Pop Culture Trivia Quiz: What Happened In 1927?

27 Trivia Questions for 1927 History

(answers)

1. What was the highest-grossing movie of 1927?

2. Who (or what) was the first giant balloon in Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade?

3. What major Swedish car company debuted in 1927?

4. In 1927, what was the average life expectancy in the United States?

5. Who was the President of the United States in 1927?

6. Over 2 1/2 miles long, what passageway between New Jersey and New York opened?

7. What was the Biggest Number One Song of 1927?

8. What was the average household income in 1927?

9. Georges Lemaître, a Catholic priest, first proposed what astronomical idea?

10. What tasty powdered drink was invented by Edwin Perkins in Hastings, Nebraska?

11. Directed by Fritz Lang, what German science fiction classic was released?

12. What radio (and later television) network debuted in 1927?

13. Who was issued a pilot’s license from the United States government in 1927? (Hint: He does not use an airplane)

14. How many people lived in the United States in 1927?

15. What world population milestone was reached in 1927?

16. Who gained international fame as the first pilot to fly solo and nonstop across the Atlantic Ocean in a single-engine airplane, from New York to Paris?

17. What was the name of Charles Lindbergh’s airplane?

18. Who won the 1927 World Series?

19. What Yankees player set the Major League Baseball Record with 60 Home Runs?

20. Who won the Stanley Cup in 1927?

21. How much did a dozen eggs cost in 1927?

22. Which celebrity was NOT born in 1927? Martin Luther King Jr., Gina Lollobrigida, Eartha Kitt or Bob Fosse

23. Who was the Time Magazine Man of the Year in 1927?

24. After Leon Trotsky was expelled from the Soviet Communist Party, who took over?

25. What Ford car replaced the Ford Model T in 1927?

26. How much did a gallon of gas cost in 1927?

27. What Hollywood actress made a film called “It”, which later became her nickname: The It Girl?

Trivia Team Bonus Questions:

1. Who was the Pope in 1927?

2. What was the Bestselling Fiction Book in 1927?

3. Hans Nilson Langseth (July 14, 1846 -November 10, 1927) died with the world’s longest WHAT?

4. Who was the American Vice-President in 1927?

5. What was invented by Charles Brannock in 1927?

6. Who said, “I do not choose to run for president in 1928”?

7. What two cities did Charles Lindbergh fly between to make the first trans-Atlantic flight?

8. What Horse won the Kentucky Derby in 1927?

9. What kind of electric clock was an improvement over the standard mechanical clock?

10. What medal did US President Calvin Coolidge present what honor to Lindbergh after his flight?

The Answers:

27 Trivia Answers for 1927 History

1. What was the highest-grossing movie of 1927?
The Jazz Singer

2. Who (or what) was the first giant balloon in Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade?
Felix the Cat

3. What major Swedish car company debuted in 1927?
Volvo

4. In 1927, what was the average life expectancy in the United States?
Men – 59 years, Women – 62.1 years.

5. Who was the President of the United States in 1927?
Calvin Coolidge (August 2, 1923 – March 4, 1929)

6. Over 2 1/2 miles long, what passageway between New Jersey and New York opened?
The Holland Tunnel

7. What was the Biggest Number One Song of 1927?
(tie) My Blue Heaven by Gene Austin OR In A Little Spanish Town by Paul Whiteman

8. What was the average household income in 1927?
$5,496.73

9. Georges Lemaître, a Catholic priest, first proposed what astronomical idea?
The Big Bang Theory

10. What tasty powdered drink was invented by Edwin Perkins in Hastings, Nebraska?
Kool-Aid

11. Directed by Fritz Lang, what German science fiction classic was released?
Metropolis

12. What radio (and later television) network debuted in 1927?
The Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS)

13. Who was issued a pilot’s license from the United States government in 1927? (Hint: He does not use an airplane)
Santa Claus

14. How many people lived in the United States in 1927?
The population was an estimated 119,035,000 people.

15. What world population milestone was reached in 1927?
2,000,000,000 (2 Billion) people

16. Who gained international fame as the first pilot to fly solo and non-stop across the Atlantic Ocean, flying from New York to Paris in his single-engine airplane?
Charles Lindbergh

17. What was the name of Charles Lindbergh’s airplane?
The Spirit of St. Louis. The flight took place on May 20/21, 1927.

