the 50s Commies, beatniks and the boob tube

On Dec. 1, 1955, a Black seamstress on her peyton place A cold war between the United States and way home refused to give her bus seat to a the Soviet Union, great strides in civil rights, White man and was arrested. Four days later, television as an everyday part of American life and playboy 90 per cent of Montgomery Blacks boycotted and the beginning of the space era marked the the buses. Nearly one year later the boycott 1950s. ended when the Supreme Court ruled bus The four-year binge of hysteria and Novels and mysteries were the most segregation illegal. The biggest step forward From character assassination led by Senator Joseph popular, among them, James Jones' in civil rights, however, had occurred one year Catcher in McCarthy perhaps best characterizes the Here to Eternity, J. D. Salinger's earlier when the Supreme Court unanimously The Status Seekers, nation's underlying mood throughout the the Rye, Vance Packard's ruled against segregation in public schools. and Jean decade. During the period dubbed as the "Red Grace Metalious' Peyton Place, Although several advances toward in- Scare," McCarthy unleashed the unspoken Kerr's Please Don't Eat the Daisies. tegration were made and nonviolent tactics Magazines of the era became more fears of the nation on many prominent men. were advocated, racial tension and riots Bomb shelters (some even pre-fabricated) specialized and the 38-year-old favorite occurred during the later part of the decade. folded in were built nationwide and air raids became general interest magazine, Collier's, Much of the tension could be attributed to routine in public schools. America's fear of 1957. New magazines beginning in the 50s Eisenhower's noncommital attitude and his the communist threat vested itself in Mc- included Playboy (with Marilyn Monroe as its lack of support of the Supreme Court's ruling first pin-up), Sports Illustrated, Mad, TV Carthy's smear tactics. for "deliberate speed" in integrating schools. The Soviets had three times as many Guide and Jet. combat planes as the U.S., four times as many Revolts against the traditional, abstract art, troops and 30 tank divisions to our one, but space race begins and a new form of comedy, sharp and satiric, until 1949, when news of the Soviets' first gained popularity. The more famous atomic bomb leaked to the U.S., there had comedians included Mort Sahl, Shelley The constant struggle between the U.S. and been little fear of communism. Nobel prize- Berman and the team of Mike Nichols and winning chemist Harold C. Urey best sums up the U.S.S.R. was again manifested in the Oct. Elaine May. the nation's emotions: "There is only one 4, 1957, beginning of the "space race." On that Rebellious youth are a part of every decade, thing worse than one nation having the atomic day Russia launched the first earth satellite and the rebellion of the 50s was manifested in and then a second on Nov. 3, containing a live bomb—that's two nations having it." beatniks and motorcycle gangs. Emerging in dog. On Jan. 3, 1958, the U.S. launched The stunned nation's fears were reinforced the mid-50s, the beatniks claimed "mystical Jupiter, with a monkey in the nose cone. The by the Korean invasion on June 25, 1950. powers" and developed their own literature— monkey was reported to have survived the Critics labeled the foreign policy of con- undisciplined but powerful. Males sported flight, but the cone was lost in the Atlantic tainment (gaining native support and then beards, short hair, khaki pants, sweaters and Ocean. Thus began the race to put the first giving economic and technical assistance) as sandals. Female counterparts wore black slow, expensive and ineffective. All-out man on the moon. leotards and heavy eye shadow. With the space race came an average economic and military aid to Asian nations Clothed in black leather jackets, skintight fighting communism was advocated. The split sighting of 600 unidentified flying objects per jeans, boots, tatooed and with greased down year which led the U.S. Air Force to spend further bewildered Americans. hair, the motorcycle gang members exhibited This situation led President Harry Truman $600,000 annually to try to solve the source of reckless courage. Their "chicks" were tousle- to authorize production of the hydrogen mysterious flying saucers. haired and wore identical clothing. bomb early in 1950. The investigation and Another phenomena emerging from the 50s "Normal" male teens wore ducktails or later confession of Dr. Klaus Fuchs, a British was the look-a-like rows of houses on the crewcuts, baggy trousers, tee shirts, white physicist who had worked on the Los Alamos outskirts of the city—"suburbia," where there socks and oxfords. Meanwhile, the female project, that he had given information to was a house for everyone. Moving from the fashions ranged from clingy to full-length Russia concerning the atomic bomb cleared dirty, crowded cities, millions of Americans dresses and skirts, bobbi socks, saddle shoes consciously or unconsciously sought the or tennis shoes, and the "poodle," a closely- the path for McCarthy. higher social status of suburbia. Equipped In a speech on Feb. 4, 1950, the stocky and cropped curly hairstyle was the latest thing. with lawns, backyard barbeque pits and balding McCarthy brandished a document cocktail parties, suburban parents felt their Once dominated by adults, the record and proclaimed, "I have in my hands a list of children could enjoy the "cultural ad- market had been taken over by teens by 1958. 