|
Everything was better in the 1950s, except washing machines,
central heating and inside toilets, according to a survey of people aged above 50. The 3,000 seniors found modern society
crime-ridden, sleazy, promiscuous, foul-mouthed, noisy and second-rate. And they strongly disliked its greed, selfishness,
unfriendliness, ill discipline, bad manners, easy credit, drug culture, TV sex and violence.
In the 50s people
seemed kinder and had more time for each other, they said. People were neighbourly, public transport was good, music was better
and housing more affordable. And they missed the slower pace of life, job security, and the way families had lived closer
together and society valued housewives. With an average age of 69, 89% of those asked said they were glad they had been young
in the 50s and not now, as children had been more innocent and allowed to remain child-like for longer.
Children
had been safer then said 88%, with more freedom to play outside, 85% felt. But most said it was better to be a pensioner now,
with 70% saying they lived healthier, longer and more active lives and people no longer considered 60 to be old. Four out
of every five said mobile phones had made life worse, only 14% felt the internet had improved it, and 92% said they had been
"happy in the 50s without any of these modern things".
They missed respect for authority, said 93%, bobbies
on the beat, 91%, and the pride people used to feel in being British, 81%. People had been more innocent according to 86%,
and seemed kinder, 72%, with less crime, 85%. Barbara Windsor, who was born in 1937 and first appeared on the acting scene
in the 50s, said they "were happy days because everything seemed so much more affable, honest and direct".
Singer Val Doonican, 78, added, "It was a gentler, somehow less competitive world." The editor of Yours Magazine,
which commissioned the research, Valery McConnell said it shows most people are happier when they have a simple life rather
than a complicated one.
She said, "Everything about modern-day society is complex and stressful - automated
answering machines, mind-boggling car parks and road systems, endless traffic, 50 different varieties of everything, bank
managers you cannot talk to, high crime levels and aggression on the streets. More has been lost than gained. Material possessions
designed to make our lives easier also have a downside. Modern communication means people speak on mobiles, not on the street
corner or at the bus stop. Increased mobility means we no longer know our neighbours or live near our families."
Ms McConnell added, "Cars have driven children off the streets. Large out of town supermarkets mean many High Streets
are deserted. People no longer feel at home in their communities. No wonder many older people miss the simplicity of the 50s
and wish their grandchildren could experience the same. The 50's was a gentler era when manners and people mattered. People
were more important than possessions and had time for each other... knew their neighbours and had a sense of belonging."
The Korean War was a military conflict between the Republic
of Korea, supported by the United Nations, and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, supported by the People's
Republic of China and the Soviet Union. The war began on 25 June 1950 and an armistice was signed on 27 July 1953.
The war was a result of the political division of Korea by agreement of the victorious Allies at the conclusion of
the Pacific War. The Korean peninsula had been ruled by Japan prior to the end of the war; in 1945 following the surrender
of Japan, the peninsula was divided by American administrators along the 38th parallel, with United States troops occupying
the southern part and Soviet troops occupying the northern part. The decision to divide the peninsula in this fashion was
made without consulting the Korean people, which would later contribute to social and political unrest in the southern part
ruled by the American forces. The failure to hold free elections throughout the Korean Peninsula in 1948 deepened the division
between the two sides, and the 38th Parallel increasingly became a political border between the two Koreas. Although reunification
negotiations continued in the months preceding the war, tension intensified. Cross-border skirmishes and raids at the 38th
Parallel persisted. The situation escalated into open warfare when the North Korean forces attacked south to reunify Korea
on June 25, 1950. It was the first significant armed conflict of the Cold War
PICCADILLY
CIRCUS 1950S
Piccadilly
Circus street scene, with huge billboards advertising Bovril, Wrigleys and Craven A cigarettes amongst others Date: late 1950s
The 1950s in the United States of America were marked
with a sharp rise in the economy for the first time in almost 30 years, and a return to the 1920s-type consumer society built
on credit and boom-times, as well as the baby boom from returning GIs who went to college under the G.I. Bill and settled
in suburban America. Most of the internal conflicts that had developed in earlier decades like women's rights, civil rights,
and imperialism were relatively suppressed or neglected during this time as a world returning from the brink hoped to see
a more consistent way of life as opposed to the radicalism of the 1930s and 1940s. The effect of suppressing social problems
in the 1950s would have a significant impact on the rest of the twentieth century.