18. Who won the 1927 World Series?
In 1927, The New York Yankees won, beating the Pittsburgh Pirates (4 games to 0)

19. What Yankees player set the Major League Baseball Record with 60 Home Runs?
Babe Ruth

20. Who won the Stanley Cup in 1927?
In 1927, The Ottawa Senators won over the Boston Bruins (2–0–2)

21. How much did a dozen eggs cost in 1927?
49 cents

22. Which celebrity was NOT born in 1927? Martin Luther King Jr., Gina Lollobrigida, Eartha Kitt or Bob Fosse
Martin Luther King Jr.

23. Who was the Time Magazine Man of the Year in 1927?
Charles Lindbergh

24. After Leon Trotsky was expelled from the Soviet Communist Party, who took over?
Joseph Stalin

25. What Ford car replaced the Ford Model T in 1927?
The Ford Model A.

26. How much did a gallon of gas cost in 1927?
$0.21 per gallon

27. What Hollywood actress made a film called “It”, which later became her nickname: The It Girl?
Clara Bow

Trivia Team Bonus Questions:

1. Who was the Pope in 1927?
Pope Pius XI, February 6, 1922 – February 10, 1939

2. What was the Bestselling Fiction Book in 1927?
Elmer Gantry by Sinclair Lewis

3. Hans Nilson Langseth (July 14, 1846 -November 10, 1927) died with the world’s longest WHAT?
Beard

4. Who was the American Vice-President in 1927?
Charles G. Dawes (March 4, 1925 – March 4, 1929)

5. What was invented by Charles Brannock in 1927?
The foot-measuring tool (“Brannock Device”) used in shoe stores

6. Who said, “I do not choose to run for president in 1928”?
Calvin Coolidge

7. What two cities did Charles Lindbergh fly between to make the first trans-Atlantic flight?
New York City and Paris

8. What Horse won the Kentucky Derby in 1927?
Whiskery

9. What kind of electric clock was an improvement over the standard mechanical clock?
The Quartz Clock

10. What medal did US President Calvin Coolidge present what honor to Lindbergh after his flight?
Distinguished Flying Cross Medal

1927 History, Fun Facts and Trivia

1927 History, Facts and Trivia

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.

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

December 30, 1927

1927 Music: Popular Music, Songs and Artists

1927 Popular Music, Songs and Artists

Ben Bernie
I’m Looking Over a Four Leaf Clover
Written by Harry Woods and Mort Dixon the song has a long history of being remade. It was used in more than one of Warner Brothers Merrie Melody cartoons. The song is a staple for St. Patrick’s Day and was even parodied in 1973, the title changed to I’m Looking over My dead Dog Rover. The song has been adopted as an anthem for Major League Soccer’s Philadelphia Union and The Son’s of Ben, the team supporters, sing it at every home game. In 2012 the song was recorded again by Willie Nelson.

Ben Bernie
Ain’t She Sweet.
Was written by Milton Ager and Jack Yellen, both of whom have places in the Song Writers Hall Of Fame. The song would continue to record across the 20th century by such artists as Pearl Bailey, Guy Lombardo, and The Beatles.

Ben Selvin
Blue Skies
Blue Skies was written by Irving Berlin who plays an important role in the first half of the 20th century in American Pop Music. It would go across the century and into the 21sr century being recorded again and again by such artists as Judy Garland, Frank Sinatra, Debbie Boone and Rod Stewart.

