What a Difference a Century Makes: 1925
By: M. Callahan
President Coolidge and Advisory Council on Indian Affairs
Public Figures
President: Calvin Coolidge
Vice President: Charles G. Dawes
Virginia Governor: Elbert Lee Trinkle
Chief Justice Supreme Court: William Howard Taft
Speaker of the House: Frederick H. Gillett (R- Massachusetts)
Senate Majority Leader: Nicholas Longworth
VA Senators: Claude A. Swanson & Carter Glass
BORN: Paul Newman, Margaret Thatcher, Pol Pot, Medgar Evars, Yogi Berra, Gerald Durell, Malcom X, Barbara Bush, John DeLorean
DIED: William Jennings Bryan, Field Marshal John French, John Singer Sargent, Sun Yat-Sen
HISTORICAL EVENTS
Benito Mussolini dissolves the Italian parliament and proclaims himself dictator of Italy, taking the title "Il Duce" (the Leader)
Adolf Hitler publishes Mein Kampf, original title was the catchy "Four and a Half Years (of Struggle) Against Lies, Stupidity and Cowardice"
Louis Armstrong and his Hot Five begin their first recording session at Okeh Records in Chicago
In 1925 the Jazz Age was in full swing. It was the year Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington made their first recordings
The Ku Klux Klan marched on Washington, D.C.
March 18, 1925, the Great Tri-State Tornado tore across Southeast Missouri, Southern Illinois, and Southwest Indiana. With its rapid movement, monstrous size, and long track, the tornado took hundreds of lives and injured thousands.
Nellie Tayloe Ross of Wyoming is sworn in as the first woman Governor of a U.S. state. January 20, 1925: Miriam A. Ferguson of Texas sworn in as second woman Governor of a U.S. state.
Scopes Trial: The trial makes explicit the fundamentalist-modernist controversy within the Presbyterian Church in America, with William Jennings Bryan (who dies later in 1925) being challenged by the liberal Clarence Darrow.
The French complete their evacuation of the Ruhr region of Germany.
Anthropologist Margaret Mead lands in American Samoa to begin nine months of field work that will culminate in her 1928 book Coming of Age in Samoa. The bestselling book will become the first popular anthropological study and will change many attitudes towards tribal peoples.
The U.S. Navy dirigible Shenandoah breaks up in a squall line near Caldwell, Ohio, killing 14 crewmen. breaks up in a squall line near Caldwell, Ohio, killing 14 crewmen.
The weekly country music-variety program Grand Ole Opry is first broadcast on WSM radio in Nashville, Tennessee, as the "WSM Barn Dance".
The first motel in the world, the Milestone Mo-Tel opens in San Luis Obispo, California.
Reza Shahtake becomes the first shah of Persia of the Pahlavi dynasty.
IG Farben is formed by the merger of six chemical companies in Germany. In the 1920s, the company had ties to the liberal nationalist German People's Party and was accused by the Nazis of being an "international capitalist Jewish company". A decade later, it was a Nazi Party donor and, after the Nazi takeover of Germany in 1933, a major government contractor, providing significant material for the German war effort. Throughout that decade it purged itself of its Jewish employees; the remainder left in 1938. Described as the most notorious German industrial concern during the Third Reich in the 1940s the company relied on slave labor from concentration camps, including 30,000 from Auschwitz, and was involved in medical experiments on inmates at both Auschwitz and Mauthausen. One of its subsidiaries supplied the poison gas Zyklon B, which killed over one million people in gas chambers during the Holocaust. The Allies seized the company at the end of the war in 1945 and the US authorities put its directors on trial. Held from 1947 to 1948 as one of the subsequent Nuremberg Trials, the IG Farben saw 23 of their directors tried for war crimes and 13 convicted. (1)
Tri-State Tornado is the deadliest tornado in US history killed 695 people and injured 13,000.
The Locamo Treaties are signed in London, intended to secure the post-war continental European territorial settlement.
Mount Rushmore National Memorial is dedicated in South Dakota.
