STYLE

FRENCH PROHIBITION

ISSUE 02

L’article Two-Tone Shoes est apparu en premier sur FRENCH PROHIBITION.

Chronicle 01 · The Origins of Prohibition

Why Did the United States Introduce Prohibition?

Protestant churches, women temperance activists and industrial leaders: how an unlikely coalition brought about the ban on alcohol.

The Origins of Prohibition · 1917–1920

A Century of Mobilization Against Alcohol

Prohibition did not emerge from a sudden decision by an America unanimously hostile to alcohol. It was the culmination of nearly a century of religious, social and political mobilization. Protestant ministers denounced the saloon as a breeding ground for moral corruption. Women saw alcohol as a threat to families’ physical and financial security. Some industrialists associated sobriety with discipline, punctuality and worker productivity. Finally, the Anti-Saloon League turned these different interests into a formidable electoral pressure machine.

On December 18, 1917, Congress proposed the Eighteenth Amendment. It was ratified by the states on January 16, 1919, and took effect one year later. It prohibited the manufacture, sale and transportation of alcoholic beverages, launching a nationwide experiment that would last until 1933. Prohibition was therefore less the triumph of a single ideology than that of a temporary coalition. Its members did not all pursue the same goal, but they shared a common adversary: the alcohol trade.

01

A Moral Crusade Led by the Churches

Long before the ban was written into the Constitution, temperance already occupied an important place in American religious life.

Beginning in the nineteenth century, many Protestant ministers portrayed drunkenness as both an individual and a collective danger. They argued that it estranged men from God, weakened their moral judgment and threatened family stability. The saloon thus became much more than a place to buy a drink: it was depicted as a gathering place for gambling, violence, prostitution and political corruption.

This outlook spread especially among Methodist, Baptist and Congregationalist communities, as well as other branches of reform-minded Protestantism. Sermons, public meetings and parish associations formed an established network across much of the country.

The Anti-Saloon League, founded in Oberlin, Ohio, in 1893, quickly recognized the power of this infrastructure. It did not seek to create a new religion or political party: instead, it used existing churches to spread its campaigns, raise funds and mobilize voters around a single objective. Its founder, the Reverend Howard Hyde Russell, envisioned it precisely as a movement capable of uniting American churches against the alcohol trade. The message was deliberately simple. Closing saloons would restore moral order, protect families and improve society.

Yet this crusade also had an identity-based dimension. Part of the movement set Protestant, rural and small-town America against urban populations of German, Irish or Catholic background, whose social customs were often associated with breweries and saloons. The campaign against alcohol thus reflected the cultural tensions of a deeply divided country.

02

Women Turn the Home into a Political Issue

Women were not merely supporters of the prohibition movement. They were among its principal organizers.

Founded in 1874, the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union, or WCTU, became the largest women’s organization in the United States by the end of the nineteenth century. Its thousands of local chapters enabled women who did not yet have the nationwide right to vote to participate in public life, speak out, draft petitions and organize campaigns.

For these activists, the issue of alcohol was anything but abstract.

In a society where household finances were generally controlled by husbands, a father’s drunkenness could deprive an entire family of income. It was also associated with domestic violence and women’s insecurity, at a time when they had few legal or economic means of protecting themselves.

Temperance therefore became a policy of protecting the home.

This idea allowed activists to extend their traditional roles as mothers and wives into the public sphere. Since women were portrayed as the moral guardians of the family, they claimed the right to act against anything that threatened it.

Under Frances Willard’s leadership, the WCTU gradually expanded its work to education, prison reform, working conditions and women’s suffrage. The fight against alcohol became a gateway to much broader political participation.

Of course, not all American women supported prohibition. The women’s movement was neither uniform nor exclusively prohibitionist. But the WCTU gave the cause a local presence, social legitimacy and mobilizing power that male organizations could not provide on their own.

03

When Sobriety Becomes an Industrial Interest

Alongside the moral crusade and the protection of families came a more pragmatic argument: economic efficiency.

Industrialization profoundly changed the organization of work. Machinery, fixed schedules and assembly lines required workers to arrive on time, remain alert and endure long working days. For some business owners, alcohol consumption meant absenteeism, accidents and lower productivity.

