1. Eisenhower &1950s Culture

2. I Like Ike -Korean War ends Truman’s popularity Democrats lose support
-1952 election won by Dwight Eisenhower
Almost did not win
Nixon is V.P.
Accused of taking money
“Checkers Speech”
-Middle or Straight Road policies
Modern Republicanism
Ike pursues policies between Laissez-faire and New Deal activism
Conservative with money, liberal with human beings

3. 1.American Dream for Business
Modern Republicanism, laissez-faire
-dream of a successful life
Higher-paying jobs
-growth of big business
-conglomerates - own different types of businesses to prevent bankruptcy
-growth of franchising - offers similar products in different places
-rising conformity
individuality disappears in corporate life
Businesses don’t want creativity
Fast-food restaurants developed some of the first and most successful franchises. McDonald’s, for example, had its start when the McDonald brothers developed unusually efficient service, based on assembly-line methods, at their small drive-in restaurant in California. They simplified the menu, featured 15-cent hamburgers, and mechanized their kitchen. The McDonald brothers sold their franchise rights to Ray Kroc, who improved the assembly-line process and introduced the “Golden Arches.”

4. 2.Consumerism America has and spends more $ that ever before
-buying of material goods
More goods = success
-new products
polyester, Teflon, electronics
-planned obsolescence
Make products wear out so people buy more
Expect new/better products
-credit cards
Buy now, pay later
-advertising influence
Encouraged more spending
Consumers purchased electric household appliances--such as washing machines, dryers, blenders, freezers, and dishwashers--in record numbers. With more leisure time to fill, people invested in recreational items. They bought televisions, record, players, and tape recorders.

5. 3.Car Culture & Suburbia -post-war boom period More families with cars
-growth of suburbia
People commute to cities
-Interstate Highway System
To connect cities; easy military access
-rise of trucking industry
Long-haul delivery
Railroads decline
-social effects
People move from cities
Life of teenager

6. 3.Car Culture & Suburbia -most new homes were in the suburbs
-baby boom generation
: 65 million babies
Largest generation in history
-Medical breakthroughs
More children survived
Jonas Salk – polio vaccine (1955)
Prevent childhood disease
-Childrearing
Dr. Spock’s influence
No spanking, talk with children
Women stay at home
Of the 13 million new homes built in the 1950s, 85% were built in the suburbs. For many people, the suburbs embodied the American dream of an affordable single-family house, good schools, a safe, healthy environment for children, and congenial neighbors just like themselves.
“Suburban areas … inhabited by people in the same class, the same income, the same age group, witnessing the same television performances, eating the same tasteless… foods from the same freezers, conforming in every outward and inward respect to a common mold.”
Lewis Mumford

7. Contributing to the size of the baby boom generation were many factors, including: reunion of husbands and wives after the war, decreasing marriage age, desirability of large families, confidence in continued economic prosperity, and advances in medicine.
The baby boom had a tremendous impact not only on child care but also on the American economy and the educational system. In 1958, toy sales alone reached $1.25 billion. During the decade, 10 million new students entered the elementary schools. The sharp increase in enrollment caused overcrowding and teacher shortages in many parts of the country. In California, a new school opened every seven days.

8. Many parents raised their children according to guidelines devised by the author and pediatrician Dr. Benjamin Spock. His Common Sense Book of Baby and Child Care, published in 1946, sold nearly 10 million copies during the 1950s. In it, he advised parents not to spank or scold their children. He also encouraged families to hold meetings in which children could express themselves. He considered it so important that mothers be at home with their children, that he proposed having the government pay mothers to stay home.

9. Most Americans of the 1950s had more leisure time than ever before
Most Americans of the 1950s had more leisure time than ever before. Employees worked a 40-hour week and earned several weeks’ vacation per year. People owned more labor-saving devices, such as washing machines, clothes dryers, dishwashers, and power lawn mowers, which allowed more time for leisure activities. Fortune magazine reported that, in 1953, Americans spent more than $30 billion on leisure goods and activities.

10. 4.Television 90% had TV by 1955 -FCC strongly controls the industry
-Golden Age of Television
Especially comedies
Milton Berle
Lucille Ball
Edward R. Murrow
Quiz Shows
-spurred other industries
Refrigerators
Frozen dinners

11. 4.Television -women often appeared as perfect homemakers on TV
Stereotypical roles
-few minorities seen
-portrayed ideal America
No poverty, diversity, or real-life conflicts
-programming concerns
Some shows called too violent
quiz show scandals
Not everyone was thrilled with TV. Critics objected to its effects on children and its stereotypical portrayal of women and minorities. Women did, in fact, appear in stereotypical roles, such as the ideal mothers of Father Knows Best and The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet. Male characters outnumbered women three to one. African Americans and Latinos rarely appeared in television programs at all. Many Americans were concerned about the levels of violence on such shows as Gunsmoke and the effects of such shows on their children.

