70 Fun Facts About Americana

Route 66 originally ran from Chicago to which West Coast city?

The road passed through eight states over 2,448 miles before it was decommissioned in the mid-1980s.

Which novel popularised Route 66's nickname 'the Mother Road'?

The Dust Bowl migrants of Steinbeck's book followed the highway west to California.

Which Pixar film's plot centres on a small town bypassed by the interstate that replaced Route 66?

Radiator Springs was modelled on real fading Route 66 towns.

In what year was Route 66 officially removed from the US Highway System?

Preserved stretches now carry the name Historic Route 66 as a National Scenic Byway.

The 1960s TV series Route 66 followed two young men travelling the country in which car?

Martin Milner beat several actors, including Robert Redford, for the role of Tod.

The word 'motel' was coined for a 1925 lodging in which California town?

Owner Arthur Heineman shortened 'motor hotel' because the full name would not fit on the roof.

The Holiday Inn motel chain took its name from what?

Founder Kemmons Wilson opened the first one on the road from Memphis to Nashville in 1952.

The first drive-in theater opened in 1933 in which state?

Richard Hollingshead patented the idea in Camden; his first screen had speakers on the tower, so people at the back heard a delay.

Where were the earliest coin-operated phonographs, the ancestors of the jukebox, first installed in 1889?

Patrons listened through tubes; the machine was a retrofitted Edison phonograph.

The word 'jukebox' derives from a Gullah word meaning what?

Manufacturers avoided the term for years because of its association with disreputable juke joints.

The 1946 Wurlitzer Model 1015 jukebox is better known by what nickname?

It offered a grand total of 24 selections.

The first crude 'diner' of 1872 was a horse-drawn wagon serving newspaper workers in which city?

Walter Scott sold food through windows on both sides of the wagon to Providence Journal employees.

Which state's golden age of prefabricated diner manufacturing made it 'the diner capital of the world'?

The O'Mahony company of Elizabeth alone turned out 2,000 diners between 1917 and 1952.

Coca-Cola was first sold in 1886 at a pharmacy in which city?

It went for five cents a glass at Jacob's Pharmacy, and the nickel price held until 1959.

John Pemberton created his famous 1886 soft drink as a non-alcoholic version of what earlier product?

Local prohibition laws forced the switch away from wine.

Coca-Cola launched the design competition that produced its famous contour bottle in what year?

The brief was a bottle you could recognise by feel in the dark, or identify from a single broken shard.

Levi Strauss's partner in the 1873 riveted-jeans patent, Jacob Davis, was a tailor in which city?

Davis could not afford the patent fee, so he wrote to his fabric supplier proposing a partnership.

What did Levi's copper rivets originally reinforce?

A customer kept buying cloth to patch torn trousers, which gave Davis the idea.

What lot number was assigned in 1890 to Levi's famous copper-riveted waist overalls?

The rivet patent entered the public domain that same year.

What was the Ford Model T's popular nickname?

More than 15 million were sold, a record that stood until a German rival passed it in 1972.

By 1914, assembly lines had cut Model T build time from twelve and a half hours to how long?

Cars came off the line at three-minute intervals.

Which car surpassed the Model T's sales record in 1972?

The Model T's price had fallen from $780 in 1910 to $290 in 1924 thanks to mass production.

The Ford Mustang was introduced in April 1964 at which event?

Over 400,000 were sold in the first year, and it gave its name to the whole 'pony car' class.

Grant Wood's American Gothic depicts a farmer and his daughter in front of a house in which state?

The models were Wood's sister Nan and the family dentist, Byron McKeeby.

Who modelled for the man in American Gothic?

The woman was Wood's sister, dressed in a colonial-print apron.

Norman Rockwell painted covers for which magazine for nearly five decades?

His later, more serious work on civil rights, such as The Problem We All Live With, ran in Look instead.

Rockwell's The Problem We All Live With shows which six-year-old walking to school past federal marshals?

It was painted for Look magazine as part of a series on racism.

The 'We Can Do It!' poster later associated with Rosie the Riveter was originally made for which company?

It was shown only to Westinghouse workers for two weeks in 1943, then vanished for nearly forty years.

Uncle Sam's famous 'I Want You' recruiting poster of 1917 was drawn by whom?

According to legend the character is named for Samuel Wilson, a meat packer from the War of 1812.

Before Uncle Sam, which male figure personified the American populace?

The female Columbia represented the nation itself, until she became the mascot of Columbia Pictures.

'Yankee Doodle' is the official state song of which state?

The Voice of America uses its tune as an interval signal.

Who was 'Yankee Doodle' originally written to mock?

A British Army surgeon wrote it around 1755 after seeing the dishevelled colonial soldiers.

What is the national bird of the United States?

It came off the endangered species list entirely in 2007.

The Statue of Liberty was designed by which French sculptor?

Gustave Eiffel engineered the internal framework a few years before his tower.

What lies under the Statue of Liberty's left foot?

It is half-hidden by her robes and hard to see from the ground.

What happened the very first time the newly delivered Liberty Bell was struck in 1752?

Local founders Pass and Stow recast it twice, and their names are on the bell.

Which group gave the Liberty Bell its name?

It had been the State House bell; the 'Liberty' name only dates from the 1830s.

Whose idea was it to carve Mount Rushmore, originally with heroes of the Old West rather than presidents?

