Transcript America in the 1950s - GHS Career Center

Popular Culture
of the 1950s:
“Conservatism, Complacency,
and Contentment”
OR
“Anxiety, Alienation, and
Social Unrest” ??
1. Baby Boom
It seems to me that every other young
housewife I see is pregnant.
-- British visitor to America, 1958
1957  1 baby born every 7 seconds
2. Suburbanization
• What is a suburb?
• What does it represent?
Levittown
1949: William Levitt produced 150 houses/week
$7,990 or $60/month with no down payment
($71,000 in today’s money)
The new
“American Dream”
By 1960: 1/3 of
the U. S.
population lives in
the suburbs
3. Gender Roles
Male
The ideal 1950s man was the provider,
protector, and the boss of the house.
- Life magazine, 1955
 A middle-class, white suburban male is the ideal
Women
• After the WWII,
housekeeping and
raising a family were
considered ideal
female roles – not
working outside the
home
• In the 1950s, women
felt tremendous social
pressure to focus on
getting a wedding ring.
The ideal modern woman married, cooked and
cared for her family, and kept herself busy by
joining the local PTA and leading a troop of
Campfire Girls. She entertained guests in her
family’s suburban house and worked out on the
trampoline to keep her size 12 figure.
-- Life magazine, 1956
•Have dinner ready. Plan ahead, even the night before, to have
a delicious meal ready on time for his return. This is a way of
letting him know that you have be thinking about him and are
concerned about his needs. Most men are hungry when they
get home and the prospect of a good meal is part of the warm
welcome needed.
•Prepare yourself. Take 15 minutes to rest so you’ll be
refreshed when he arrives. Touch up your make-up, put a
ribbon in your hair and be fresh-looking. He has just been
with a lot of work-weary people.
• Be a little happy and a little more interesting for him. His
boring day may need a lift and one of your duties is to provide
it.
•Clear away the clutter. Make one last trip through the main
part of the house just before your husband arrives. Gather up
schoolbooks, toys, paper, etc and then run a dustcloth over
the tables.
•During the cooler months of the year you should prepare and
light a fire for him to unwind by. Your husband will feel he
has reached a haven of rest and order, and it will give you a
lift too. After all, catering to his comfort will provide you
with immense personal satisfaction.
•Prepare the children. Take a few minutes to wash the
children’s hands and faces (if they small), comb their hair,
and, if necessary, change their clothes. They are little
treasures and he would like to see them playing the part.
•Minimize all noise. At the time of his arrival, eliminate all
noise of the washer, dryer or vacuum. Encourage the
children to be quiet.
•Be happy to see him.
•Greet him with a warm smile and show sincerity in your
desire to please him.
•Listen to him. You may have a dozen important things to tell
him, but the moment of his arrival is not the time. Let him
talk first – remember, his topics of conversation are more
important than yours.
•Make the evening his. Never complain if he comes home late
or goes out to dinner or other places of entertainment
without you. Instead, try to understand his world of strain
and pressure and his very real need to be at home and relax.
•You goal: Try to make sure your home is a place of peace,
order, and tranquility where your husband can renew himself
in body and spirit.
•Don’t greet him with complaints and problems.
•Don’t complain if he’s late for dinner or even if he stays out
all night. Count this as minor compared to what he might have
gone through that day
•Make him comfortable. Have him lean back in a comfortable
chair or lie him down in the bedroom. Have a cool or warm drink
ready for him.
•Arrange his pillow and offer to take off his shoes. Speak in a
low, soothing and pleasant voice.
•Don’t ask him questions about his actions or question his
judgment or integrity. Remember, he is the master of the
house and as such will always exercise his will with fairness and
truthfulness. You have no right to question him.
•A good wife always knows her place.
4. Changing Workplace
• 1947-1957: the number of factory workers
decreased due to factory automation
• By 1956: more white-collar (businessmen)
than blue-collar (factory) jobs in the US
New Corporate Culture:
“The Company Man”
4.Changing Workplace
• After the WWII, women were
encouraged to leave the workforce and
return home
• But some women did work outside the
home. By 1956, 35% of all adult women
were members of the labor force, and
nearly a quarter of all married women
were working.
5. The Economy
• One of the greatest periods of
economic expansion in the US
• Consumerism increased
• Franchise system flourish
• 1st major franchise was McDonalds
Consumerism
What does
this tell you
about 1950s
economy?
Corporate Consolidation by late
1950s
• 600 corporations
control 53% of total
corporate income
• Meaning a few
firms like Ford, GM,
Chrysler, & GE
dominated the
economy
WHY?
Cold War military buildup.
1950s – Credit card
“All babies (baby boomers) were potential
consumers who spearheaded a brand-new
market for food, clothing, and shelter.”
-- Life Magazine (May, 1958)
6. Television
“Television is a vast wasteland.”
1946 
1950 
7,000 TV sets in the U. S.
50,000,000 TV sets in the U. S.
•Beginning of mass media,
which celebrated
traditional American
values
•Beginning of TV dinners
•Grew because of
increased leisure time
The typical TV suburban
family
Father Knows Best
1954-1958
Leave It to Beaver
1957-1963
Portrayed a glossy view of
mostly white middle-class
suburban life
7. The
Culture
of the
Car
1956:
Interstate
Highway Act
• Largest public works project in American
history!
• Cost $32 billion
• 41,000 miles of new highways built
• Encouraged growth of suburbanization
America became a more
homogeneous (similar or
uniform) nation because of the
automobile and car culture
Drive-In Movies
First McDonald’s
1955
• Disneyland opened in Southern CA
• 40% of the guests came from
outside California, most by car
5. New Roles...
A. “The Teenager”
• During the 1950s, the word “teenager”
entered the American language
• There were 13 million teens with $7 billion to
spend a year
• Many listen to the new music of rock ‘n’ roll
Teenage Behavioral Rules
of the 1950s:
• Obey Authority
• Conform to middle class rules
and values
• Control Your Emotions
• Don’t Make Waves  Fit in
with the Group
B. The “Beat Movement”
 Members called “Beatniks”
 Artists, poets, and writers who
challenged conformity, social norms and
the suburban lifestyle
 Many were college students
 Examples:

