190 Fun Facts About 1920s

On what date did the United States officially go 'dry' under the Eighteenth Amendment?

The amendment was ratified a year earlier but built in a twelve-month grace period; only Connecticut and Rhode Island never ratified it.

What was the popular name of the 1919 law that defined 'intoxicating liquors' and set penalties for making them?

Congress passed it over Woodrow Wilson's veto, then never gave the government the money to enforce it.

By 1925, roughly how many speakeasies were estimated to be operating in New York City alone?

Prohibition ended in December 1933 with the Twenty-first Amendment, the only amendment ever passed to repeal another one.

Al Capone was finally sent to prison in 1931 for what crime?

He was sentenced to more than a decade and later shipped to the newly opened Alcatraz; the tax strategy against gangsters was reportedly the idea of Assistant Attorney General Mabel Walker Willebrandt.

How many men were killed in the Saint Valentine's Day Massacre of 1929?

Two of the gunmen were dressed as police officers; the intended target, 'Bugs' Moran, had not yet arrived at the garage.

Which state's narrow vote in August 1920 provided the 36th ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment?

The vote in the state House was 50 of 99 members; the amendment's adoption was formally certified on August 26, now Women's Equality Day.

Warren G. Harding's winning 1920 campaign slogan promised a 'return to' what?

He ran a 'front porch campaign' that brought 600,000 voters to his home in Marion, Ohio, where he had built the local newspaper into a success.

The Teapot Dome scandal involved bribes for leases on government oil reserves in which state?

Interior Secretary Albert Fall became the first presidential cabinet member ever sent to prison, though nobody was convicted of paying the bribes.

Who swore in Harding's successor by kerosene lamp in a Vermont farmhouse in 1923?

The family homestead had neither electricity nor a telephone; his father was a notary public and justice of the peace, and the new president went back to bed afterward.

Coolidge's dry, taciturn manner earned him what nickname?

He is also the only US president born on the Fourth of July, and he declined to run again in 1928 with the terse line 'I do not choose to run.'

In which small town, chosen deliberately to attract publicity, was the 1925 Scopes 'monkey trial' staged?

John Scopes had only been substituting for the regular biology teacher; the jury took nine minutes to convict and he was fined $100.

Which three-time presidential candidate argued for the prosecution at the Scopes trial?

Darrow famously called Bryan himself to the stand as an expert on the Bible; Bryan died a few days after the trial ended.

How long was Charles Lindbergh alone in the air on his May 1927 flight from New York to Paris?

He was chasing the $25,000 Orteig Prize; two French aviators, Nungesser and Coli, had vanished trying the same route in the other direction two weeks earlier.

Which magazine named Lindbergh its first-ever 'Man of the Year' for 1927?

Hoover put him on the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics in 1929 and Congress gave him a Gold Medal in 1930.

In 1928 Amelia Earhart became the first woman to cross the Atlantic by air - in what role?

Heiress Amy Phipps Guest financed the flight and hired pilot Wilmer Stultz; Earhart's own solo crossing came in 1932.

When Carnarvon asked 'Can you see anything?' at Tutankhamun's tomb in 1922, what did Howard Carter reply?

Carter's own diary that day recorded the less quotable 'Yes, it is wonderful'; the tomb was designated KV62.

Lord Carnarvon's death in April 1923 fed rumours of a pharaoh's curse. What actually killed him?

The media frenzy was dubbed 'Tutmania' and set off a craze for Egyptian motifs in Western design.

Which city's university first extracted insulin, then got the patent for one dollar?

Banting and Macleod won the 1923 Nobel Prize; Banting was so angry that Charles Best was left out that he split his prize money with him.

How old was Leonard Thompson, the diabetic given the first insulin injection in 1922?

The first dose was so impure it caused a severe allergic reaction; James Collip spent twelve days purifying it before a second, successful shot.

Which Scottish physician discovered penicillin in 1928?

He only coined the word 'penicillin' in March 1929 to avoid repeating 'mould broth filtrate'; the purified drug did not arrive until 1940.

The Jazz Singer, the 1927 film that ended the era of the silents, used which sound-on-disc system?

Al Jolson's ad-lib 'Wait a minute, wait a minute. You ain't heard nothin' yet!' was later voted one of the AFI's top 100 movie quotes.

