Cinema in the 1920s A ticket for a double feature and a live show cost 25 cents. For a quarter, Americans could escape from their problems and lose themselves in another era or world. People of all ages attended the movies with far more regularity than today, often going more than once per week.
The newest form of entertainment, especially in the home, was the radio. A new one in 1920 was $200 but by 1929 the cost dropped to $35, so a lot more people had this wonderful item. Another entertainment was going to the movie theatre. The cost was 15 cents, some special movies might cost 25 cents.
The average home price was varied between $4,938 and $6,296, which means that if you had an average salary and bought a lower value home the cost of that home would be about 1.5 times one year's income before any property taxes, fees, insurance, and upkeep.
Eggs were 35 cents a dozen, butter was 52 cents a pound and lard was 11 cents a pound. A one-pound loaf of bread was 5 cents and mixed nuts were 25 cents a pound.
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What could a dollar buy in 1920?
A dollar in 1920 could buy around three dozen eggs, or, just under three pounds of butter. That's right, butter back then was 36 cents — $8.72 in today's dollars, or around double what it costs in most places in the US.
Laundry isn't just going to do itself, you know. But if you wanted a washing machine, it would've cost $81.50. With inflation, that's about $1,229–which doesn't seem too far off by today's standards.
Throughout the 1920s, gas prices averaged 21 to 30 cents per gallon. As the Depression deepened, demand fell and competition for customers intensified. By 1930, prices were down to 20 cents per gallon and would continue to fall for the next decade. In many areas, gas prices were less than 10 cents a gallon.
$100 in 1920 has the same purchasing power as $1,504.20 today. Over the 103 years this is a change of $1,404.20. The average inflation rate of the dollar between 1920 and 2023 was 1.76% per year. The cumulative price increase of the dollar over this time was 1,404.20%.
A loaf of bread in the '20s would cost around $0.12, which is about $1.55 nowadays. A dozen eggs would cost the equivalent of $6.08 today, which is much higher than what we pay currently!
The 1920s certainly saw the building of stately mansions and Gatsby-esque estates, but the average new home built that decade ranged from just 742 to 1,223 square feet.
The years 1920-1923 saw Ford-For-President clubs spring up. The Leisure Class conspicuously consuming. In the very early American automotive market only the very wealthy could afford to own a car. The upper class trend of cars continued throughout the age of Fordism and eventually overtook the Ford Automotive Company.
Installment credit soared during the 1920s. Banks offered the country's first home mortgages. Manufacturers of everything--from cars to irons--allowed consumers to pay "on time." About 60 percent of all furniture and 75 percent of all radios were purchased on installment plans.
By 1950, gas prices had jumped to 27 cents, about $3.40 in today's money. The next two decades were much like the two that preceded the war. Fuel prices held remarkably steady, climbing only to 34 cents by 1969.
What year did gas go over one dollar? The average price of gas first went over $1 a gallon in 1980, when it went from $0.86 per gallon to $1.19 per gallon.
In the Roaring '20s, milk was 35¢ or so per gallon. But when the Great Depression hit in 1929, fewer people could afford milk and dairy farmers still had a lot of milk to sell. The price dropped from 35¢ per gallon to 26¢ per gallon. It doesn't sound like much, but 9¢ in 1930 is about $1.09 in today's dollars.
The industry thrived during the Depression; average prices dropped from $600 in 1920 to $275 in 1930 and $152 in 1940. By 1941, 63 percent of wired houses had refrigerators.
In 1920s USA, there were two types of fridges on the market; electrically powered ones which used a (humming) motorised compressor to work their refrigerants, and gas ones. All mechanical fridges work by controlling the vaporisation and condensation of a liquid called a refrigerant.
Radios were slowly making their way into most average American homes. In the mid 1920s, a radio cost around $150 dollars, which would be over $1,000 today.
The 2007 amendments increased the minimum wage to $5.85 per hour effective July 24, 2007; $6.55 per hour effective July 24, 2008; and $7.25 per hour effective July 24, 2009.
Not only were job opportunities limited, but the pay disparity was great. In factories, male workers in 1920 started at 40 cents per hour, while women started at 25 cents. The average weekly wage for a man was $29.35, and for a woman, it was $17.34.
Median weekly earnings of the nation's 121.5 million full-time wage and salary workers were $1,100 in the second quarter of 2023 (not seasonally adjusted), the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today.