In the West, an American generation
traumatized by the Great Depression and World War II created a culture with emphasis on normality and conformity. Europeans
took a generally different approach to a post-war society, aiming for a greater inclusiveness and social awareness after a
global crisis in the preceding decades that many blamed on the failings of Free Market Capitalism, and the fifties were marked
by the establishment of a Welfare State in many countries in Western Europe. 
Continuing poverty in some regions during
recessions later on in this decade. The 1950s is often mistakenly painted as the pinnacle of American prosperity. To some,
it also may be considered the peak of our modern American civilization The '50s were supposed to be a time of the "Affluent
Society".
The 1950s saw fairly high rates of unionization, government social spending, taxes, and the like in the
United States and European countries,. Most Western governments were liberal or moderate, though domestic politics were also
affected by reactions to communism and the Cold War.
Beatniks, a culture of teenage and young adults who were seen as
rebels and against the social norms, were popularized towards the end of the decade and critisized by older generations. They
are seen as a predecessor for the counterculture and hippie movements.
Optimistic visions of a semi-utopian technological
future, including such devices as the flying car, were popular.
The 1950s represent what many see as the epitome
of Japanese cinema, starting in 1950 with Rashomon, the first major success of legendary Japanese director Akira Kurosawa,
which is considered to be one of the greatest films of all time. Kurosawa followed this success with a string of classics
such as Ikiru (1952), Seven Samurai (1954), Throne of Blood (1957), and The Hidden Fortress (1958).
Other Japanese directors
who were at the top of their game at this period in time were Yasujiro Ozu and Kenji Mizoguchi. Ozu made Tokyo Story in 1953,
which is widely considered one of the best films ever made, as well as the best Japanese film ever made.Ozu followed this
success with a remake of his earlier A Story of Floating Weeds, only this time in color and sound, which are both regarded
as some of Ozu's best work.
In 1953 and 1954, Mizoguchi made the two films that are widely considered to be his
masterpieces, Ugetsu and Sansho the Bailiff.
In addition to Japanese cinema receiving vast success worldwide, European
cinema was experiencing a reboot after World War II.
The Vietnam War, also known as the Second Indochina
War, and in Vietnam as the American War, occurred from 1959 to April 30, 1975. The term Vietnam Conflict is often used to
refer to events which took place between 1959 and April 30, 1975. The war was fought between the communist Democratic Republic
of Vietnam and its communist allies and the US supported Republic of Vietnam. It concluded with the defeat and dissolution
of South Vietnam. For the United States, the war ended with the withdrawal of American troops and failure of its foreign policy
in Vietnam.
Over 1.4 million military personnel were killed in the war (only 6% were members of the United States armed
forces), while estimates of civilian fatalities range up to 2 million. On April 30, 1975, the capital of South Vietnam, Saigon
fell to the communist forces of North Vietnam, effectively ending the Vietnam War.
This well-known photo taken by Hubert van Es shows
South Vietnamese civilians scrambling to board a CIA Air America helicopter during the U.S. evacuation of Saigon.
The Korean War, lasting from June 25, 1950 until
a cease-fire on July 27, 1953 (as of 2007, there has been no peace treaty signed), started as a civil war between communist
North Korea and republican South Korea. When it began, North and South Korea existed as provisional governments competing
for control over the Korean peninsula, due to the division of Korea by outside powers. While originally a civil war, it quickly
escalated into a Cold War-era conflict and served as a proxy war between the capitalist powers of the United States and its
allies and the Communist powers of the People's Republic of China and the Soviet Union.
On September 15, General
Douglas MacArthur planned a grand strategy to dissect North-Korean-occupied Korea at the city of Incheon (Song Do port) to
cut off further invasion by the North Korean army. Within a few days, MacArthurs' army took back Seoul (South Korea's
capital). The plan succeeded which allowed American and South Korean forces to cut off further expansion by the North Koreans.