Some factory owners therefore supported temperance, not necessarily because they shared all the ministers’ religious convictions, but because they believed a sober workforce would be more reliable and disciplined. The US National Archives explicitly notes the support that some industrialists gave to temperance campaigns.

The saloon worried certain employers for another reason as well. It was a place where workers socialized and where political, trade-union and reformist ideas circulated. Restricting its influence could therefore seem a way to control not only drinking habits but also workers’ collective organization.

Finally, the campaign attracted substantial financial backing. John D. Rockefeller Sr., an industrialist and Baptist philanthropist, was among the Anti-Saloon League’s donors. His support illustrates the links that could exist between religious conviction, philanthropy and economic power.

It would nevertheless be misleading to portray the business world as a uniformly prohibitionist bloc. Brewers, distillers, restaurant owners and many urban entrepreneurs opposed the ban. Even some early supporters, including John D. Rockefeller Jr., would eventually call for its repeal after witnessing the consequences of enforcement.

Industrial support was therefore real but limited. This was not a centralized conspiracy: several distinct interests temporarily converged around the same policy.

04

The Anti-Saloon League Turns a Cause into a Political Machine

The churches provided networks. Women supplied grassroots mobilization. Some business circles contributed money and economic arguments. But none of these forms of support was enough, on its own, to change the Constitution.

The movement’s real political strength lay in the Anti-Saloon League. Unlike the Prohibition Party, it did not seek to win power directly. It worked within the existing parties and judged candidates on a single question: did they support banning alcohol or not?

A politician could be conservative or progressive, Republican or Democrat. If they voted with the League, it might support them. If they opposed it, the League mobilized its networks against them.

This strategy reduced a complex social issue to an immediately understandable electoral choice. The League published newspapers, distributed pamphlets, organized lectures and informed voters of candidates’ positions. It became a major propaganda and lobbying organization, capable of producing millions of pages of publications.

In 1916, with the backing of the WCTU and other pro-temperance forces, it helped elect the qualified congressional majorities needed to submit a constitutional amendment to the states. Prohibition’s victory cannot therefore be explained by the popularity of the idea alone. It also reflected the extraordinary ability of its supporters to turn a moral conviction into electoral discipline.

05

War Opens the Final Window of Opportunity

When the United States entered the First World War in 1917, the prohibition movement had already existed for decades. The war did not create it, but gave it a decisive political opportunity.

In a mobilized nation, sobriety could be presented as a patriotic act. Grain used to produce alcohol, the argument went, would be better spent feeding soldiers and civilians. Drinking became a form of waste at a time when the nation was demanding sacrifice.

American breweries, many of them linked to families of German origin, also suffered from the anti-German climate. Prohibitionists exploited this hostility, sometimes associating beer and its producers with the enemy. The Anti-Saloon League thus used the wartime context to reinforce arguments it had long been making.

By then, the movement had brought together almost all the conditions it needed:

• a moral justification supplied by the churches;
• grassroots mobilization organized by women;
• support from part of the economic elite;
• a lobbying machine capable of influencing elections;
• a wartime climate favorable to sacrifice and discipline.

Congress passed the resolution proposing the Eighteenth Amendment in December 1917. The three-quarters of states required for ratification were secured in January 1919. Nationwide Prohibition officially began on January 17, 1920.

Conclusion

A Coalition, Not a United America

Prohibition became possible because very different groups succeeded in making alcohol the common culprit for problems that were, in reality, far broader. For ministers, it threatened morality. For activists, it endangered the family. For some industrialists, it undermined workplace discipline. For political reformers, the saloon symbolized corruption in cities and political parties. The Anti-Saloon League turned these concerns into a national strategy, and the First World War then provided the political conditions for its victory.

But this victory did not mean that all Americans wanted to stop drinking. Many workers, immigrants, big-city residents and members of Catholic or Jewish communities instead regarded the ban as an attack on their customs and freedoms. Prohibition therefore took effect in a nation that was already deeply divided.

