1927 History, Fun Facts and Trivia

Quick Facts from 1927:

• World Changing Event: Charles Lindbergh crossed the Atlantic Ocean in the first solo flight.
  When Charles Lindbergh made the first transatlantic flight, his plane had a periscope fitted to it because he could not see out of the front windshield.
• Influential Songs include: I’m Looking Over a Four Leaf Clover and Ain’t She Sweet by Ben Burnie. Also Stardust by Hoagy Carmichael.
• The Movies to Watch include Metropolis, Wings, The Unknown, It, Sunrise and The Jazz Singer
• The Most Famous Person in America was probably Charles Lindbergh
• Price of Men’s Racoon Coat in 1927: $295.00 to $395.00
• Edwin Perkins invented “Fruit Smack” – now called Kool-Aid.
• The Biggest Entertainer was: Al Jolson
• The Tool: The foot-measuring tool (“Brannock Device”) used in shoe stores was invented by Charles Brannock in 1927.

Firsts, Inventions, and Wonders:
A tough, durable kind of plastic, polystyrene, was invented.

Pogs (collecting them was a 90s fad) originated from Hawaii as early as 1927.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences was founded.

The first words spoken in a movie was “Wait a minute, wait a minute. You ain’t heard nothin’ yet” in 1927 in the movie The Jazz Singer.

National Geographic magazine was the first US publisher to publish underwater color photographs in 1927, the first to print an all-color issue in 1962, and the first to print a hologram in 1984.

Southland Corp (7-11) was founded in Dallas, Texas.

The earliest known use of the phrase “trick or treat” appeared in a small town in Alberta, Canada in 1927.

Pan American Airways took flight.

The Big Bang Theory was first proposed by a Catholic Priest in 1927.

The first recorded recipe for S’mores can be found in the publication Tramping and Trailing with the Girl Scouts.

Felix the Cat was the first giant balloon to ever in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade

The first robot depicted in cinema was a gynoid named Maria in the 1927 science fiction film, Metropolis.

Mount Rushmore National Memorial began construction.

Pop Culture News:
The Jazz Singer was the first film to use synchronized sound and picture, although the entire film was not an all-sound movie. There were just two scenes with talking, and ten songs that Mr. Jolson sang. It was based on Samson Raphaelson’s 1921 short story The Day of Atonement. It was about a Jewish cantor’s son who wanted to get into showbiz. Al Jolson was a cantor’s son who got into showbiz BTW.

American Hero, Philo Farmsworth, invented a working television. He beat John Logie Beard, who had a tv-type demonstration in 1925 in London in court for the title and rights.

Another American Hero, Charles Lindberg, traveled non-stop on his ‘Spirit of Saint Louis’ flight on May 20-21 from New York’s Long Island to Le Bourget Field in Paris, France.

Santa Claus was issued a pilot’s license from the United States government in 1927.

The first “It Girl” was Clara Bow, who starred in the 1927 film, It.

Georgia Tech has a fictional enrolled student named George P. Burdell. He enrolled in 1927, and since then he has received all undergraduate degrees, served on Mad Magazine’s Board of Directors, and was in the running for Time’s Person of the Year in 2001.

Garnet Carter built the first public miniature golf course, Tom Thumb Golf, on Lookout Mountain in Tennessee.

John W. Hammes made the first garbage disposal unit.

Babe Ruth set the sixty home run record in 1927 which was more than any other American League team had combined that year.

The world population reached one billion for the first time in 1804. It was another 123 years before it reached two billion in 1927, but it took only 33 years to reach three billion in 1960.

Hans Langseth died, along with the world’s longest beard. You can see it (his beard) at the Smithsonian Institute.

Former president of Liberia Charles King holds the Guinness World record for the most fraudulent election ever having won the 1927 election with 234,000 votes in a country of 15,000 voters

New York City’s Holland Tunnel opened.

The Ford Motor Company made 15,000,000 Model T cars since 1908, and productions stopped in 1927. The new Model A Ford went on sale, for $385 each.

Founded in Chicago in 1927, the Harlem Globetrotters never played a ‘home’ game in Harlem until 1968.

Pacific Rim’s “Gipsy Danger” is not spelled “gypsy” because it’s named after the de Havilland Gipsy, a plane engine invented in 1927.