In 1932, "Night and Day" topped the charts, Grand Hotel packed theaters, a stamp cost 3¢, the average home went for about $4,200.
🎵 Top songs of 1932
"Night and Day" — Fred Astaire with Leo Reisman's Orchestra
"Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?" — Bing Crosby
"In a Shanty in Old Shanty Town" — Ted Lewis & His Band
🎬 In theaters
Grand Hotel
Shanghai Express
Tarzan the Ape Man
What things cost in 1932
$0.18
Gallon of gas
3¢
Postage stamp
$0.20
Movie ticket
$0.45
Gallon of milk
$4,200
Average home
$610
New car
$1,150
Household income
With prices deflating, 1932's $0.18 gallon of gas equals roughly $4.40 today, and when the stamp rose to 3 cents in July, that was still only about 74 cents in modern money. The 20-cent movie ticket, about $4.90 today, bought a newsreel, a cartoon, and a double feature.
The biggest moments of 1932
Amelia Earhart became the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean.
Los Angeles hosted the Summer Olympics, and Babe Didrikson dazzled the world with two track-and-field gold medals.
Franklin D. Roosevelt was elected president in November, and Radio City Music Hall opened its doors in December.
Lake Placid, New York hosted the third Winter Olympics, the first ever held in the United States.
Henry Ford introduced the affordable V-8 engine, putting genuine power within reach of the ordinary motorist.
The first Zippo windproof lighter was produced in Bradford, Pennsylvania, backed by a lifetime guarantee.
Toys, TV & trends of 1932
A nationwide jigsaw-puzzle craze took off, with millions of puzzles sold every week during the Depression.
Jack Benny and Buck Rogers both debuted on the radio, giving families comedy and space adventure.
Big Little Books arrived in dime stores, letting kids buy chunky little storybooks for just ten cents.
Fritos corn chips were born in San Antonio, where Elmer Doolin bought the recipe and cooked the first batches at home.
One Man's Family, radio's longest-running dramatic serial, began its 27-year run of gentle family stories.
The 3 Musketeers bar debuted with three pieces in one wrapper: chocolate, vanilla, and strawberry, which explains the name.
The music scene
The record industry hit rock bottom in 1932: American disc sales, over 100 million a year in the late twenties, collapsed to roughly 6 million as families got their music free over the radio. Yet the future was being recorded anyway; in February, Duke Ellington cut 'It Don't Mean a Thing (If It Ain't Got That Swing),' giving a name to the swing era three years before it officially arrived. And 'Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?' almost never reached the public at all: some radio executives thought Yip Harburg's Depression anthem too grim to air, but listeners embraced it as their own story set to music.
At the movies
Grand Hotel pulled off an Oscar feat never repeated: it won Best Picture without receiving a single other nomination. Overseas, Venice launched the world's first international film festival in August. And MGM's new Tarzan was no ordinary actor: Johnny Weissmuller had won five Olympic swimming gold medals before Hollywood came calling, which is why those river-swimming scenes look so effortless.
Cartoons kids loved
Disney's Flowers and Trees became the first full-color cartoon and won the first Oscar for animation
Goofy made his debut in the Mickey Mouse short Mickey's Revue
Betty Boop headlined her own hugely popular Fleischer series
Walt Disney made one of his shrewdest bets this year: shown the new three-strip Technicolor process, he scrapped an already-finished black-and-white Silly Symphony and redid it entirely in full color. Just as important, he locked up an exclusive deal on the process, which meant for the next few years rival cartoon studios were stuck with washed-out two-color systems while Disney alone had the whole rainbow.
The world in 1932
World population: about 2.1 billion
U.S. President: Herbert Hoover
Amelia Earhart became the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean.
The Sydney Harbour Bridge opened in Australia, its great steel arch instantly becoming a national symbol.
British physicist James Chadwick discovered the neutron, a key that would unlock the atomic age.
The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia was proclaimed, uniting the Arabian regions of Nejd and Hejaz under King Ibn Saud.
1932 birthday questions
How old is someone born in 1932?
Someone born in 1932 turns 94 in 2026 (93 if their birthday has not come round yet).
What was the number one song in 1932?
"Night and Day" by Fred Astaire with Leo Reisman's Orchestra was among the biggest hits of 1932.
What movie came out in 1932?
Grand Hotel was one of the films packing theaters in 1932.
How much did gas cost in 1932?
A gallon of gas ran about $0.18 in 1932, and a postage stamp cost 3¢.
How much did a house cost in 1932?
The average home went for roughly $4,200 in 1932, against a typical household income of about $1,150.