12. - Nat Cole, black T.V. entertainer-
“There’s a lot more integration in the actual life of the U.S. than you’ll find on T.V. But I notice that they always have integration in the prison scenes on television.”
- Nat Cole, black T.V. entertainer-
“When television is bad, nothing is worse. I invite you to sit down in front of your television set when your station goes on the air…and keep your eyes glued to that set until the station signs off. I can assure you that you will observe a vast wasteland.
- Newton Minow (Chairman of the FCC in 1961) -

13. 5.Radio and Movies -radio continued to prosper
News, weather, music, community issues
-movies struggled, but had several advantages
Especially size and picture
stereo sound
“Surround sound”
color
As more people stayed home to watch television, the number of moviegoers decreased. By 1960, one-fifth of the nation’s movie theaters had been converted into bowling alleys, supermarkets, or stood empty. In 1951, producer David O. Selznick worried that Hollywood “would never come back. It’ll just keep crumbling until finally the wind blows the last studio prop across the sands.”
Yet, with its stars and its big-screen advantages, Hollywood survived the golden age of television.

14. 6.Beatniks -beat movement social and literary non-conformists
Artists, poets, and writers who followed Buddhism, music, and drugs
-non-material lifestyle
Did not want jobs, did not want money to buy “stuff”
-set precedent for the hippy generation
Especially college students
-clashed with regular America
Jack Kerouac, famous beatnik writer, reading from his beatnik generation book, On the Road

15. 7.Rock-n-Roll -Alan Freed (aka Moondog)
1950s disc-jockey advocating rock n roll
rock-n-roll
Mixture of black and white music out of R&B and country
Truly American style
-Little Richard, Chuck Berry, Bill Haley, Buddy Holly, Elvis Presley
Loved by teens, hated by adults
-Ed Sullivan Show
-Dick Clark – American Bandstand
-reaction to rock music
Adults saw music as too suggestive and racial
Buddy Holly was an American singer, songwriter, and a pioneer of rock n roll. In 2004, Rolling Stone magazine ranked him #13 on their list of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time. Although his career was cut short by a plane crash, his body of work is considered among the most influential in rock. His works and innovations were copied by his contemporaries and those who were to follow, including The Beatles and the Rolling Stone, and had a profound influence on popular music.

16. Elvis Presley, the unofficial “King of Rock ‘n’ Roll,” first developed his musical style by singing in church and listening to gospel, country, and blues music on the radio in Memphis, Tennessee. When he was a young boy, his mother gave him a guitar, and years later he paid four dollars of his own money to record two songs in Sam Phillips, a rhythm and blues producer, discovered Presley and produced his first records. In 1955, Phillips sold Presley’s contract to RCA for $35,000.
Presley’s live appearances were immensely popular, and 45 of his records sold over a million copies, including “Heartbreak Hotel,” “Hound Dog,” “All Shook Up,” and “Don’t Be Cruel.” Although Look magazine dismissed him a as a “wild troubadour who wails rock ‘n’ roll tunes, flails erratically at a guitar, and wriggles like a peep-show dancer,” Presley’s rebellious style captivated young audiences. Girls screamed when he performed, and boys tried to imitate him.

17. -Michael Harrington, The Other America-
8.Poverty
-1/4 of Americans were below poverty line
-”Other America”
The elderly, single women and children, minorities
-White Flight
-millions of middle class whites moved to suburbs
-loss of tax dollars hurt city services
cities could not afford services for people
-lots of rural poor move to cities
-breakdown of inner cities
-Urban Renewal
Build new homes, businesses, etc. for cities
“The poor live in a culture of poverty…The poor get sick more than anyone else in society…When they become sick, they are sicker longer than any other group in the society. Because they are sick more often and longer…they lose wages and work…and their prospect is to move to an even lower level…toward even more suffering.”
-Michael Harrington, The Other America-

18. 9.Women -role of women Movies, television, magazines
-glorified role of the housewife
-boredom and unfulfillment
Not happy with home life
-many working women were paid less and restricted to certain jobs
Nursing, teaching, office support
-Betty Freidan & The “Feminine Mystique”
-beginning of women’s liberation movement
Breaking traditional roles of women
More active in the 1960s
During the 1950s, women’s roles as homemaker and mother were glorified in popular magazines, movies, and TV programs. Time magazine described the homemaker as the “key figure in all suburbia, the thread that weaves between family and community—the keeper of the suburban dream.” In contrast to the ideal, however, some women were not happy with their roles; they felt isolated, bored, and unfulfilled. According to one survey, 1/5 of women were dissatisfied with their lives.

19. Dwight Eisenhower, Farewell Address, 1961
10.Eisenhower Legacy
-Ended Korean War
-Red Scare Continues
Communist paranoia continues
-Space Program Begins
NASA
-Economic Boom of the 50’s
-Return to more Conservative government
“Our arms must be mighty, ready for instant action…We recognize the imperative need for this development. Yet we must not fail to comprehend its grave implications…In government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.”
Dwight Eisenhower, Farewell Address, 1961