The war continued until a cease-fire was agreed to by both sides on July 27, 1953. The war left 33,742 American soldiers dead
and 92,134 wounded. Musicals including Singing
in the Rain and An American in Paris with Gene Kelly were released and White Christmas starring Bing Crosby.
Animated films included Walt Disney's Cinderella and Alice in Wonderland.
Comedies are always popular, and the 1950s were no exception. It Happens Every Spring, Some Like It Hot with Marilyn
Monroe, Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon, and The Ladykillers starring Alec Guinness and Peter Sellers, would be loved by many.
The year 1951 would have an important comedy milestone, the last film of the great comedy duo, Laurel and Hardy, Atoll K,
in which the pair starred as the inheritors of an island in the Pacific.
Beatniks and the beat generation, an anti-materialistic
literary movement that began with Jack Kerouac in 1948 and stretched on into the 1960s, was at its zenith in the 1950s. Such
groundbreaking literature as William S. Burroughs's Naked Lunch, Allen Ginsberg's Howl, William Golding's Lord
of the Flies, Jack Kerouac's On the Road, and J.D. Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye were published. Also published
in this decade was J. R. R. Tolkien's epic The Lord of the Rings. This decade is also marked by some of the most famous
works of science fiction by science fiction writers Isaac Asimov, Arthur C. Clarke, Theodore Sturgeon, and Robert A. Heinlein.
Other significant literary works included James Jones' From Here to Eternity, Ernest Hemingway's The Old Man and the
Sea, John Cheever's The Wapshot Chronicle, Tennessee Williams' Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Arthur Miller's The Crucible,
Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin in the Sun, Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man, Saul Bellow's The Adventures of Augie
March, and Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged.
Science and philosophy
Known as the "Golden
Age", this era of movie-making saw the release of many classics, talented stars and directors. Films like Sunset Boulevard
with William Holden and Gloria Swanson, All About Eve with Bette Davis, and Ben-Hur with Charlton Heston, would become instant
classics.
Westerns were getting bigger in the 1950s, with films like High Noon starring
Gary Cooper, and Cheyenne with Clint Walker, wrangling moviegoers back to the time of outlaws and wild shoot-outs. There was
no shortage of war movies: the 1950s saw the release of Stalag 17, directed by Billy Wilder, The Bridge over the River Kwai
starring Alec Guinness, and Stanley Kubrick's Paths of Glory, a potent anti-war film that starred Kirk Douglas as the
French Col. Dax, defending three soldiers accused of cowardice.
Perhaps one of the things which most characterizes
the 1950's was the strong element of conservatism and anticommunist feeling which ran throughout much of society. One
of the best indicators of the conservative frame of mind was the addition of the phrase "under God" to the Pledge
of Allegiance. Religion was seen as an indicator of anti-communism. Fifties clothing was conservative. Men wore gray flannel
suits and women wore dresses with pinched in waists and high heels. French fashion designers such as Dior, Chanel and Givenchy
were popular and copied in America. Families worked together, played together and vacationed together at family themed entertainment
areas like national parks and the new Disneyland. Gender roles were strongly held, girls played with Barbie dolls and Dale
Evans gear, boys with Roy Rogers and Davy Crockett paraphernalia. Drive-in movies became popular for families and teens.
Cars were seen as an indicator of prosperity and cool-ness. Highways were built to take people quickly from one place to another,
by-passing small towns and helping to create central marketing areas or shopping malls such as Sharpstown Mall, Gulfgate Mall
and Meyerland Plaza in Houston.
Fashion successes were Bill Blass and his blue jeans, poodle skirts made of felt
and decorated with sequins and poodle appliques, pony tails for girls, and flat tops and crew cuts for guys. Saddle shoes
and blue suede loafers were popular. Teenagers were defined as a separate generation and were represented by James Dean who
wore blue jeans in Rebel Without a Cause and created a fashion and attitude sensation. Activities we liked were flying saucer
watching , and watching and dancing to Dick Clark's American Bandstand . Fad hits with kids were toys like hula hoops
and Hopalong Cassidy guns and western gear, Davy Crockett coon skin hats and silly putty .
|
Do you remeber the time of the Hula Hoops, Poddle Skirts
and Elvis Presley?
