As the 1950s began, America had just been through two World Wars, Prohibition and the Great Depression. 100 million people had lost their lives, and these massive traumas reverberated in the collective psyche.  And as if that weren’t enough, America was now in the middle of the Cold War. We will now consider the decade of the 1950s keeping this in mind.

Is it Cold in Here or is it Just Me—
The Chilly Climate Of The Cold War

By 1950, both Russia and the United States had nuclear weapons—the Cold War had begun and the specter of nuclear annihilation loomed large.  In June of 1950, North Korea launched a surprise attack on South Korea beginning American involvement in the Korean War, which would not end until 1953.

Although there had been “red scares” before, most notably in the 1920s, McCarthy saw a communist behind every bush and pursued them on national television, where in the middle of the decade HUAC (House Un-American Activities Committee) hearings were televised live.  No industry was spared, and Hollywood was seriously affected by blacklisting. Communists were even suspected of lurking in the State Department and other governmental offices.  The Rosenbergs were found guilty of spying in 1951 and executed in 1953. 

In January 1950, Truman ordered the development of the Hydrogen Bomb, since Russia had successfully tested an atomic bomb the previous August.  By 1953, both the United States and Russia not only had atomic weapons, but both had hydrogen bombs. In 1952, an atomic test explosion was broadcast live in Nevada. Later that year, the first H-bomb was detonated at Eniwetok Atoll, and March 1, 1954 largest thermonuclear blast ever occurred at Bikini Atoll. 

The Cold War was now in full gear, and people were building fallout shelters in their back yards; and civil defense programs included air raid drills and “duck and cover” exercises.  The unimaginable was now imaginable—mankind now had the power to annihilate itself and life on the planet at the push of a button.  It was the beginning of the "Age of Anxiety" and the arms race: “People now spoke of ‘massive retaliation,’ ‘mutually assured destruction’ and with a nod to the economy ‘a bigger bang for a buck.’ The nuclear threat was never far from anyone’s mind” (Young & Young, 2004, p. 13).  Our naïvete at the time was almost laughable, as people were taught that tilting hat brims and wearing long sleeved shirts and hosiery might shield them from the heat flash, and jumping face first into ditches was also recommended.

Civil Rights—Right Here At Home

During the mid-1950s, civil rights came into widespread consciousness for the first time, as America wrestled with its shadow and realized the evils of racism and segregation.  The Supreme Court in 1954, overturned Plessy vs. Fergusson with Brown vs. Board of Education, (which they unanimously amplified in 1955) ruling that “separate but equal schools” are inherently unequal, and school segregation was ordered to be ended, “within a reasonable time.”  In December of 1955, Rosa Parks refused to take a back seat on the bus, leading to the Montgomery Bus Boycotts and propelling Martin Luther King Jr. to the forefront of the civil rights movement and into the national spotlight.  In 1956, the Supreme Court ruled that racially segregated seating on public transportation was illegal. Riots and protests ensued over the desegregation of schools, finally leading to Federal troops being called in to protect black students in Little Rock Arkansas in 1957.

The turn of the Twentieth Century with its massive urbanization looked like a bed of roses by comparison.  From where we stood mid-century, after the traumas of the previous decades and the threat of nuclear annihilation, those turn of the century times indeed looked like the "good old days."  Viewed in this light, much of what we saw in the 1950s can be viewed in a compensatory light.

Restraints and shortages of war years, prohibition and depression gave way to easy credit, abundant goods, and sugar filled cereals. We were consumed with consuming and instant gratification was the rule—popular culture’s content reflected this promise of fulfillment (Young & Young, 2004, p. xii). After World War II, the United States was the most powerful nation on Earth. Although America manufactured more than 1/2 of all world’s products, it was also  the single biggest consumer.  Credit cards appeared for the first time—Diner’s Club in 1950 and American Express in 1958, as a profound transformation occurred in America's attitude towards debt. The so-called “silent generation” that came of age in the “Fabulous Fifties” grew up in the lull before the storm.  

The Fifties was a decade of confidence, conformity, consumption and prosperity.  A sense of exterior calm, comfort and stability seemed to lull us into a false sense of security which we so desperately desired. Yet the Fifties was also an age of anxiety, tranquilizers and social unrest simmering beneath the surface, as civil rights became a national issue and segregation slowly started to disintegrate:

Acute observers could already detect cracks and fissures in the national mood, yet a nostalgic haze of consensus lingers over the Fifties, often held by those who never actually experienced the decade . . . . The Fifties portended great social and cultural changes.” (Young & Young, 2004, p. xiii)

In the 1950s the boundaries of culture blurred as popular culture absorbed everything with the expansion of mass culture especially through television.  Some saw this boundary blurring as popularization or democracy, while others felt it was vulgarization.  In a contradictory move, we also saw an acceleration of the individualization as formats splintered to appeal to narrower and more specialized audiences. The 1950s was also a time when many new kinds of culture proliferated, especially in music.

