1922: A Fieldguide
Part One : A Wild Year Hits the Century Mark
They danced, drank, and raised hell a hundred years ago, assured the worst was over.
The Beautiful and the Damned, as F. Scott Fitzgerald referred to his peers, relished their status as members in good standing of the Lost Generation. They’d seen too much war, too much flu, and not nearly enough partying. The denizens of 1922 (similar to 2022) were mysterious and hilarious, making it up as they went along. Fashions and ideas appeared and receded as quickly as Rudolph Valentino could outrun his flapper fans.
Obviously, the world has flipped forward during a timeframe that runs adjacent to the lifespan of Betty White. Those who were around in 1922 bought into the belief that a supreme good might come out of a war to end all wars. Survivors of the pandemic counted their blessings and promised themselves to take public health seriously. Against a backdrop of optimism, this relatively new decade would eventually earn the sobriquet of “Roaring Twenties.”
There was no hint that the wealth of nations was soon to be upended and that another, even more terrible world war was inevitable.
Here are a few things that were top of mind a mere one hundred years ago.
1922 STRAIGHT WIKI-POOP
1922 (MCMXXII) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar and a common year starting on Saturday of the Julian calendar, the 1922nd year of the Common Era (CE) and Anno Domini (AD) designations, the 922nd year of the 2nd millennium, the 22nd year of the 20th century, and the 3rd year of the 1920s decade. As of the start of 1922, the Gregorian calendar was 13 days ahead of the Julian calendar, which remained in localized use until 1923.
MONEY MATTERS
$1,000 in 1922 is equivalent in purchasing power to about $16,544.52 today, an increase of $15,544.52 over 100 years. The dollar had an average inflation rate of 2.85% per year between 1922 and today, producing a cumulative price increase of 1,554.45%.
This means that today's prices are 16.54 times higher than average prices since 1922, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics consumer price index. A dollar today only buys 6.04% of what it could buy back then.
HEADLINES & DEADLINES
EGYPT WINS INDEPENDENCE FROM BRITISH RULE
GANDHI IMPRISONED FOR CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE
FASCIST MUSSOLINI MARCHES ON ROME
OTTOMAN EMPIRE ABOLISHED-LAST SULTAN MEHMED VI ABDICATES
GREECE DEFEATED IN WAR WITH TURKEY
STALIN BECOMES RUSSIAN COMMUNIST PARTY SECRETARY GENERAL
PHARAOH TUTANKHAMUN’S TOMB DISCOVERED IN LUXOR
BANTING AND BEST DEVELOP INSULIN TREATMENT FOR DIABETES
POPE BENEDICT XV DIES—NEW POPE PIUS XI
ROSE BOWL OPENS IN PASADENA
LUPENI MINE DISASTER CLAIMS 82 TRANSYLVANIAN MINERS
BRITISH BROADCASTING COMPANY BBC ESTABLISHED
ROUGH TIMELINE
January 24 – Eskimo Pie ice cream bar patented by Christian K. Nelson.
February – The Ring boxing magazine publishes its first issue.
February 1 – Irish American film director William Desmond Taylor is found murdered at his home in Los Angeles. The case remains unsolved.
February 5 – DeWitt and Lila Wallace publish the first issue of Reader's Digest.
Feb 21 – Explosion of the lighter-than-air-ship Roma at Hampton Roads Army Airbase, Va., kills 34 of the 45-man crew.
February 27– Leser v. Garnett: A challenge to the Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, allowing women the right to vote, is rebuffed by the Supreme Court of the United States.
March – Nosferatu, an unauthorized re-telling of Bram Stoker’s original tale of the vampire “Dracula,” premiered in Berlin starring Max Schreck. Stoker’s widow sued the film’s producers and won. She wanted all copies of the film to be destroyed but luckily for film history, that failed to happen. It was the film of the year and has frightened audiences for 100 years.
April 7 – The United States Secretary of the Interior leases Teapot Dome oil reserves in Wyoming, a move that will ignite the political scandal of the decade..
April 13 – Massachusetts allows women to run for all public offices.
May 5 – Construction begins on Yankee Stadium in the Bronx.
May 11 – Radio station KGU begins broadcasting in Hawaii.
