50s Pop Culture

  1. The Postwar Booming Economy

“Never again shall we allow a depression in the United States.” – These were the words of President Dwight Eisenhower

The economy was booming due to various factors:

  1. Massive ______spending
  2. this also helped spawn industries such as chemicals, electronics, and aviation
  3. American manufacturers basically had amonopoly on______because other industrialized nations had beendevastated by ______
  4. ______made the workplace more efficient
  5. More tasks were automated and production increased greatly.
  6. People had been putting off purchasing big items such as ______and ______due to the war and were now buying them

And they were buying them in the ______

  1. G.I. Bill of Rights
  2. This led to the creation of a new government agency called the ______
  3. Veterans could receive unemployment, preference for civil service jobs, ______, access to hospitals, and money for ______or professional training.
  4. Many veterans used this to go to ______and get an education
  5. An Expanding Consumer Culture
  6. People were living in excess and buying more than they ever had before
  7. The most popular household product was by far the ______with America going from 7,000 black and white TVs in 1946 to ______high quality TV sets in 1960
  8. The TV changed American life forever as watching TV became an______part of everyday life
  9. People started to get away from eating dinner at ______and used ______and ______to make eating more
  10. The advertising industry takes off, and advertising expenditures increased ______in the 1950’s
  11. The president of NBC said in 1956 that “advertising has created an American frame of mind that makes people want ______
  12. ______were also now available so purchasing many of the things people wanted was no problem

II. Life in the American Home

  • The work day was shrunk from five and a half days to ______
  • There was more ______time than before
  • Manual labor was giving way to mental labor and many people were working for corporations
  • 60% of the population was ______
  • Many people moved into white middle class______
  • In 1956 the ideal woman according to Life magazine was 32 years old, mother of 4, pretty and popular, suburban housewife that was married at age 16
  • She was a ______
  • Women were supposed to stay at home and look after the children
  • People joined many clubs such as civic clubs, bridge clubs, carpools, and babysitting groups
  • People also joined ______and synagogues in record numbers
  • Communists were ______so we needed to be actively involved in the church
  • Sales of Bibles and religious books and tapes also soared
  • The belief in God was encouraged so much that Dwight Eisenhower made it mandatory that ______be printed on every piece of currency
  • ______was added to the Pledge of Allegiance

III. Youth Culture – a teen subculture emerges

  1. The young people in the United States had more ______and ______than any other generation
  2. ______gave teenagers mobility that they’d never had before.
  3. ______became increasingly important and led to the development of new markets such as transistor radios, hula hoops, and rock and roll records.
  4. Some parents were pessimistic. One social critic said that the American family was ______
  5. ______emerges as a cultural phenomenon
  6. The term was coined by Alan Freed, a disc jockey in Cleveland, Ohio in 1951
  7. This kind of music was considered ______music but found its way into the mainstream in the 1950’s
  8. Big ______artists in rock and roll were Chuck Berry, Little Richard, and Ray Charles.
  9. ELIVIS
  10. The biggest white artist was ______
  11. Elvis wowed the ______and ______the older crowd with his songs and hip movements
  12. Elvis was the first mainstream white artist to perform the predominantly “black” rock and roll music
  13. He was a ______doing “black people’s” music and it drove mainstream America ______
  14. He had to be filmed from his waist up on the ______show in order to be allowed to perform