This contradiction explains what happened next: the law could eliminate the legal alcohol trade, but it could not eliminate the desire to drink.

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L’AUBAINE FRANcaISE

Quand l’Amérique interdit l’alcool, la France transforme la Prohibition en une extraordinaire aventure transatlantique. Découvrez les négociants, marins, diplomates et contrebandiers français qui ont profité de cette nouvelle économie clandestine.

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In the aftermath of World War I, Paris entered a period of profound transformation. Between 1920 and 1933, the French capital experienced both an extraordinary cultural flowering and growing economic difficulties. The era, often associated with the Années folles, or “Roaring Twenties,” established Paris as one of the world’s great artistic and intellectual capitals. Yet behind the glamorous image of cafés, cabarets and exhibitions, the city also had to contend with the effects of the global economic crisis and the political tensions that marked the beginning of the 1930s.

The 1920s began with a sense of relief after the ordeal of the war. Parisians were eager to return to normal life and enjoy the peace they had regained. Entertainment venues multiplied, attracting visitors from across Europe and the United States, including a new generation of independent young women. American flappers smoked, drank and embraced daring new fashions. The cabarets of Montmartre, the theaters of the Grands Boulevards and the establishments of Montparnasse became symbols of this cultural revival. Jazz, brought from America, enjoyed tremendous success and transformed the musical landscape of Paris.

The Paris of Writers and Jazz Musicians

Paris attracted artists, writers and intellectuals from around the world. Figures such as Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald and Pablo Picasso frequented the cafés and studios of the capital. Montparnasse and Saint-Germain-des-Prés became meeting places where new forms of creative expression flourished. This extraordinary cultural energy helped establish Paris at the heart of the international avant-garde.

The year 1924 marked an important moment with the Summer Olympic Games. The international event showcased the vitality of the French capital and reinforced its prestige on the world stage.

“Paris is a moveable feast.”

ERNEST HEMINGWAY

A year later, the 1925 International Exhibition of Modern Decorative and Industrial Arts attracted millions of visitors. The exhibition helped popularize Art Deco, with its geometric forms, elegance and modern aesthetic, leaving a lasting influence on Parisian architecture, furniture and decorative arts.

The modernization of the city continued throughout the decade. Urban transportation expanded, new buildings appeared and technological innovations gradually transformed everyday life. Paris also remained the political and administrative center of France, home to the institutions of the Republic and the country’s principal centers of power.

When the Party Began to End

But the prosperity of the 1920s did not last forever. After the Wall Street Crash of 1929, the global economic crisis gradually reached France. Although its effects were felt later than in the United States, Paris did not escape them. Unemployment rose, businesses closed and the purchasing power of many residents declined. Social contrasts between the capital’s affluent neighborhoods and its working-class districts became increasingly visible.

In 1931, the International Colonial Exhibition opened in the Bois de Vincennes. This vast event was intended to showcase the power and reach of the French colonial empire and attracted millions of visitors. It reflected the importance that France placed on its colonies at the time. The exhibition, however, also drew criticism from intellectuals and political movements opposed to colonialism.

By the early 1930s, political and social tensions were intensifying. The economic crisis fueled discontent and sharpened ideological divisions. Despite these difficulties, Paris retained its position as a global cultural capital. Its museums, universities, theaters and cafés continued to attract visitors from around the world.

Between 1920 and 1933, Paris was therefore a city of striking contrasts. On one side stood the creativity, modernity and exuberance of the Années folles; on the other were the economic crises and social tensions that foreshadowed the upheavals of the following decade. The period remains one of the most remarkable chapters in the history of Paris, remembered both for the city’s extraordinary cultural influence and for the challenges it faced.

Your Questions About Paris, the City of Light

Why did Paris attract so many Americans in the 1920s?

After World War I, Paris attracted large numbers of Americans drawn by its vibrant cultural life, relatively favorable cost of living and a degree of social freedom they found harder to experience in the United States. Writers, artists, musicians and travelers settled in or spent time in the French capital, particularly in Montparnasse. Prohibition further heightened the contrast with an America where the sale of alcoholic beverages was illegal.

Where did Americans gather in Paris during the Roaring Twenties?

