The Do It For The Kids Decade

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THE FIFTIES OPENED WITH AMERICAN MUSIC
IN THE DOLDRUMS.
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THE BIG BANDS HAD DIAPPEARED, AND
SMALLER GROUPS AND VOCALISTS SUFFERED
HARD ECONOMIC TIMES.
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NOT UNTIL THE MID-FIFTIES WOULD POP
MUSIC AGAIN EMERGE AS A MAJOR FORCE IN
AMERICAN CULTURE, POWERED BY ROCK ‘N’
ROLL AND ITS YOUNG FANS.


AT THE ONSET OF THE DECADE, THE PUBLIC
ANNUALLY PURCHASED ABOUT 189 MILLION
RECORDS.

IN 1955 277 MILLION WERE SOLD.
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IN 1960 600 MILLION WERE SOLD.
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1950S TYPICAL RECORD BUYER WAS IN THEIR
20S.

BY THE END OF THE DECADE IT WAS THE
TEENAGERS WHO BOUT 70% OF THE
RECORDS.

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Cars become equipped with press buttons to help locate radio stations in 1952.
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The transistor radio is first marketed in 1954.

1958 stereophonic records are available for purchase.

DJs played only the most popular music and songs.
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The top 40 songs heard regularly on the radio.

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Until the end of the 1940s 78PM records dominated the market.
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1947 33 1/3 RPM introduced. Played record more slowly-huge success, but did not replace the 78.
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In 1949 the single or 45 RPM record was introduced. One song on each side.
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45s sold for 79 cents
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Sales of both 33 1/3 LPs and 45 singles would soar during the decade, but it took consumers a while to get used to the change.

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78rpm

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33 1/3 RPM

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45 RPM-Single

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Known as “hi-fi”

Dealt with the accurate reproduction of sound/provided the best possible playback.

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Male and female singers dominated the market in the 1950s.
The Men
A. Bing Crosby
B. Frank Sinatra
C. Eddie Fisher
D. Johnny Mathis
E. Mario Lanza
The Women
A. Theresa Brewer
B. Doris Day
C. Connie Francis
D. Peggy Lee
E. Jo Stafford
F. Patti Page

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Vocal groups had their moments on the charts:

A. The Four Aces
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B. The Hilltoppers
C. Ames Brothers
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D. The Four Lads
E. The Crew Cuts
F. The Andrews Sisters
G. The McGuire Sisters


Big Band of the thirties and forties die and the decade went on.


Found more popularity

Hank Williams

Patsy Cline


He charted eleven number one songs between 1948 and 1953.

Unable to read or write music to any significant degree.

His hits included “Your Cheating Heart",
“Hey Good Lookin" and “I’m So Lonesome I
Could Cry".
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Williams died at age 29; his death is widely believed to have resulted from a mixture of alcohol and drugs.
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Father of Hank William Junior

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 was an American country music singer who enjoyed pop music crossover success during the era of the Nashville sound in the late
1950s and early 1960s.
Since her death in 1963 at age 30 in a private airplane crash at the height of her career, she has been considered one of the most influential, successful, and acclaimed female vocalists of the
20th century.
Cline was best known for her rich tone and emotionally expressive bold contralto voice, which, along with her role as a mover and shaker in the country music industry, has been cited as an inspiration by many vocalists of various music genres. Her life and career have been the subject of numerous books, movies, documentaries, articles and stage plays.
His include “Walking After Midnight” “Sweet Dreams” “I Fall To
Pieces” “Crazy”
Popularity soared after her death.

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Late in the decade became popular.
However it was always on the fringes of popular music.
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The Weavers
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The Kingston Trio

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Rock truly begins in 1954

The group is responsible for introducing rock music.

Bill Haley and His Comets.


Slave Work Songs
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Black Spirituals

Ragtime

Jazz

The Blues
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Bluegrass

Folk Music (Country)

Rock-n-Roll


1950 #1

Goodnight Irene
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Gordon Jenkins and the Weavers


Too Young
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Nat King Cole


Blue Tango
Leroy Anderson


The Song From Moulin Rouge
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Percy Faith


(Pretty) Kitty Kallen
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Little Things Mean Alot

Perez Prado

Cherry Pink and Apple Blossom White

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Elvis Presley

Heartbreak Hotel

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Elvis Presley
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All Shook Up

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Dominic Modugo
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Volare

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Jimmy Horton

The Battle of New Orleans


The Ten Commandments -A spectacular epic made in 1956. The sixth highest grossing film of all time. $65,000,000


