The Fabulous Fifties: A Decade to Remember

Close your eyes, Baby

Follow my heart

Call on the memories

Here in the dark

We’ll let the magic

Take us away

Back to the feelings

We shared when they played

In the still of the night

Hold me, darling, hold me tight

So real, so right

Lost in the fifties tonight.

The 50-s were one of the most

popular and optimistic decades in

American history: the Second World

War has ended, soldiers are coming

back to the states and families are en-

joying life again. The country is in a

state of complete bliss; the economy

is booming and Americans are experi-

encing happy days. Middle class

Americans have no problem spending

their money yet.

Entertainment

of the Fifties

The decade of the Fifties gave birth to Rock and Roll. While parents were listening to

Frank Sinatra their children were moving to a new music style. Young generation was twist-

ing, thrusting and bumping to the sounds of rock and roll. The prosperity of the '50s allowed

teenagers to spend money on records by their favorite bands and singers.

The roots of rock and roll lay in African American blues and

gospel.

DJ Alan Freed began a rhythm-and-blues show on one of the

radio stations. Soon the audience grew and grew, and Freed

thought up the term "rock and roll."

White artists tried to sing R&B but their voices were too weak

for this music style, so producers began to search a white artist

who could capture the African American sound. And they

found Elvis Presley. He took an old style

and made it his own. Within two years

he became the most popular name in en-

tertainment business in the USA.

Rock and Roll was shocking for Ameri-

ca. Young teenagers were against the music

their parents loved. In general, the older genera-

tion didn’t like rock and roll too and proclaimed

it Satan’s music (first of all, because it was the

music of ethnic groups and lower classes). It

was banned from many radio stations and

schools. But when Elvis appeared on TV with

his hits Love Me Tender and Heartbreak Hotel

the rating of the show soared and rock and roll

became the music of the masses.

As TV became more com-

monly available, people were en-

chanted. This was much better than

radio. You became very popular and

neat if your family had a TV.

The earliest TV shows were

quite successful. One of the popular

shows for teenagers was American

Bandstand. Dick Clark, the star of

the show, got more than fifty thou-

sand fan letters a week. They

thought watching this show was

more important than doing their

homework. Teenagers loved Ameri-

can Bandstand.

Among the first TV there were about 120

Westerns. Mostly in black and white, cowboys

set the standards of right and wrong and taught

people about heroes.

In 1956 some

scientists did a study

on how much kids

ages 10-16 watched

television. The re-

sults showed that an

average kid watched

six hours of television

a day which was

equal to how long

they went to school

everyday. Television

was groovy.

SPORTS in the 50s

People in the Fifties loved sports. They had more free time and enough

money to go in for sports, more and more Americans participated in differ-

ent athletic activities or were fans of all types of sports.

All American sports such as base-

ball and football gave opportuni-

ties for the rise of stars like Jackie

Robinson, Roy Campanella, Henry

(Hank) Aaron, Juan Marichal, Jim

Brown, and Frank Gifford.

As television became more popu-

lar, other sports found a lot of fans.

College football and professional

golf became very popular. That

time there was an idea that to suc-

ceed in business you needed to

play golf. In 1950 women created

Ladies Professional Golf Associa-

tion and joined men on golf cours-

es all over America.

Sports like tennis, basketball

and boxing were also popular in

the fifties. Althea Gibson was the

first African-American to play in

the U. S. Lawn Tennis Nationals at

Forest Hills, NY. Major names in

basketball were Wilt Chamber-

lain, Elgin Baylor, and Dolph

Schayes. Another favorite, boxing,

gave opportunities to great ath-

letes, Sugar Ray Robinson and

Rocky Marciano.

WORLD EVENTS

The world was recovering from

the Second World War. People were

building houses, plants and factories.

The American economy was growing

faster and faster. But 1950s weren’t

peace and quiet for the American so-

ciety. That time the Cold War – the

state of political conflict, military ten-

sion and eco-

nomic compe-

tition between

two super-

powers the

Soviet Union

and the United

States - started

and played the

whole decade.

