In 1923, "Yes! We Have No Bananas" topped the charts, The Covered Wagon packed theaters, a stamp cost 2¢, the average home went for about $6,700.
🎵 Top songs of 1923
"Yes! We Have No Bananas" — Billy Jones
"Parade of the Wooden Soldiers" — Paul Whiteman and His Orchestra
"Down Hearted Blues" — Bessie Smith
🎬 In theaters
The Covered Wagon
The Ten Commandments
Safety Last!
What things cost in 1923
$0.22
Gallon of gas
2¢
Postage stamp
$0.15
Movie ticket
$0.55
Gallon of milk
$6,700
Average home
$450
New car
$1,375
Household income
A $0.22 gallon of gas in 1923 has the buying power of roughly $4.30 today. A 2¢ stamp is about 39¢, and a 15¢ movie ticket just under $3.00.
The biggest moments of 1923
Yankee Stadium opened in April 1923, and Babe Ruth christened "The House That Ruth Built" with a home run.
The Hollywoodland sign was erected in the hills above Los Angeles to advertise a real-estate development.
Time, the first weekly news magazine, published its debut issue in March 1923.
Army pilots Oakley Kelly and John Macready made the first nonstop flight across the United States in May 1923, coast to coast in under 27 hours.
Inventor Garrett Morgan patented his three-position traffic signal in November 1923, helping tame increasingly crowded streets.
The Yankees won their first World Series championship in October 1923, beating the Giants at last.
Toys, TV & trends of 1923
The Charleston dance craze ignited after the song debuted in the Broadway musical Runnin' Wild.
Milky Way and Butterfinger candy bars both hit store shelves for the first time.
Frank Epperson patented his frozen treat on a stick, soon beloved by kids everywhere as the Popsicle.
Dance marathons became a national sensation after Alma Cummings danced 27 straight hours in New York that spring.
Kodak introduced 16mm film and the Cine-Kodak camera, and well-to-do families began shooting their own home movies.
The novelty song "Barney Google (with the Goo-Goo-Googly Eyes)" swept the country, and everyone seemed to be humming it.
The music scene
In April 1923, King Oliver's Creole Jazz Band cut its first records in Richmond, Indiana — the young cornetist on those discs, Louis Armstrong, was making his recording debut. Bessie Smith's "Down Hearted Blues" sold a reported 780,000 copies in six months and crowned her Empress of the Blues. And in June, Fiddlin' John Carson's recordings in Atlanta became country music's first commercial hit, convincing record men there was gold in "hillbilly" music.
At the movies
Four brothers named Warner formally incorporated their studio in April 1923, and their biggest star that year walked on four legs — the German shepherd Rin Tin Tin, whose hit films kept the young company afloat. Harold Lloyd dangled from that clock in Safety Last! despite having lost a thumb and forefinger to a prop-bomb accident years earlier; he performed wearing a special glove. Cecil B. DeMille, meanwhile, built the biggest sets Hollywood had ever seen in the California dunes.
Cartoons kids loved
Felix in Hollywood and other Felix the Cat shorts
Aesop's Film Fables shorts
Koko the Clown in Out of the Inkwell
By 1923 Felix the Cat was famous enough to appear on watches, dolls, and sheet music — the first cartoon character to become a full-blown licensing phenomenon. That same year a young Kansas City animator named Walt Disney went broke, packed a suitcase, and took the train to Hollywood to start over with his brother Roy.
The world in 1923
World population: about 1.9 billion
U.S. President: Warren G. Harding, then Calvin Coolidge
President Harding died in office in August, and Calvin Coolidge was sworn in by lamplight at his family's Vermont farmhouse.
Turkey became a republic in October 1923 with Mustafa Kemal Atatürk as its first president.
Hyperinflation ravaged Germany, where a loaf of bread cost billions of marks until a new currency arrived in November.
The first 24 Hours of Le Mans endurance race was run in France in May 1923.
1923 birthday questions
How old is someone born in 1923?
Someone born in 1923 turns 103 in 2026 (102 if their birthday has not come round yet).
What was the number one song in 1923?
"Yes! We Have No Bananas" by Billy Jones was among the biggest hits of 1923.
What movie came out in 1923?
The Covered Wagon was one of the films packing theaters in 1923.
How much did gas cost in 1923?
A gallon of gas ran about $0.22 in 1923, and a postage stamp cost 2¢.
How much did a house cost in 1923?
The average home went for roughly $6,700 in 1923, against a typical household income of about $1,375.