Transcript No Slide Title

The Mentality
• Gee, golly, that’s
swell!
• Why that’s just nifty,
Steve!
• Let’s all have some
good, wholesome,
clean fun!
• Honey, I’m home!
• Dinner’s on the table,
dear!
Family Life
• Stereotypical gender
roles- Mother stays
home and has dinner
ready when Father gets
home
• Divorce? Not in this
lifetime, you just
worked it out and
stayed together forever
• Conformity- Fitting the
mold
Money Then, Money Now
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House: $14,500
Average income: $3,216
Ford car: $1339-$2262
TV system: $549.50
12" records: $4.85
Milk: $.82
Gas: $.20
Postage stamp: $.03
Sirloin steak: $.77 lb
Back seat bingo = Necking in a car
Get with it = Understand
Horn = Telephone
Hottie = A very fast car
Ankle Biter = a child
Like crazy; like wow = Better than cool
Paper shaker = Cheerleader
Pile up Z's = Get some sleep
Radioactive = Very popular
Reds = The Communists
Wazoo = Your rear end
What's buzzin, Cuzzin = What's new?
More Lingo...
• Add “ville” to anything…loserville,
squareville, deadsville, coolville…
• The word “COOL,” despite what you
think, was coined by the 50’s
generation…yes, that would mean YOUR
grandparents!
• Kids would use cute phrases like, nifty,
golly, and swell… a far cry from those
“cute words” you hear in the halls today.
The 50’s Fashion Agenda
• No one went anywhere sloppy--the look
was CONSERVATIVE; imagine that.
• Girls always wore dresses, unless playing
outside--they are taught to be a “lady”
from birth
• The look was tailored and refined
• Gloves, heels, and often a hat, completed
a woman’s outfit
• Boys attended school dressed in ties,
sweaters, and dress pants--girls dresses.
Actual 50’s Fashions
I DON’T
THINK SO!
More Richie,
less Fonzie!
Check out the HAIR!
Ah, if only we all
could look like
Sandra Dee!
The POPULAR
DUCKTAIL
The Creators of “FADS”
• Hula hoop
• 3-D movies
• Pink - not the
singer
• Poodles
• Chlorophyll
• Coonskin Caps
• Telephone
cramming
And More Fads...
What people would do
to break a record!
• I Dream of
Jeannie
• I Love Lucy
• Leave it to Beaver
• Lassie
• Ed Sullivan
• Mr. Ed
• Donna Reed
• Dennis the Menace
Television...
Gray but FUN!
Top Movies of the 50’s
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Ben-Hur
Singin’ in the Rain
Roman Holiday
Hitchcock’s Vertigo
Shane
Some Like It Hot
Streetcar Named
Desire
Bye, bye Miss American Pie...
• February 3rd, 1959
• Private plane left Iowa
from a concert headed
for Fargo, ND.
• Buddy Holly
Buddy Holly
– “Peggy Sue”
– “That’ll Be the Day”
• “Big Bopper”
– “Chantilly Lace”
Richie Valens
• Richie Valens
– “La Bamba”
“The Big Bopper”
Can you dig it, man?
 The term beat, or beatnik, originally referred to
someone poor and exhausted…
 Jack Kerouac coined it to describe “people of a
special spirituality”
 The Beats: Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac, William
Burroughs, Neal Cassidy, and many others.
They wrote poems and stories that let their spirit
take over the writing; much of the Beat works
were written in a stream of consciousness.
Poem: “Howl”
Book: On the Road
The Six Poets at Sixth Gallery:
Legendary Poetry Slam
• October 7th, 1955
–San Francisco
• Jack Kerouac collected the money.
Bought the wine. 150 people
attended. 5 great writers
read…then it was Allen Ginsberg’s
turn.
He read from “Howl”
"I saw the best minds of my
generation destroyed by madness,
starving hysterically naked,
dragging themselves through the
negro streets at dawn looking for an
angry fix..."
Jack began
chanting...
And he read in methodic rhythm...
“...yacketayakking screaming vomiting
whispering facts and memories and
anecdotes and eyeball kicks and shocks of
hospitals and jails and wars,
whole intellects disgorged in total recall
for seven days and nights with brilliant
eyes…”
and the audience
chanted...
The poem took off into
orbit...
“...Moloch! Moloch! Robot
apartments! invisible suburbs!
skeleton treasuries! blind capitals!
demonic industries! spectral
nations! invincible madhouses!
granite c****! monstrous bombs!”
And when he had
finished...
• Jack was in ecstasy
• Allen was exhausted
• The audience was in tears
• And the world finally
understood what it meant to
be beat
By J.D. Salinger
Central Park
Central Park
Carousel House
Rockefeller Center
Radio City Music Hall
American Museum of
Natural History
Peter Lorre
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Casablanca
Maltese Falcon
M
The Man Who
Knew Too Much
Gary Cooper
• High Noon
• Love in the
Afternoon (w/
Audrey Hepburn)
• Pride of the
Yankees
• For Whom the Bell
Tolls
• Mr. Deeds Goes to
Town
• Most respected,
popular and
critically acclaimed
acting troupe
• Extremely
innovated and
different acting
shows
• People would do
anything to see the
Lunts, in plays or
just at their
vacation spot
The Lunts
The Lunt Fontanne Theatre
Sites of NYC in 1950’s
Central Park
Pond
Washington
Square Park
Hot Dog Vender
Themes:
Catcher in the Rye
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Loss of Innocence
Society vs. Man
Man vs. Self
Painfulness of Growing Up
Alienation/Self Protection
Phoniness of Adult World