May 12 – A 20-ton meteorite lands near Blackstone, Virginia.
May 30 – The Lincoln Memorial is dedicated in Washington D.C. in a ceremony officiated by former U.S. President and Chief Justice of the Supreme Court William Howard Taft. Among the dignitaries is Robert Todd Lincoln, son of the 16th president. The memorial was designed by Henry Bacon to resemble a Grecian-style temple complete with columns and a 19-foot-tall marble statue of Lincoln sculpted by Daniel Chester French.
June 11 – Premiere of the first feature length documentary Nanook of the North.
June 14 – U.S. President Warren G. Harding makes the first presidential radio speech..
July 11 – The Hollywood Bowl open-air music venue opens.
Oct 3 – Rebecca Latimer Felton of Georgia becomes the first female United States Senator, when the governor of Georgia gives her a one-day appointment following the death of Senator Thomas Watson.
OCT 4-5 The Great Fire of 1922 burnt the Lesser Clay Belt in the Timiskaming District, Ontario, Canada. One of the ten worst natural disasters in Canadian history, it consumed an area of 650 square miles affecting 18 townships in Ontario.
Dec 30 - Russian revolutionary Vladimir Lenin proclaims the establishment of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.
Nobel Prize Winners
Physics – Niels Henrik David Bohr
Chemistry – Francis William Aston
Physiology or Medicine – Archibald Vivian Hill, Otto Fritz Meyerhof
Literature – Jacinto Benavente
Peace – Fridtjof Nansen
BIRTHS
Betty White, Judy Garland, Stan Lee, Christopher Lee, Bea Arthur, Ava Gardner, Doris Day, Kurt Vonnegut Jr., Telly Savalas, Dilip Kumar, Charlie Sifford, Yvonne De Carlo, Carl Reiner, Jack Kerouac , Red Foxx, Robert Vaughan, Jake LaMotta, Jason Robards, Charles M. Schultz, Eugene Stoner, Dorothy Dandridge, Blake Edwards, Ruby Dee, Charles Mingus
DEATHS
Alexander Graham Bell, Nellie Bly, Marcel Proust, Ernest Shackleton, William Desmond Taylor, Lillian Russell, Bert Williams, Cap Anson, Cardiff Giant, Michael Collins, Eugene Ormonde, Harry Vokes, Sarah Winchester
Vogue compares 1922 with 2022 fashions HERE.
1922 NFL CHAMPIONSHIP
Canton Bulldogs wins the APFA (NFL) title with a record of 10 wins, 0 losses and 2 ties.
1922 NCAA NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP
Cornell Big Red with an 8-0 season.
BASEBALL WORLD SERIES
MLB
In 19th World Series (until 1921 it was called the “World’s Series”) the New York Giants (NL) defeated the New York Yankees (AL) with four wins and one tie. The second game ended in a 3-3 tie when it was called on account of darkness. It was the third and last tie in World Series history, the other two occurring in 1907 and 1912. Also, all games were played at the Polo Grounds, which housed both teams. History was also made when Grantland Rice called the first World Series game ever broadcast on radio over WJZ Newark. It was also heard over WGY Schenectady, NY and WBZ in Springfield, MA.
BASEBALL NNL CHAMPIONSHIP
In the other major league, the Chicago American Giants led by owner and manager Rube Foster, win their third consecutive Negro National League pennant. Foster had led the movement to establish the NNL in 1920. Up until the Negro World Series began in 1924, champions were determined by the team with the best record.
On May 29 the U.S. Supreme Court ruled organized baseball was a sport and not a business and thus not subject to antitrust laws.
In 1922 Babe Ruth was the most famous man in America.
U.S.OPEN GOLF CHAMPIONSHIP
Gene Sarazen
BRITISH OPEN GOLF
Walter Hagen
WIMBLEDON TENNIS
June 29 Elizabeth Ryan
July 2 Bill Tilden
TENNIS U.S. NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP
Bill Tilden and Molla Mallory
BOXING Jack Dempsey knocked George Carpentier out in the fourth round, defending his heavyweight title in boxing’s first million dollar gate.
TRIPLE CROWN. Kentucky Derby – Morvich * Preakness Stakes – Pillory * Belmont – Pillory
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