How many home runs did Babe Ruth hit in 1927 to set a single-season record that stood for 34 years?

The record-setter came on September 30 off Tom Zachary; that Yankees lineup was nicknamed 'Murderers' Row'.

In which year did Ford stop building the Model T and introduce the Model A?

The Model T had run for 18 years; the new car was one of the first production cars with safety glass in the windshield.

October 29, 1929, when 16 million shares changed hands and $14 billion evaporated, is remembered as what?

Black Thursday came five days earlier with a then-record 12.9 million shares; the market kept sliding until July 1932, down about 90%.

Germany ended its 1923 hyperinflation with a new currency, the Rentenmark. What was the exchange rate?

Berlin's clubs were full of speculators spending their daily profits before the money lost value overnight; the Dawes Plan then restructured reparations.

The Great Gatsby was published in 1925. Roughly how many copies had it sold by that October?

Fitzgerald considered it a commercial flop and died in 1940 believing his work forgotten; the novel is set on Long Island in 1922.

In The Great Gatsby, Nick Carraway rents a bungalow in which fictional Long Island village, next to Gatsby?

Nick is a Yale alumnus and World War I veteran who has come to New York to sell bonds.

'The Charleston' craze came from a 1923 James P. Johnson tune in which Broadway show?

Johnson said he had seen the dance done in New York's San Juan Hill neighbourhood as early as 1913; its peak popularity came in 1926-27.

Which actress starred in 'The Flapper' (1920), the first American film about flapper life?

The word itself may come from northern English slang for a teenage girl whose plaited ponytail 'flapped' on her back.

Which 1925 anthology edited by Alain Locke is considered the cornerstone of the Harlem Renaissance?

It featured Zora Neale Hurston, Langston Hughes and Claude McKay alongside lesser-known poets such as Anne Spencer.

Louis Armstrong helped popularize scat singing with which 1926 Hot Five recording?

He was not the first to record scat, but that side made it famous; 'Muggles', another Hot Five title, was slang for marijuana.

Duke Ellington's orchestra became famous through its residency at which Harlem nightclub from 1927?

King Oliver had turned the booking down first; Ellington had to expand from six to eleven players just to audition.

Bessie Smith, the 'Empress of the Blues', began her recording career in 1923 with which label?

She had busked on Chattanooga street corners as a child after her parents died, and toured with Ma Rainey before going solo.

Steamboat Willie, Mickey Mouse's official debut, premiered on November 18, 1928 at which New York venue?

Disney was paid $500 a week for the two-week run; the cartoon entered the US public domain on January 1, 2024.

What name did Walt Disney originally intend for Mickey Mouse before his wife Lillian objected?

Mickey was created as a replacement for Oswald the Lucky Rabbit after producer Charles Mintz poached most of Disney's staff in 1928.

The real bear behind Winnie-the-Pooh's name was named by a Canadian soldier after which city?

Lieutenant Harry Colebourn left her at London Zoo, where young Christopher Robin Milne visited her; the first Pooh book followed in 1926.

The first Winter Olympics, held in 1924, took place in which French town?

It was billed at the time as an 'International Winter Sports Week' and only recognized as the first Winter Games retroactively, in 1925.

How old was Norway's Sonja Henie when she finished last at the 1924 Winter Games?

She won gold at each of the next three Winter Olympics; American speed skater Charles Jewtraw had been the first Winter Olympic champion.

The name 'Art Deco' derives from a 1925 international exhibition of decorative arts held in which city?

The style had actually appeared in the same city in the 1910s; the Chrysler and Empire State buildings became its most famous monuments.

Sacco and Vanzetti were convicted of a 1920 payroll robbery-murder in which Massachusetts town?

In 1977, on the 50th anniversary, Governor Michael Dukakis proclaimed they had been unfairly tried and convicted.

Which Pittsburgh radio station read the 1920 presidential election returns over the air?

Radio, cars, telephones and household electricity all reached the mass market during the decade; Coolidge's 1923 address to Congress was the first presidential speech broadcast.

In which year did the Irish Free State gain independence from the United Kingdom?

The same year Mussolini became prime minister of Italy and Egypt was declared nominally independent of Britain.

Which 1928 agreement renounced war as an instrument of national policy?

