Jimmy J. Walker, New York Mayor, USA
During the 20th Century, the United States was shifting ideas on cultural and moral issues,and this is exemplified by the city of New York USA, hotel and tourism businesses, the arts, the community and the Mayor of NYC in the 1920′s. James J. Walker. Walker was elected mayor in 1925, after spending the first half of the decade as a Democratic senator. This was a time in American History of easy ideas of virtue, money and vice. Walker was the personification of attitudes of rebellion during the era, attitudes that went against the restrictions placed upon society and culture. The ban on the sale of alcohol had begun with the Volstead Act of 1919, and although it was illegal to sell it, it was not illegal to consume it. The nightclubs had been providing release and social interaction, and the US government professed that this was immoral and was looking to discourage the newest craze, nightclubbing, in New York City. For at no other time in US history had there been such a concentration of clubs, than on 42nd Street, in New York City.
Walker, like other city mayors such as the Daley’s of Chicago today,tended to look the other way when their cities are thriving, even if it be through means not necessarily legal. When Walker became the mayor of the city, more than thirty-two thousand ‘speakeasies’ were in operation. This was a booming industry in the city, and Walker looked the other way, at the same time pushing legislation through which made him the endearment of the working class, the legalization of baseball, movies, boxing and post-service entertainment on Sundays. He understood the need for entertainment and relief from the work week and was in turn, elected mayor. For the people of New York at this time, he was their mayor. A man with the charisma that rivaled even the most celebrated stars of Broadway. And for a very long time, in the history of the city, he was well loved, and he provided an abundance of opportunity to the citizens of his city.