I've heard people say the world was better back in the 1950s and we'd be better off
if America was still like that.Well I'm sure it seems that way for those that didn't live in the 50s. We hear about
how simple and
innocent life was then. And in ways it was. In 1951 local phone rates were 10 cents, but there was
also only the old slow dial phone, there wasn't any such thing as a cell phone that so many think they can't live
without now.
In 1955 the first IBM 752 computer shipped in February and was the first IBM business computer. Though
it was nothing like the computers we have now. And no one knew anything about the Internet.
On December 1 American
Civil Rights leader Rosa Parks, refused to give up her seat on a bus to a white man in Montgomery, Alabama, and it resulted
in a city-wide boycott of the bus company and stirred the civil rights movement across the nation.
In the 1950s,
racism was deeply institutionalized. 50% of black families lived below the poverty line; migrant workers suffered appalling
working and living conditions; people of color were not permitted to take part in the American dream. Here it is 2005 and
thankfully racism is all but gone in that aspect. A black person has the right to what they want in life and is living the
American dream
The U.S. federal minimum wage was $1. Amazing isn't it that hasn't changed much and it should
have. Minimum wage now in 2005 is only $5.15 and hour. Seems like we aren't to far from the 50s on that.
From
1950 to 1959, 257,455 cases of polio were reported, mostly in children; 11,957 died of it. Thank God in 2005 thanks to vaccines
polio no longer threatens the life of our children.
Wife-beating was not really considered a crime. Many psychologists
explained that battered wives were masochists who provoked their husbands into beating them. A husband raping his wife was
not a crime at all, but a sign that the woman was deficient in fulfilling her marital obligations. Could you imagine someone
getting by with wife beating and raping you just because they are your husband?
When a severe cold spell hit London in early December
1952, Londoners did what they usually did in such a situation; they burned more coal to heat up their homes. Then on December
5, 1952, a layer of dense fog engulfed the city and stayed for five days.
Since the smoke from the coal burning
in homes, plus all of London's usual factory emissions, had been prevented from escaping into the atmosphere by an inversion,
the fog and smoke combined into a rolling, thick layer of smog.
Londoners, used to living in a city known for its
pea-soup fogs, were not shocked to find themselves surrounded by such thick smog. Yet, although the dense smog did not instill
panic, it nearly shut down the city from December 5 to December 9, 1952.
Visibility across London became extremely
poor. In some places, visibility had literally gone down to one foot, meaning that you couldn't see your own feet when
looking down nor your own hands if held out in front of you. Transportation across the city came to a standstill and many
people didn't venture outside for fear of getting lost in their own neighborhoods. At least one theater was closed down
because the smog had seeped inside and the audience could no longer see the stage.
It wasn't until after the
fog lifted on December 9 that the deadliness of the smog was discovered. In the five days the smog had covered London, over
4,000 more people had died than usual for that time of year. In the following weeks, approximately 8,000 more died from exposure
to what has become known as the Great Smog of 1952. Most of those killed by the Great Smog were people who had pre-existing
respiratory problems and the elderly.
Teenagers
were liberated in the 1950s after years of subtle oppression. Almost overnight they had their own music, their own clothes,
their own way of talking, their own culture. As the memories of war receded,
so the young generation rose up and claimed the peace, just as they had done 30 years earlier in the 1920s. Only this time
round everyone was afforded a slice of the cultural cake, regardless of class or income. By
1959 an age of unbridled affluence and consumerism - "You've never had it so good", as Harold Macmillan coined
it - was firmly established, paving the way for the profligacy and abandon of the swinging 60s. The new entrepreneurs of mass market consumerism on both sides of the Atlantic ensured that a week didn't
go by without some new craze hitting the shops or the media, preferably both at one. Hula hoops, popsicles, 3D cinema, Davy
Crockett hats, bubble cars, motor scooters, transistor radios, pyjama parties, the list is endless.
The "Cold War",
which began as a geopolitical, ideological, and economic struggle between the Soviet Union and the United States, intensified.
During this time the Warsaw Pact and NATO were founded.
More American above-ground
nuclear test explosions happened during this decade than any other during the Cold War.
