1927 History, Fun Facts and Trivia

1927 Fun Facts, Trivia and History

Quick Facts from 1927

  • World-Changing Event: Charles Lindbergh crossed the Atlantic Ocean in their first solo flight.
    When Charles Lindbergh made the first transatlantic flight, his plane had a periscope fitted because he could not see from the front windshield.
  • Influential Songs include I’m Looking Over a Four Leaf Clover and Ain’t She Sweet by Ben Burnie—and 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.

Top Ten Baby Names of 1927

Mary, Dorothy, Betty, Helen, Margaret, Robert, John, William, James, Charles

US Life Expectancy

(1927) Males: 59.0 years, Females: 62.1 years

The Stars

Josephine Baker, Clara Bow, Dolores Costello, Marion Davies, Dolores Del Rio, Greta Garbo, Myrna Loy, Mary Pickford, Anna May Wong

Miss America

Lois Delander (Joliet, IL)

Time Magazine’s Man of the Year

Charles Lindbergh

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 were “Wait a minute, wait a minute. You ain’t heard nothin’ yet” in 1927 in 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 ever in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.

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

Mount Rushmore National Memorial began construction.

The Biggest Pop Artists of 1927 include

Gene Austin, Ben Bernie and His Orchestra, Vernon Dalhart, Vaughn DeLeath, Cliff Edwards, Ruth Etting, Gene Goldkette and His Orchestra, Roger Wolfe Kahn and His Orchestra, Irving Kaufman, Gertrude Lawrence, Guy Lombardo, and His Royal Canadians, Nick Lucas, Johnny Marvin, John McCormack, Red Nichols, and His Five Pennies, George Olson and His Orchestra, Nat Shilkret and the Victor Orchestra, Whispering Jack Smith, Fred Waring’s Pennsylvanians, Paul Whiteman & His Orchestra

Pop Culture Facts & History

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 Farnsworth invented a working television. In court, 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.

Actual Photo of Santa Getting License

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, more than any other American League team 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 production 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.

School Tragedy

America’s deadliest school massacre was the 1927 bombing of a school in Bath, Michigan, which killed 44 people, 38 of them were students

Nobel Prize Winners

Physics – Arthur Holly Compton, Charles Thomson Rees Wilson
Chemistry – Heinrich Otto Wieland
Physiology or Medicine – Julius Wagner-Jauregg
Literature – Henri Bergson
Peace – Ferdinand Buisson, Ludwig Quidde

Popular and Best-selling Books From 1927

A Good Woman by Louis Bromfield
Doomsday by Warwick Deeping
Elmer Gantry by Sinclair Lewis
The House on the Cliff (Hardy Boys #2) by Franklin Dixon
Jalna by Mazo de la Roche
Lost Ecstasy by Mary Roberts Rinehart
The Plutocrat by Booth Tarkington
Sorrell and Son by Warwick Deeping
The Old Countess by Anne Douglas Sedgwick
To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf
Tomorrow Morning by Anne Parrish
The Tower Treasure (Hardy Boys #1) by Franklin Dixon
Twilight Sleep by Edith Wharton

Sports

World Series Champions: New York Yankees
Stanley Cup Champs: Ottawa Senators
U.S. Open Golf: Tommy Armour
U.S. Tennis (Men/Ladies): Rene Lacoste/Helen Wills
Wimbledon (Men/Women): Henri Cochet/Helen Wills
NCAA Football Champions: Illinois & Yale
Kentucky Derby Winner: Whiskery
Boston Marathon Winner: Clarence DeMar Time: 2:40:22

More 1927 Facts & History Resources:

Most Popular Baby Names (BabyCenter.com)
Popular and Notable Books (popculture.us)
Broadway Shows that Opened in 1927
1927 Calendar, courtesy of Time and Date.com
Fact Monster
1920s Fads (BabyCenter.com)
1920s, Infoplease.com World History
1927 in Movies (according to IMDB)
Retrowaste Vintage Culture
1920s Slang
Wikipedia 1927