Germany's Gustav Stresemann played a mediating role between the US and France in the negotiations.

Who demonstrated the first working mechanical television system in 1925?

He followed it with the first demonstration of colour television in 1928; the same year Clarence Birdseye's frozen-food process was three years old.

Which 1925 epic was, by initial-release grosses, the highest-earning film of the decade?

The Big Parade, released the same year, eventually out-earned it through re-releases.

In which US city had King Oliver's Creole Jazz Band made Louis Armstrong's name in the early 1920s?

Armstrong arrived in 1922 to play second cornet at the Lincoln Gardens on the South Side and got his first apartment with a private bath.

How many Ford Model As had been built when production ended in March 1932?

Hot-rodders still call it the 'A-bone'; it was Ford's answer to General Motors catching up with more powerful engines and cosmetic options.

What did the French call the 1920s?

It translates as 'the crazy years'.

What was the Japanese term for the 1920s 'modern girl' equivalent of the flapper?

Argentina had the joven moderna and France the garçonne.

How many shares traded on 'Black Thursday', October 24, 1929, a record at the time?

Five days later Black Tuesday saw some 16.4 million shares change hands.

The 1921 Tulsa massacre destroyed the Greenwood District, known colloquially as what?

More than 35 square blocks were burned and up to 6,000 Black residents interned.

Which federal service did the Immigration Act of 1924 authorise for the first time?

The act capped immigration at 165,000 a year and barred Asians entirely.

The 1924 quota law set each nationality's share at 2 percent of its population in which census?

Using the older census sharply cut arrivals from Southern and Eastern Europe.

Which team's 1924 Olympic football gold was recognised by FIFA as a world championship?

The Paris Games were the last organised under Pierre de Coubertin's presidency.

Which city was the only rival bidder to Amsterdam for the 1928 Olympics?

It got the Games four years later.

Besides swimming golds, which team medal did Johnny Weissmuller win in Paris in 1924?

He later played Tarzan in twelve films.

How many official world records did 'Flying Finn' Paavo Nurmi set?

He was undefeated for 121 races at 800 metres and up.

How long did Gertrude Ederle take to become the first woman to swim the English Channel in 1926?

She beat the men's record by nearly two hours and was dubbed 'Queen of the Waves'.

At what age did amateur golf great Bobby Jones retire from competition after his 1930 Grand Slam?

He earned his living as a lawyer and later co-founded the Masters.

Jack Dempsey's 1921 fight with Georges Carpentier produced boxing's first what?

His 1927 rematch with Gene Tunney drew the first two-million-dollar gate.

Gene Tunney's 1927 title defence against Jack Dempsey is remembered by what name?

Tunney retired undefeated as heavyweight after beating Tom Heeney in 1928.

Which university did 'Galloping Ghost' Red Grange play for before joining the Chicago Bears?

He was the first unanimous All-American, in 1924.

Which rival organisation did Red Grange and agent C. C. Pyle found in 1926?

Grange played for the New York Yankees football team.

In 1920 'Big Bill' Tilden became the first American man to win which major?

He was world No. 1 amateur for six straight years.

How many singles titles did Suzanne Lenglen win at the All England Club?

Five came consecutively from 1919 to 1923.

Man o' War's only defeat came at Saratoga to a colt with what apt name?

He won 20 of 21 races and skipped the 1920 Kentucky Derby.

Josephine Baker's famous 1927 Folies Bergère costume consisted mainly of what?

She was the first Black woman to star in a major film, Siren of the Tropics.

Which fragrance chemist compounded Chanel No. 5, launched in 1921?

Chanel herself was the first face of the perfume, in Harper's Bazaar in 1937.

Which German director made Louise Brooks a star with Pandora's Box in 1929?

Brooks helped popularise the bob haircut.

How many fan letters did Clara Bow receive in a single month at her 1929 peak?

The 'It Girl' was the top box-office draw of 1928 and 1929.

Which 1921 Rudolph Valentino film popularised the Argentine tango with US audiences?

He began his career as a taxi dancer.

Which snowbound pioneers' story inspired the shoe-eating scene in Chaplin's The Gold Rush?

Chaplin said it was the film he most wanted to be remembered for.

Which studio produced Fritz Lang's Metropolis at Babelsberg?

