The flight to the suburbs

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KPFA in the 1950s
Alan Watts
Pauline Kael
Kenneth Rexroth
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1954 CIA overthrows democratically elected
regime of Guatemala

• Jacobo Arbenz supports land reform
• Offers United Fruit for land to be distributed
  to Guatemalan farmers
• Secy of State John Foster Dulles accuses him of
  being a communist
• CIA chief (and brother) Allan Dulles engineers
  revolt against Arbenz

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Drew Pearson
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The abnormally normal 1950s

• Family size goes way up in 1950s
• Marriage rate goes up average age of marriage
  goes down
• Crew cut becomes mandatory sign of masculinity
• Feminism largely disappears from public
  discussion

Fallout shelters, circa 1954
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the Beat poets . . .
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The Beats become Beatniks . . .
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Alfred Kinsey, 1894-1956
Sexual Behavior in the Human Male, 1948, found
that . . . Most men masturbate . . . and thats
fine . . . One third of men have had a
homosexual experience . . . and thats ok too .
. . Sexual Behavior in the Human Female, 1953,
found that . . . Most women achieve orgasm more
efficiently via means other than vaginal
penetration. And, hey, thats ok folks, just
relax . . .
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Founded in 1953 by Hugh Hefner Celebrated the
bachelor life Celebrated home technology for
men Championed civil liberties for both men and
women, including the right to choose pregnancy
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• Founded by William Gaines in the mid-1950s
• Reaction to the Kefauver hearings on comic books
  in 1954
• and the creation of the Comics Code
• The first popular lampoon magazine in U.S.
  history

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Superman, circa 1954
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The Twilight Zone, 1959-1964
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The Twilight Zone, 1959-1964
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