Montparnasse became one of the main centers of American life in Paris. Cafés, bars, hotels, cabarets and jazz clubs welcomed artists, writers, journalists and travelers from the United States. Establishments such as La Coupole, Le Dôme and La Closerie des Lilas helped create the image of a cosmopolitan Paris that came alive after dark.

What role did American Prohibition play in the appeal of Paris?

Between 1920 and 1933, the United States prohibited the manufacture and sale of alcoholic beverages, while in Paris champagne, cognac, wine and cocktails remained readily available. This striking difference helped make the French capital particularly attractive to some Americans. In the imagination of many visitors, Paris came to represent a sense of freedom and a way of life that contrasted sharply with Prohibition-era America.

L’article Paris in the 1920s: Americans, Jazz and the City of Light est apparu en premier sur FRENCH PROHIBITION.

Born in 1899 in New York City to Italian immigrant parents, Al Capone grew up in the working-class neighborhoods of Brooklyn. He left school at an early age and became involved with street gangs active in parts of the city. His ambition and attraction to easy money soon drew him deeper into the criminal underworld. It was also during these years that he acquired the nickname “Scarface” after his face was slashed during an altercation.

In the early 1920s, Capone left New York for Chicago, where he joined Johnny Torrio, one of the city’s leading organized-crime figures. Chicago was booming and offered fertile ground for illegal businesses. Under Torrio’s protection, the young gangster learned how to manage complex criminal operations, from gambling establishments to illicit drinking venues.

Capone’s rise accelerated amid a series of clashes between rival gangs. In 1925, Johnny Torrio was seriously wounded in an assassination attempt and decided to step away. At just 26, Capone took control of an already powerful criminal organization. With a keen sense for business and a commanding personality, he quickly consolidated his influence over a large share of Chicago’s illegal activities.

Sometimes you can get more with kindness than with a machine gun

AL CAPONE

To secure his influence, Capone relied on intimidation, corruption and violence. Connections with some politicians and police officers helped shield his businesses and frustrate investigations. At the same time, he cultivated a public image as a generous man with ties to working-class communities.

By the end of the 1920s, Al Capone had become the dominant figure in Chicago’s criminal underworld. His name was known across the United States and his fortune continued to grow. His spectacular ascent made him one of the defining figures of American organized crime and earned him a reputation as Chicago’s underworld kingpin.

But the struggle for this empire was accompanied by extreme violence. Rival gangs fought bloody battles for control of the illegal liquor trade. The most notorious episode was the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre, an event that shocked the public and became inseparable from Capone’s fearsome reputation.

By the end of the 1920s, Capone’s empire was generating millions of dollars a year, making him one of the most powerful figures in American organized crime. Behind the image of a prosperous businessman, however, stood a system built on fear, corruption and illegality, and its scale eventually drew the attention of federal authorities.

The Fall of a Legend

Despite his wealth and influence, Al Capone did not remain untouchable. Unable to secure convictions for many of the crimes associated with his organization, federal authorities pursued him through his finances. After years of investigation, prosecutors established that he had failed to report substantial income. In 1931, Capone was convicted of federal income-tax evasion and sentenced to eleven years in prison.

His imprisonment marked the end of his reign in Chicago. After serving time in other federal facilities, he was transferred to the federal penitentiary at Alcatraz, famed for its high level of security. Separated from his former associates and stripped of much of his influence, Capone watched his power fade as other organized-crime figures moved into the space he had once dominated.

By the time of his release in 1939, the former Chicago kingpin was a shadow of the man he had been. Weakened by syphilis and years of imprisonment, he withdrew to his home in Florida. He spent his final years largely out of public life and died in 1947. His spectacular downfall became one of the most famous reversals in the history of American organized crime.

Your Questions About Al Capone

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In the early 1920s, the Lenox Avenue establishment was known as the Club Deluxe. Founded by Jack Johnson, the former world heavyweight boxing champion, it was later taken over by Owney Madden, a figure in organized crime and the illegal liquor trade. Renamed the Cotton Club, it quickly became one of Harlem’s most sought-after venues. Its spectacular décor, revues and luxurious atmosphere drew patrons from across Manhattan.

