TV, The Red Scare and Teenage Rebellion

Major issues in the 1950's: Red Scare Advent of TV Hay’s Code restrictions reduced Suburbanization / Nuclear Family Women removed from the workplace Advent of Teen population

Start of the Cold War/ Red Scare At the dawn of the decade, several dramatic World War II films made a comeback By the time the Korean War was over by mid-decade and the peaceful Cold War period continued, more combat and war- related films were box-office hits The fear of the Communists continued to appear on-screen, mostly in blatantly anti-Communist, propagandistic films that are mostly fascinating from a social-historical point of view Science fiction films, horror films, and fantasy films (flavored with Cold War paranoia) flourished and dominated the box- office hits of the early to mid-50s (sometimes called the "Monster Movie" decade), when aliens were equated with Communist fears (due to the McCarthy Era's Soviet witch hunt).

Advent of TV --Studios began to make productions for TV --Crossover actors and directors

Hollywood's War Against Television: Technical The width-to-height aspect ratio of most Hollywood films before the 50s was 4:3 (or 1.33:1), similar to the boxy-size of a television screen. So in its war against television, the film industry had three major campaigns involving technical advances with wide-screen experiences, color, and scope: Cinerama: Paramount's wrap-around, big-screen Cinerama debuted in 1952, a break-through technique that required three cameras, three projectors, interlocking, semi-curved (at 146 degrees) screens, and four-track stereo sound. It made audiences feel that they were at the center of the action. 3-D: Special polarized, 'stereoscopic' goggles or cardboard glasses worn by viewers made the action jump off the screen - in reality, the glasses were unpopular, clunky and the viewing was blurry, although it was difficult (and expensive) for theatre owners to get cinema-goers to give them back. The 3-D effect was unable to compensate for the inferior level of most of the films.

Hollywood's War Against Television: Technical (cont) Aroma-Rama and Smell-O-Vision: Other short-lived film fads in this decade and afterwards, that were designed to tear viewers away from their TVs, included Charles Weiss' 1959 system of pumping "Oriental" scents into the theatre through the air- conditioning system - it was dubbed Aroma-Rama.
Smell-O- Vision was a similar process that came slightly later in 1960, developed by the Swiss-born Hans Laube, in which 30 different smells were injected into a movie theatre's seats when triggered by various points in the film's soundtrack. Only one film was made with this process. CinemaScope: When Cinerama and stereoscopic 3-D died almost as soon as they were initiated, 20th Century Fox's CinemaScope became cheaper and more convenient because it used a simple lens to create a widescreen effect. The aspect ratio (width to height) of CinemaScope was 2.35:1.

Hollywood's War Against Television: Style and Type B Rated films and Epics (over 3 hours): Extravagant, Expensive, Hollywood Epics: Risks were taken with lavish, overstated, spectacular epic films in this decade - more films were over three hours in the 50s, with studio support for musicals and epics. Most of the Hollywood spectaculars were Greek, Roman, or Biblical The Musical Genre Reached New Heights: This decade also witnessed the prodigious rise of colorful, escapist, lavish, classic musicals (mostly from MGM) that benefited from wide-screen exposure

Hay’s Code On a positive note, With television aimed at family audiences, the movies were freer to explore realistic adult themes and stronger or previously taboo subjects The Hays Production Code was amended in 1951 (its first major revision since 1934!) with content restrictions for the film subjects of drugs, abortion, prostitution, and kidnapping. The constraints of the system were increasingly criticized by the mid-1950s, because filmmakers were forced to make changes in their films in order to qualify for a seal of approval, but some filmmakers were willing to take risks.

Suburbanization/ Nuclear Family Suburbanization – people leaving cities and moving into suburbs – getting around not as easy Reverting to gender roles post WW2 Women had been working, now being forced back to the home. Teens rebelled against this in many cases

Advent of the Teen The 50s decade also ushered in the age of Rock and Roll and a new younger market of teenagers.
 Films argued that rock-and-roll was a new, fun, and wholesome type of music. However, the adult generation continued to regard the new youthful generation (and the rise of juvenile delinquency) with skepticism and fear
 Hollywood soon realized that the affluent teenage population could be exploited, now more rebellious than happy-go-lucky
 The influence of rock 'n' roll surfaced everywhere and Blackboard Jungle (1955) was the first major Hollywood film to use R&R on its soundtrack
 By the last year of the decade, the youth market in all its forms was worth $10 billion a year.

Rebel Without a Cause What do you know about this film? Released in 1955 Produced by Warner Brothers Directed by Nicholas Ray Starring: -James Dean as Jim Stark
-Natalie Wood as Judy
-Sal Mineo as John "Plato" Crawford

Rebel Without a Cause Info American drama film about disturbed suburban, middle- class teenagers. It is the story of a rebellious teenager, who arrives at a new high school, meets a girl, disobeys his parents and defies the local school bullies Groundbreaking attempt to portray moral decay of American youth critique parental style, and Explore the differences and conflicts between generations. Over the years, the film has achieved landmark status for showcasing cult figure James Dean (who died before the film's release) in his definitive role.

Rebel Info Continued Ray's low budget dictated that RWOAC be filmed in black-and-white, but when his previous film East of Eden really took off at the box office, the existing footage from RWOAC was scrapped and reshot in color. Ray he had a predilection for symbolic color schemes: James Dean's hot red jacket, for example, indicated rebellion, His very blue blue jeans created a near luminescent effect. Rebel went where almost no Hollywood film had dared, exposing the anger and discontent beneath the prosperity and confidence of post- war America, picking at family values that dictated that happiness was best found in the nuclear family's well-appointed suburban home. It's safe to assume that the world of the film teenager would have been a very different one had 'Rebel Without A Cause' never been made. James Dean as Jim Stark created a whole new breed of movie hero - the cool, troubled adolescent - and turned screen-teen culture into a genuine new phenomenon. -- an Anti-Hero James Dean: The 'First American Teenager'