30s Love (Mainly American) Trivia Quiz

Answer: Diesel gasoline

Diesel gasoline was invented back in 1892 by Rudolf Diesel, a French/German inventor. The other three items along with 3M Scotch tape came out in 1930. Other things to love about 1930 include the first appearances of Mickey Mouse, Betty Boop and the Looney Tunes. And if that is not enough, in 1930 Elm Farm Ollie became not only the first cow to fly in an airplane but also the first cow to be milked inflight. I don't know why.

Answer: "Dracula" and "Frankenstein"

Bram Stoker's story first appeared on screen as "Nosferatu" in 1922. That movie, however, was not authorized by Stoker's estate and the court ordered all prints destroyed. Producer Carl Laemmle, Jr. legally acquired the rights to the screenplay and produced "Dracula" starring Bela Lugosi in 1931. As was the case with Dracula, movies about Frankenstein appeared before the 1931 version.

In 1910 a movie titled "Frankenstein" was released and five years later another adaptation titled "Life Without Soul" was released.

The 1931 "Frankenstein" movie however has become the iconographic film featuring the monster. This movie starred Boris Karloff as the monster and was directed by James Whale. Whale went on to direct "The Invisible Man", "The Bride of Frankenstein" and "Show Boat"? Yes, "Show Boat", as well as several other films.

Answer: It was the first daytime network soap opera

"Clara, Lu and Em" was a radio soap opera on NBC. The show first aired in 1930 and centered around three women who lived in a duplex--Clara lived on one side, Emma on the other and Lulu lived upstairs. In 1932 the show was moved to the daytime for a couple of years before being moved back to nights. The show ended in 1937 after Isobel Carothers, who played Lulu, died.
We have "Clara, Lu and Em" to thank for "Days of Our Lives", "The Young and the Restless", "All My Children", "General Hospital", "The Bold and the Beautiful", "The Edge of Night", "As the World Turns", "Guiding Light", "Search for Tomorrow" and "Ryan's Hope", among other shows.
On the plus side (insert smiley face) we also have it to thank for Susan Lucci.

Answer: Loch Ness Monster

In July 1933 a man named George Spicer and his wife were visiting Loch Ness in the Scottish Highlands near Inverness. They claimed to have seen a strange creature cross the road in front of them heading to the loch. The creature was described as about 25 feet long with a large body and long, narrow neck. Since then other people have described seeing a similarly-shaped object in and around the loch.

The most famous photograph of what is supposed to be the Loch Ness Monster was taken a year later by a London physician named Dr. Robert Kenneth Wilson.

The photograph seems to show the head and neck of the animal. To date no definitive proof has been found to substantiate whether the Loch Ness Monster exists or ever, in fact, existed. Something else that happened in 1933 has been documented as fact. Students from Harvard University did steal the Sacred Cod of Massachusetts from the state House of Representatives that year (they brought it back a few days later).

In case you have never heard of the Sacred Cod of Massachusetts it is a wooden carving of a codfish.

It hangs in the Massachusetts House of Representatives to symbolize the importance of fishing to the growth of the state. And I did not make this up. You could look it up for yourself.

Answer: Al Capone

Al Capone died of a heart attack in 1947. The other three never even saw the year 1935.
Pretty Boy Floyd was killed in Ohio by local law enforcement and FBI agents headed by Melvin Purvis. The FBI had been searching for him since an attack Floyd and others carried out in Kansas City in June of that year when they tried to free a colleague who had been captured and who was being transported by police. Floyd and his crew killed four police officers. The prisoner was also killed.
John Dillinger was killed by FBI agents, including Melvin Purvis, while leaving a movie theater in Chicago. A woman who had accompanied Dillinger to the theater had earlier reported his whereabouts to the police in an attempt to avoid deportation to Romania. The woman was madam of a brothel and was therefore on the government's list of "undesirable aliens". (Although if she worked in a brothel she must have been somewhat desirable, but I digress.)
Bonnie and Clyde were killed in a shoot-out in Louisiana by a posse of Texas and Louisiana law enforcement officers. Earlier, Clyde Barrow had engineered the escape from prison of one of his gang. A man from Louisiana escaped at the same time and the FBI later determined that Barrow and this man from Louisiana--a Henry Methvin--had become friends. The FBI started searching around Methvin's part of Louisiana and discovered that Bonnie and Clyde had visited there several times and were expected back shortly. Law enforcement was waiting when they arrived and shot the pair as they tried to drive away.
In addition to these three, Baby Face Nelson was killed in a running gun battle near Chicago the very same year.

