TheGay Nineties is an Americannostalgic term and a periodization of thehistory of the United States referring to the decade of the1890s. It is known in the United Kingdom as theNaughty Nineties, and refers there to the decade of supposedly decadent art ofAubrey Beardsley, the witty plays and trial ofOscar Wilde, society scandals and the beginning of thesuffragette movement.[citation needed]
Despite the term, part of the decade was marked by an economic crisis, which greatly worsened when thePanic of 1893 set off a widespreadeconomic depression in the United States that lasted until 1897.
The term Gay Nineties began to be used in the 1920s in the United States, and it is believed to have been created by the artistRichard V. Culter, who first released a series of drawings inLife magazine titled "the Gay Nineties" and later published a book of drawings with the same name.[1]
Novels by authors likeEdith Wharton andBooth Tarkington documented the high life of the "old money" families. By the 1920s, the decade was nostalgically seen as a period of pre-income tax wealth for a newly emergent "society set". The railroads, theagricultural depression of theSouthern United States, and the dominance of the United States in South American markets and theCaribbean meant that industrialists of theNorthern United States seemed to have been doing very well.
It was also the name of a nostalgic radio program in the 1930s, hosted by a prominent composer of popular songs of the 1890s,Joe Howard, as well as an 1890s-themed New York cafe, "Bill's Gay Nineties", during that same period.[2] From the 1920s to the 1960s, filmmakers had a nostalgic interest in the 1890s as seen in the filmsThe Naughty Nineties,She Done Him Wrong,Belle of the Nineties,The Strawberry Blonde,My Gal Sal,The Nifty Nineties (a Mickey Mouse cartoon),By the Light of the Silvery Moon,Hello, Dolly!, andHeaven Can Wait.
Roger Edens' song "The Gay Nineties" opens a production number spoofing period melodramas inStrike Up the Band, a 1940 MGM film starringJudy Garland andMickey Rooney.
