1924 History, Facts, and Trivia
Quick Facts from 1924
- Key Event in American History: J. Edgar Hoover was appointed director of the Bureau of Investigation on May 10, 1924. He was 29 years old. He ran the FBI for the next 48 years, until his death in 1972.
- Other Key Event: The Indian Citizenship Act was signed by President Coolidge on June 2, 1924, granting U.S. citizenship to all Native Americans born within the United States — 148 years after the Declaration of Independence declared all men equal.
- Big Universe Event: Astronomer Edwin Hubble announced on December 30, 1924, that the Andromeda Nebula was in fact an entirely separate galaxy, proving for the first time that the Milky Way was not the entire universe. The universe turned out to be considerably larger than previously assumed.
- Most Famous Person in America: A reasonable competition between Calvin Coolidge, Babe Ruth, and George Gershwin, with Will Rogers not far behind
- Notable Books: When We Were Very Young by A.A. Milne
- Franco American spaghetti (can): 10 cents; loaf of bread: 9 cents; dozen eggs: 51 cents; average annual income: $2,160
- The Funny Guy: Buster Keaton
- Chinese Zodiac: Year of the Rat, associated with intelligence, adaptability, and a gift for finding opportunity in complicated circumstances
- The Conversation: Did you hear Gershwin’s new piece? And what do you think about the citizenship law for the Indians?
Top Ten Baby Names of 1924
Girls: Mary, Dorothy, Helen, Betty, Margaret, Ruth, Virginia, Mildred, Doris, Frances
Boys: Robert, John, William, James, Charles, George, Joseph, Richard, Edward, Donald
U.S. Life Expectancy in 1924
Males: 58.1 years; Females: 61.5 years
The Stars
Theda Bara, Marion Davies, Pola Negri, Mary Pickford, Anna May Wong
Miss America
Ruth Malcomson, Philadelphia, PA
We Lost in 1924
Vladimir Lenin, the architect of the Bolshevik Revolution and the first leader of the Soviet Union, died January 21, 1924, at age 53, from complications of a series of strokes. His body was embalmed and placed in a mausoleum in Red Square, where it remained on public display for the rest of the century. Joseph Stalin, who had been maneuvering for power throughout Lenin’s illness, moved decisively to consolidate control after Lenin’s death.
Woodrow Wilson, the 28th President of the United States, who had led the country through World War I and championed the League of Nations only to be blocked by the U.S. Senate, died February 3, 1924, at age 67, in Washington, D.C. His stroke in 1919 had left him partially paralyzed; his wife Edith had effectively managed the presidency for the remainder of his term. He was buried at the Washington National Cathedral, the only president interred in Washington, D.C.
Franz Kafka — the Czech-born German-language novelist whose work gave the English language the word “Kafkaesque,” died June 3, 1924, at age 40, from tuberculosis. He had instructed his friend Max Brod to destroy all unpublished manuscripts after his death. Brod did not comply. The Trial, The Castle, and Amerika were all published posthumously.
Born in 1924
Jimmy Carter — October 1, 1924, in Plains, Georgia, at the Wise Clinic, was the first U.S. president born in a hospital. He went on to serve as the 39th President and won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002.
George H.W. Bush — June 12, 1924, in Milton, Massachusetts. The 41st President of the United States.
Marlon Brando — April 3, 1924, in Omaha, Nebraska. He transformed American screen acting.
Doris Day — April 3, 1924, in Cincinnati, Ohio. She became one of the most popular film and recording stars of the 1950s.
Truman Capote — September 30, 1924, in New Orleans, Louisiana.
America in 1924 — The Context
Calvin Coolidge had been president since August 1923, when Warren Harding died in office under a cloud of scandal — most notably the Teapot Dome affair, in which his Secretary of the Interior had taken bribes to lease federal oil reserves to private companies. Coolidge, who had nothing to do with the corruption, wisely stayed quiet, distanced himself from the scandal, and let it dissolve around him. He was elected to a full term in November 1924, defeating Democrat John W. Davis and Progressive candidate Robert La Follette in a three-way race.