205 names known to the Secretary of State as Rocking and rolling to the music of Elvis being members of the Communist Party and vantages" of Cub Scouts, Girl Scouts, Little League and music and dancing lessons. Presley, Fabian, Frankie Avalon, Bobby who, nonetheless, are still working and Darrin, Little Anthony and Ricky Nelson, shaping the policy of the State Department." teens shocked adults with their loud music In later speeches the number kept decreasing and scandalous dancing. until 10 days later, when appearing before the opiate of the people Teens had their own slang—"blast off" Senate, he had 81 cases, all of which were meant drop dead, "drag," meant dreary, a proven false. "passion pit" was a drive-in, and a "yo-yo" was Still, the once poor farm boy, determined to a dull person. Along with suburbia, the first television make it big, continued his mudslinging of As fads come and go, so do decades. fellow senators, Secretary of State Dean generation was produced. The scapegoat of Progress and prosperity marked the 50s, but everyone during the 50s, television was often Acheson and President Truman, whom he so did war and fear, two things Americans called the "boob tube," the "idiot box" and a referred to as "the pied piper of the polit- continue to experience and perhaps always corrupter. Despite constant criticism, bureau." Some high officials even agreed with will. him. Senator Richard Nixon said, "Traitors in television was deeply rooted in this generation high councils of our own government have and by 1959, it was viewed six hours per day, Cynda Muzzy made sure that the deck is stacked on the seven days a week by the average American Soviet side." family. The House Un-American Committee Most the medium's criticism came from searched for and rooted out a few. communist veteran performers and newsmen who sympathizers in high offices, adding to the couldn't make the switch to television. One growing Red Scare. The explosion on Nov. 1, famed newsman who could, Edward R. 1952, of the U.S.'s first hydrogen bomb and Murrow, said, "If television and radio are to I L4 Lgi ff" 1_11 the Korean Armistice in 1953, began to calm be used for entertainment all the time, we most Americans' fears. McCarthy was con- have come perilously close to discovering the demned by the Senate in 1954, and most real opiate of the people." DOMINO'S PIZZA Americans began to close their bomb shelters Televising of political conventions, the and cheer newly-elected President Dwight Kefauver hearings on organized crime and the Ph. 289-2866 Eisenhower, a former soldier bringing Army-McCarthy hearings, spurred one promises of peace and prosperity. But television executive to say, "Perhaps Fast, Free throughout the decade conflicts in the Middle television is going to change one great East and Indochina kept alive an un- American habit which none of us thought too Deliver dercurrent of fear of the bomb, war and much about—apathy." If not a cure for I •saT. Nig t Special annihilation. apathy, television did make most owners night 2nd Item Free on owls. Before television, 63 per cent of Americans were asleep by midnight, but by I Any Large Pizza civil rights 1951, 75 per cent of television owners were I One Coupon Per Pizza staying up to watch late night shows. Offer Good Jan. 13 Only Although many considered television a threat to culture, 35 million attended classical While the rest of the nation fervently hoped music performances in 1955, twice as many as I • Sun. Night Special for international peace, Black Americans attended major league baseball games. Book 2 Free Pepsi's began their fight for equality. Led by Dr. sales were up 53 per cent for the decade. I with Large Pizza Martin Luther King, Jr., Blacks used non- Chairman of the board of Simon and Schuster violent tactics which King termed "the most publishing company said, "More people are I One Coupon Per Pizza potent technique for oppressed people." One staying home to watch a favorite television • 'Offer Good Jan. 14 Only su =rum= Nem am Ns of the most effective examples of King's program. Then they find it's too late to go out J N. tactics was the Black boycott of Montgomery, and too early to go to bed, so they read ERIEIEIEIENIE Alabama, buses. books."