Ben-Hur -The most spectacular of all the religious epics, this version starred Charlton Heston as the avenging
Roman slave and featured a chariot race that took four months to rehearse and three months to produce.
(1959).
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$90,000,000

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Lady and the Tramp (1955)
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$93,602,326

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Peter Pan 1953
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$87,404,651

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Cinderella-1950
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$33,482,832

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Sleeping Beauty (1959)
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$51,600,000

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Around the World in Eighty Days (1956)
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$33,000,000

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South Pacific (1958)
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$36,800,000

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From Here to Eternity (1953)
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$30,500,000

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The Robe-(1953)
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$36,000,000

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The Greatest Show on Earth-1952
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$36,000,000

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Giant-(1956)
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$35,000,000

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1. Teenage Rebellion Films
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2. Three-Dimensional (3-D)
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3. Religious Films
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4. Historical Films
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5. Westerns

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This type of entertainment became quite popular because it gave teens freedom.
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It combined two of teenagers favorite past times—cars and movies.

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She lived every girl’s dream of glamour and stardom.
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Throughout her career she was stereotyped as a sex-symbol.
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Her personal life was a mess with failed marriages and affairs with John F. Kennedy and Robert F. Kennedy.

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1. Gentleman Prefer Blondes
2. How to Marry a Millionaire
3. The Seven Year Itch
4. Some Like It Hot

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Dean symbolized the rebellious teen to his legion of fans.
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He came across to his fans as cool, tough and a rebel, but was quiet and aloof in real life.
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He was killed in a car accident after filming the movie Giant.

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. Rebel With Out a Cause
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East of Eden
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Giant

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The numbers of televisions increase throughout the decade.
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There were three million televisions in the
United States as of 1950.
By 1952 that number had increased to ten million.
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Types of Shows: (The genres and popular shows of the decade).

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Your Show of Shows -Imogene Coca, Carl
Reiner, Sid Caesar and Howard Morris.
1950-54
Your Show of Shows was a star vehicle to display the immense talents of Sid Caesar and
Imogene Coca.
Caesar could do it all and when partnered with Coca, his talent was presented to perfection. Among the characters they created together were Doris and Charlie
Hickenlooper and Caesar alone is remembered for Progress Hornsby, Cool Cees, Somerset
Winterset and Guiseppe Marinara

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The Honeymooners was really television's first spin-off. It first appeared in 1951 as a 12 minute sketch on "The Cavalcade of
Stars" with Pert Kelton playing Alice. The Honeymooner sketch was immediately popular and Gleason took it on the road i 1952 for live perfromances. The grueling schedule proved too much for
Pert Kelton.
In 1952 CBS bought the show from Dumont and renamed it the
"Jackie Gleason Show." Audrey Meadows took over as Alice and
Joyce Randolph came onboard as Trixie. The "Jackie Gleason
Show" was an hour long variety show of which the Honeymoners was but a sketch and which also featured the June Taylor Dancers and the Ray Bloch Orchestra. (Gleason would marry June Taylor's sister Marilyn in 1975.)
The hour format was tiring and so it was decided in 1955 to spinoff the Honeymooners and fill the other half hour with "Stage
Show." These 39 episodes are the only ones in which the show stood on its own. All were filmed twice weekly before a live audience. The ratings weren't good and CBS dropped the show to return to a new version of the old variety "Jackie Gleason Show" .
Then Gleason did "Jackie Gleason and His American Scene
Magazine" which ran from 1962-1966.

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Call him Mr. Television or Uncle Miltie. In television's infancy, Tuesday belonged to Milton Berle.
The Texaco Star Theater opened with these guys dressed like service station attendants singing "Oh, we're the men from Texaco, we work from Maine to Mexico."
Out would come Berle dressed in some wacky costume, often in drag. Although there were all manner of guests and skits, Berle was the star attraction.
The show switched sponsors over the years and formats, but Milton Berle reigned supreme throughout the Fifties.
When they tried to bring him back in the mid-Sixties, however, the times had changed and Berle's brand of vaudevillian comedy was no longer popular.

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When asked on air by Jack Benny, what do you do on this show, Ed Sullivan replied, "I introduce the acts."
He was awkward looking, had horrible posture, spoke with an odd accent, couldn't sing, dance or act and was on television for 23 years. Why? Ed Sullivan was one of the greatest showman who ever lived.
Sunday nights the family gathered around the TV and watched Sullivan. We saw jugglers, opera, ballet, lions and tigers and bears, singers, comediennes, pupetteers and ventriliquists. As the Boomers got older, we wanted the plate spinning, tumbling, knife throwing to end fast so we could see the Rock stars.
As so much is known and so much remembered, let's use this space to talk about what isn't widely known and to present the details!

