Back when I was a kid in IL, we had an attic fan that was 36” in diameter that sucked air our of the house. It created a gentle breeze coming in all the windows...worked pretty well.
On the really hot nights I would pull my mattress out on to the porch roof and sleep there. Others would take their blankets to the park and sleep on the ground. I especially remember that happening in St. Louis, Mo when I visited in the summer.
I put a “whole house fan” in our single story ranch about 25 years ago. It is wonderful on cool evenings — changes all the air in the house in a few minutes. Of course the normal nighttime lows here on the SF Peninsula are usually in the high 50s.