Filming took 17 months and cost over five million Reichsmarks.

What is the final intertitle of Metropolis?

Its design drew on Bauhaus, Cubist and Futurist ideas.

Who sued over Nosferatu's unauthorised adaptation, leading a court to order all copies destroyed?

Several prints survived and the film became a horror landmark.

Which sequence in Battleship Potemkin became a much-recreated icon of montage editing?

The film dramatises the 1905 mutiny on a Black Sea battleship.

How long did the first Academy Awards ceremony last in May 1929?

Tickets cost $5 and the winners had been announced three months earlier.

Which hotel hosted the first Academy Awards dinner in 1929?

AMPAS president Douglas Fairbanks hosted the private dinner.

Emil Jannings won the first Best Actor Oscar for The Last Command and which other film?

Early rules let one actor be honoured for multiple films.

Wings, the first Best Picture winner, was shot at which Texas air base?

Director William Wellman was the only Hollywood director with WWI combat-pilot experience.

Which future star's small role in Wings helped launch his Hollywood career?

Clara Bow, Paramount's biggest star, was the film's headline draw.

In which city was the Bauhaus founded by Walter Gropius in 1919?

It moved to Dessau in 1925 and Berlin in 1932 before closing under Nazi pressure.

Whose Surrealist Manifesto of October 1924 claimed the term for his group?

Apollinaire had coined 'surrealism' in 1917.

Who published Ulysses in Paris on 2 February 1922, Joyce's fortieth birthday?

The novel follows three Dubliners over 16 June 1904, now celebrated as Bloomsday.

How many lines long is T. S. Eliot's 1922 poem The Waste Land?

It first appeared in Eliot's own magazine The Criterion.

Under what title was Hemingway's The Sun Also Rises published in London in 1927?

The roman à clef follows expatriates to the Festival of San Fermín.

In which German newspaper was All Quiet on the Western Front first serialised in 1928?

It sold 2.5 million copies in 22 languages within 18 months.

Under what concert title did Rhapsody in Blue premiere at Aeolian Hall in February 1924?

Paul Whiteman commissioned it and Ferde Grofé orchestrated it.

Which composer's opening clarinet glissando has been likened to Beethoven's Fifth in recognisability?

His 1924 rhapsody defined the Jazz Age.

Show Boat, produced by Ziegfeld in 1927, is set aboard a boat named what?

Its songs include 'Ol' Man River' and 'Make Believe'.

Which Iowa city was cornetist Bix Beiderbecke a native of?

His tone was likened to 'shooting bullets at a bell'.

Which pianist claimed to have invented jazz in 1902?

He was jazz's first arranger and wrote 'King Porter Stomp'.

Ma Rainey and her husband toured with which minstrel troupe before forming their own act?

She made over 100 recordings between 1923 and 1928.

Earle Dickson invented the Band-Aid in 1920 for whom?

Johnson & Johnson later gave free Band-Aids to the Boy Scouts to boost sales.

Which Missouri bakery first sold machine-sliced bread on July 7, 1928?

Otto Rohwedder of Davenport, Iowa built the slicer.

Kool-Aid was created in 1927 in which Nebraska town?

Edwin Perkins dried his liquid Fruit Smack into powder to cut shipping costs.

What inspired the balloons on the Wonder Bread logo, launched in 1921?

Executive Elmer Cline named the brand after his sense of 'wonder'.

Whose fish-freezing methods did Clarence Birdseye observe in Labrador before founding a frozen food company?

Goldman Sachs and Postum bought his company and patents for $22 million in 1929.

Philo Farnsworth, granted the first US television patent, was born in a log cabin in which state?

He held 300 patents, mostly in radio and television.

On what date was US Route 66 established?

It ran 2,448 miles from Illinois to Santa Monica.

The Holland Tunnel, opened in 1927, was the world's first tunnel to have what?

It is named for chief engineer Clifford Holland, who died in 1924 before it opened.

For how long was the Chrysler Building the world's tallest after completion in 1930?

It was the first supertall skyscraper and remains the tallest steel-framed brick building.

Charles Ponzi's scheme claimed to profit from arbitrage in what?

He promised 50 percent profit in 45 days; investors lost $20 million.