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Weekday afternoons were spent with the kids in Philly, the kids on
American Bandstand. I knew all their names. I knew when couples broke up. I imitated all the dance steps, sometimes with the refrigerator door as a partner. My mother thought I was nuts.
To many of you, it was about the music and the artists. Forget that. I was a preteen, which is to say, I was a teenage wannabe. And, for me, the kids on Bandstand were all I aspired to be.
Dancing was a major feature of Bandstand. The kids who showed up every day (Bandstand aired every weekday afternoon for the first six years) knew all the most popular steps. The Slop. The Hand Jive. The Bop. They even invented a few - the Stroll, the Circle and the Chalypso.
These experienced Regulars considered an infrequent participant or a first time visitor "an amateur." I wonder what they would have thought about a kid in TV Land, practicing the new steps in front of her bedroom mirror and praying to God her little brother didn't catch her at it.
Filmed in the cramped quarters of the WFIL Studios at 46th and Market
Streets in Philly, Bandstand is such a part of Americana that Dick Clark's podium now resides in the Smithsonian.

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Perry Como was already a popular singer with an easy going style and a relaxed manner. His show never varied much over the years.
Perry sang his hit songs. Big name guests sang their hit songs. The atmosphere was always warm and inviting.

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Every big name in comedy or music appeared on this show which presented rotating hosts.
Although thought of now as separate acts,
Jerry Lewis and Dean Martin were a very hot pair until personality conflicts broke them up in 1956. Other alternating hosts included
Abbott and Costello, Jimmy Durante, Bob
Hope, Donald O'Connor, Eddie Cantor and
Fred Allen.

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The regular performers presented the seven most popular songs of the week.
The number one song came last after a big buildup. Expensive production numbers were incorporated to keep interest for songs that stayed on the charts for weeks.
What was never mentioned, hmm, was that the people who supplied the Top
Seven lists was none other than BBD&O, sponsor American Tobacco's ad agency!

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Dinah Shore was this lovely lady who was welcomed into
American homes for over 25 years. She was also one of the first women to have her own show.
She started in radio in the late Thirties, was recording by the Forties, and was on TV by the Fifties. Her first show
(The Dinah Shore Show) was on twice weekly and filled the spot unfilled by the then 15 minute evening news.
The custom back then was for a single sponsor to place their name upon a show and so her next venture was a variety show named The Dinah Shore Chevy Show.
Ms. Shore used to end her show by singing, "See the USA in your Chevrolet" and then tossing the audience a big kiss.

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The Red Skelton Show began on radio in 1941 and was a success but television was the medium which best showcased the huge talents of Red
Skelton. Radio didn't allow for Skelton to demonstrate his gift for pantomine and sight gags.
The show always featured a guest star and some skits. Musical guests performed and one of the first TV appearances of the Rolling Stones was on Red Skelton.
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But it was for the wonderful characters Skelton created that people tuned in. Among those characters:
Clem Kadiddlehopper
Freddy Freeloader
The Mean Widdle Kid
Sheriff Deadeye
Willy Lump Lump
Cauliflower McPugg
Bolivar Shagnasty
San Fernando Red
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Skelton always closed his show with "God Bless."

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Ted Mack's talent show made the rounds to all four networks over time.
As far back as 1934, Major Bowes' Original
Amateur Hour was a hit on radio. In 1946, Ted
Mack who had previously supervised the auditions, took over. When the show first went over to TV, it was still named for Major Bowes.
A zillion acts apeared on the show but surprisingly few became big names. The way the show worked was you sent in a postcard to vote for your favorite.

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Gunsmoke

Not only was Gunsmoke (1955-1975) TV's longest running
Western, it was also television's longest running primetime series with continuing characters. In total, 233 halfhour episodes and 400 hour episodes were filmed.
Gunsmoke took the #1 rating in the 1957-1958 season - a slot it held thru four more years. Although it had some slump years, by the 1967-1968 season it regained space in the Nielson Top Ten which it held for another 6 years. Color broadcasts began in 1966.
Gunsmoke began on radio in 1952 with William Conrad reading the part of Matt Dillon.

