Go to main contentsGo to search barGo to main menu
Tuesday, July 8, 2025 at 1:48 AM
Ad

Postcards January 1925

Postcards January 1925

Last week, I spent a few hours in the Churchill County Museum and archives looking over editions of the "Eagle" that had been published in January 1925, just 100 years ago. For me, vintage newspapers are a pleasure to read from front to back, from the content of the ads to the sports reporting to the local news items. The January 1925 editions of the" Eagle" provided no exception to my reading pleasure, devoted as they were to reporting the day-in and day-out news of Lahontan Valley. But, as I read through the pages, I posed a silent question to the muse of history: How did our local events, trends, and discussions intersect with national events, trends, and discussions? Of course, not all of our local news can be analyzed as a microcosm of national movements, but I decided to begin this Postcard with a selective view of the year 1925 as it is commonly viewed by American historians and then to view selected items of local news or advertisements within that frame. 

The year 1925 sits squarely in the middle of what is often labeled The Roaring Twenties. And roar they did. During the decade, cars roared.  Radios roared. Women roared. Political debates roared. Prohibition ruled.  I'll leave the roar of women and the sound and fury of political debates for next week's column. I have plenty to say about both.

To the point of today's Postcard, across the land, automobile production, sales, and use soared during the 1920s.  It has been said that before World War I, cars were a luxury. After the war, they became a necessity.  In the advertisements showcased in the January 1925 editions of the "Eagle," automobiles loom large. Ads were placed by at least three auto parts and repair businesses. Vintage auto aficionados will find it interesting that the Fallon Garage (later the Coverston Garage) ran a large ad announcing that the new Star Automobile would be sold by them and that new models were due to arrive in Fallon in just weeks. (That year, the Fallon Garage also took on the sales of White Trucks and Buicks.) Balloon tires were touted in other Fallon Garage ads. And Fallon citizens cheered when the 1925 Federal Road Act designated much of the Lincoln Highway, then running through Fallon, as Highway 50.  

The decade saw a similar boom in the sales of radios, which, like the automobile, became, almost overnight, a household and business status symbol, then a household necessity.  In 1925, RCA (Radio Corporation of America) released figures showing that 19% of U.S. homes had radios. In five years, that percentage grew to 40%. My readers, who are fans of Country Western music, will love the fact that, in 1925, a musical program named Barn Dance was launched by WSM radio station in Nashville, Tennessee. In 1927, it was renamed the Grand Old Opry, and the Golden Age of Radio was well on its way. At the local level, the "Ozarka Plan for Radio Satisfaction" was heavily advertised in the January 1925 editions of the "Eagle." The ads claimed that the "Ozarka Radio set is installed and serviced by factory representatives who have been trained under Ozarka radio engineers to know the Ozarka set…. Why not ask for a demonstration and let us arrange to be in your home some evening soon? Ozarka Junior 4-tube Set, complete….$80. Wayne B. Mills, Box 384." Most relevant to the topic of the radio boom is that the January 1925 Morris & Loring Drug Company ads did not feature pharmaceuticals but…Radiolas and Radiotron Tubes, both produced by RCA. The tubes sold for $3 each, and the Radiola models ranged in price from $83 to $269.  

As for Prohibition, one of the thrilling headline stories in the January 1925 local newspapers detailed a local bootlegging crime. "A large still and other equipment were taken in a raid conducted on the old Berney ranch, six- and one-half miles southeast of Fallon. A hundred gallons of mash and several gallons of liquor were destroyed… [Sheriff Crane said that] "the moonshine was of very poor grade. The mash was found in filthy condition. Containers were dirty." The still, officers said, was in "such condition as to turn the appetite of the most devoted connoisseurs of jackass brandy." The paper followed up on the raid by reporting a few days later that "Federal officer P.E DuBois arrived Monday, being sent here by the director of Prohibition in Nevada to make a special investigation of the case in which Sheriff Crane arrested R.A. Gillett last Monday in on what was formerly the Berney ranch…. [Mr. Dubois] stated that he was thoroughly convinced that the sheriff has landed the right man when he got Gellett." A separate news item concerned the sentencing of four men from White Pine County to serve time in the Fallon jail for "violating the dry law." Two of the wrongdoers received four- and one-half-month sentences and the other two received four-month sentences for reasons not explained in the article. 

Please send your thoughts and stories to [email protected].

