Culture of the 1950

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• Culture of the 1950s
• Politics, Economics, Entertainment and Family Life

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Politics-

• Harry Truman
• Widely viewed as honorable, down-to-earth,
  self-confident.
• Had the ability to make difficult decisions and
  to accept full responsibility for the
  consequences.

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Politics-

• 1946- 4.5 million discontented workers went on
  strike due to facing higher prices and lower
  wages.
• Truman threatens to draft the striking workers
  and to order them as soldiers to stay on the job
  workers give in.
• 1946- I am asking for equality of opportunity
  for all human beings and if that ends up in my
  failure to be reelected, that failure will be in
  a good cause.
• July 1948- Issued an executive order for
  integration of the armed forces and ordered an
  end to discrimination in the hiring of government
  employees.

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Politics-

• 1948 election- Southern Democrats protest
  Trumans stand on civil rights and form own party
  called Dixiecrats.
• Progressive Party was another party created to
  oppose Truman, again made of Democrats.
• Truman wins election in an upset but suffered
  large losses in the South.
• Trumans ideas prevail
• Congress raised hourly wage from 40 to 75 cents.
• Extended Soc. Security to about 10 million more
  people.
• Provided financial support for cities to clear
  out slums and build 810,000 housing units.

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Politics-

• Dwight Eisenhower
• Followed a middle-of-the-road course.
• Avoided many controversial issues
• However during two terms, raised the minimum
  wage, extended Social Security and unemployment
  benefits, backed the creation of interstate
  highways.

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Politics-

• While running for president, running mate Richard
  Nixon accused of profiting from a secret slush
  fund.
• Nixon went on TV, gave Checkers speech to 58
  million viewers
• Ike goes on to win election despite this issue
• Oct.1957- During Ikes 2nd term, Soviets launch
  first artificial satellite Sputnik into space.
• Americans shocked that we were not the first and
  start to turn on Ike.

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Politics-

• Remember Eisenhowers open skies proposal that
  was rejected in 1955 at Geneva?
• Well, CIA began making secret high-altitude
  flights over Soviet territory with a plane called
  U-2, a plane which could fly at high altitudes
  without detection.
• Took pictures of troop movement and missile
  sites.
• Ike wants to stop the U-2 flights b/c he and new
  Soviet leader, Nikita Khrushchev, were going to
  hold another conference.

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Politics-

• May 1, 1960- Ike talked into green-lighting one
  more flight.
• A Soviet plan shot down Francis Gary Powers and
  his U-2 plane which forced him to parachute into
  Soviet territory.
• Eisenhower first LIES about U-2 spying but soon
  admits it.
• Khrushchev calls off the summit and the U-2
  incident opens tension between the Soviets and
  Americans at the start of the 1960s.

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ECONOMICS
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Economics-

• GI Bill of Rights- encouraged veterans to get an
  education by paying part of their tuition,
  guaranteed them a years worth of unemployment,
  and offered low-interest loans.
• However, U.S. Government immediately canceled war
  contracts totaling 35 billion and more than 1
  million defense workers laid off.
• March 1946- nearly 3 million people seeking work.

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Economics-

• July 1946- cost of consumer products soared 25
  and prices continued to rise for the next two
  years until the supply of goods caught up with
  the demand.
• Most economists predicted a possible postwar
  depression but were wrong
• Citizens had gone without many goods for so long
  that they estimated 135 billion was in savings
  accounts and war bonds.
• The demand for goods and services outstripped the
  supply and increased production, which meant more
  jobs.

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FAMILY LIFE
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Family Life-

• Tension created by changes in mens and womens
  roles after the war contributed to a rising
  divorce rate.
• During war, 8 million women (75 married) entered
  the workforce.
• Many were reluctant to give up their newfound
  independence when husbands returned.
• Although most women did leave their jobs, more
  than a million war marriages ended in divorce by
  1950.