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Paladin (Richard Boone) is a West Point educated gentleman with a taste for fine wines and foods. Based at the Hotel Carlton in San Francisco, he was a man for hire.
Paladin would do anything for those in serious need. He read the newspapers from across the country and sometimes sent his calling card to those he felt might use his services as gunfighter, bodyguard or anything else that his skills could accomodate. His fee to those who could pay was $1,000.
While at the hotel, he dressed the dandy. But for work, he was a man in black.
He carried a Colt .45 revolver in a holster with a white knight (the Paladin) on it and a small derringer under his gunbelt.
Kam Tong, who usually delivered the message from a potential client, was replaced by Lisa Lu as Hey Girl for one season ('60-'61) because Tong had a more substantial role in the show The Garland Touch. He returned to HGWT when
Garland failed.
Richard Boone exercised a lot of creative control on this show and his judgements paid off. HGWT ranked in the Top 4 shows for four years running and for three of them, it placed #3 behind Wagon Train and Gunsmoke.
Gene Rodenberry polished his writing skills on this show!

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Wagon Train first rolled on the air on September 18, 1957 to begin an eight year run which would eventually place the TV show in the number one spot in the Nielson ratings.
Unlike other shows in the Western genre, Wagon Train attracted big name guest stars whose stories were told across the panorama of the American western expansion in the post Civil War period. Each episode was titled around the story of a passenger on "the train."

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As we all know, there was a real Wyatt Earp. The TV show followed some elements of his life, but was liberal with the details.
This Wyatt starts out in Ellsworth, Kansas. It is here that Ned
Buntline gives him the oversized weapon, a .45 with an extra long barrel. Called a "Buntline special" it packs a heck of a wallop and give the Marshal the extra range to drop bad guys, of which there is a never ending supply.
By the second season, Wyatt moves on to Dodge City. Yes, I know that Matt Dillon was marshal in Dodge on Gunsmoke.
But that was
Saturday night and this was Tuesday and besides it's TV. So live with it.
By 1959, Wyatt moved again to Tombstone. You just had to figure, sooner or later, he'd get to Tombstone and the O.K.
Corral. In a five part series finale, Wyatt's brothers Morgan and
Virgil, along with Doc Holliday, succeed in dropping the Clanton
Gang in the gunfight at the O.K. Corral.

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The Cartwright's thousand-square-mile Ponderosa Ranch is located near Virginia City,
Nevada, site of the Comstock Silver Lode. The name, Ponderosa, comes from the many ponderosa pines growing on the ranch. Ben Cartwright (Lorne Greene) was the quintessential father figure. Eldest son Adam (Pernell Roberts) was the smart one.
Hoss (Dan Blocker) was the gentle giant. The youngest, Little Joe (Michael Landon) was the firebrand.
As told in flashback, life with Ben must have been tough because none of his wives survived it. Adam was born in New England and his mother was Elizabeth, who died in childbirth. Hoss' mother Inger was killed by Indians. She was Scandinavian and
Hoss means "good luck" in Norwegian. Little Joe's mother, Marie, was a woman Ben met in New Orleans and she died from a fall from a horse. (see trivia box below)
Over time, Lorne Greene came to have more influence over scripts. He was a serious pacifist, so the show's level of rough action decreased as his power increased. As a consequence, Bonanza was less violent than other Westerns. In Star
Trek terms, Ben Cartwright was more Jean Luc Picard than James Kirk. He talked first, shot second.
Pernell Roberts left the show in 1965, which most thought was a loss. David Canary was added as ranch hand Candy. During the summer hiatus of 1972, Dan Blocker suddenly died.

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Lucas McCain (Chuck Connors) was a widowed rancher living outside of North Fork, New Mexico and trying to raise his young son, Mark (Johnny Crawford). Although how he had time to ranch is a mystery as he was always in town confronting a desperado.
McCain's specialty was his skill with his rifle, a specially modified Winchester with a large ring that cocked it as he drew. Supposedly, he could fire within 3/10 of a second.
Now that's fast.
The first season was the best. In retropsect this series was somewhat darker than other Westerns. As time passed
Lucas got a bit preachy. Always moralizing about something.

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These guys operated a lot like Robin Hood. Although the law regarded them as desperados, they defended the weak and helpless. One of the reasons for this show's longevity in syndication was the early decision to film in color.
Their signature signoff was "Oh, Cisco" and "Oh, Poncho" as they rode off into the sunset.

