70 Fun Facts About Americana

Route 66 ran from Chicago to which West Coast city?

Santa Monica: the highway reached the Pacific at Santa Monica after a 1936 extension from downtown Los Angeles, having crossed eight states over about 2,448 miles.

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

The Grapes of Wrath (1939): Steinbeck called Route 66 'the mother road, the road of flight' as the Joads and other Dust Bowl migrants followed it west to California.

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

Cars (2006): Radiator Springs, the town Lightning McQueen is stranded in, was modelled on real Route 66 towns left fading after Interstate 40 bypassed them.

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

1985: the last stretch, at Williams, Arizona, had been bypassed by Interstate 40 the year before, and AASHTO decertified US 66 on 27 June 1985.

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

A Chevrolet Corvette convertible, a new model each season thanks to Chevrolet's sponsorship, carried Tod Stiles and Buz Murdock across the country from 1960 to 1964.

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

San Luis Obispo: architect Arthur Heineman's Milestone Mo-Tel opened there in December 1925, blending 'motor' and 'hotel' into a new word.

The Holiday Inn motel chain took its name from what?

A 1942 musical film: draftsman Eddie Bluestein wrote 'Holiday Inn', the Bing Crosby movie he had just seen, on the plans; Kemmons Wilson opened the first in Memphis 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?

A San Francisco saloon: Louis Glass installed a coin-operated Edison phonograph at the Palais Royale on 23 November 1889; patrons listened through listening tubes.

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

Bawdy: Gullah 'juke' or 'joog' meant disorderly and wicked, hence the rowdy juke joints where the machines played; makers shunned the word for years because of that reputation.

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

The Bubbler, named for the bubble tubes in its illuminated arches; Paul Fuller's design sold more than 56,000 units and offered 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 painter's canvas Nighthawks shows late-night customers at a diner counter?

Edward Hopper's Nighthawks shows three customers and a counterman in an all-night diner seen through a wide plate-glass window, with no visible door to the street.

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

Atlanta: it went on sale at Jacobs' Pharmacy on 8 May 1886 for five cents a glass, a nickel price that lasted 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?

1915: Coca-Cola asked glassmakers for a bottle recognisable by touch in the dark or from a broken shard; the Root Glass Company of Terre Haute won with the contour design, patented that November.

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

Reno, Nevada: Jacob Davis ran a tailoring shop there and in 1872 wrote to his cloth supplier, Levi Strauss, unable to afford the patent fee alone.

What did Levi's copper rivets originally reinforce?

Pocket corners: Davis hammered copper rivets into the corners of the pockets and the base of the fly, the points where miners' trousers tore.

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

501: Levi Strauss & Co. gave its riveted waist overalls the lot number 501 in 1890, the year the rivet patent expired and competitors could copy it.

What was the Ford Model T's popular nickname?

Tin Lizzie: the Model T's nickname, 'Lizzie' being a common name for a horse or a maid; about 15 million were built between 1908 and 1927.

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

93 minutes: by 1914 the moving line at Highland Park had cut chassis assembly from more than twelve hours to 93 minutes, with cars rolling off every three minutes.

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

The Volkswagen Beetle passed the Model T's total on 17 February 1972, when the 15,007,034th car left the Wolfsburg line.

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

The New York World's Fair: Ford unveiled the Mustang there on 17 April 1964, selling more than 400,000 in the first year and naming the 'pony car' class.

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

Iowa: the pointed-arch window belongs to a small white house in Eldon, Iowa, which Wood sketched in 1930 and painted back in Cedar Rapids.

Who modelled for the man in American Gothic?

The Wood family dentist: Byron McKeeby of Cedar Rapids posed for the farmer, while Wood's sister Nan, in a colonial-print apron, was the woman.

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

The Saturday Evening Post ran more than 300 Rockwell covers across 47 years, the last in 1963; his later civil-rights paintings appeared in Look instead.

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

Ruby Bridges, escorted by US marshals into William Frantz Elementary in New Orleans in November 1960; Rockwell painted it for Look in 1964.

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?

James Montgomery Flagg drew it, using his own face for Uncle Sam; it had first appeared as a Leslie's Weekly cover the year before, and over four million were printed in 1917-18.

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

Brother Jonathan, a lanky New Englander in striped trousers, stood for the American people in cartoons from the Revolution until Uncle Sam displaced him after the Civil War.

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

Connecticut adopted 'Yankee Doodle' as its state song in 1978; the Voice of America has also used the tune as an interval signal.

Who was 'Yankee Doodle' originally written to mock?

Colonial troops: British army surgeon Richard Shuckburgh is said to have written it around 1755 to mock the ragged colonial militia serving alongside the redcoats.

What is the national bird of the United States?

The bald eagle, on the Great Seal since 1782, was formally declared the national bird by a law signed in December 2024; it came off the endangered list in 2007.

The Statue of Liberty was designed by which French sculptor?

Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi designed the statue, reportedly modelling the face on his mother; Gustave Eiffel engineered the iron framework inside.

What lies at the Statue of Liberty's feet, half-hidden by her robe?

A broken chain and shackle lie at her feet, symbolising freedom from oppression; they are half-hidden by her robe and hard to see from the ground.

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

Its rim cracked at the first stroke of the clapper when the bell was hung to test its sound; local founders Pass and Stow then recast it twice.

