19 heinäkuuta 2019

Sightseeing: Careless Capital



SURUTON KAUPUNKI - CARELESS CAPITAL at Hakasalmi Villa!
The beautiful setting, a former home of Aurora Karamzin in the center of Helsinki
was a great choice for this fantastic exhibition telling us about 1920s Helsinki
- characterized by prohibition, jazz and a whisper of short skirts & hair. 

It seems that the new decade put the whole city into turmoil. The Civil War was over and the fashions & news from the great world inevitably arrived to Finland, too. There was a prohibition in the country, but booze never ended. The recipe yielded cognac, whiskey and wines from the pharmacy and smuggling flourished; the restaurants served hard tea. In the exhibition you could listen to the drunken and boisterous crowds, and you could also see from the photo enlargements that the modern 20th century Helsinki jazz girl celebrated and drank in the same way as a man. All this was contrary to the restrained Christian values ​​of the late 19th century.


The rhythm of life was intense, people wanted to experience and live; money and spending became important. Music, theater and movies changed the whole entertainment scene. Dance restaurants appeared like mushrooms in the rain, as did dance schools. Charleston, shimmy, tango - young men and women conquered the city and had fun like it was the end of the world. Older people were worried about women getting drunk & smoking. Concerns about moral decline were not exaggerated as crime turned upward and prostitutes had plenty of customers. The lawmaker responded to the changed circumstances: premarital sex was removed from the criminal law in 1926, but if the other party was married, it was still a punishable offense. The Marriage Act of 1929 abolished the husband's status as representative of  his wife and declared the spouses legally equal.







Photo: Hakasalmi Villa


There were old records at hand and the public could choose what to listen!

Jazz came to Finland in the early 1920s via Berlin cabaret music, which gave it a Germanic,
slightly march-like flavour. Max Kuttner recorded this comic and risqué song in 1925:
Ich hab’ das Fräulein Helen baden sehn! - I have seen Miss Helen bathing!



I just loved the exhibition! Have also read Mikko-Olavi Seppälä’s book
with the same title - Suruton kaupunki - Careless Capital.



16 kommenttia:

  1. Interesting indeed. Thanks for the suggestion...

    VastaaPoista
  2. Muito interessante esta exposição e aproveito para desejar um bom fim-de-semana.

    Andarilhar
    Dedais de Francisco e Idalisa
    O prazer dos livros

    VastaaPoista
  3. "Older people were worried about women getting drunk & smoking."

    Amazing how much our world has changed!

    VastaaPoista
  4. ...this certainly was a time of style. I didn't realize that you had prohibition too. I don't drink, but prohibition wasn't a successful time in history. Thanks Riitta for sharing all of your beautiful images. Enjoy your weekend.

    VastaaPoista
  5. Bardzo interesujący post. Zakazy są złe i tak było z prochibicją. Świat zmienia się w bardzo szybkim tempie. Jaka technika, elektronika, obyczaje za 20 lat?
    Miłego weekendu:)

    VastaaPoista
  6. What an interesting place. I love the clothes from that time period.

    VastaaPoista
  7. Me ha parecido muy interesante riitta. Buen fin de semana.

    VastaaPoista
  8. Very interesting exhibit. Things have changed so much from those days. Have a wonderful day!

    VastaaPoista
  9. Hello, it is a beautiful home and a lovely exhibit. I am happy for some changes. Enjoy your day, wishing you a great new week!

    VastaaPoista
  10. Riitta - yes, that was a decade of rapid change, and for women in particular. So hard today to imagine that the husband was the legal representative of the wife! One of your pictures looked like advertisements from that era - I always enjoy viewing ads from different time periods - they tell us so much! Thanks for a fascinating historic post for Mosaic Monday!

    VastaaPoista
  11. I love seeing the beautiful styles and amazing architecture! What a great post for MM!

    VastaaPoista
  12. Wow how interesting. And i appreciated the video even thought the language is diffent for me
    Have a good week

    Much❤🕊❤love

    VastaaPoista
  13. The 1920s era was something else. I've never put it into perspective before that the looseness of the 1920s contributed to the 1930s depression.

    VastaaPoista
  14. interesting exhibition.

    VastaaPoista
  15. I really enjoyed the photos and reading about the era! Thanks so much sharing!

    -Soam

    VastaaPoista
  16. Fascinating images!
    Thanks for linking up at https://image-in-ing.blogspot.com/2019/07/save-gato.html

    VastaaPoista

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