The 1925 serum run to Nome, also known as the Great Race of Mercy and The Serum Run, was a transport of diphtheria antitoxin by dog sled relay across the US Territory of Alaska by 20 mushers and about 150 sled dogs across 674 miles (1,085 km) in 5+1⁄2 days, saving the small town of Nome and the surrounding communities from a developing epidemic of diphtheria. Both the mushers and their dogs were portrayed as heroes in the newly popular medium of radio and received headline coverage in newspapers across the United States. Balto, the lead sled dog on the final stretch into Nome, became the most famous canine celebrity of the era after Rin Tin Tin.
New York City becomes the largest city in the world, taking the lead from London.
WORLD LEADERS:
Brazil: President Arthur Bernardes
Canada: Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King
Egypt: Sultan Faud I
France: Gaston Doumerque
Germany: Chancellor Hans Luther
Italy: Benito Mussolini
Japan: Prime Minister Kato Takaaki Kenseikai under a coalition government
Mexico: President Emilio Oscar Rabasa
Russia / Soviet Union: Joseph Stalin
South Africa: Pieter Willem Botha
Siam (Thailand) Rama VII
United States: President Calvin Coolidge
United Kingdom: Stanley Baldwin
Scopes Trial , William Jennings Bryant and Clarence Darrow
1925 Trends
Flagpole sitting became all the rage.
The Charleston was the favorite dance.
Women’s fashion included knee-length skirts and dresses, cosmetics, bobbed hair, pencil thin eyebrows and “bee-stung” lips.
Men’s fashion included short, clicked back hair, raccoon coats, patent leather shoes, fedoras and bow ties.
The Model T Ford reaches its lowest price of $260. It had sold for $950 in 1909.
The Jewish Institute of Religion graduates its first class.
The Florida legislature passes a law requiring daily Bible reading in public schools.
Jazz Age, Louis Armstrong, Josephine Baker, and Duke Ellington
Most Popular Songs
- I’ll See You in My Dreams
- Yes Sir, That’s My Baby
- Sweet Georgia Brown
- If You Knew Susie
Popular Books
- The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
- Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf
- The Painted Veil by W. Somerset Maugham
- An American Tragedy by Theodore Dreiser
- Carry On, Jeeves by PG Woodhouse
- Emily Climbs by L.M. Montgomery
- The Secret of the Chimneys by Agatha Christie
Popular Movies
The Phantom of the Opera
The Big Parade
The Gold Rush
The Merry Widow
1925 Favorite Baby Names
Top Ten Girl Names of 1925: Mary, Helen, Dorothy, Betty, Virginia, Doris, Mildred, Elizabeth, Doris, Evelyn
Top Ten Boy Names of 1925: Robert, John, William, James,Charles, George, Joseph, Edward, Thomas, Donald
1925 Inventions
- Brannock Device for measuring shoe sizes
- Mechanical Television, a precursor to the modern Television was invented by John Logie Baird
- Radiovision
- Polyurethane thermos
- Corona Typewriter
- The Teddy Bear remained the favorite Toy on Santa’s List
- Alabaman Robert “Big Bob” Gibson created the iconic white barbecue sauce featuring mayonnaise and apple cider vinegar.
- Calvin Coolidge said, "The business of America is business"
- T.S. Eliot wrote: "This is the way the world ends not with a bang but a whimper"
SPORTS 1925
World Series: National League Champion Pittsburgh Pirates and the American League Champion Washington Senators. The Pirates defeated the Senators in seven games to win the series. .