The
1950s were also marked with a rapid rise in tensions between the United States and the Soviet Union, which would touch off
the Arms Race, the Space Race, McCarthyism, and the Korean War. Stalin's death in 1953 left an enormous impact in Eastern
Europe that forced the Soviet Union to create more liberal policies internally and externally.
The most notable political shift in the Eastern bloc would be the Hungarian revolution of 1956 which would soon falter
due to the Soviet Union's intervention.
In the United States there was a "Red
Scare" resulting in the McCarthy Hearings.
The Suez Crisis was a war fought
on Egyptian territory in 1956. Following the nationalisation of the Suez Canal in 1956 by Gamal Abdel Nasser, the United Kingdom,
France and Israel subsequently invaded. The operation was a military success, but after the USA and Soviet Union united in
opposition to the invasion, the invaders were forced to withdraw. This was seen as a major humiliation, especially for the
two European countries, and symbolises the beginning of the end of colonialism and weakening of European global importance.
The Day the Earth Stood Still hits movie theaters
launching a cycle of Hollywood films in which Cold War fears are manifested through scenarios of alien invasion or mutation.
Considerable racial tension arose with military and school desegregation in mostly the southern part of the United States,
though major controversy and uproar did not truly erupt until the 1960s.
Resurgence of evangelical Christianity including
Youth for Christ (1943); the National Association of Evangelicals, the American Council of Christian Churches, the Billy Graham
Evangelistic Association (1950), Conservative Baptist Association of America (1947); and the Campus Crusade for Christ (1951).
Christianity Today was first published in 1956. 1956 also marked the beginning of Bethany Fellowship, a small press that would
grow to be a leading evangelical press.
Carl Stuart Hamblen, a religious radio broadcaster, hosted the popular show
"The Cowboy Church of the Air". That same year, Bergman decided to follow The Seventh
Seal with a more personal project on a much smaller scale, Wild Strawberries. Wild Strawberries is the story of an old man
(played by Victor Sjöström) who goes on a trip to receive an honorary degree with his daughter in law (Ingrid Thulin).
During the trip, she tells him he is cold and unfeeling and he thinks over all the failures of his life. Bergman explores
such trademark themes as the existence of God and mortality in this film. Wild Strawberries also received enormous acclaim
and only further emphasized his talent. It is now considered one of his greatest films, and 1957 is considered a year of prodigious
output for the young Bergman.
Meanwhile, over in France, young critics such as Jean-Luc Godard, François Truffaut,
Claude Chabrol, and Éric Rohmer, who worked for the influential magazine Cahiers du Cinéma were starting to
make their stamp in film. In 1958, Chabrol made Le Beau Serge, the film that is widely considered to be the first film of
the French New Wave. But the New Wave only started receiving recognition in 1959, when Truffaut released his debut feature,
The 400 Blows. The 400 Blows struck a chord in audiences worldwide and praise was lavished upon it. Today it is considered
one of Truffaut's two best films, along with 1961's Jules and Jim.
Later that year, Godard released his first
film, Breathless. It received attention for its radical storytelling methods and mocking of American gangster clichés.
It is now regarded as a masterpiece, and one of Godard's best films. It remains Godard's only box office success to
date.
Hollywood
The Cold War
So named because vast
resources were poured into a bitter bi-polar ideological struggle between the West, led by the USA, and the East, led by the
USSR, which never quite led to open or hot hostilities between the principals. Churchill coined or at least popularized the
term iron curtain; in a speech at Westminster College, Fulton, Missouri, on 5 March 1946, but before that it was obvious that
the two main victors of WW II were heading for confrontation. The two occasions when the war nearly got hot were both Soviet
provocations, their 1948 blockade countered by the Berlin airlift and the Cuban missile crisis of 1962 when a US blockade
forced them to take secretly introduced IRBMs (Intermediate Range Ballistic Weapons) out of Cuba.
The Cold War
might be said to have been declared in 1949, when the USSR exploded its first atomic bomb, congealing into NATO, SEATO (South-East
Asia Treaty Organisation), and other organizations, perceived as passive containment by the USA and her allies and as hostile
encirclement by the USSR and her satellites. The latter formed the Warsaw Pact in 1955, countering overwhelming US nuclear
superiority with massive conventional forces. Although war never did break out in Europe, there were a number of proxyconflicts
elsewhere, in the Korean, Vietnam, and Arab-Israeli wars, which both sides used to test their weaponry and each other's
resolve.
