1948 Fun Facts, Trivia and Information

Quick Facts from 1948:

• World Changing Event: Scientists at Bell Labs invented the transistor.
• Popular Songs include Buttons and Bows by Dinah Shore, I’ve Got My Love To Keep Me Warm by Les Brown and It’s Magic by Doris Day
• The Movies to Watch include The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, Easter Parade, Key Largo, Rope, Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein, The Paleface I Remember Mama and The Boy with Green Hair
• The Most Famous Person in America was probably Bing Crosby
• Notable books include: The Naked and the Dead by Norman Mailer and Sexual Behavior in the Human Male by Alfred C. Kinsey
• Price of 2 pounds of Charcoal briquettes in 1948: 39 cents
  A telephone call, from Morristown, NJ-San Francisco, CA, 3 minutes: $2.50 + tax
• The Funny Duo were: Abbott and Costello
  The Funny Guy was: Jack Benny
• The World’s Smallest park Dedicated: Mill Ends Park is a tiny urban park located in the median strip of SW Naito Parkway, approaching esplanade along the Willamette River near SW Taylor Street in downtown Portland, Oregon, United States. The park is a total area of 452 sq in.

“The Quotes:”
“Tonight, we have a really big show (pronounced shoe)”
– Ed Sullivan

“Badges? We ain’t got no badges! We don’t need no badges! I don’t have to show you any stinking badges!”
– Alfonso Bedoya, as Gold Hat, in ‘Treasure of the Sierra Madre’

“A diamond is forever”
– DeBeers

Dewey Did Not Defeat Truman

The presidential election of 1948 was a close one – the two candidates, Harry Truman and Thomas E. Dewey were neck and neck in the polls. On November 3rd, just days before the general election on November 4th, it became clear that both sides had an equal number of states secured as their own. With only five percent of votes left to be counted, Truman suddenly pulled ahead with 49.6% of the vote while Dewey fell back to 48%.

The next day Americans woke up to headlines such as “Dewey Defeats Truman” (New York Times) or “How Wrong Can They Be?” (Chicago Daily Tribune). The day after the election, Truman pulled out an upset victory over Dewey by winning 303 electoral votes to 189 for his opponent. After holding up a newspaper that had already printed “Dewey Defeats Truman”, he told reporters: “That’s one of the happiest moments of my life.”

Pop Culture Facts:
Due to Mahatma Gandhi’s (October 2, 1869 – January 30, 1948) assassination, the Nobel Committee refused to give the Nobel Peace Prize that year because there was “no suitable living candidate.” The Prize cannot be given to deceased candidates. That kept Gandhi’s place on the list silently but respectfully left open.

“Highway Gothic” is a standard set of fonts specifically designed in 1948 to maximize legibility at a distance and high speed, and are used on highway signs around the world.

Lithium (lithium citrate) was used in the beverage 7 UP, until 1948.

It is estimated that Bing Crosby recordings filled more than half of the radio time allocated to recorded music in 1948.

Almost all chickens eaten today come from the winner of the 1948 ‘Chicken of Tomorrow‘ Contest whose genetics now dominate poultry farms worldwide.

Swiss engineer George de Mestral took his dog on a hike this year. When he got home, he noticed there were many burrs on the dog. He examined one under the microscope. He noticed that the burrs had small hooks that enabled them to cling to the soft fur. De Mestral patented Velcro in 1955.

London was the first city to have ever hosted the Olympics three times: 1908, 1948, and 2012.

The shortest movie review ever was for the film Isn’t it Romantic? By Leonard Maltin, it read simply “No”

The reason sprinkles are called Jimmies in New England is that in 1948, Dr. Farber founded The Jimmy Fund and an ice cream shop named Brigham’s would charge an extra penny for chocolate sprinkles on a cone which went to The Jimmy Fund.

Cheetos were first created this year.

Under the Smith–Mundt Act of 1948, Voice of America was forbidden to broadcast directly to American citizens until July 2013. The intent of the legislation was to protect the American public from propaganda actions by its own government.

Eliza Moore (1843 – January 21, 1948) was the last known black slave of the US.

Jimmy the Greek Snyder bet $10,000 at 17–1 odds on Harry Truman to defeat Thomas Dewey in the ’48 election because Dewey had a mustache and “American women didn’t trust men with a mustache”.

The Ford F-series truck was introduced.

Muddy Waters’ 1948 hit Rollin’ Stone was the inspiration for a 1960’s band a few decades later.
(Hint: It was NOT “The Beatles”, “The Who” “The Kinks” or “Cream.”)

Bar codes were invented by Bernard Silver and Norman Woodland.

The Crazy Horse Memorial in the Black Hills of South Dakota has been under construction since 1948 and is “far from completion”.

McCulloch chainsaws were introduced.