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- The average life expectancy was forty-seven.
- Only 14 percent of the homes had a bathtub.
- Only 8 percent of the homes had a telephone.
- A three-minute call from Denver to New York City cost $11.
- There were only 8,000 cars and only 144 miles of paved roads.
- The maximum speed limit in most cities was 10 mph.
- Alabama, Mississippi, Iowa, and Tennessee were each more heavily populated than California. With a mere 1.4 million residents, California was only the twenty-first most populous state in the Union.
- The tallest structure in the world was the Eiffel Tower.
- The average wage was 22 cents an hour.
- The average worker made between $200 and $400 per year. A competent accountant could expect to earn $2000 per year, a dentist $2500 per year, a veterinarian between $1500 and $4000 per year, and a mechanical engineer about $5000 per year.
- More than 95 percent of all births took place at home.
- Most women only washed their hair once a month and used borax or egg yolks for shampoo.
- The population of Las Vegas, Nevada was thirty. The remote desert community was inhabited by only a handful of ranchers and their families.
- Scotch tape, crossword puzzles, canned beer, and iced tea hadn't been invented.
- There was no Mother's Day or Father's Day.
- Only 6 percent of all Americans had graduated from high school.
- There were about 230 reported murders in the U.S. annually.
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