The song was written by Berlin as an added song to the Rodger’s and Hart Musical, Betsy. The song would live on, but the musical closed after 39 performances.
Blue Skies would go to be performed both on television movies and Broadway shows. The song had a movie named after it and joined other Berlin songs that have that honor such as White Christmas, Easter Parade and There’s No Business Like Show Business. Most recently the song was brought back to life in a production number for the Broadway production of Irving Berlin’s White Christmas.

George Olson
The Best Things in Life Are Free.
This song is from the 1927 musical Good News, book by Laurence Schwab and B.G. DeSylva, lyrics by DeSylva and Lew Brown, and music by Ray Henderson. The story surrounds a college football player who needs to pass an exam in order to play in the big game that weekend. He gets a tutor to help study and during their study time, this song is sung.

This is another song that would make its way across the rest of the 20th century. Being recorded by June Allyson Joe Stafford, Frank Sinatra and Barbra Streisand. There would be a film named after the song in 1956, based on the lives of the writers.

Gertrude Lawrence
Someone to Watch Over Me
Someone To Watch Over Me was written by George and Ira Gershwin for the musical Oh Kay, which still is done, on occasion, by community theatre groups. The song would be introduced by Gertrude Lawrence, who would remain a top Broadway name for many years. She would eventually go on to play the lead of Anna Leonowens in Rodger’s and Hammerstein the King and I. The King and I was written specifically for her and at her request. The interesting thing about the show is Gertrude Lawrence would fade and he C0-Saty Yul Brynner would begin to rise. The King and I would be his most remembered role.

The song would grow in popularity and be regularly rerecorded by such singers as Rosemary Clooney, Linda Ronstadt, Sting, Brian Wilson and as late as 2011 by Susan Boyle. The song was performed 3 times on American Idol. It was used as an instrumental in the second season of GLEE and Lady Gaga would perform the song on the Today Show. Proving this song is timeless. The video provided is Julie Andrews singing the song in the movie STAR which was the life of Gertrude Lawrence.

Hoagy Carmichael
Stardust
Stardust was originally an instrumental written by Hoagy Carmichael in 1927. Two years later lyricist Mitchell Paris would write lyrics for the song based on ideas that both he and Carmichael had discussed. The song would go on to be recorded by Doris Day, Frank Sinatra, Ringo Starr and as recently as 2009 by Michael Buble.

Whispering Jack Smith
Me and my Shadow
The song was originally written by Al Jolson, Billy Rose, and Dave Dreyer. The truth may be that Jolson contributed very little to the song. The song is a standard that was still being played on the radio as late as the 1960s. Artists that recorded the song include Michael Ball and Antonio Banderas, Perry Como, Lou Rawls and Mandy Patinkin.

Paul Whiteman
Side by Side
“Side by Side” is a popular song from 1927 with lyrics by Gus Kahn and music by Harry M. Woods. It is still considered a standard though not as well know today as in the 20th century. The song has been recorded by many artists including Bruce Willis and Danny Aiello for Hudson Hawk, Hayley Mills and Paul Anka, but is probably best known in a 1953 recording by Kay Starr.

Vaughn De Leath
Are You Lonesome Tonight
Vaughn De Leath was also known as The Original Radio Girl actually recorded this song twice in 1927 on June 13 as a solo and again on September 21 as the vocalist for The Colonial Club Orchestra. The song would continue to be popular but rise to mega popularity when Elvis Presley recorded it in 1960. It would remain number one on the Billboard charts for 6 weeks.

Vernon Dalhart
Lucky Lindy
Lucky Lindy was written in honor of Charles Lindbergh’s historic flight between New York and Paris in a single-seat single-engine plane called The Spirit of St Louis on May 21 thru the 22, 1927. He was 25 years old and would have careers as an aviator, author, explorer and social activist.

Top Artists and Songs of 1927

Ben Bernie
Ain’t She Sweet?
I’m Looking Over a Four Leave Clover

Ben Selvin
Blue Skies

Tag: 1927