BABY BOOM Teens and Rock Well Defined Gender Roles TV 1950'S CULTURE Society of the 1950s BABY BOOM Teens and Rock Well Defined Gender Roles TV 1950'S CULTURE SUBURBS CONFORMITY Automobile Cold War Paranoia Consumerism

1957  1 baby born every 7 seconds Baby Boom It seems to me that every other young housewife I see is pregnant. -- British visitor to America, 1958 1957  1 baby born every 7 seconds

$7,990 or $60/month with no down payment. Suburban Living Levittown: “The American Dream” 1949  William Levitt produced 150 houses per week. $7,990 or $60/month with no down payment.

Suburban Living: The New “American Dream” 1 story high 12’x19’ living room 2 bedrooms tiled bathroom garage small backyard front lawn

SHIFTS IN POPULATION DISTRIBUTION, 1940-1970 Suburban Living SHIFTS IN POPULATION DISTRIBUTION, 1940-1970 1940 1950 1960 1970 Central Cities 31.6% 32.3% 32.6% 32.0% Rural Areas/ 48.9% 43.9% 36.7% 26.4% Small Towns Suburbs 19.5% 23.8% 30.7% 41.6%

Well-Defined Gender Roles The ideal modern woman married, cooked and cared for her family, and kept herself busy by joining the local PTA and leading a troop of Campfire Girls. She entertained guests in her family’s suburban house and worked out on the trampoline to keep her size 12 figure. -- Life magazine, 1956 The ideal 1950s man was the provider, protector, and the boss of the house. -- Life magazine, 1955

Television Truth, Justice, and the American way! 1946  7,000 TV sets in the U. S. 1950  50,000,000 TV sets in the U. S. TV caused U.S. to become a more homogeneous, conformist nation. Mass Audience  TV celebrated traditional American values. Truth, Justice, and the American way!

Television – The Western Davy Crockett King of the Wild Frontier Sheriff Matt Dillon, Gunsmoke The Lone Ranger (and his faithful sidekick, Tonto): Who is that masked man??

Television - Family Shows Glossy view of mostly middle-class suburban life. I Love Lucy

Suburban Living: The Typical TV Suburban Families The Donna Reed Show 1958-1966 Leave It to Beaver 1957-1963 Father Knows Best 1954-1958 The Ozzie & Harriet Show 1952-1966

1950’s TV & Popular Culture Popular entertainment, like a TV situation comedy, reflects the social trends and values of the era when they were produced. What do these 1950’s “sit coms” tell us about social attitudes common in American culture during the 1950’s?

1950  Introduction of the Diner’s Card Consumerism 1950  Introduction of the Diner’s Card

Consumerism

The Culture of the Car Car registrations: 1945  25,000,000 1960  60,000,000 2-car families double from 1951-1958 1958 Pink Cadillac 1959 Chevy Corvette

Interstate Highway Act 1956 Largest public works project in American history! 41,000 miles of new highways built. Cost $32 billion.

The Culture of the Car Drive-In Movies First McDonald’s (1955) Howard Johnson’s

The Culture of the Car The U. S. population was on the move in the 1950s. New Engl. & Mid-West  South & SW (“Sunbelt” states) 1955  Disneyland opened in Southern California. (40% of the guests came from outside California, most by car.) Frontier Land Main Street Tomorrow Land

The “Beat” Generation In the midst of the increasing affluence, social critics expressed a growing sense of unease with American culture in the 1950s. Rejection of materialism Rejection of conformity Allen Ginsberg's Howl (1956), and Jack Kerouac's On the Road (1957) are among the best known examples of Beat literature. The Beat Generation was a group of American post-World War II writers who came to prominence in the 1950s, as well as the cultural phenomena that they both documented and inspired. Central elements of "Beat" culture included rejection of received standards, innovations in style, experimentation with drugs, alternative sexualities, an interest in Eastern religion, a rejection of materialism, and explicit portrayals of the human condition.[1] Allen Ginsberg's Howl (1956), William S. Burroughs's Naked Lunch (1959) and Jack Kerouac's On the Road (1957) are among the best known examples of Beat literature.[2] Both Howl and Naked Lunch were the focus of obscenity trials that ultimately helped to liberalize publishing in the United States.[3][4] The members of the Beat Generation developed a reputation as new bohemian hedonists, who celebrated non-conformity and spontaneous creativity. The original "Beat Generation" writers met in New York. Later, in the mid-1950s, the central figures (with the exception of Burroughs) ended up together in San Francisco where they met and became friends of figures associated with the San Francisco Renaissance. In the 1960s, elements of the expanding Beat movement were incorporated into the hippie and larger counterculture movements.