The Roaring 20's

One hundred years ago was the 1920s, and that, in a way, is as odd a time in American history as the one we're living through, in 2024. The United States caved to a special interest group, the religious right, and chose to institute Prohibition. That meant that nobody in the country was drinking alcohol. Noooooo. Never. And that's where we meet the players on this show.

It's clear that ABC, the network that ran this series, was attempting to capitalize on another show it debuted the previous season: "The Untouchables." The stories of Eliot Ness and his "G Men" busting up racketeering and other methods of organized crime was an instant success and so they came back with this entry, a little softer and a little sweeter.

Rather than focusing on the Feds in Chicago, the interest was a handful of journalists for the various NYC newspapers, who were covering the stories of how the law was fighting the mob and trying to snuff out the baddies. Donald May and Rex Reason played a couple of these news hounds on the trail of some headlines.

Dorothy Provine was a flapper and a triple threat, singing, dancing and acting all as part of her duties in the cabaret where she performed. In fact, the show was one of the first to have a companion soundtrack with music featured from the series on an LP.

Speaking of, the musical director for the series was a guy named Alexander Courage, who eventually would go on to help with music cues and the title theme for a very different series, "Star Trek," just a few years later.

New York plays a part because we had to get a look into the speakeasys where people sipped their bathtub gin and the other interesting hobbies people had at the time. It's funny, human nature is so predictable. If you make something illegal, or unavailable, it only seems to make people want to do it more. And the rise of organized crime occurred specifically because of the government's actions. Something to think about for OUR 20s.

I don't mean to say they were humanizing any criminals shown in the process of this series, but the point is that we're looking at the concept of Prohibition from the 1960s, well after it was ended and after it was clear that it was one of the worst ideas that ever was. So, really, nobody was as bad as all that, if the politicians had never chosen to institute it.

Excellent TV show set in the Twenties with great cast and stories. I remember seeing this in the 60's and loved the musical numbers in the Charleston Club. Could we please have the entire series on DVD including songs sung by Dorothy Provine listed on each volume. As of now, all we have are a few uploaded to YouTube. I bought the new CD from Amazon which is a compilation of songs from the show. However, many of us would like to see the numbers as well. Warner Bros. for some reason has not released a number of shows from the 60's which were popular such as Sunset Strip, Hawaiian Eye, etc. Why should this be? There are so many series released that are not as good. Thank you.

I too fondly remember the Roaring 20's and had a serious pre-teen crush on Dorothy Provine for many years. As far as I know, the series is not available on video disc or tape. So far the only way I have found to obtain copies (few and far between)of this great series was from sellers on Ebay, who had videotaped the series from re-runs in their local area. It appears that the tapes I purchased were 4th or 5th generation tapes and thus the quality was not as great as I would have liked, but nevertheless, all the copies I purchased, except one, were watchable, and brought back some great memories. Compared to the TV standards of today, these old series are somewhat lacking in story lines and excitement, but Miss Provine's singing is just as entertaining today as it was in the 1960's. That being said, if this great old series did become available for purchase, I would probably be first in line at the checkout counter.

The most memorable feature of this show for me as a boy of eight years old was the sex appeal of Dorothy Provine. I'd watch the show to get a glimpse of Miss Provine doing one of her flapper numbers and in my puzzled pre-adolescent mind wonder why her appearance always evoked such unusual and seemingly strange thoughts and sensations. Of course, this did not escape the notice of my parents, who were relentless in their teasing ("Oh, she's your girlfriend, now we know..."). Anyway, aside from that, the show featured plenty of action and intrigue in the riotous and often chaotic period preceding the Depression years. Looking back, it was a time of almost innocence after the experience of the first World War, which tragically turned out to be a precursor to a much bloodier and sobering experience a generation later. The passage of time has given a luster and burnish to those years which obviously paints over the harsher reality of violence and hardship. Still, it was a fun hour of escapism in the early years of network TV.

Once and for all, forget the other series speaking of the same period, thirties or late twenties. Yes, in this show ROARING TWENTIES, you also have from time to time gangsters and machine guns, but not necessarily. You also have dramas and comedies as well, without any gun shots or femmes fatales...But always a very good cabaret and burlesque atmosphere, so close to the one you had in those days. It's mostly an atmosphere show, with pretty good performances: acting and directing. Robert Altman gave the best episodes of the whole show, such as stories in DANCE MARATHON and PRAIRIE FLOWER episodes. Tremendous pieces of work, believe me. So, don't Watch this series with the same expectations as you could have after seeing UNTOUCHABLES or any other series speaking of the thirties. That's all I wanted to say about this unfortunately rare and underrated show.