During Prohibition, the club was part of an economic system far larger than the nightclub itself. Elegant evenings, tables crowded with glasses and parties stretching late into the night concealed an operation supplied by underground networks. The Cotton Club gave this economy a glamorous façade: here, illegal liquor no longer evoked warehouses and docks, but evening dress, orchestras and stage lights.

The Sound of an Era

In 1927, Duke Ellington and his orchestra began a regular engagement that profoundly transformed the club’s reputation. The composer developed a sophisticated musical language there, designed both to accompany the revues and captivate the audience. The Cotton Club became one of the venues from which Ellington’s talent reached a national audience. His years in Harlem played a major role in shaping his musical voice and establishing his stature as a bandleader.

The club’s success rested on the combination of exceptional entertainment and a meticulously staged vision of luxury. Each evening promised a complete experience: music, dance, décor and service blended into one continuous spectacle. Backstage, however, the performers worked in a world very different from the one presented to the customers.

A Showcase and a Contradiction

The Cotton Club owes much of its legend to African American performers, yet the venue enforced a segregationist admissions policy. Black musicians, singers and dancers occupied the stage while the audience remained predominantly white. This divide reveals one of the club’s defining paradoxes: it helped make major artists famous while exploiting the social codes and inequalities of its era.

Understanding the Cotton Club today therefore means holding two realities together. The club was a crucial stage for jazz and a dazzling symbol of Prohibition nightlife. But it was also a place of discrimination, where Black culture was admired, commercialized and kept at a distance. That tension is precisely what makes the venue so significant: behind the gilt, champagne and music lies the full social complexity of America in the Roaring Twenties.

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THE ROUTE

Route

1. Saint-Pierre-et-Miquelon Departure
2. Bermuda Technical stop
3. Nassau Redistribution
4. Bridgetown Final stop
5. Demerara Arrival

01 | DEPARTURE

Saint-Pierre, the French-flagged island

The port of Saint-Pierre became a major hub of the international liquor trade. Taking advantage of French sovereignty and the island’s free-port status, millions of cases of Canadian whisky and European spirits could be stored there legally before being shipped south.

02 | THE CROSSING

Down the Atlantic, past the patrols

Captains sailed off the American coast along Rum Row. To avoid the U.S. Coast Guard, vessels remained strictly in international waters and communicated by light signals or coded Morse messages.

03 | THE STOPOVERS

Relay ports across the Caribbean

04 | TRANSSHIPMENT

Delivery at sea

Away from the main shipping lanes, cargoes were transferred from the larger vessels to schooners, small boats or coastal craft capable of approaching shorelines and estuaries.

These operations required precise coordination among captains, brokers and local crews. Darkness, fog and light signals became the crews’ principal allies.

05 | THE CARGOES

From malt whisky to Demerara rum

While Saint-Pierre mainly shipped whisky and other spirits south, the Demerara route also supported a two-way trade: the celebrated rum of the Demerara region moved north, while North Atlantic liquor travelled south under cover of false shipping papers.

06 | THE RISKS

North Atlantic storms and customs blockades

Customs seizures near territorial waters, breakdowns at sea and dishonest intermediaries made the route from the cold North Atlantic to the equatorial heat a hazardous one.

Intercepted signal

Maritime telegram

— .- .-. .. -. . … / . -. / … ..- .-. …- . .. .-.. .- -. -.-. .

Possible translation

« Patrol sighted off Demerara. Divert the cargo. »

Intercepted by British customs authorities

07 | ARRIVAL

Demerara, a tropical trading post

Once the vessels reached the mouth of the Demerara River, cargoes were unloaded at night onto small boats and coastal craft serving clandestine networks, drinking establishments and trading posts in South America.

Stopovers and connections

Ports and cities along the route

Cinq ports jalonnent cette route, des brumes de Saint-Pierre aux eaux tropicales de Demerara.

01

Saint-Pierre Departure point On the route

02

Bermuda Technical stop On the route

03

Nassau Redistribution On the route

04

Bridgetown Final stop On the route

05

Demerara Final destination On the route

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