In 1912 rockets were fired for many reasons: signals between ships of the same shipping line, courtesy signals, recall signals for dories fishing around ice floes, and other nonemergencies. Only after the Titanic’s sinking did the conservative use of pyrotechnics become well defined.
They all sang. The average person knew the lyrics to 200 songs. There were 300 piano brands when the U.S. entered Ww1. There were 10 x 1 million sellers of sheet music, played by 1 pianist to many partying singers, hundreds more songs in the 10,000 seller range. Grammaphone & Victrola were expensive novelties, mostly used in music stores to move along stale inventory, lacking the projection power that would come with stereo hi-fi in the 1950s.
But by 1932, Libby, who had sung at her cousins’ house, was listening to music in talkies, Jeanette MacDonald, Nelson Eddie & Ramon Navarro light opera flix, so Libby forgot she could sing. But before radio (1923);), if you wanted music, you had to make it yourself.