The 1920s were a time of optimism in a world that had buried its dead with the end of WWI.
Women, no longer just running the home, proved themselves capable of running the factories, taking care of the young ones while having a head for politics and social issues, won the right to vote finally. Women took control of their fashion, trading in the aprons for shorter dresses and even shorter hair. Their voices united and were collectively heard after millennia of being shushed by a controlling, patriarchal mindset.
Industry boomed with mass-production lines. The working class could make purchases on credit, even for items they would not have been able to afford before, like a Model ‘T’.
Historical Fact
The high life was discovered for many who had never known it before and led to the rise of the working class. Entertainment and parties, glitz and glamour, and an overflow of ‘boot-legged’ booze and drugs at private ‘speakeasies’, it became known as the ‘Roaring Twenties’. At least on one side of the pond.
In France, it was dubbed ‘annees folles’ – ‘crazy years’. If The Great Gatsby, The Untouchables and Peaky Blinders can be believed, the French term is rather apt. In Britain, the young socialite offspring of wealthy manufacturers and suppliers made rich from the War, came out to play for a few years before
But what do all this shocking gangster and doll-baby, flapper generation have to do with escape rooms? Both the 20s and escape-room gameplay are a lot of fun, and the two can be combined in a world that only dreams of experiencing those hedonistic highs of the British ‘Bright Young Things’ merging with the lower-class underbelly.
Historical Fiction
During the 1920s in the UK, Lambert and Butler Cigarettes tried to put some common myths to rights by printing cigarette cards with their good intentions. Sadly, some of their endeavours may have actually got it wrong. Consider: drinking hot tea to cool down on a sweaty summer’s day.
Lambert and Butler said, ‘No way Jose!’ (Not a direct quote.) They claimed that the brain was just “tricking” you because you overheat it with the hot liquid, and the body cools back to its pre-tea temperature. So what is true? The tea triggers excess sweating which is the body’s cooling system kicking into over-drive.
What might you discover or recover if you travelled back to 1928 to find yourself knee-deep in dead government agents and following a hot trail of leads into a grocery store?! Did the trail go cold along with the agents’ final breaths? What will the clues uncover? A sweaty tea-drinker hiding in the frozen foods section? If only…
Best don your no-nonsense newsboy cap and lace up your wingtips to get to work, gumshoe, before the roaring 20s fade into a tiny cat’s meow.
In Conclusion
The 1920s ‘good times’ won’t last forever. Enjoy the party before the mid-20s hit the British unemployment lines and the U.S. stock market crash of 1929 ushers in the Great Depression. Now is the time! After getting your Netflix hit of Peaky Blinders, you will be all set to book a 1920s-themed exciting escape and cosplay your night away with friends, family or whomever you wish.