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Family Life-

• 1945/1946- returning veterans faced a severe
  housing shortage.
• Developers such as William Levitt used efficient,
  assembly-line methods to mass-produce houses.
• Suburbs- homes offered in small residential
  communities surrounding cities.
• Americans loved the openness and small-town feel
  to the planned suburbs and many veterans and
  their families moved in to the burbs.

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Family Life-

• Baby Boom- during late 1940s and through the
  early 1960s birthrate in U.S. soared.
• 1957- 1 American infant was born every 7 seconds
  for a total of 4,308,000.
• Many factors for this boom
• Reunion of husband and wife
• Decreasing marriage age
• Desirability of large families
• Confidence in continued economic prosperity
• Advances in medicine

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Family Life-

• Dr. Jonas Salk- developed a vaccine for the
  crippling disease of polio.
• Dr. Ben Spock- Common Sense Book of Baby and
  Child Care sold nearly 10 million copies during
  1950s.
• Advised parents not to spank or scold child.
• Encouraged families to hold meetings in which
  children could express themselves.
• 1958- toy sales alone reached 1.25 billion.
• During 1950s, 10 million new students entered
  elementary schools.
• In Cali, a new school opened every 7 days.

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Family Life-
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Family Life-

• Role of homemaker and mother was glorified in
  popular magazines, movies, and TV.
• However, a popular survey in the 1950s showed
  1/5 of suburban wives were dissatisfied with
  their lives.
• By 1960- almost 40 of mothers with children
  between 6-17 held paying jobs.
• But having a job did not mean happiness Womens
  career opportunities tended to be limited
  (nurses, office support)
• Also earned less money

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Family Life-

• Because people were able to work a lot, they
  earned several weeks of vacation per year.
• 1953- Americans spent approx. 30 billion on
  leisure goods and activities.
• Started fishing, bowling, hunting, boating, golf.
• Popular magazines start to be produced such as
  Readers Digest and Sports Illustrated at high
  paces, 190 million readers.
• Sales of comic books become popular as well.

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Family Life-

• Remember the rationing of gasoline during WWII
• New car sales rose from 6.7 million in 1950 to
  7.9 million in 1955.
• Suburbs did not provide public transportation and
  people needed to buy cars to get to work, other
  things like doctor, stores far off.
• Automania- spurred local/state governments to
  construct roads linking the major cities while
  connecting schools, shopping centers, workplaces.

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Family Life-

• Automobile industry boom stimulated production
  and provided jobs in other areas such as drive-in
  movies, restaurants.
• Not all good, automobile accidents claimed many
  lives and traffic jams more common.

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ENTERTAINMENT
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Entertainment-

• Music, TV/Movies, and Sports are huge during this
  period
• 1950- TV reached 9 of American homes and 55 of
  homes by 1954.
• 1960- almost 90 of American homes had TV
• Federal Communications Commission (FCC)-
  government agency that regulates and licenses
  television, telephone, telegraph, radio.
• Sales of TV Guide quickly outpaced sales of other
  magazines and TV dinner made during this time.

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Entertainment-

• Popular TV Shows of 50s
• I Love Lucy
• Honeymooners
• Lassie
• Leave it to Beaver
• Ed Sullivan Show
• Mickey Mouse Club
• Howdy Doody Show
• Sitcoms and Variety Shows are popular shows
  during this time.

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Entertainment-

• However, critics objected to its effects on
  children and its stereotypical portrayal of women
  and minorities.
• Male characters outnumbered women 3 to 1
• TV never included references to poverty,
  diversity, or civil rights.
• Movie theaters suffered huge loss because more
  and more families stayed home and watched TV.
• Tried to compete with TV by creating
  Smell-O-Vision and Aroma-Rama which piped smells
  into the theaters to coincide with events shown
  on screen.

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Entertainment-

• Beat movement- expressed the social and literary
  nonconformity of artists, poets, and writers.
• Beats or beatniks tended to shun regular work and
  sought higher forms of learning.
• Rock n Roll- a name of music that has come to
  mean music thats both black and white.
• Alan Freed was first to actually play this music
  on the air in Cleveland, OH in 1951.
• Jazz- a style of music characterized by the use
  of improvisation.

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Entertainment-