 

 


Share
Rate

Comment

Comments

July 4, 2025 -Fallon Gears Up for a “Bee-autiful”  - page 1
July 4, 2025 -Fallon Gears Up for a “Bee-autiful”  - page 2
July 4, 2025 -Fallon Gears Up for a “Bee-autiful”  - page 3
July 4, 2025 -Fallon Gears Up for a “Bee-autiful”  - page 4
July 4, 2025 -Fallon Gears Up for a “Bee-autiful”  - page 5
July 4, 2025 -Fallon Gears Up for a “Bee-autiful”  - page 6
July 4, 2025 -Fallon Gears Up for a “Bee-autiful”  - page 7
July 4, 2025 -Fallon Gears Up for a “Bee-autiful”  - page 8
July 4, 2025 -Fallon Gears Up for a “Bee-autiful”  - page 9
July 4, 2025 -Fallon Gears Up for a “Bee-autiful”  - page 10
July 4, 2025 -Fallon Gears Up for a “Bee-autiful”  - page 11
July 4, 2025 -Fallon Gears Up for a “Bee-autiful”  - page 12
July 4, 2025 -Fallon Gears Up for a “Bee-autiful”  - page 13
July 4, 2025 -Fallon Gears Up for a “Bee-autiful”  - page 14
July 4, 2025 -Fallon Gears Up for a “Bee-autiful”  - page 15
July 4, 2025 -Fallon Gears Up for a “Bee-autiful”  - page 16
July 4, 2025 -Fallon Gears Up for a “Bee-autiful”  - page 1Page no. 1
July 4, 2025 -Fallon Gears Up for a “Bee-autiful”  - page 2Page no. 2
July 4, 2025 -Fallon Gears Up for a “Bee-autiful”  - page 3Page no. 3
July 4, 2025 -Fallon Gears Up for a “Bee-autiful”  - page 4Page no. 4
July 4, 2025 -Fallon Gears Up for a “Bee-autiful”  - page 5Page no. 5
July 4, 2025 -Fallon Gears Up for a “Bee-autiful”  - page 6Page no. 6
July 4, 2025 -Fallon Gears Up for a “Bee-autiful”  - page 7Page no. 7
July 4, 2025 -Fallon Gears Up for a “Bee-autiful”  - page 8Page no. 8
July 4, 2025 -Fallon Gears Up for a “Bee-autiful”  - page 9Page no. 9
July 4, 2025 -Fallon Gears Up for a “Bee-autiful”  - page 10Page no. 10
July 4, 2025 -Fallon Gears Up for a “Bee-autiful”  - page 11Page no. 11
July 4, 2025 -Fallon Gears Up for a “Bee-autiful”  - page 12Page no. 12
July 4, 2025 -Fallon Gears Up for a “Bee-autiful”  - page 13Page no. 13
July 4, 2025 -Fallon Gears Up for a “Bee-autiful”  - page 14Page no. 14
July 4, 2025 -Fallon Gears Up for a “Bee-autiful”  - page 15Page no. 15
July 4, 2025 -Fallon Gears Up for a “Bee-autiful”  - page 16Page no. 16
COMMENTS
Comment author: Mike HinzComment text: I knew Sam as a member of our church growing up. He always had a warm smile, a kind word, and a great sense of humor! He will be great missed!Comment publication date: 7/2/25, 11:57 AMComment source: Obituary -- Samuel Bruce WickizerComment author: Mike HinzComment text: Great teacher, great coach, but even a better person!!! Rest in peace Mr. BeachComment publication date: 7/2/25, 11:53 AMComment source: Obituary -- Jack Victor Beach, Jr.Comment author: Mike HinzComment text: I had Mrs Hedges for First Grade at Northside Elementary in 1969. I still, to this day, remember her as a wonderful teacher…one of my favorites!!Comment publication date: 7/2/25, 11:29 AMComment source: Obituary - Nancy Marie Hedges C Comment author: Carl C. HagenComment text: What are MFNs and PBMs ?? ............................ From the editor: This is a very good question and we apologize for not catching that wasn't in there. We reached out to the writer/submitter and got this info back...hope it's helpful. PBM: Pharmacy Benefit Managers are pharmacies that are owned by insurance companies. (CVS is one.) They negotiate with drug makers to get reduced pricing for medications, but they historically have not passed along those savings to patients. https://www.ftc.gov/system/files/ftc_gov/pdf/pharmacy-benefit-managers-staff-report.pdf MFN: Most Favored Nation pricing is a policy that means a country agrees to offer the same trade concessions (like tariffs or price reductions) to all member nations of the World Trade Organization (WTO). When applied to pharmaceuticals, it could disrupt global access, deter innovation, and obscure the deeper systemic issues in American health care. https://petrieflom.law.harvard.edu/2025/05/22/the-global-risks-of-americas-most-favored-nation-drug-pricing-policy/Comment publication date: 6/23/25, 7:47 AMComment source: L E T T E R TO THE EDITOR
SUPPORT OUR WORK