The result of

the Cold War

became the

war in Korea. The Soviet Union was

to aid the Northern part of Korea, and

the United States to help the South. In

the long run Korea was divided into

two parts: the northern part was under

the Soviet Union control and

the second one was under the con-

trol of the USA.

During the 1950s the USA

also participated in some local

wars and internal conflicts such as

Arab-Israeli conflict, Algerian and

Cuban revolutions.

In

1953

the US

tested

their

first

hydro-

gen

bomb

on

Mar-

shal

Is-

lands. Hawaii became the 50s state

of the US. In the field of science

the first IBM computer was made:

DNA structure was discovered and

NASA was established.

Famous people

Marilyn Monroe (real name Norma Jeanie

Mortenson or Baker) was

born on June 1, 1926 in Los

Angeles, California. She

was an icon of women’s

beauty and Hollywood

films of that time. The

1950s proved to be a good

decade for Marilyn Monroe.

She became famous in

1950s for her films

“Gentlemen Prefer

Blondes” (1953), “How to

marry a Millionaire” (1953)

and “Some like It

Hot” (1959).She was mar-

ried to baseball legend Joe

DiMaggio and playwright

Arthur Miller. She died due

to an overdose of sleeping

pills.

Elvis Presley

was born on January 8,

1935 in Mississippi. He was

an American musician and

actor. A cultural icon, he’s

widely known as “The King

of Rock and Roll”. Presley

is regarded as one of the

most important figures of

20th-century popular cul-

ture. He had a very good

voice and sang and

played in many genres.

He is the best-selling

solo artist in the history

of popular music. Nom-

inated for 14 Grammys,

he won three, and re-

ceived the Grammy

Lifetime

Achievement

Award at age 36.

Arthur

Miller

was born on

October 17, 1915 in

New York city and

was a leading

American dramatist

who is best known

work “Death of the

salesman” won the

Pulitzer Prize. In

1956, Miller was

awarder honorary

Degree at the uni-

versity of Michi-

gan.

Home life of the Fifties

Family life was

very different in the Fifties.

For starters, most probably it

was a two - parent household.

Both a mother and a father.

Divorce was not a com-

mon thing. First of all be-

cause of societal pressure.

You had to get married and

stay married, regardless of

how unhappy you were. Di-

vorce was a stigma. People

spent more of their lives mar-

ried than they do today due to

lower divorce rates and earli-

er ages at marriage.

Today a woman can get

a well-paid job but back in

the Fifties she could only

work in traditional women’s

jobs such as a secretary, a

teacher, a nurse, a librarian

and so far. So it was an eco-

nomic motive to stay married.

Men also felt a societal pressure. A good

man had to have a wife and kids. His boss

liked it. His neighbours and family expected it.

On 50s there was a tradition to sit down

to eat together. Mom cooked because it was her

job. Most of the women worked at home as a

housewife and didn’t get money for their work.

After dinner the family would watch TV

if they had one, which by the end of the decade

was likely. The whole family watched the same

show, because there was only one TV in the

whole house.

Kids spent their free time listening to

their own record player or transistor radio.

They often visited with one another to talk to

each other. Older children usually went to a so-

da shop or diner after school and hung out

there.

Technological advances and scientific discoveries

invented in 1954.

In 1955 Jonas Salk invented a polio vac-

cine which was given to more than

seven million American students.

A surprise came in 1957; a 184 pound

satellite was launched by the Russians.

They named it Sputnik 1. The space

race begins 4 months later the United

States launch a smaller satellite.

In 1958 the first plastic Coke bottle

appeared.

Great steps were made in Ameri-

can science during the 1950s. Im-

portant discoveries were almost

daily events.

There were massive military

projects with large group of scien-

tists who worked with each other

toward a specified research goal.

The example is the production of

the atomic bomb.

It is difficult to separate the

achievements of science and tech-

nology of the 1950s from the other

aspects of life. Here are only some

of them.

Credit cards be-

came widespread

during the dec-

ade.

The first copy ma-

chine was made

1950 also.

In 1954 Bell Tel-

ephone labs pro-

duce solar battery.

Polypropylene was