Which group gave the Liberty Bell its name?

Abolitionists adopted the old State House bell as a symbol in the 1830s; the name 'Liberty Bell' first appeared in anti-slavery publications of that decade.

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

Doane Robinson, South Dakota's state historian, proposed the carving in 1923, picturing Lewis and Clark, Red Cloud and Buffalo Bill; sculptor Gutzon Borglum insisted on presidents.

How tall are the presidents' heads on Mount Rushmore?

60 feet from chin to crown; the figures were to be shown to the waist, but work stopped in 1941 when funds ran out after Borglum's death.

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

Confirm mining land claims: Charles E. Rushmore visited in 1885 to check legal titles on tin-mining claims for a New York company, and locals jokingly named the peak for him.

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

Free ice water: in 1936 Dorothy Hustead suggested signs offering it to motorists bound for the Black Hills, and the failing drugstore in Wall filled up the same afternoon.

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

Mitchell's Corn Palace, first built in 1892 and redecorated every year with murals made of corn, is the last survivor of the grain palaces once built across the Midwest.

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

Amarillo: the Ant Farm collective planted the Cadillacs, model years 1949 to 1963, in a wheat field along the old Route 66 west of Amarillo in 1974.

How many Cadillacs are buried at Cadillac Ranch?

Ten Cadillacs, from a 1949 Club Coupe to a 1963 Sedan de Ville, stand nose-down, paid for by the eccentric local millionaire Stanley Marsh 3.

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?

Philip Morris bought Burma-Vita in 1963 and retired the signs; at its peak Burma-Shave had been the second-best-selling brushless shaving cream in the country.

Which agency introduced Smokey Bear in 1944?

The US Forest Service, with the War Advertising Council, launched Smokey on 9 August 1944; the living Smokey, a cub rescued from a New Mexico fire in 1950, later got his own ZIP code.

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

Wildfires: in 2001 the line became 'Only You Can Prevent Wildfires' to cover grass and brush fires too; the 1944 original promised care would prevent nine of ten forest fires.

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

A 1916 lumber company pamphlet: advertising man William Laughead named the ox Babe in his booklets for the Red River Lumber Company, which had used Bunyan as a mascot since 1914.

Johnny Appleseed was a travelling missionary for which religious movement?

Swedenborgian: John Chapman preached for the New Church of Emanuel Swedenborg, handing out its tracts along with apple seedlings across the Midwest frontier.

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

The Chicago World's Fair: Frederick Rueckheim's molasses-coated popcorn and peanuts are traditionally said to have debuted at the 1893 Columbian Exposition; the Cracker Jack name was registered in 1896.

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

Philadelphia: Richard James demonstrated the Slinky at Gimbels there in November 1945 and sold all 400 in ninety minutes; Betty James later ran the company from Hollidaysburg.

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

Italy: Antonio Pasin, a young cabinetmaker from near Venice, emigrated in 1914 and built wooden wagons to carry his tools; 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?

Ohio: Airstream moved production to Jackson Center, Ohio, in 1952; the 1936 Clipper had been the first of the riveted-aluminium 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?

Coney Island: the contest takes place outside Nathan's original stand at Surf and Stillwell Avenues in Brooklyn; Takeru Kobayashi doubled the record to 50 on his 2001 debut.

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

Mustard topped the National Hot Dog and Sausage Council's 2005 survey, ahead of ketchup; the council's etiquette guide tells adults not to put ketchup on a hot dog.

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?

Sarah Josepha Hale, editor of Godey's Lady's Book, wrote to five presidents over 17 years before Lincoln's 1863 proclamation; she also wrote 'Mary Had a Little Lamb'.

Which cracker starred in the mock apple pie recipe its maker promoted from the 1930s?

Nabisco's Ritz: the recipe, in which buttered crackers stand in for apples under a lemon-and-cinnamon syrup, went on the Ritz box soon after the cracker's 1934 launch.

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

Main Street, U.S.A. at Disneyland (1955) was modelled on the idealised small town of Disney's boyhood in Marceline around 1900, built with forced perspective so its upper floors look taller.

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

Hoboken, New Jersey: at the Elysian Fields on 19 June 1846 the New York Nine beat the Knickerbockers 23-1 in four innings.

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

Milwaukee, Wisconsin: William Harley and the Davidson brothers built their first motorcycle in a backyard shed there in 1903, and the company kept its headquarters in the city.

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

Bild Lilli, a doll based on a risqué cartoon in the Bild newspaper, was bought by Ruth Handler in Europe in 1956; Mattel later purchased the rights and ended its production.

The Twinkie was invented in 1930 with what original filling?

Banana cream: James Dewar created the Twinkie in 1930 to use idle shortcake tins out of strawberry season; the filling switched to vanilla during the wartime banana shortage.

Elvis Presley was born in which Mississippi town?

Tupelo: Elvis Aaron Presley was born there on 8 January 1935 in a two-room shotgun house his father built; the family moved to Memphis in 1948.

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

Pies: Yale students tossed the tins of the Frisbie Pie Company of Bridgeport, and Wham-O adopted the name in 1957 for Walter Morrison's Pluto Platter.

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

Lizzie Magie designed The Landlord's Game to teach Henry George's single-tax ideas and patented it in 1904; Charles Darrow later sold a derived version to Parker Brothers as Monopoly.