Yet, conformity seemed to hold sway, and was the watchword of the day.  Split-level and ranch-style suburban houses were exemplars of social conformity as well as the ubiquitous gray flannel suit.  The move to suburbia was seen as a paradise.  The mass media, “especially television served as the voice and vision of conformity—they provided common experiences in similar but separate surroundings."  Television, as we will see was the darling of the decade to many, although some considered it “the idiot box,” “the boob tube,” or the “light that failed.” Edward R. Murrow, the decade’s top TV commentator said:

"If television and radio are to be used for entertainment of all of the people all of the time, we have come perilously close to discovering the real opiate of the people." Opiate it very nearly was.  By 1959 the average US family was sitting before the box some six hours a day, seven days a week.  (Bowen, 1970a, p. 250)

Focus On The Family

The birth of Little Ricky on the I Love Lucy in 1953 (filmed in 1952) was one of most watched events in TV history.  This mirrors the intense focus on the family that the Fifties was famous for.  As we shall see later, many television shows from that time, which are still popular today in syndication, focused on the family. Life seemed to revolve around the home, which was increasingly suburban.  Suburbia was seen as a safe place to raise the kids, of which there were many in the post war Baby Boom.  By 1958 almost a third of the population was 15 or under. The baby boom reflected in the birthrate by 1959 was 3.51 vs 2.2 in the 1930s. The home was a focus for a way of life, and became the “nexus of sharing” (Young & Young, 2004, p. 8). The nucleus of the nuclear family was the kitchen, seen as a place for entertainment as well as work.  The kitchen was a big cultural symbol of the 1950s; the home was the center of life, and the kitchen was the symbolic center of the home.

Although around a third of American women were active in the workforce, providing family happiness was the cultural message to Fifties women.  Now that World War II was over, women were expected to return home and turn their talents toward the home, where they were glorified as housewives. Mass media persuaded women to find fulfillment in the roles of wife, mother, cook, and hostess. Comfort, convenience, and happy lifestyles were prominent themes; fun and recreation were seen as the focus of modern living (Young & Young, 2004).

Father Knows Best, The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet, Leave it to Beaver, Make Room for Daddy, and The Donna Reed Show espoused strong family values.  Family togetherness, Tupperware parties, and the do-it-yourself craze reflected the centrality of the home and family.  There was a lot to do around the home: paint-by-number kits and different crafts were popular as were model trains, planes, and cars.  Collecting became a hobby, and games like Scrabble and Canasta became crazes.  Mr. Potato Head became a runaway success in 1952.  And of course, the family could watch television together.

As childhood had become a distinct time at the turn of the century, “teenage” became a time in the 1950s.  Although the term had first appeared in the 1920s, “the idea that there was a time of life between childhood and adulthood that could be isolated and that had its own characteristics, belongs largely to the 1950s” (Maltby, 1989, p. 140).  The flourishing postwar economy created a market for working teenagers, whose income was largely disposable.  Teenagers became an economic force to be reckoned with, and they had their own tastes, which were many times at odds with their elders.  The tots going through their terrible twos of the 1950s would become the teens of the 1960s.

Fifties Foods—Frosty Frozen and Fast

Since sugar was no longer in short supply, as it had been during the war years, sugar-coated breakfast cereals were serious business, becoming a multibillion-dollar enterprise.  Kellogg weighed in with Sugar Pops and Sugar Frosted Flakes in 1950, and then Sugar Smacks in 1953 with a 56% sugar content, followed later by Frosted Krispies.  While General Mills marshaled up Trix, with a 46% sugar content, Frosty-O’s and Kix.  Both companies added chocolate to their lineup with Kellogg's Cocoa Krispies and General Mills Cocoa Puffs.  To offer sweet taste without sugar, sugar-free chewing gum and soft drinks first appeared on the scene in 1951 and 1952. 

TV dinners were introduced in 1954, following the success of Swanson’s frozen turkey pot pies in 1951.  TV dinners had metal trays with separate compartments and featured a television screen showing the meal on their cover.  TV dinners, eaten in front of the television, were a “telling comment both on the impact of TV and the growing informality that characterized the decade.” (Young & Young, 2004, p. 102)

Fast foods also appeared, because the United States was a nation on the move.  Dunkin’ Donuts led the pack in 1950, followed by Jack in the Box in 1951, Kentucky Fried Chicken and Sonic in 1953, Shakey’s Pizza and Burger King in 1954. McDonalds, a regional franchise appeared in 1953, and the "Golden Arches"would go national in 1955, after Ray Kroc, a former milk-shake machine vendor bought the McDonald brouthers out. A burger, fries and a coke became the standard meal in America.  The combination of speed and standardization was hard to beat.

From Science Firsts to Science Fiction

Big science and technology in the 1950s, apart from placing us on the precipice of extinction also gave us the first organ transplant, and a cure for polio, which saved tens of thousands of lives a year (Young and Young, 2004, p. xii). The structure of the DNA molecule and Vitamin B12 were both discovered in the early 1950s.  In 1956, morphine was synthesized, the same year that the TV remote control and Velcro were introduced.

The first commercial business computers were first manufactured in the early 1950s. UNIVAC (universal automatic computer), successor to the first computer ENIAC (electronic numerical integrator and computer) of 1946, was the first computer to store memory.  UNIVAC ushered in the "Information Age" in 1951 when it was used by the Census Bureau, becoming the first commercial computer.  Although IBM had developed a working computer in 1950 and had only sold 20 of them, Big Blue came out with their 700 series in 1954 and later in the decade had sold over a thousand. Xerox introduced the first copying machine in 1950, and mechanical mimesis—making Xeroxes—became possible.

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© 2005-2007 Karen Pohn
Karen Pohn is not associated in any official way with the Walt Disney Company, its subsidiaries, or its affiliates. The official Disney site is available at www.disney.com. This web site cosmicplay.net is my dissertation for my PhD in Depth Psychology at Pacifica Graduate Institute, www.pacifica.edu
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