Stanley Cup: Victoria Cougars defeat champion Montreal
World Heavyweight Boxing: Jack Dempsey
USPGA Championship: Walter Hagen
British Open: American Jim Barnes
US Open: Scotsman Willie Macfarlane beats Bobby Jones by 1 stroke
Tour de France: Ottavio Bottecchia
Horseracing:
Kentucky Derby – Flying Ebony
Preakness Stakes – Coventry
Belmont Stakes – American Flag
Grand National: Double Chance, ridden by jockey Major John Wilson
Tennis
Wimbledon Men’s Singles
Jean Borotra (France)
Wimbledon Women’s Singles:
Suzanne Lenglen (France)
US National (Tennis) Championship: Bill Tilden and Helen Wills Moody
Rose Bowl: Notre Dame over Stanford 27-10
NOBEL AWARDS 1925
Peace: Sir Austen Chamberland and American Charles Dawes
Literature: George Bernard Shaw
Physics: James Frank and Gustav Hertz of Germany for discovery of the laws governing the impact of an electron upon an atom.
Medicine: Johannes Fibiger of Denmark for his work in cancer research.
PULITZER PRIZES 1925
Pulitzer-Literature: Arrowsmith, novel by Sinclair Lewis, published in 1925. The author declined to accept a Pulitzer Prize for the work because he had not been awarded the prize for his Main Street in 1921.
Pulitzer Biography & Autobiography: Barrett Wendell and His Letters, by M.A. De Wolfe Howe
Pulitzer History: Frederic L. Paxson won the 1925 Pulitzer Prize in History for his book History of the American Frontier, 1763-1893
Pulitzer Journalism Reporting: James W. Mulroy and Alvin H. Goldstein of the Chicago Daily News, for their service toward the solution of the murder of Robert Franks, Jr., in Chicago on May 22, 1924, and the bringing to justice of Nathan F. Leopold and Richard Loeb.
COST OF COMMON CONSUMER GOODS
The annual average Consumer Price Index (CPI) for all urban consumers in the United States in 1925 was 17.5, with an annual inflation rate of 2.4%. All items priced at $20 in 1925 → $357.29 in 2025.
Consumer Price Index: 17.5%
Unemployment: 8.9%
Ave Net Income: $3,481.00
Automobiles
Pierce Arrow, Series 80, 7 passenger, 2,895.00
Hudson Sedan, 7 passenger, 1,895.00
Dodge Brothers Coach, 1,345.00
Nash, Special, sedan, 5 passenger, 1,225.00
Food
Bacon, strip, .30/lb
Duck, Long Island, .38/lb
Beef, chopped, .16/lb
Beef, porterhouse steak, .20/lb
Butter, Brookfield Creamery, .42/lb
Carrots, .10/bunch
Celery hearts, .20/large bunches
Chicken, roasting, .45/lb
Fish, cod, fresh, .25/lb
Grapefruit, .25/3
Ham, Swift's Premium, .26/lb
Macaroni, Italian (genuine), .20/lb
Oranges, Sunkist Juicy, .25/dozen
Sauerkraut, .05/lb
Potatoes, .85/half bushel basket
Sweet potatoes, Jersey, .25/3 lbs
Entertainment
Basketball game, .25/ticket
Camera, Brownie gift box, 5.00/each
Radio, Neutrodyne, complete with loud speaker, 100.00/each
Theatre ticket, 20-.30/ticket
Victrola, mahogany stand, 75.00/each
Apartments & Rooms for Rent: (NJ)
5 rooms, utilities and snow shoveling, 120.00/month
4 rooms, 22.50/month
Y.M.C.A., furnished room, 4.25/week
Furniture
Bedroom set, 4 piece, walnut, 1,450.00/set
Dining room set, 10 piece, mahogany, 178.00/set
Living room set, 3 piece, upholstered mohair, 160.00/set
Rug, 18 X 36, 1.00/2 rugs
Tools
Paint, 2.50/gallon
Paint brushes, 1.00-5.00/each
Shovels, snow, long or short handles, 1.00/each
Clothing
Men's shoes, Oxfords, 2.95/pair
Men's suits, wool, 12.50/each
Men's shirts, 1.00-1.50/each
Women's sweaters, wool, 2.95/each
Women's dress, silk, 15.00-25.00/each
Women's dress shoes, 2.50/pair
Women's coats, 11.00-89.00/each
Women's handbags, beaded, 2.00/each
Boy's wool suits, 3.65/each
Boy's shoes, high cut, 1.97/pair
Boy's union suits, .92/each
Girl's wool dresses, 3.00-6.00/each
Hats, men's felt, 2.50-3.50/each
Umbrellas, silk, women's, 2.95-6.50/each
1925 Washington
DC Population: 463,720
KKK Marches in Washington, DC. Photo from the Library of Congress
Church Hill Tunnel is an old Chesapeake and Ohio Railway (C&O) tunnel, built in the early 1870s, which extends approximately 4,000 feet (1,200 meters) under the Church Hill district of Richmond, VA. On October 2, 1925, the tunnel collapsed on a work train, killing four men and trapping a steam locomotive and ten flat cars. Rescue efforts only resulted in further collapse, and the tunnel was eventually sealed for safety.