Which lawyer's eight-hour summation saved Leopold and Loeb from execution in 1924?

The two university students received life plus 99 years.

Ruth Snyder's 1928 execution at Sing Sing became notorious for what?

She had plotted her husband's murder with corset salesman Judd Gray.

Which organisation did Marcus Garvey found in Jamaica in 1914 before moving to Harlem?

He declared himself Provisional President of Africa.

Which king refused to declare a state of siege and instead appointed Mussolini prime minister in 1922?

Prime Minister Luigi Facta resigned under threat of the king's abdication.

In which Munich beer hall did Hitler launch his failed 1923 putsch?

Sixteen Nazis, four police and a bystander died at the Feldherrnhalle the next day.

How many locked-out coal miners did the 1926 British general strike aim to support?

Some 1.7 million workers walked out for nine days before the TUC gave up.

Which company built the original Wembley Stadium for the 1924 British Empire Exhibition?

King George V cut the first turf and the stadium cost £750,000.

How many people were estimated to have crammed into Wembley for the 1923 'White Horse' FA Cup final?

Official capacity was about 125,000; Bolton beat West Ham 2-0.

Whose career ended with the 1928 St. Francis Dam collapse in California?

At least 431 people died in one of America's worst engineering disasters.

Which $25,000 award did Charles Lindbergh win with the Spirit of St. Louis?

The Ryan NYP was built in San Diego and named for his St. Louis backers.

From which New York airfield did Lindbergh take off in May 1927?

He landed at Le Bourget after roughly 3,600 miles.

Where did Bessie Coleman have to go to earn her 1921 pilot's licence?

No US flight school would train an African-American woman.

Which airship designed by Umberto Nobile flew across the polar ice cap from Europe to America in 1926?

His later airship Italia crashed in 1928, prompting an international rescue.

Which Manhattan hotel gave the Round Table of wits its name?

The 'Vicious Circle' met for lunch daily from 1919 to about 1929.

Whose refusal to plug Eugene O'Neill triggered the practical-joke lunch that began the Round Table?

Press agent John Peter Toohey organised the 1919 lunch.

Which Miss America precursor was held on the Atlantic City Boardwalk in September 1920?

Rolling wicker chairs paraded along the route to draw business.

On 18 February 1923, the first recorded dance marathon lasted seven hours in which English town?

Alma Cummings soon danced 27 hours in New York with six partners.

How long did Alvin 'Shipwreck' Kelly sit atop an Atlantic City flagpole in 1929?

Bill Penfield beat it in 1930 with 51 days before a thunderstorm forced him down.

Which 1928 George Olsen recording celebrated the collegiate fur-coat fad?

Open-topped cars with poor heaters helped drive the fur fashion.

Which milliner invented the cloche hat in 1908, before its 1920s heyday?

The name comes from the French word for bell.

Which Polish hairdresser, 'Antoine de Paris', introduced the shingle cut in the 1920s?

He said his original bob was inspired by Joan of Arc.

Besides escapology, Harry Houdini was the first person to do what Down Under?

He died on Halloween 1926 and crusaded against fake spiritualists.

Which Belgian priest-astronomer proposed the expanding universe two years before Hubble's 1929 confirmation?

Hubble showed 'nebulae' were galaxies far beyond the Milky Way.

When did Robert Goddard launch the world's first liquid-fuelled rocket?

He launched 34 rockets by 1941, reaching 2.6 km altitude.

Which German physicist introduced the uncertainty principle in 1927?

Earle Kennard and Hermann Weyl formalised the inequality soon after.

Under what name were Q-tips first sold after Leo Gerstenzang invented them in 1923?

The Q was later added to stand for 'quality'.

Reader's Digest was launched in 1922 from a basement beneath what kind of establishment?

DeWitt and Lila Wallace founded it after marrying in Pleasantville, New York.

What did Briton Hadden and Henry Luce first plan to call their 1923 news weekly?

The final name came with the slogan 'It's Brief'.

Who founded The New Yorker in February 1925 with his wife Jane Grant?

He edited it until his death in 1951.

Which detective made his debut in Agatha Christie's 1920 novel The Mysterious Affair at Styles?

Christie had six straight rejections before it was published.

Which Christie novel, first serialised under another title, was voted best crime novel ever in 2013?

