In 1930, "Stein Song" topped the charts, All Quiet on the Western Front packed theaters, a stamp cost 2¢, the average home went for about $4,800.
🎵 Top songs of 1930
"Stein Song" — Rudy Vallée
"Happy Days Are Here Again" — Ben Selvin & His Orchestra
"Puttin' on the Ritz" — Harry Richman
🎬 In theaters
All Quiet on the Western Front
Hell's Angels
Anna Christie
What things cost in 1930
$0.20
Gallon of gas
2¢
Postage stamp
$0.25
Movie ticket
$0.55
Gallon of milk
$4,800
Average home
$640
New car
$1,370
Household income
A $0.20 gallon of gas in 1930 has the buying power of roughly $4.00 today, and the 2-cent stamp works out to about 40 cents. That quarter movie ticket? Around $5.00 in today's money, still a bargain for an evening out.
The biggest moments of 1930
Astronomer Clyde Tombaugh discovered the planet Pluto in February, and schoolchildren everywhere learned a ninth planet.
Grant Wood painted American Gothic, which quickly became one of the most recognized images in American art.
Uruguay hosted and won the very first FIFA World Cup, while at home a miniature-golf craze swept the country.
Golfer Bobby Jones won the Grand Slam, taking all four major championships in a single year, then retired at age 28.
Clarence Birdseye's quick-frozen foods went on sale for the first time in Springfield, Massachusetts, introducing shoppers to the frozen-food case.
Ellen Church became the world's first airline stewardess in May, serving passengers on a Boeing Air Transport flight from Oakland to Cheyenne.
Toys, TV & trends of 1930
Families gathered around the radio every evening for Amos 'n' Andy, the biggest show in America.
Miniature golf courses popped up on street corners everywhere as the great putting craze of 1930 took hold.
Hostess Twinkies were invented this year, and Mickey Mouse toys and comic strips were the rage with kids.
Nancy Drew solved her first case in The Secret of the Old Clock, launching a girl-detective series that would never go out of print.
The Blondie comic strip debuted in September, introducing readers to Blondie and her bumbling beau Dagwood Bumstead.
A mysterious radio voice called The Shadow first chilled listeners this year as the narrator of the Detective Story Hour.
The music scene
The microphone was quietly changing how America sang: instead of belting to the back row, a new breed of 'crooners' murmured intimately into radio mics, and Rudy Vallée parlayed his megaphone-and-microphone style into hosting The Fleischmann's Yeast Hour, radio's first great variety show. A young Bing Crosby was still singing with Paul Whiteman's Rhythm Boys, one year away from solo stardom. Meanwhile Hoagy Carmichael recorded his own 'Georgia on My Mind' this year, and the record business itself was reeling as families chose free radio over 75-cent discs.
At the movies
The talkie revolution was essentially complete by 1930, and studios were scrambling to build soundproof stages and retrain silent stars. Greta Garbo made the leap triumphantly, with MGM's famous two-word ad campaign: 'Garbo Talks!' Howard Hughes spent a then-unheard-of $4 million on his aviation epic, partly because he reshot the silent footage with sound, and weekly movie attendance hovered near 80 million even as the Depression deepened.
Cartoons kids loved
Betty Boop made her first appearance in the Fleischer cartoon Dizzy Dishes
Looney Tunes launched with Sinkin' in the Bathtub, starring Bosko
Mickey Mouse shorts and Disney's Silly Symphonies delighted moviegoers
Sound had turned cartoons from novelty into main attraction, and every studio wanted its own Mickey. In January, Walt Disney's master animator Ub Iwerks, the man who actually drew the first Mickey shorts, stunned Hollywood by leaving to launch his own Flip the Frog series. And Betty Boop? She began life this year as a droopy-eared French poodle; the Fleischers would gradually humanize her into the flapper everyone remembers.
The world in 1930
World population: about 2 billion
U.S. President: Herbert Hoover
Mahatma Gandhi led the famous Salt March in India, a landmark act of peaceful protest.
Haile Selassie was crowned Emperor of Ethiopia in a lavish coronation attended by royalty and reporters from around the world.
English aviator Amy Johnson became the first woman to fly solo from England to Australia, a 19-day journey in a tiny secondhand plane.
Turkey asked the world to stop saying Constantinople: the city was officially to be called Istanbul.
1930 birthday questions
How old is someone born in 1930?
Someone born in 1930 turns 96 in 2026 (95 if their birthday has not come round yet).
What was the number one song in 1930?
"Stein Song" by Rudy Vallée was among the biggest hits of 1930.
What movie came out in 1930?
All Quiet on the Western Front was one of the films packing theaters in 1930.
How much did gas cost in 1930?
A gallon of gas ran about $0.20 in 1930, and a postage stamp cost 2¢.
How much did a house cost in 1930?
The average home went for roughly $4,800 in 1930, against a typical household income of about $1,370.