In 1948, "Twelfth Street Rag" topped the charts, The Treasure of the Sierra Madre packed theaters, a stamp cost 3¢, the average home went for about $7,700.
🎵 Top songs of 1948
"Twelfth Street Rag" — Pee Wee Hunt
"Mañana (Is Soon Enough for Me)" — Peggy Lee
"Now Is the Hour" — Bing Crosby
🎬 In theaters
The Treasure of the Sierra Madre
Easter Parade
Hamlet
What things cost in 1948
$0.26
Gallon of gas
3¢
Postage stamp
$0.40
Movie ticket
$0.80
Gallon of milk
$7,700
Average home
$1,250
New car
$3,200
Household income
A $0.26 gallon of gas in 1948 has the buying power of roughly $3.50 today, and the 40-cent movie ticket works out to about $5.35 in today's dollars.
The biggest moments of 1948
President Harry Truman won a stunning upset over Thomas Dewey, gleefully holding up the mistaken "Dewey Defeats Truman" headline.
The Berlin Airlift began, with American and British planes flying food and supplies into West Berlin.
Columbia Records introduced the 33 1/3 rpm long-playing record, changing how America listened to music.
London hosted the first Olympic Games in twelve years in the summer of 1948, where Dutch sprinter Fanny Blankers-Koen — a 30-year-old mother of two — won four gold medals.
Citation won horse racing's Triple Crown in 1948, the last horse to do it for 25 years.
In December 1948, the McDonald brothers relaunched their San Bernardino restaurant with the assembly-line "Speedee Service System" — the blueprint for modern fast food.
Toys, TV & trends of 1948
Milton Berle's Texaco Star Theater made television the hottest thing in America, earning him the nickname "Mr. Television."
The first Polaroid Land camera went on sale, producing a finished photo in about a minute.
The word game Scrabble got its trademark in 1948 and began its climb to family game night fame.
Ed Sullivan's Toast of the Town debuted on television in June 1948, beginning a Sunday-night ritual that would last 23 years.
A crunchy new snack called Chee-tos hit stores in 1948, courtesy of the Frito Company.
The gentle puppet show Kukla, Fran and Ollie reached network television in 1948, charming children and grown-ups alike.
The music scene
For nearly all of 1948, union musicians were barred from the recording studio by a second nationwide recording ban, so the labels survived on stockpiles of records rushed out in late 1947. The year's most unlikely hit was "Nature Boy," sung by Nat King Cole and written by eden ahbez, a sandal-wearing mystic who was living in a camp beneath the Hollywood sign when the song made him famous.
At the movies
The Supreme Court's 1948 Paramount decision forced the big studios to sell off their theater chains, beginning the end of Hollywood's old studio system. At the Oscars, Laurence Olivier's Hamlet became the first British film to win Best Picture, and Olivier became the first person ever to direct himself to an Academy Award-winning performance.
Cartoons kids loved
Marvin the Martian made his first appearance opposite Bugs Bunny in Haredevil Hare.
Woody Woodpecker was so popular that "The Woody Woodpecker Song" became a top hit record of 1948.
Tom and Jerry remained MGM's biggest cartoon stars, in the middle of their run of Academy Award wins.
A scrappy new studio called UPA, founded largely by artists who had left Disney, began challenging cartoon convention with flat, modern, art-inspired designs — its 1948 short Robin Hoodlum even earned an Oscar nomination. Meanwhile the Paramount court decision spelled trouble for theatrical cartoons, since studios could no longer force theaters to book shorts along with their features.
The world in 1948
World population: about 2.4 billion
U.S. President: Harry S. Truman
The Berlin Airlift began in June 1948, as Allied planes delivered food and coal to two million West Berliners.
The Marshall Plan was signed into law in April 1948, sending billions in American aid to rebuild war-torn Europe.
The United Nations adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in Paris in December 1948, championed by Eleanor Roosevelt.
The World Health Organization was founded in April 1948 — its birthday is still celebrated as World Health Day.
1948 birthday questions
How old is someone born in 1948?
Someone born in 1948 turns 78 in 2026 (77 if their birthday has not come round yet).
What was the number one song in 1948?
"Twelfth Street Rag" by Pee Wee Hunt was among the biggest hits of 1948.
What movie came out in 1948?
The Treasure of the Sierra Madre was one of the films packing theaters in 1948.
How much did gas cost in 1948?
A gallon of gas ran about $0.26 in 1948, and a postage stamp cost 3¢.
How much did a house cost in 1948?
The average home went for roughly $7,700 in 1948, against a typical household income of about $3,200.