Its twist ending is one of the genre's most controversial.

What was the title of Langston Hughes's first poetry collection, published in 1926?

He was an early innovator of jazz poetry.

Which Florida town, her childhood home, did Zora Neale Hurston use as a setting for many stories?

She studied anthropology at Barnard and Columbia.

Which bandleader was hailed by the press as the 'King of Jazz' in the 1920s?

He commissioned and premiered Rhapsody in Blue.

Which Ziegfeld Follies star famously performed the Black Bottom in George White's 1926 revue?

Jelly Roll Morton wrote 'Black Bottom Stomp' for the dance.

In which year was the Lindy Hop born in Harlem?

It fused jazz, tap, breakaway and Charleston.

On which Harlem thoroughfare did the Savoy Ballroom open in 1926?

It was billed the 'World's Finest Ballroom' and ran until 1958.

Alice Paul co-wrote which proposed constitutional measure with Crystal Eastman after 1920?

She led the National Woman's Party for half a century.

Nellie Tayloe Ross became the first female US governor in January 1925 in which state?

Texas's 'Ma' Ferguson followed days later; Ross later ran the US Mint.

How did Texas governor Miriam Ferguson get her nickname 'Ma'?

Her husband 'Pa' Ferguson had been impeached as governor.

Al Smith, the 1928 Democratic nominee, was the first major-party candidate of which faith?

Anti-Catholic sentiment cost him dearly in the Solid South.

Which vice president elected in 1928 was the first Native American to hold the office?

An enrolled Kaw citizen, he had been Senate Majority Leader.

Which banker served as Treasury Secretary through the boom years from 1921 to 1932?

He owned or financed Alcoa, Gulf Oil and Westinghouse.

A Duesenberg became the first American car to win a Grand Prix, at which country's 1921 race?

Duesenbergs took eight of the top ten places at the 1922 Indianapolis 500.

In which year was the 24 Hours of Le Mans first run?

It is won by the car covering the greatest distance in 24 hours.

How did Bugatti's founder famously describe the Bentleys that won Le Mans four years running from 1927?

Diamond heir Woolf Barnato bought the struggling company in 1925.

Malcolm Campbell named his record cars Blue Bird after a play by which author?

His son Donald carried on the land and water speed record tradition.

Which Briton was the first to travel over 200 mph in a land vehicle?

He died in 1930 on Windermere just after setting a water speed record.

What was the regular-season record of the 1927 'Murderers' Row' New York Yankees?

They swept Pittsburgh in the World Series.

Which university did Lou Gehrig attend before signing with the Yankees in April 1923?

His 2,130 consecutive games stood as a record for 56 years.

Rube Foster founded which body in 1920, the first lasting Black professional baseball circuit?

He is called the 'father of Black Baseball'.

Under what name was the NFL founded in 1920?

It took the NFL name for the 1922 season.

Which sportswriter coined the biblical nickname for Notre Dame's 1924 backfield?

His lead began 'Outlined against a blue-gray October sky...'.

Where was the first official Ryder Cup played in 1927?

The home team won the first five contests.

Helen Wills's February 1926 clash with Suzanne Lenglen was billed as what?

Wills later won 180 matches in a row and eight Wimbledons.

Which Swiss resort hosted the 1928 Winter Olympics, the first held apart from a Summer Games?

The opening ceremony took place in a blizzard.

Charles Kingsford Smith's 1928 first transpacific flight went from California to Brisbane via which stops?

Co-pilot Charles Ulm joined him on the three-leg journey.

Bert Hinkler completed the first solo flight from England to which country in February 1928?

He was dubbed the 'Australian Lone Eagle'.

What did the Hollywood Sign originally spell out when erected in 1923?

It advertised a real estate development; 'LAND' was removed in 1949.

For which studio did Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks create Oswald the Lucky Rabbit in 1927?

After Universal took Oswald in 1928, Disney created Mickey Mouse.

Buster Keaton's The General was inspired by which real Civil War episode?

Its $750,000 budget and weak returns cost Keaton his independence.

Harold Lloyd performed Safety Last!'s clock-dangling stunt despite having lost what?

The 1919 film accident did not stop his climbing scenes.

Which 1924 Swedish film brought Greta Garbo to Louis B. Mayer's attention?