The 1920s were roaring. Unemployment stood at 5%. The economy was expanding. Automobile ownership was spreading rapidly. Radio was in hundreds of thousands of homes and growing. Jazz was the sound of the decade. The Harlem Renaissance was producing extraordinary work in literature, music, and visual art. And underneath the prosperity, Prohibition had given organized crime its infrastructure, and the Ku Klux Klan had swelled to an estimated four to five million members.
Rhapsody in Blue
George Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue received its world premiere on February 12, 1924, at Aeolian Hall in New York City, performed by Paul Whiteman and his orchestra. Gershwin composed it in approximately five weeks, reportedly writing the final sections on the train to Boston for a tryout performance. The piece combined classical orchestral form with jazz harmonies and improvisation in a way that had never been done before. It was received as a breakthrough. Gershwin was 25 years old. The piece became one of the most-performed American compositions of the 20th century, and its opening clarinet glissando is one of the most recognizable musical gestures in American cultural history.
The Indian Citizenship Act
Native Americans had been excluded from U.S. citizenship for the entire history of the Republic — despite the 14th Amendment’s guarantee of citizenship to “all persons born or naturalized in the United States,” which courts had ruled did not apply to tribal members. On June 2, 1924, President Coolidge signed the Indian Citizenship Act, which granted citizenship to all Native Americans born within U.S. territorial limits.
The Act passed without opposition — but its practical impact was limited in many states, where poll taxes, literacy tests, and other mechanisms continued to prevent Native Americans from actually voting. Full voting rights for Native Americans in all states were not secured until 1962. The Act’s passage in the same year as the Immigration Act — which severely restricted immigration from Asia and Eastern and Southern Europe — illustrated the selective nature of American ideas about citizenship in 1924.
The Immigration Act of 1924
Signed by President Coolidge on May 26, 1924, the Johnson-Reed Act established strict national-origin quotas that effectively limited immigration from Southern and Eastern Europe and banned immigration from Asia. The law was explicitly designed to preserve what its supporters called “the racial composition” of the United States. It was seen in Japan as a direct insult, given Japan’s role as a U.S. ally in World War I, and contributed significantly to the deterioration of U.S.-Japanese relations over the following decades.
The act reduced total immigration by approximately 80%. Ellis Island, which had processed millions of arrivals since 1892, became nearly superfluous almost overnight. The great wave of immigration that had transformed American cities between 1880 and 1924 effectively ended.
The Leopold and Loeb Case
On May 21, 1924, University of Chicago students Nathan Leopold, 19, and Richard Loeb, 18, kidnapped and murdered 14-year-old Bobby Franks in what they described as an attempt to commit the “perfect crime.” Both were from wealthy families and had been intellectual prodigies. Both had been influenced by their interpretation of Nietzsche’s concept of the “superman” who transcended conventional morality. They were caught within days. Their defense attorney, Clarence Darrow — then 67 years old — gave a 12-hour closing argument against the death penalty that became one of the most celebrated courtroom speeches in American history. Both were sentenced to life in prison. Loeb was killed by a fellow prisoner in 1936. Leopold was paroled in 1958 and died in 1971. The case inspired Alfred Hitchcock’s 1948 film Rope.
Pop Culture Facts and History
The first Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade was held on November 27, 1924, in New York City, organized by Macy’s employees, most of whom were recent immigrants, to celebrate the American holiday in the tradition of European festivals. The original parade featured floats, bands, and live animals borrowed from the Central Park Zoo — no balloons. The giant character balloons did not appear until 1927. The parade has been held every year since, interrupted only by World War II rubber and helium rationing from 1942 to 1944.
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) was formed on April 17, 1924, through the merger of Metro Pictures, Goldwyn Pictures, and Louis B. Mayer Productions. MGM’s motto — Ars Gratia Artis, Latin for “Art for art’s sake” — was rendered somewhat ironic by its subsequent production of some of Hollywood’s most commercially calculated entertainment. The studio’s roaring lion, Leo, became one of the most recognized corporate symbols in American history.
IBM was formally founded on February 14, 1924, when the Computing-Tabulating-Recording Company changed its name to International Business Machines. The name change reflected ambitions considerably larger than the company’s then-current business in tabulating equipment and time clocks.
