1920s Facts

The first household refrigerators cost about $16,000, in today's money!

Jack Knight flew through a snowstorm as Congress weighed ending the Air Mail. He had a broken nose from a crash in Wyoming days earlier. Postal workers and farmers lit bonfires along his route. At one stop, the ground crew had already gone home. Knight circled until a watchman heard him and lit a flare. He flew 830 miles through the night, and Congress funded the Air Mail within days.

William Van Alen hid a 185-foot steel spire inside the Chrysler Building's own crown, assembled in secret. His rival H. Craig Severance had designed 40 Wall Street two feet taller - thinking he'd win. Van Alen raised the hidden spire through the roof in 90 minutes on October 23, 1929. The Chrysler Building jumped to 1,046 feet, the first skyscraper to top 1,000 feet. It held the record for 11 months.

A foul ball fell into the Philadelphia bleachers in 1923. Robert Cotter, age 11, caught it and pocketed it. Back then the ball belonged to the Phillies, so they pressed charges. He spent the night in a cell. Next morning a judge freed him, refusing to brand a boy a thief over a $1.50 ball. It was the first court ruling that a fan could keep one. Every foul ball in the seats tonight is yours.

In 1928 America had no guide dog schools. A blind twenty-year-old trained six weeks in Switzerland with a German shepherd he renamed Buddy, then came home to skeptical reporters. He crossed West Street, a waterfront run of ten-ton trucks, and the dog took him over. He helped found The Seeing Eye a year later. It still breeds and trains its own dogs.

The lion who roared before MGM movies once survived a plane crash. In 1927, the studio put Jackie in a cage behind the pilot of a small plane bound for New York. It went down in the Arizona backcountry, and both survived. Pilot Martin Jensen left Jackie his sandwiches, milk and water and walked four days to a ranch. When he finally reached a phone, MGM's first question was, "How's the lion?"