A lot of Schwinns were running 26x2.125's back in the 50's, some with smoother tread patterns.

They were heavy but they were often ideal, overall, for mixed riding.

Then the "lightweight" craze came along, and 27x1-1/4" sort of took over, equivalent to 700x32. Users noted they were far more fragile.

This continued until the de-rigueur tires and rims of road bikes were often narrower than 20mm wide, needing a minimum of perhaps 120psi for an average-sized rider.
Many of these bikes, as with the previous decade's tubular-shod racers, ended up hanging high up in garages with a flat tire, never to be fixed since this might be considered futile.

So we've come quite a ways away from that sad scenario. I fitted 25mm "Hard Case" tires to a customer's 1986 "Dave Scott Ironman" the other day after 28mm Specialized tires did not fit under the rear brake arch.