Happy New Year! 2025 is here and many of you are thinking about what you’re going to do in the new year. Before you get too far with your plans, let’s go back and see what life was like in 1925.
• The population of the U.S. grew close to 116 million. Our current population is close to 335 million, with a new person being added every 20 seconds!
• Men had a life expectancy of 57.6 years, and women lived an average of 60.6 years.
• The U.S. Federal Budget was 2.9 billion dollars, and they had a budget surplus of 700 million dollars. Today, we have a Federal Budget of 6.75 trillion dollars and a budget deficit of 1.8 trillion dollars!
• About 17.5 million motor vehicles were registered in the U.S. Today, we have close to 297 million vehicles on the road.
• The price of a Model T Ford had dropped down to only $260! Ford manufactured about 2 million of these cars in 1925.
• 50 percent of the homes had electricity. It was not until 1960 that virtually all homes had electricity.
• On March 4th, Calvin Coolidge became the first president of the U.S. to have his inauguration broadcasted on radio. The event was on over 20 stations, with an estimated 23 million listeners.
• The New Yorker magazine was first published on February 21st. It was published by Harold Ross, and he remained the magazine’s editor till his death in December 1951.
• A film was shown on an airplane for the first time on April 6th. Aeromarine Airways showed a film titled “Howdy Chicago” to its passengers as they flew around Chicago.
• Union wages in New York city were:
– Bricklayers at $1.50 per hour
– Carpenters at $1.31 per hour
– Painters at $1.31 per hour
– Plumbers at $1.38 per hour
– Structural steel workers at $1.50 per hour
• American farm workers had an average pay of $38.77 per month, with board. Without board, their average pay was $49.90 per month.
• The minimum wage in California was $0.33 per hour.
• On June 6th, the Chrysler Corporation was founded by Walter Chrysler. He reorganized the Maxwell Motor company into the Chrysler Corporation, and the Maxwell brand was dropped after the 1925 model year. The Chrysler Six Model B70 was launched in January of 1924, and it was very well received.
• The world’s first motel opened on December 12th in San Luis Obispo. It was named the Milestone Mo-Tel. A stay at this motel was only $1.25 per night!
• The number one hit song was “I’ll See You in My Dreams”, by Isham Jones who was a guest conductor with Ray Miller’s Orchestra.
• During the 1920s, the popular style for women’s dresses was the tubular “la garconne” look. These simple dresses were also known as the “flapper”, which featured a dropped waist and creeping hemlines. Coco Chanel was a designer who helped popularize this style.
• Men were also looking for more simplicity in dress, so they started moving away from starched collars and formal three-piece suits. Instead, they adopted soft collars and one- or two-button suit jackets. Pinstripes were popular, along with British wools and English tailoring.
• In January, Alphonse Capone became the boss of the “Chicago Outfit”. His reign as a crime boss ended seven years later when he was convicted of tax evasion, and sentenced to prison for eleven years.
• F. Scott Fitzgerald published “The Great Gatsby” on April 10th.
• The average prices for these items were:
o Round steak sold for 36 cents a pound
o Eggs were 55 cents a dozen
o Milk sold for 56 cents per gallon
o A loaf of bread cost 9 cents
o Coffee was 50 cents a pound
o A ten-pound bag of potatoes cost 36 cents
o Gasoline sold for around 23 cents per gallon
o The price of a first-class postage stamp was 2 cents
o A movie ticket went for around 25 cents
• 1925’s top movie was a silent war drama called “The Big Parade”. It was a film about a rich boy who joined the Army and was sent to France to fight in WWI. While there, he fell in love with a French girl. It starred John Gilbert and Renee Adoree.
• The original Madison Square Garden opened on December 15th . It opened with a hockey game, where the New York Americans lost to the Montreal Canadians, 3-1. 17,000 fans were in attendance. This building was later demolished in 1968, when a new Madison Square Garden opened nearby.
• The Federal Highway Act of 1925 (February 12, 1925) continued existing funding for the original Federal Highway Act of 1921. By 1926, of the more than 3 million miles of highway in the U.S., only about 500,000 would be paved.
• The S&P 500 opened the beginning of the year at 121.25, and closed at 151.08. That was a 25.37% increase! Now, if you would have invested just $100.00 at the beginning of 1925 and reinvested all dividends, you would now have $1,988,811.65 at the end of 2024! Sure beats wasting money on lottery tickets, don’t it?
As you can see, life in America has changed quite a bit over the last 100 years. Can you even imagine living without electricity and your smart phone?