Bolstered by the eugenics movement, a part of which adhered to white racial superiority over non-whites, the Virginia's General Assembly passed the Racial Integrity Act, which was designed to stop the “intermixture” of white and Black people. The act banned interracial marriage by requiring marriage applicants to identify their race as "white," "colored," or "mixed." The law defined a white person as one “with no trace of the blood of another race.” The law did stipulate that "persons who have one-sixteenth or less of the blood of the American Indian" would be considered white, an accommodation for elite white Virginians who proudly claimed to be descendants of Pocahontas. The Racial Integrity Act was not overturned until 1967 when the United States Supreme Court ruled in Loving V. Virginia that prohibiting interracial marriage was unconstitutional. The Virginia General Assembly repealed the Racial Integrity Act along with other racially discriminatory laws in 2020. (2) (Library of Virginia)
Helen Keller presented an impassioned speech in Washington thanking President and Mrs. Coolidge for their support of the American Foundation for the Blind. She mentioned that Washington was the city where blinded soldiers were offered rehabilitation services following WWI. It was also the location where appropriations were made available to emboss books for the blind.
Ku Klux Klan, the largest US racist male organization, demonstrated held a large a parade with an estimated 30,000-35,000 marchers in Washington, D.C. The KKK boasted membership of 3 million in 1925 and exploited Protestant White Anglo-Saxon fears over immigration. What is now called America First, the KKK used the slogan, 100% Americanism. Besides Black Americans, Catholics, Jews, organized labor, immigrants, and the sins of gambling, drinking and sexual liberty were considered enemies of America. (3)
Photographs on these pages courtesy of Wikipedia, National Photo Company at The Library of Congress, Prints and Photograph Division, The National Archive, and Private Collections.
(1) Wikipedia, (2) “Virginia Health Bulletin: The New Virginia Law To Preserve Racial Integrity, March 1924,” Document Bank of Virginia, accessed December 31, 2024, https://edu.lva.virginia.gov/dbva/items/show/226.
(3) Jerry Mitchell, Mississippi Today
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Mount Rushmore National Memorial
Celabrated sled dog Balto with Gunnar Kaasen. Norwegian immigrant Gunnar Kaasen was the musher on the last dog team that successfully delivered diphtheria antitoxin to Nome, Alaska in 1925. Balto was the lead dog for the final leg of 53 miles.
Seppala with sled dogs from his kennel. From left to right - Togo, Karinsky, Jafet, Pete, unknown dog, Fritz
Jack Dempsey
Reza, Shah of Persia
The Shenandoah Air Ship
The Wreck of the Shenandoah
Golfer Walter Hagan
Clarence Darrow
KKK March in Washington, DC
Three Ku Klux Klan members standing beside automobile driven by Klan members at a Ku Klux Klan parade through counties in Northern Virginia bordering on the District of Columbia targeting Catholics, African Americans and Jews.
Pictures are from Wikipedia and the Library of Congress, Private Collections, Library of Virginia The National Archive.
Reproduction of this story and photographs, in part or in whole, requires the written permission of the author. Copyright © 2011 Annandale Chamber of Commerce. All rights reserved.
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