Writer Jack Kerouac

Poet Allen Ginsberg
C. Rise of Rock ‘n’ Roll
• Musicians added
electronic instruments to
traditional blues music
creating a new style
called “Rock ‘n’ Roll”
• First played in 1951 by
DJ Alan Freed
• Because it grew out of
African American blues,
some people called “race
music”
•
Examples: Chuck Berry, Little
Richard, Bill Haley
Elvis Presley
“The King”
9. Religious Revival
Today in the U. S., the Christian faith is back in
the center of things. -- Time magazine, 1954
• Increase in church membership: 1940
64,000,000 people, 1960: 114,000,000
• Rise of television preachers who warned
against the evils of communism
• 1954: “Under God” added to Pledge of
Alliance to fight “godless communism”
• 1955 “In God We Trust” added to US money
• 1959: 95% of people felt a link with religion
10. Progress through
Science…
• 1951 -- First IBM Mainframe Computer
• 1952 -- Hydrogen Bomb Test
• 1953 -- DNA Structure Discovered
• 1954 -- Salk Vaccine Tested for Polio
• 1957 -- First Commercial U. S. Nuclear
Power Plant
• 1958 -- NASA Created
1957: Soviets launch SPUTNIK I
The Space Race is on…
Leads to the:
National Defense Education Act (1958)
which increased funding to math and
science education
Atomic Anxieties:
“Duck-and-Cover
Generation”
Atomic Testing:
1946-1962  U. S. exploded 217
nuclear weapons over the
Pacific and in Nevada.
The postwar era witnessed
tremendous economic growth
and rising social contentment
and conformity.
Yet in the midst of such
increasing affluence and
comfortable domesticity,
social critics expressed a
growing sense of unease with
American culture in the 1950s.