It was just a Q&A section - no Google search then! 

If these things weren’t in the encyclopedia then or you couldn’t find it, or you were too lazy to look it up (I wonder if these editors ever felt like saying “just encyclopedia it??”) you would write in to the information bureaus or the newspaper for an answer.

I wonder how all this information was filed? I’m sure there was a ‘database’ (I’m picturing one giant filing cabinet, haha) but for some of it, did they have to telephone (and earlier, write letters) to different authorities to get the answers for the people writing in? A lot of it was mundane statistics about sea levels in different places or celebrity addresses/marital statuses/birth dates. I doubt the editor (or his team of interns or whoever was tasked with writing the column) had all this information stored in his brain! There was probably a general information bureau that most newspapers used and I’m guessing there was probably a fee for the general population to get an answer, at least to cover postage, so it was less expensive to just write to the paper. If you could write to the information bureau for free they would offer to send you books or pamphlets about the topic you were interested in and they’d make money that way as well.

Anyway, Marie made her first trip to America in 1921 so people in the States were extra interested in her just then! 

Here’s an example of what the full column looked like: