1915 History, Fun Facts and Trivia

Firsts, Inventions, and Wonders: 
Growers got together to try and make their “Alligator Pears” sound more appealing. Collectively, they decided to change the name of the fruit to “Avocados.”

The first performance ‘haunted house’ was the Orton and Spooner Ghost House, which opened in 1915 in Liphook, England.

A raisin company executive spotted a teenage girl (Lorraine Collett) drying her curly brown hair and wearing her mother’s red bonnet and hired her for a stunt promotion that had her dropping raisins from an airplane. Soon she became the company’s first symbol called, “Sun-Maid.”

Tom Lyle Williams created the mascara “Maybelline” in 1915 when his sister Maybel used a mixture of Vaseline and coal dust to darken her eyelashes.

Junior Chamber International (Jay-Cees) was founded in St. Louis, Missouri.

Johnny Gruelle received US Patent (#47789) for his Raggedy Ann Doll on September 7, 1915.

Audrey Munson was the first person allowed to appear nude in a non-pornographic film, Inspiration. She was the model for no fewer than 15 statues in New York City and is considered the first supermodel.

Actress Theda Bara was the first modern Sex Symbol.

Kiwanis International was founded in Detroit by Joseph C. Prance and Allen S. Browne.

The first stop sign appeared in Detroit, Michigan. It was white with black letters.

Wrigley’s Gum shipped sticks of gum to every address listed in US phone books as an early viral marketing campaign.

Chicago’s Wrigley Field became the first baseball stadium to allow fans to keep home runs and foul balls hit into the stands.

The first use of the term “Crime Against Humanity” was used in reference to the Armenian Genocide by the allied powers in 1915.

Pop Culture News:
Inventor Buckminster Fuller tried to document his life as completely as possible. Every 15 minutes from 1915 to his death in 1983 he recorded his life in his diary named ‘Dymaxion Chronofile’. It contains 14,000 pages.

The British Board of Film Classification forbade images of drug misuse as early as 1915, not because there was a significant societal problem, but because it was thought that these scenes might arouse curiosity.

Birth of a Nation was the first movie screened at the White House, and even used excerpts from then-President Woodrow Wilson’s book in the subtitles. Wilson was a member of the KKK.

There were numerous reports of a theoretical planet named ‘Vulcan’ – closer to the Sun than Mercury – until the planet was finally disproved in 1915 by Einstein’s Theory of General Relativity.

The US Supreme Court handed down a decision in 1915 which established that free speech did not extend to motion pictures because they were not a form of art but just a business. It was overturned in 1952

“The Class the Stars Fell On”… 36% (59 cadets) of the 1915 West Point Class attained the rank of General. Members included Dwight D. Eisenhower and Omar N. Bradley.

Someone in the Red Ash Coal mine (in Laurel Run, Pennsylvania) forgot his carbide lamp hanging from a timber beam that subsequently caught fire. The mine fire continues to burn today.

The earliest known instance of “Jazz” was used to refer to music was in the Chicago Daily Tribune on July 11, 1915.

The real Chef Boyardee, Ettore “Hector” Boiardi, directed the catering at President Woodrow Wilson’s wedding reception in 1915.

The phrase “when life gives you lemons, make lemonade” was coined by Elbery Hubbard, an anarchist, when he was writing the obituary for his friend, Marshall P. Wilder, a famous dwarf actor.

Cecil Chubb bought Stonehenge as a gift for his wife. she didn’t like it so he gave it to England in 1918.

When the Ford Model T first came out in 1909, it cost $850. By 1913 it had fallen to $550, and finally, by 1915, the price had dropped to $350. But by the 1920s, the price had dropped to $250 per car. On October 12, 1915, the 1,000,000th car was built by Ford.

One of the Hawaiian islands, Ni’ihau, has been privately owned since 1864 and closed to outside visitors since 1915.

Popular and Best-selling Books From 1915: