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Rock n' roll, after all, was an invention of the
Fifties, bringing with it many of the attitudes of teenage rebellion that remain so familiar today. And though we now tend
to classify the Civil Rights Movement as a Sixties phenomenon, in fact the African American freedom struggle had already done
much to revolutionize American race relations long before the Fifties were out. It was during the Fifties that the Beat poets
let loose a radical literary howl against staid mainstream culture. And it was during the Fifties that many radical technological
innovations—starting with the computer—began to transform the way we live our lives. Dramatic changes in technology,
transportation, culture, race relations, and social structures all came hot and heavy during the Fifties, and all left their
mark on our modern world.
The decade was, more than we usually imagine, a time of change.
And the man who led America
through most of the era was one of our most paradoxical presidents. When he left the White House in 1961 after eight years
in office, Dwight D. Eisenhower was considered by many political experts to be one of history's least accomplished (and
perhaps even worst) presidents, but he was also one of the most popular with the public at large. Later, many historians changed
their views; today many have retrospectively come to see the man called "Ike" as a surprisingly astute leader. What
was up with this grinning, bald-headed, golf-playing former general who led us through one of our most misunderstood decades?
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
Emerging victorious from World War II five years earlier,
the United States in 1950 was reaping the benefits of a growing economy - benefits that were actually derived out of the country's
participation in the War. The destruction and mayhem brought by the global conflict also brought with it several positive
contributions to the economy. Some would even argue that the country's participation in World War II actually saved it
from the Great Depression.
To understand the economic boom of the 1950s it is necessary to appreciate the positive
impacts that were borne out of World War II. The foundation for the economic expansion and growth experienced in 1950 and
several years after that were laid during World War II.
To fund and support the country's war time efforts,
it had to recruit millions of American soldiers to be sent to the war front as well as to be stationed at home. Factories
had to be built to produce war materiel - guns and ammunitions, military transport, tanks, fighter planes and bombers, etc.
To man the factories women and older people had to be recruited as most of the able-bodied men were at war. WWII created jobs
and gave life to many industries and energized a nation. Among the industries that prospered during and immediately after
the war were the newspaper industry, the agriculture industry and even Hollywood. Industries that produced transport and plant
machineries also prospered. Throughout the War, women, for the first time, were given the opportunity to work outside their
homes and participate in nation building. The participation of the women in the labor force started to increase during this
time.
The War also provided opportunities that would later be manifested in the 1950s. Take for example many of
America's products went overseas - introducing themselves to new markets.
Many had actually feared that the
end of the War would lead the country back to depression. With production of military supplies coming to an end, this fear
had its basis - for the entire economy was propped up by all that had to do with the global conflict.
Fortunately, this
was not the case. The victory relished by the nation brought about confidence in the government and the economy. The common
consumer best exhibited this confidence as the strong consumer demand spurred economic growth after the War.
Leading
towards the 1950s, industries that experienced a surge in growth included the automobile industry and the housing industry,
and new industries experienced fantastic births - industries such as aviation and electronics.
There was also another
outcome of WWII that contributed to post War growth - the Cold War between U.S. and the U.S.S.R.
Many of the military
industries that sprouted during the war continued to do big business after it. As communist block emerged as a military power
in Europe, America had to arm itself against what it considered as a threat. Huge investments were made in the defense of
the country. Such investments meant jobs, factories, huge spending - all contributed to the boom of the 1950s.
The
economic success of the country probably influenced its leaders to advocate the replication of an open economy at the international
level. This is best evidenced by the country's spearheading the establishment of the International Monetary Fund and the
World Bank.
Gross Domestic Product and Per Capita GDP
In 1950, the country's GDP was at $293.8 Billion
(in current dollars). At that time, Per Capita GDP was $9,573.00 - making the United States the number one country world wide
in this aspect. By 1996, GDP was at $13.194 Trillion. Per Capita GDP was at $43,800.00 - however, the country ranked only
at 10th place world wide in this respect.
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 .
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Do you remember the time of the Hula Hoops, Poodle 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 neighbourhoods. 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.
When looking back at past eras, the 1950s is looked
upon by some as an idyllic time in American history. The nuclear family headed by a male breadwinner was the desired norm
and televisions shows such as Father Knows Best and I Love Lucy were popular. However, there was a dark underside during this
era. Women were treated like second-class citizens and some were living unhappily married because their financial and educational
options were limited.
The media, in collusion with the government, and family sociologists constantly espoused
the virtues of family and children and women, who wanted more out of life, were looked upon as freaks of nature. However,
some women during 1950s expressed dissatisfaction with their lives and an unarticulated longing for a life beyond their children
and husbands. Some of these wives were forced out the workforce after World War II and felt resentment that their only option
for financial stability was marriage. This unarticulated longing would lead to a major social upheaval towards the end of
the 1950s and would be the beginning of the second-wave feminist movement. This movement caused a shift in family values and
altered family structure for future generations to come. The 1950s Family Experiment would be short-lived but fondly remembered.
Several factors lead to the forming of the nuclear family. By the end of the 1940s, the divorce rate dropped sharply;
the age of marriage feel to a 100-year low; and the birth rate soared. Women dropped out of the workforce as soon as they
become pregnant and some young women had two or more children in diapers at once. Also during this time, the education gap
between young middle-class men and women increased and job segregation for working women and men peaked. Limited educational
and job opportunities for women made them more dependent on marriage for their financial well-being.
Young, newly
married couples were encouraged to sever their family ties and put all their emotional and financial eggs in the small basket
of the immediate nuclear family. Women were told by experts that all their energies should be used for their husbands and
children, not aging parents and other relatives. Psychiatrist Edward Strecker and various colleagues argued American boys
were infantilized and emasculated by women who were old-fashioned "moms" instead of modern "mothers".
Modern mothers placed their parents in nursing homes; old-fashioned mothers took their parents in at the expense of
their own "important" nuclear family. A modern mother was not supposed to have friends, a job, or anything or anyone
that would take attention from her husband and children. She was also supposed to grant early independence to her male child.
It is no wonder that many women who believed in this advice and put it into practice ending up abusing alcohol or tranquilizers
over the course of the decade.
Women were encouraged to confine themselves to a very narrow definition of "true"
womanhood by a variety of sources such as family education specialists and marriage counselors, columns in women's magazines,
government pamphlets, and above all television. These experts told women during the 1950s that their greatest role on the
planet was to be wives and mothers. The role of a "real" woman was to have no interest in a higher education or
a career and women were taught by these experts to pity women who had the nerve to want a life beyond being a wife and mother.
Televisions shows such as Donna Reed, Ozzie and Harriet, Leave It to Beaver, and Father Knows Best showed women how
much easier their lives would be if their families were like those families and the I Love Lucy show warned women about the
perils of what happened to a woman who wanted a career or if she schemed behind her husband's back (Coontz 38), The mothers
on Leave It to Beaver and Ozzie and Harriet were immaculately dressed with pearls around their necks. Their homes were clean
and their children never got into trouble. However, on I Love Lucy, Lucy usually looked terrible by the end of the episode.
Her hair was at times standing on top of her head and her clothes filthy from her weekly adventure. Women and their families
watched these shows and tried their best to emulate the perfect and bright lives shown to them on a weekly basis.
However, towards the end of the 1950s, a dramatic shift occurred. Cultural values changed dramatically and the children
of these women found the social immortality of their parents sickening. Many young adults and their mothers would march in
the streets to protest against sexism, racism, and militarism. Minorities and women began to receive the civil rights that
were rightfully due to them and more and more women entered the workforce, forcing a dynamic shift in childrearing practices.
By the 1970s, husbands and wives had begun to share household duties and women were no longer bound to their homes.
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
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