Simon and Schuster was founded in 1924 by Richard Leo Simon and Max Lincoln Schuster, who published The Cross Word Puzzle Book as their first title — a collection of crossword puzzles at a time when crosswords were a national craze. The book came with a pencil attached. It sold 400,000 copies. Simon and Schuster became one of the major American publishing houses of the 20th century on the strength of a puzzle book.
The world’s first aerial circumnavigation was completed on September 28, 1924, by two U.S. Army Air Service planes — The Chicago and The New Orleans — which departed Seattle on April 6 and returned 175 days later after traveling over 26,000 miles. Two other planes in the original four-plane formation had been forced down along the way. The flight established that sustained global air travel was possible and gave the U.S. the first successful round-the-world flight.
The cheeseburger was reportedly invented in 1924 at The Rite Spot restaurant in Pasadena, California, by a 16-year-old fry cook named Lionel Sternberger, who added a slice of American cheese to a hamburger at a customer’s request. The precise origin of the cheeseburger has been disputed by several other claimants, but Sternberger’s family and a California historical marker both credit Pasadena with the invention. The cheeseburger went on to become arguably the most American food item.
Iodine was added to table salt in the United States in 1924 as a public health measure to prevent goiter caused by iodine deficiency, which had been widespread in the Great Lakes region and Pacific Northwest. The addition had the unanticipated side effect of measurably raising the national IQ average — iodine deficiency is a significant cause of cognitive impairment, particularly in developing brains.
Kleenex was introduced in 1924, initially marketed by Kimberly-Clark as a cold cream remover for women — a disposable alternative to fabric towels used to wipe off face cream. The company only discovered that people were using them to blow their noses after receiving customer letters. It rebranded accordingly in 1930 and the tissue pocket pack followed in 1932. The original purpose was largely forgotten.
The word “scofflaw” entered the English language in 1924, coined in a Boston Herald contest to describe a person who flouts Prohibition laws. Over 25,000 entries were submitted. The winning word was “scofflaw,” submitted independently by two different people. They split the $200 prize. The word quickly broadened beyond Prohibition to describe anyone who flouts the law while technically avoiding serious consequences. It remains in active use today.
Words appearing in print for the first time in 1924 included “answering machine,” “Bible Belt,” “bookmobile,” “Cub Scout,” “dump truck,” “Geiger counter,” “lone ranger,” “parking lot,” “prime rate,” “superhighway,” “tossed salad,” “wisecrack,” “wrecking ball,” and “zipper.” The language was working to accommodate a rapidly motorizing country.
The California Grizzly Bear went extinct in 1924. The last confirmed wild California grizzly was shot in 1922; the last one in captivity died in 1924. The California state flag still depicts a grizzly bear standing in a field. It has depicted an extinct animal since 1924.
Pep the dog — a black Labrador Retriever belonging to Pennsylvania Governor Gifford Pinchot — was sentenced to life imprisonment in the Eastern State Penitentiary in Philadelphia in 1924 after allegedly killing the governor’s wife’s cat. Pep received an official prison number (C-2559) and served his sentence, living out his days at the penitentiary. Historical accounts differ on whether Pep actually killed the cat or was simply assigned to the prison to boost inmates’ morale. He received excellent care either way.
Little Orphan Annie made its debut in the New York Daily News on August 5, 1924, created by cartoonist Harold Gray. The strip followed a red-haired orphan girl and her dog, Sandy, through Depression-era adventures. It ran for 86 years, spawning a radio show, films, and the 1977 Broadway musical Annie, whose song “Tomorrow” became one of the most recognized Broadway numbers of the 20th century.
The Marlboro cigarette brand was launched in 1924 by Philip Morris as a premium cigarette marketed to women, with a red filter tip designed to conceal lipstick stains. Its slogan was “Mild as May.” It remained a women’s cigarette for 30 years until the brand was completely reimagined in 1954 around the image of rugged Western masculinity. Sales increased by 3,000% in the first year of the relaunch. The 1924 version was not involved.
The United States won the rugby gold medal at the 1924 Paris Olympics on May 18, 1924, defeating France 17-3. Rugby was then removed from the Olympic program and was not reinstated until 2016. The United States has technically been the reigning Olympic rugby champion since 1924, a distinction American rugby enthusiasts have noted with some satisfaction.
Paavo Nurmi of Finland won both the 1,500 meters and the 5,000 meters at the 1924 Paris Olympics — and ran them within two hours of each other. He won nine Olympic gold medals over three Games and set 22 world records during his career. He was known as “The Flying Finn” and was widely considered the greatest distance runner of his era.
Alvin “Shipwreck” Kelly sat on a flagpole in Hollywood, California, for 13 hours and 13 minutes in 1924, establishing what was considered the record for flagpole sitting. He was a former sailor and stuntman. The flagpole-sitting craze he inspired spread across the country and persisted into the late 1920s, providing newspapers with something to write about and towns with something to advertise.
Adolf Hitler was sentenced to five years in prison on April 1, 1924, for his role in the 1923 Beer Hall Putsch coup attempt in Munich. He served less than nine months, was released in December 1924, and used the time in Landsberg Prison to dictate Mein Kampf to his secretary, Rudolf Hess. The book sold modestly at first.
The Boston Bruins played their first NHL game on December 1, 1924, against the Montreal Maroons, winning 2-1. It was the first NHL game played on American soil. The NHL had expanded to the United States for the first time.
Nobel Prize Winners
Physics — Manne Siegbahn for his discoveries and research in X-ray spectroscopy, which provided fundamental information about atomic structure
Chemistry — not awarded in 1924
Medicine — Willem Einthoven for the discovery of the mechanism of the electrocardiogram; Einthoven’s device for measuring the heart’s electrical activity became the foundation of modern cardiac diagnostics; the ECG/EKG is still in use in every hospital in the world
Literature — Wladyslaw Stanislaw Reymont, Polish novelist, for his great national epic The Peasants
Peace — not awarded in 1924
Broadway in 1924
Lady, Be Good! opened December 1, 1924, at the Liberty Theatre, with music by George Gershwin, lyrics by Ira Gershwin, and starring Fred and Adele Astaire. It introduced “Fascinating Rhythm” and “Oh, Lady Be Good” and ran for 330 performances. The Gershwin brothers were 26 and 28 years old.
Rose-Marie opened September 2, 1924, at the Imperial Theatre, with music by Rudolf Friml, and became one of the most successful musicals of the decade, running 557 performances. Its title song became a standard.
Top Movies of 1924
- The Thief of Bagdad
- America
- Greed
- The Navigator
- Sherlock Jr.
- Beau Brummel
- The Sea Hawk
- Aelita: Queen of Mars
- The Iron Horse
- Girl Shy
Buster Keaton’s The Navigator and Sherlock Jr. both came out in 1924, representing perhaps his finest period as a filmmaker. Keaton performed his own stunts, including genuinely dangerous ones, and built elaborate mechanical gags that required precise timing and repeated physical risk. He was considered by many critics to be the greater artistic talent of the two major silent comedians, though Charlie Chaplin remained better known.
Popular and Best-Selling Books of 1924
A Gentleman of Courage — James Oliver Curwood
The Call of the Canyon — Zane Grey
The Homemaker — Dorothy Canfield Fisher
So Big — Edna Ferber
The Midlander — Booth Tarkington
The Plastic Age — Percy Marks
When We Were Very Young — A.A. Milne and Ernest Shepard
When We Were Very Young introduced Winnie-the-Pooh to the world through a poem called “Teddy Bear” before Pooh received his own book in 1926. A.A. Milne based the bear on a toy belonging to his son, Christopher Robin, who had named it after a real bear at the London Zoo called Winnie.
