Great Men's Pastimes
In 1924, 240 accomplished people were asked what they did for fun. The top three answers: fishing, golfing, and hunting / shooting.
Augusta Shuford wrote about the findings forĀ New York Times Magazine:
The answers given are from twenty men in each of the following twelve groups:
Statesmen and politicians
Clergymen
Bankers and heads of other big businesses
Doctors
Army and navy officers
Lawyers
Scientists, most of them engineers or technical chemists
Publishers and editors
Educators
Authors of "literature"
Painters, sculptors, and architects
Actors and musicians
Then for the results:
Judged by the answers of the twelve groups, the favorite recreation of civilized man today is fishing. ... Eighty-five of the entire 240 men questioned gave fishing as a recreation.
...
Next in popularity to fishing stands golf, 74 of the 240 registering their fondness for the game.
...
The Army man... will have to be shown with a gun, twelve of the twenty officers having given shooting as a favorite diversion. It also follows as third choice of the entire number, 40 out of the 240 naming it.
Also noteworthy was which hobbies weren't mentioned:
The most striking fact in regard to these answers is that, while a taste for football and the theatre is acknowledged three or four times, not a man mentions baseball, moving pictures, musical comedy, or radio.
While I was able to find modern-day surveys asking about people's hobbies, I wasn't able to find any specifically askingĀ accomplished people. If anybody is able to track such a survey down, please post a link in the comments section.
Still, it seems very likely that golf would still place in the top three hobbies of accomplished people today. Fishing and shooting, though, seem much less likely.
Great Men's Pastimes
Published: Sunday, July 13, 1924