The world communist threat was perceived as monolithic until Pres Nixon visited China in the early 1970s, but
by that time the Soviets had achieved parity in both nuclear warheads and delivery systems, and a protracted effort to halt
further attempts to achieve unilateral advantage was known as détente. President Reagan reversed this policy in the
early 1980s and in terms of investment in military equipment, the Cold War probably peaked in about 1985, having bankrupted
the Soviet system. From the mid-1980s, Mikhail Gorbachev's perestroika and glasnost tried to make the best of a bad job,
but the floodgates burst and the fall of the Berlin wall in 1989 is regarded as the end of the Cold War.
The
Warsaw Pact and the USSR broke up, leaving the successor state Russia to thrash about in search of a new purpose, and a triumphant
NATO to develop interventionist policies it would never have dared to pursue previously. This has confirmed fears of encirclement
in Russia and it is not unimaginable that this could evolve into a new Cold War.
Christopher Bellamy
The European Community
(or Common Market), the precursor of the European Union, was established with the Treaty of Rome in 1957
During this time, African-Americans were subject to racial segregation despite the belief put
forward in The Declaration of Independence 1776 that, 'all men are created equal and that they are endowed by their creator
with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.' However, the Civil
Rights Movement of the 1960s was brewing. Key figures like Martin Luther King, Malcolm X and Rosa Parks highlighted and challenged
those who were against African-American rights and freedom. The Little Rock Nine integrated Central High School ending segregation
in schools.
Brylcreem and other hair tonics had a period of
popularity
juvenile delinquency was said to be at unprecedented epidemic proportions in the United States, though some
see this era as relatively low in crime compared to today.
In 1953, renowned Italian director Federico Fellini
made what is widely considered to be his first masterpiece, I Vitelloni. Although it did not achieve significant success at
the time, Fellini followed it up with his international breakthrough, La strada, which went on to win the first competitive
foreign language film Oscar. Fellini followed the success of La strada with another huge success, Nights of Cabiria. Nights
of Cabiria was lauded worldwide and earned Fellini another Oscar.
Meanwhile, in Sweden, a young Ingmar Bergman was starting
to leave his indelible stamp in cinema. In 1955, after a string of financial flops, Bergman achieved his first international
success, Smiles of a Summer Night. Smiles of a Summer Night received international acclaim and earned Bergman a Jury Prize
at the Cannes Film Festival. Bergman followed up the success of Smiles with what remains his most famous film to this day,
The Seventh Seal (1957).
The Seventh Seal was an ambitious project in which Antonious Block, after returning from the
Crusades plays chess with Death in the hope that Death will allow him to live. The Seventh Seal earned unanimous praise worldwide
and established Bergman as one of cinema's most promising, young directors and is still considered to be one of his best
films, and some even consider it to be his masterpiece.
Money and Inflation 1950's
To provide
an estimate of inflation we have given a guide to the value of $100 US Dollars for the first year in the decade to the equivalent
in todays money
If you have $100 Converted from 1950 to 2005 it would be equivalent to $835.41 today
In 1950 a
new house cost $8,450.00 and by 1959 was $12,400.00 More House Prices
In 1950 the average income per year was $3,210.00
and by 1959 was $5,010.00
In 1950 a gallon of gas was 18 cents and by 1959 was 25 cents
In 1950 the average cost
of new car was $1,510.00 and by 1959 was $2,200.00 More Cars and Car Prices
A few more prices from the 50's
and how much things cost
Chrysler New Yorker $4347 Chevrolet Corvette $3631 1958 Mens All Wool Suits $28.90
Square
dance Cotton Check Dress $3.29 Electric Portable Singer Sewing Machine $19.90
Ronson Electric Shaver $28.50 Rib Roast
29 cents per pound
Ritz Crackers 32 cents Rollaway Beds $14.95
Ring 1 carat Diamond $399.00 Mechanical Adding
Machine $3.98
|