Biggest Pop Artists of 1924
Al Jolson, Paul Whiteman, Isham Jones, The Benson Orchestra of Chicago, Marion Harris, Fred Waring’s Pennsylvanians, Eddie Cantor, Ted Weems, Vincent Lopez, Lewis James, John McCormack
Sports Champions of 1924
World Series: Washington Senators defeated the New York Giants 4-3 in seven games; the Senators’ first and, as it turned out, only World Series championship; player-manager Bucky Harris was 27 years old
Stanley Cup: Montreal Canadiens
U.S. Open Golf: Cyril Walker
U.S. Open Tennis: Men/Women: Bill Tilden / Helen Wills
Wimbledon: Men/Women: Jean Borotra / Kathleen McKane
NCAA Football Champions: Notre Dame, under coach Knute Rockne and featuring the “Four Horsemen” backfield, widely considered one of the most celebrated college football units in history; sportswriter Grantland Rice’s description of them — “Outlined against a blue-gray October sky, the Four Horsemen rode again” — became one of the most famous leads in sports journalism
Kentucky Derby: Black Gold
Boston Marathon: Clarence DeMar, 2:29:40
Sports Highlight: Paavo Nurmi of Finland won both the 1,500 meters and 5,000 meters at the Paris Olympics within two hours on July 10, 1924. Notre Dame’s Four Horsemen — Harry Stuhldreher, Don Miller, Jim Crowley, and Elmer Layden — went undefeated through the 1924 season, producing one of the most storied teams in college football history.
FAQ — 1924 Trivia, Fun Facts, and Pop Culture History
Q: What was the Indian Citizenship Act of 1924?
A: Signed by President Coolidge on June 2, 1924, it granted U.S. citizenship to all Native Americans born within the territorial limits of the United States — ending their formal exclusion from citizenship that had persisted for the entire history of the Republic. Practical voting rights in many states were not secured for decades.
Q: What was Rhapsody in Blue, and why did it matter?
A: George Gershwin’s orchestral composition premiered on February 12, 1924, at Aeolian Hall in New York. It combined classical form with jazz harmonies and rhythms in a way never done before, establishing Gershwin as a major American composer and creating a template for American concert music that influenced the rest of the century.
Q: When did Edwin Hubble discover that the universe was larger than the Milky Way?
A: On December 30, 1924, Hubble announced that the Andromeda Nebula was in fact a separate galaxy located far beyond the Milky Way — proving that our galaxy was one of many in a universe vastly larger than previously understood.
Q: What was the Leopold and Loeb case?
A: On May 21, 1924, University of Chicago students Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb kidnapped and murdered 14-year-old Bobby Franks in what they described as an attempt to commit the “perfect crime.” Clarence Darrow’s defense saved them from execution with a legendary 12-hour closing argument. The case inspired Alfred Hitchcock’s Rope and several other films.
Q: Who invented the cheeseburger?
A: Lionel Sternberger, a 16-year-old cook at The Rite Spot in Pasadena, California, reportedly added a slice of cheese to a hamburger at a customer’s request in 1924. The precise origin has other claimants, but Sternberger’s version is the most widely cited.
Q: Why is the United States technically the reigning Olympic rugby champion?
A: The U.S. won the rugby gold medal at the 1924 Paris Olympics, defeating France 17-3. Rugby was then removed from the Olympic program and not reinstated until 2016. Since no other country won the gold between 1924 and 2016, the United States technically held the title for 92 years.
Q: What was the Immigration Act of 1924?
A: The Johnson-Reed Act, signed May 26, 1924, established national origin quotas that sharply limited immigration from Southern and Eastern Europe and banned Asian immigration entirely. It reduced total immigration by approximately 80% and effectively ended the great wave of immigration that had transformed American cities since the 1880s. It was partly repealed by the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965.
Q: What was the first Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade?
A: Held November 27, 1924, in New York City, organized by Macy’s employees — mostly recent immigrants — who celebrated Thanksgiving in the tradition of European harvest festivals. The original parade used live animals from the Central Park Zoo. The giant character balloons arrived in 1927.
More 1924 History Resources
Most Popular Baby Names (BabyCenter.com)
Popular and Notable Books (popculture.us)
Broadway Shows that Opened in 1924
1924 Calendar, courtesy of Time and Date.com
Fact Monster
1920s, Infoplease.com World History
1924 in Movies (according to IMDB)
Retrowaste Vintage Culture
1920s Slang
Wikipedia 1924
