Going to the movies and imitating the appearance of movies stars was just one trend in a decade when people went crazy for fads. With the economy humming along at a brisk pace, Americans seemed almost desperate to entertain themselves in novel ways. In 1924 a movie stuntman named Alvin "Shipwreck" Kelly climbed atop a flagpole for more than thirteen hours in Los Angeles, and started a nationwide fad. In the months that followed Kelly's stunt, one man sat high atop a flagpole in Denver for twelve days. Another broke that record and lasted twenty-one days on a flagpole in Los Angeles. Kelly finally set the world record in 1929 by staying aloft for forty-nine days on a flagpole in Atlantic City, New Jersey, where over twenty thousand people came to watch some portion of the event.

Those who bored easily watching a man sit on top of...