Flesh and the Devil made her an international star in 1926.

Mary Pickford co-founded United Artists in 1919 with Chaplin, Griffith and whom?

She became Hollywood's first millionaire by 1916.

Lon Chaney's makeup artistry earned him what nickname?

Both his parents were deaf, and he grew up fluent in sign language.

Abel Gance's 1927 Napoléon is the only film to use which triple-screen process for its finale?

Its mid-1950s revival influenced the French New Wave.

Which stage actress played Joan in her only major film role in Dreyer's 1928 Passion of Joan of Arc?

Dreyer banned makeup and shot on one huge concrete set.

Luis Buñuel co-wrote the 1929 surrealist short Un Chien Andalou with which painter?

Its opening shows a razor slicing an eye.

Which Art Deco painter became known as 'The Baroness with a Brush' after marrying Baron Kuffner?

Born in Warsaw, she blended refined cubism with neoclassicism.

Which Evelyn Waugh novel satirised London's Bright Young Things?

Cecil Beaton began his photography career documenting the set.

P. G. Wodehouse's Jeeves is technically what kind of servant?

Bertie Wooster admits he 'can buttle with the best of them'.

Little Orphan Annie's comic strip debuted in 1924 in which newspaper?

Its name came from James Whitcomb Riley's 1885 poem.

Which sci-fi hero's strip, created by Philip Nowlan, first appeared in newspapers on January 7, 1929?

Flash Gordon followed as its most famous imitator in 1934.

Popeye debuted in January 1929 in which long-running King Features strip?

The strip was already in its tenth year when the sailor arrived.

Which Austrian author's 1923 novel about a roe deer later became a Disney film?

Whittaker Chambers translated Bambi into English in 1928.

Which Sicilian-born mobster established the Mafia's Commission in 1931 after the Castellammarese War?

He was later convicted by prosecutor Thomas Dewey.

In which event did American Charles Jewtraw win the first gold medal of the 1924 Winter Games?

Jewtraw's win on day two made him the first Winter Olympic champion ever; the 1924 games were only retroactively declared the first Winter Olympics in 1926.

The deadliest tornado in US history tore through Missouri, Illinois and Indiana in which year?

The Tri-State tornado of March 18, 1925 killed 695 people and injured more than 2,000, and is the second-deadliest tornado ever recorded worldwide.

Which Illinois town lost 234 residents to the 1925 Tri-State tornado, the most of any community?

The storm hit the town at an estimated forward speed of 62 mph; in nearby Gorham, more than half the population was killed.

In which Tennessee city was blues singer Bessie Smith born?

Orphaned young, Smith busked on street corners with her brother Andrew before joining a touring troupe in 1912 - hired first as a dancer rather than a singer.

Which Bessie Smith song in 1923 was the first release in her label's new 'race records' series?

Her debut disc, 'Downhearted Blues' backed with 'Gulf Coast Blues', had already been a hit on both sides earlier that year.

What tomb number is given to Tutankhamun's tomb in the Valley of the Kings?

The tomb has just four chambers and is thought to have been a non-royal tomb, possibly meant for the advisor Ay, enlarged after the young pharaoh died prematurely.

On what date in 1922 did Howard Carter's team uncover the first step of Tutankhamun's tomb?

It took until 26 November to reach the antechamber, which exceeded all expectations; Carter and Carnarvon had been clearing the valley down to bedrock hoping for exactly this.

Against which team did the Yankees play their first game at the original Yankee Stadium in 1923?

The park opened on April 18, 1923, less than a year after construction began on a former lumberyard bought from William Waldorf Astor for $600,000.

Whom did Johnny Weissmuller beat for 100 m freestyle gold at the 1924 Paris Olympics?

Kahanamoku, the Hawaiian surfing legend, had won the event in 1912 and 1920; Weissmuller went on to play Tarzan in twelve films.

On which date in 1923 was the Republic of Turkey proclaimed, now celebrated as Republic Day?

The Treaty of Lausanne three months earlier had recognised the Grand National Assembly as Turkey's government; Mustafa Kemal became the republic's first president.

The prosperous second half of the 1920s was known by what name in Germany?

The boom ended abruptly with the Wall Street crash of 1929, which ushered in the Great Depression worldwide.