Answer: Wax mustache candy (as in "this is a terrible Halloween treat, lady")

The Gottfried Krueger Brewing Company of Newark, New Jersey, came up with the idea of packaging their Krueger brand beer in cans during 1935. Cans could be chilled faster than bottles, they protected beer from the light better, they lasted longer and they did not require a deposit. Gottfried Krueger Brewing was eventually bought by Falstaff.
Briefs were invented by a company called Coopers and were first sold in Chicago in 1935. Briefs were conceived to provide more support for men than boxers. In fact the product was originally called "Jockeys" because they provided the same level of support as jock straps. Coopers eventually became Jockey International.
The Columbia Stampede in Columbia, Mississippi was the first rodeo held at night and occurred in September 1935.
The year 1935 also saw the US Supreme Court rule on the "sick chicken case". Some guys in New York City were accused of selling sick chickens. The guys contended that the US government, including the President, had no business regulating whether they sold sick chickens or not (or whether they paid sub-standard wages or not) because their business was not interstate. The Supreme Court agreed with the "sick chicken" guys.

Answer: Jesse Owens

Hitler believed that the Olympics being held in his country would show the world that the Germans were indeed the dominant race. Owens, who not only was not German but was an African American from Ohio, quickly proved Hitler wrong. He became the first ever to win four gold medals in an Olympic games winning the 100 meters, the long jump, the 200 meters and the 4x100 meter relay. Der Führer was not pleased.
Owens later went on to work to provide recreational activities for underprivileged kids. He was highly sought-after as a motivational speaker.
And in perhaps an attempt to apologize for Hitler's skewed view of racial dominance a street leading to the Olympic stadium in Berlin is now named "Jesse-Owens-Allee".

Answer: Daffy Duck

Daffy first appeared in a cartoon with Porky Pig titled "Porky's Duck Hunt". In this cartoon, Daffy spent most of his time tearing around the screen shouting "Woo hoo! Woo hoo!" As Warner Brothers developed his character he became taller and leaner, was given a lisp and a larger vocabulary and was frequently Bugs Bunny's foil. As of 2011 Daffy still appears in "The Looney Tunes Show". He is #14 on TV Guide's "Greatest Cartoon Characters of All-Time" list, between "The Powerpuff Girls" and "Pikachu".
Porky Pig was the first big cartoon star for Warner Brothers, debuting two years before Daffy. They were later joined by and appeared with Bugs Bunny and Speedy Gonzales.
A classic Bugs-Daffy cartoon, and a favorite of mine, has Bugs Bunny and Daffy debating with hunter Elmer Fudd about whether it was rabbit season or duck season.
Bugs: Duck season.
Daffy: Rabbit season.
Bugs: Duck season.
Daffy: Rabbit season.
Bugs: Duck season.
Daffy: Rabbit season.
Bugs: Rabbit season.
Daffy: I say it's duck season. And I say 'Fire!'
And Daffy gets shot by a thoroughly confused Elmer.
Daffy: Hmm. Let's try that again.

Answer: Minimum wage law

The Fair Labor Standards Act (or minimum wage law) established a nationwide minimum wage of $0.25 per hour. That rate has increased over time to the 2011 rate of $7.25 per hour. On a real basis, the US minimum wage has not kept up with inflation, nor was it necessarily designed to. For example, in 1938 a loaf of bread cost about $.06 (http://www.gti.net/mocolib1/prices/allyrs.html) or about 1/4 hour at minimum wage. In 2010 a loaf of bread was around $2.50 or about 1/3 hour at minimum wage. When passed, the law was meant to abolish "sweat shops" in the US by requiring employers to pay a fair wage.
The act also prohibited "oppressive child labor" and dictated that overtime would be paid at 1.5 times the hourly rate in certain cases.
In case you were wondering an angklung is a musical instrument from Southeast Asia made from bamboo. The diatonic scale is, to put it simply, the major scale we may know as "Do re mi fa sol la ti do".

Answer: Nylon stockings

Nylon itself was concocted by engineers at DuPont Laboratories in 1930 to be a substitute for silk. The first items to be made with nylon were fishing line, toothbrush bristles and surgical suture material. At the 1939 World's Fair in New York City, DuPont premiered nylon stockings to an audience of about 3000 in a session called "We Enter the World of Tomorrow". Nylon stockings were an immediate hit. The first year DuPont sold 64 million pairs.
The parking meter was invented in 1932. Band-aids came out in 1920. Pez candy was first available in 1927.