1925 History, Trivia and Fun Facts

Quick Facts from 1925:

• World Changing Event: James Carrier installed an air cooling system in Paramount’s Rivoli Theater in Times Square during a 1925 heatwave.
• World Communications Changing Event: Calvin Coolidge was sworn in for a full term as President of the United States. It was the first inauguration to be broadcast on radio.
• Influential Songs include Sweet Georgia Brown by various artists and Tea For Two by Marion Harris.
• The Movies to Watch include Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ, The Unholy Three, Battleship Potemkin, The Big Parade, The Phantom of the Opera, His People, The Lost World and The Gold Rush
• The Most Famous Person in America was probably Charlie Chaplin
• Notable books include: The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
• Price of Brownie ‘Gift Box” Camera in 1925: $5.00
• 1 ounce of gold value: $20.67 (same from 1879 to 1932!)
• The Funny Guy was: Charlie Chaplin
• The first koalas to live outside of Australia were named Snugglepot and Cuddlepie and arrived at the San Diego Zoo in 1925.

Firsts, Inventions, and Wonders:
Sweet Georgia Brown (commonly known as the Globetrotters theme) was written in 1925.

The New Yorker went on sale for the first time (cover date Feb 21, 1925)

The world’s first motel, the milestone Motel, was built in 1925 by Arthur Heineman in San Luis Obispo, California due to its being a midpoint between LA and San Francisco, a two-day trip for motorists at the time.

Department Store Sears didn’t have a physical store location for its first 19 years as a retailer. Its first general catalog was published in 1906, and its first store was established in 1925.

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald was published.

The Grand Ole Opry, a weekly country music stage concert in Nashville, Tennessee debuted on November 28, 1925, as a one-hour radio “barn dance” on WSM.

Wheel Gymnastics was presented in Germany

Cecilia Helena Payne-Gaposchkin discovered that hydrogen and helium are the most abundant elements in stars and, therefore, in the whole universe.

Chrysler was founded by Walter Percy Chrysler.

Pete the Bear is actually Disney’s oldest recurring character, making his debut in the 1925 cartoon Alice Solves the Puzzle.

Pop Culture News:
The New York Times published an article stating that Crossword Puzzles were a fad people would quickly grow tired of.

IDITAROD – In January 1925, a diphtheria epidemic broke out in Nome, Alaska. Medicine was hundreds of miles away, in Anchorage. They gathered 18 teams of dog-sledders to make the 674-mile trek. Gunner Kassan was the final sledder, let by his soon-to-be-famous dog, Balto. The journey is commemorated every year in the Iditarod. Togo, another dog in the run, actually did more miles than Balto. #unsunghero

Ford introduced its first truck – the Ford Model T Runabout with Pickup Body.

THE SCOPES TRIAL – John Scopes was a substitute biology teacher in Dayton, Tennessee, a state which had passed a law banning the teaching of evolution. Mr. Scopes taught it to his class, as it was in the school’s approved textbook, like every biology teacher in Tennessee did. He was found guilty and was let off on a technicality.

The Olympic Flag was designed by Pierre de Coubertin (blue, yellow, black, green, and red on a white field).

The US government has held a stockpile of 1 billion cubic meters of helium in Amarillo, Texas, since 1925. This is due to post WWI fear that we may run out of helium in case of blimp warfare.

As a joke, recently hired engineers at General Electric were ordered to develop a frosted lightbulb, which they believed to be impossible. In 1925, newly hired Marvin Pipkin got the assignment and made the first frosted lightbulb.

Nellie Ross was the first US Governor, was inaugurated in Wyoming on Jan 5, 1925. The second female governor, Miriam Ferguson, from Texas, was sworn into office January 20th.

Until 1925, the Bill of Rights applied only to the federal government and did not limit the powers of state or local authorities

George Bernard Shaw is the only person to win a Nobel Prize AND an Oscar. He won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1925 and an Oscar for Pygmalion in 1938.

Wearing a Fez was banned in Turkey, and still is.#fezzesarecool

The Suicide Poem:
On December 28, 1925, Sergei Alexandrovich Yesenin was found dead in the room in the Hotel Angleterre in St Petersburg.
His was his final poem, written in his own blood because no pen was available.

Goodbye my friend, goodbye
Farewell, my good friend, farewell.
In my heart, forever, you’ll stay.
May the fated parting foretell
That again we’ll meet up someday.
Let no words, no handshakes ensue,
No saddened brows in remorse, –
To die, in this life, is not new,
And living’s no newer, of course.

До свиданья, друг мой, до свиданья
До свиданья, друг мой, до свиданья.
Милый мой, ты у меня в груди.
Предназначенное расставанье
Обещает встречу впереди.
До свиданья, друг мой, без руки, без слова,
Не грусти и не печаль бровей,-
В этой жизни умирать не ново,
Но и жить, конечно, не новей.

Nobel Prize Winners:
Physics -James Franck and Gustav Ludwig Hertz
Chemistry -Richard Adolf Zsigmondy
Physiology or Medicine – not awarded
Literature -George Bernard Shaw
Peace -Austen Chamberlain and Charles Gates Dawes

The 30th Vice President of the USA, Charles Gates Dawes, in addition to his Nobel Peace Prize in 1925, was a self-taught pianist and composer who composed the 1912 hit song Melody in A Major which used in Tommy Edwards’ 1958 #1 hit It’s All in the Game.