The Year 1922

 Nothing outstanding occurred during 1922, except, possibly, my birth on February 11, 1922. Probably not an earth-shaking event except for my parents, friends and family.  

World War-I had ended in 1918, the Treaty of Versailles was signed in April 1919 and the world was attempting to return to normalcy.  Despite the wartime progress in the design of airplanes, they still were primitive as were the automobiles.  Life was much simpler without radio, TV and CDs.  People entertained themselves rather than being entertained.  Free concerts were given in Central Park and different concert halls, people attended theaters and the opera, but one of the most popular events was the operetta where Franz Lehar was king.  Music stores sold popular sheet music through the in-store activities of a pianist and one or two vocalists.  Music enthusiasts would buy sheet music from the latest Broadway shows and other popular music, return home and after dinner the family would gather around the piano for a family sing fest.  Other families would use the player piano with its paper music rolls.  Learning to play a musical instrument was common where families could afford it.

Without air conditioning, homes would become torrid in the summer heat.  This was especially true of the tenements found in most cities.  To avoid the heat, after work most tenants would sit on the cool stone stoops or use the fire escapes and engage in card playing or just socialize.  Young people would play stoop ball or any one or more of a variety of games such as johnny-on-a-pony, ring-a-livio, potsy and pick-up-sticks.  Chess and checkers were popular with both adults and children.   Broken chips of ice from the ice man's wagon never went to waste and were relished by all.  The differences between 1922 compared with today are many, but I have decided to describe a few.

The President of the United States was Warren G. Harding and the Vice President was Calvin Coolidge.

Newspaper headlines on February 11 included stories on a 14-year old who became the first diabetic to be treated with insulin, the passing of the Capper-Volstead Act which permitted farmers to buy equipment and sell products cooperatively, the establishment of the World War (WW-I) Foreign Debt Commission, the initiation by the United States of an “open door policy” with China, and the incorporation by Vatican City  as a sovereign state with the signing of the Lateran Treaty by the Pope and Benito Mussolini.  

Prohibition had already been made a law of the land in 1920, but the gang wars that resulted from attempts to control illegal beer and liquor for a thirsty public were well established by 1922. 

The American living arena in 1922 included:

                U.S. Population                               110,049,000

                3-Bedroom House                                    $4,125

                Average Income                                        $1,207

                Price of a New Ford                                 $   298

                One Gallon of Gasoline                           $    .25

                One Pound of Bread                                $    .09

                One Gallon of Milk                                   $    .52

                First Class Postage Stamp                       $    .02            

In the entertainment and recreation fields the Our Gang released their first film, appropriately named Our Gang, Physical Culture Magazine selected Charles Atlas as the “world’s most perfectly developed man, Mah-jongg was the current craze, Felix the Cat, a jointed wooden doll was patented, Chicago police arrested bathers for exposing arms and legs in public calling it indecent exposure, the ice cream bar Eskimo Pie was patented, and the Bye-Lo baby doll was created.  

Winners in a variety of events during 1922 were:

               

                Best movie                                         Orphans in the Storm

                Best actor                                            Harold Lloyd

                Best actress                                         Lillian Gish

                World Series                                       NY Giants over the NY Yankees

                Boxing Heavyweight                          Jack Dempsey

                Books                                                  Babbitt by S. Lewis, and

                The Beautiful and the Damned by Fitzgerald

                Kentucky Derby                                  Morvich with A. Johnson up

 

 

Six other people who share my birth date are William Talbot, physicist and photographer, Thomas Edison, inventor, Max Baer, boxer, Mary Quant, fashion designer, Burt Reynolds, actor, and Sergio Mendez, musician.  Not all in 1922, of course, but on the same date.   

So, this is a background sketch of the United States' world in 1922.  It was a reasonably happy world that would continue for seven more years and then collapse into a horrible depression, the likes of which man had never experienced before, ending with the entry of the United States into World War-II in 1941.

November 2014

LFC