The state historian wanted Lewis and Clark, Red Cloud and Buffalo Bill; sculptor Borglum insisted on a national theme.

How tall are the presidents' heads on Mount Rushmore?

Each was meant to be shown to the waist, but funding ran out in 1941 and only Washington has any detail below the chin.

Mount Rushmore was named after a New York attorney who came to the Black Hills to do what?

His guide told him the mountain had no name and it would henceforth carry his.

Wall Drug in South Dakota first drew crowds by advertising what to travellers?

The idea came from Dorothy Hustead as tourists drove past to the newly opened Mount Rushmore.

The World's Only Corn Palace is in which South Dakota town?

At least 34 corn palaces were built across the Midwest between 1887 and 1930; only this one survives.

Cadillac Ranch, the row of cars buried nose-first, stands outside which Texas city?

The Ant Farm art collective planted the cars spanning 1949 to 1963 to chart the rise and fall of the tailfin.

How many Cadillacs are buried at Cadillac Ranch?

Millionaire patron Stanley Marsh 3 funded it and advertised for used Cadillacs under the alias 'Leo Wyoming'.

Burma-Shave's rhyming roadside signs never appeared in Nevada and which other state?

Nevada was judged to have too little traffic; Massachusetts had high land rents and too much roadside foliage.

Burma-Shave's advertising signs came down in 1963 when the brand was sold to which company?

At its peak it was the second-best-selling brushless shaving cream in the country.

Which agency introduced Smokey Bear in 1944?

The living Smokey, a cub rescued from a New Mexico wildfire in 1950, got so much mail he was given his own ZIP code.

In 2001 Smokey Bear's long-running slogan was changed by swapping 'Forest Fires' for what?

The original 1944 campaign line said care would prevent nine out of ten forest fires.

Paul Bunyan's companion Babe the Blue Ox got the name Babe from what source?

The same pamphlet, by William Laughead, was the first to make Bunyan taller than the trees.

Johnny Appleseed, real name John Chapman, was born in 1774 in which state?

He introduced seed-grown, rather than grafted, apple trees across Ohio, Indiana and Illinois.

Cracker Jack was first shown to the public at what 1893 event?

The slogan 'The More You Eat, The More You Want' was registered three years later.

The Slinky was first demonstrated to shoppers in 1945 at a Gimbels department store in which city?

Betty James later moved the company to Hollidaysburg, Pennsylvania, and ran it until 1998.

Radio Flyer, maker of the little red wagon, was founded in 1917 by an immigrant from which country?

Antonio Pasin built wooden wagons to carry his tools and customers kept asking to buy them.

Zippo lighters have been made since 1932 in which Pennsylvania town?

Founder George Blaisdell chose the name because he liked the sound of the word 'zipper'.

Airstream trailers are made in Jackson Center in which state?

The 1936 Clipper was the first of the familiar sausage-shaped silver trailers.

The Marlboro Man campaign of 1954 was created to sell what kind of cigarette to men?

Filters were seen as feminine at the time, and men said they would switch only if it did not look that way.

Nathan's Famous hot dog eating contest is held every July 4 in which neighbourhood?

Takeru Kobayashi doubled the record to 50 hot dogs on his 2001 debut.

A 2005 survey found which condiment to be Americans' favourite on a hot dog?

Midwesterners showed the greatest affinity for ketchup and Southerners for chili.

Which US barbecue region is credited with brisket, thanks to 1800s Jewish immigrants?

The Carolinas define barbecue strictly as pork, usually with a vinegar sauce.

Which president fixed Thanksgiving on the fourth Thursday of November?

Lincoln started annual proclamations in 1863; FDR's 1939 shift off the last Thursday caused a two-year row before Congress settled it in 1941.

Which magazine editor lobbied for decades for a national Thanksgiving before Lincoln proclaimed one?

She edited Godey's Lady's Book, the most widely read periodical of pre-Civil War America.

Which food company promoted a mock apple pie recipe using its crackers from the 1930s onward?

Cracker-based mock apple pie was known to the Royal Navy as early as 1812.

Which Disney park area was inspired by Walt Disney's hometown of Marceline, Missouri?

It captures the idealised turn-of-the-century small town that defines nostalgic Americana.

The first recorded baseball game under the Knickerbocker rules took place in 1846 in which city?

The New York Nine beat the Knickerbockers 23–1 in four innings.

Harley-Davidson, founded in 1903, is headquartered in which city?

It is one of only two major American motorcycle makers to survive the Great Depression, alongside its old rival Indian.

Barbie, introduced by Mattel in 1959, was based on which German doll?

Ruth Handler bought the doll on a European trip after watching her daughter Barbara give paper dolls adult roles.

The Twinkie was invented in 1930 with what original filling?

Baker James Dewar dreamed it up to keep idle shortcake machines busy when strawberries were out of season, and named it after a 'Twinkle Toe Shoes' billboard.

Graceland, Elvis Presley's mansion, is the second most visited home in the US after which building?

It draws around 600,000 visitors a year and in 2006 became the first rock-music site declared a National Historic Landmark.

The Frisbee took its name from a Connecticut company that made what?

Wham-O adopted the name in 1957 after learning college students already called Walter Morrison's Pluto Platter a 'Frisbie'.

Monopoly descends from The Landlord's Game, created in 1903 by which anti-monopolist?

Her game was meant to teach Henry George's single-tax theory, and its street names later drew on Atlantic City, New Jersey.