1. Popular Culture of the 1950s
Postwar America
Popular Culture of the 1950s
TCMVH:

2. The New Mass Media The Rise of Television Popularity
During WWII televisions became affordable
Television news became an important vehicle for info
Athletic events gradually made collegiate and professional sports a prominent form of entertainment
Comedy, Action, and Games
Many of the early television comedy shows were adapted from popular old radio shows
Quiz shows attracted large audiences
The Twenty-One fraud turned audiences away from quiz shows
TCVMH: Television (1:14:32-1:19:40)

3. The New Mass Media Hollywood Adapts to the Times
3-D movies with ridiculous plots were a short lived gimmick to re-attract television audiences
Cinemascope: movies shown on large, panoramic screens
However… African Americans were often one-dimensional characters who rarely showed human emotions or characteristics.
African American actor Sidney Poitier
resented having to play such parts.

4. The New Mass Media Radio Draws Them In
With audiences turning to television for entertainment, radio turned to:
recorded music,
news,
talk shows,
weather,
public-service programming,
shows for specific audiences.

5. The New Youth Culture
A small minority of youth in the 1950s brought widespread attention as they searched for excitement and freedom outside of the conformity preached by adults.
The Birth of Rock n’ Roll
Ohio, radio disc jockey Alan Freed noticed white teenagers buying African American rhythm and blues records and dancing to the music in the store.
Freed played the music on the air and the station flourished.
Elvis Presley: eventually claimed the title
of “King of Rock n’ Roll”
Parents condemned Rock n’ Roll for being too loud, mindless, and dangerous.

6. The New Youth Culture The Beat Movement
Made up of mostly white artists who called themselves the beats
The beats sought to live unconventional lives
In 1956, 29-year-old beat poet Allen Ginsburg published a long poem called “Howl”, which blasted modern American life.

7. African American Entertainers
Talented African American singers and groups
who recorded hit songs in the fifties included:
Chuck Berry,
Ray Charles,
Little Richard,
The Drifters
and many others.
TCVMH: Youth Culture—Rock n’ roll and African American Entertainers (32:39-39:58)

8. The Other Side of American Life
Poverty Amidst Prosperity
Michael Harrington: wrote of poverty in America in his book The Other America (single mothers, elderly, minority immigrants, and urban dwellers)
The Decline of the Inner City
The government encouraged the residence of poor housing to remain poor by evicting them as soon as they began to earn money
A large number of African Americans lived in the run down inner cities as others moved to the new suburbs

9. The Other Side of American Life
Poverty Amidst Prosperity
Hispanics lived in poverty working on farms often stopping to sleep wherever they could find a place to sleep
Native Americans
Termination Policy: the US government launched a program to bring Native Americans into mainstream society whether they wanted to assimilate or not. This policy made poverty worst.
Appalachia
People who’s families had lived in the Appalachian Mountains abandoned their homes to find work in the cities

10. Juvenile Delinquency
A rise in, or a rise in reporting of juvenile delinquency took place in the 1950s
Car Thefts topped the list of juvenile crimes
Experts do not agree on the increase of juvenile delinquency
An increase in juvenile delinquency and the Soviet Union’s launch of Sputnik made people critical of the educational system

11. Describe how the rise of television affected Hollywood, and how Hollywood responded.

12. Describe how the rise of television affected Hollywood, and how Hollywood responded.
As television gained popularity, movies lost viewers. Through the 1950s, Hollywood struggled to recapture it’s audience. It tried contests, door prizes, and advertising, but most of these tactics failed to lure people out of their living rooms. Then Hollywood tried to make films more exciting by introducing 3-D films. These worked temporarily, but viewers soon tired of them. Cinemascope, movies shown on large, panoramic screens, finally gave Hollywood a reliable lure. Hollywood eventually began to film programs especially for television and sold old movies, which could be cheaply rebroadcast by the networks.