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Cheyenne wandered the West trying to avoid trouble but with little success. Although it is hard to understand who would mess with the 6'6'' Clint Walker. Producers quickly realized Walker's hunk value and his shirt came off in an astonishing number of episodes.
In the first season he had a sidekick, a mapmaker named Smitty
(L.Q. Jones) but the character was dropped in the second season.
The filmography is convoluted as Cheyenne was part of Warner
Brothers Presents, a rotation of series. (See below). Further complicating the lineup was Walker's conflict with the studio.
Reportedly, Warner's wanted a huge piece of Walker's PA (public appearance) money. So in 1958 Walker left the show while Ty
Hardin carried on. By 1959 they had resolved their differences, and Walker returned

 television series that ran from 1959 to 1963 on the American
Broadcasting Company. Based on the memoir of the same name by Eliot Ness and Oscar Fraley, it dealt with the experiences of
Eliot Ness, a United States Justice Department agent, as he fought crime in Chicago in the 1930s with the help of a special team of agents handpicked for their incorruptibility, nicknamed the Untouchables. It was remade into a 1987 film by Brian De
Palma with a script by David Mamet.

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A police show which featured Borderick Crawford as
Captain Dan Matthews. For an officer of his rank, he spent a lot of time in patrol car barking "10-4 10-4." Highway
Patrol had a great appeal for young guys as it had great car chases.

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I'm amazed that Lassie pulled off those weekly feats of derring-do. How confusing it must have been. First, they kept calling "Lassie, come here, girl" when the dog was, in fact, a male. Actually, six of them all trained by Rudd Weatherwax.
Then, just when Lassie would get used to one family's little quirks, along would come another. Only Doc Weaver (Arthur Space) and Lassie survived from one family to the next.
Lassie's first family was Jeff Miller (Tommy Rettig), his widowed mother
Ellen Miller (Jan Clayton) and Gramps (George Cleveland.)
The Millers moved to the city and left Lassie with his second family.
Timmy (Jon Provost) as Timmy Martin must have been as confused as
Lassie because after the first year, his parents morphed from Cloris
Leachman to June Lockhart as Ruth Martin, and Jon Shepodd to Hugh
Reilly as Paul Martin.
Then, the Martins moved to Australia where they quarantine dogs entering the country. So Lassie lives with a couple of forest rangers. Now off the farm he has a broader base of people to save and in the final seasons, he didn't need an owner at all. Hey, he never did.

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Erle Stanley Gardner wrote the original Perry Mason books and formed a company,
Paisano Productions for the TV version of his character. Although he didn't write the scripts, he had approval and stacked the production team with real lawyers to keep things interesting.
The formula was consistent. Perry Mason (Raymond Burr) got a new client and the first half hour was about the crime. Paul Drake (William Hopper) was sent out to investigate but rarely found anything close to a smoking gun until the trial had begun.
Perry was assisted by his able and loyal secretary, Della Street (Barbara Hale).
His principle adversary was District Attorney Hamilton Burger (William Talman). Hard as Burger tried, he couldn't beat Perry. Talman did not appear in every episode and missed the 1960-1961 season due to a problem he had with police after a Hollywood party where the partygoers were reportedly nude and stoned. Although CBS fired him, Raymond Burr fought for and got his reinstatement.
In most episodes, the real guilty party broke down under Mason's grilling crossexamination. Or blurted it out from the spectator's gallery. Then Perry, Della and
Paul would recap the case, just in case we hadn't figured it out.
The heavy load the show placed upon Burr's shoulders began to take its toll on the actor. The long hours forced him to live at the studio in an apartment they made for him. The many lines of dialogue became impossible to memorize and he read his lines off a teleprompter.

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Filmed entirely in England at Nettlefold
Studios, Walton-on-Thames which accounted for its quality. A Western set in Merry 'Ole
England. You know the tale._


Out of the clear blue of the western sky comes Sky King
Sky King was a former military pilot who used his airplane to patrol the skies of his Flying Crown ranch and neighboring areas. He was frequently called upon to rescue someone in distress.
Sky King was mainly a kid's show from the early Fifties, but Sky King was shown in reruns for many years which is why you recall this as appearing later.
One thing is certain. We all watched Sky King and we all wanted to be pilots.
Penny was Sky King's niece, but yes, in earlier episodes he also had a nephew, Clipper. In the earlier episodes, Sky King's plane was a Cessna T-
50 twin-engine "Bamboo Bomber." The more familiar plane was Songbird, a Cessna 310B


In the mid-1800s, the Wells Fargo stage line was the primary connection between the East and West coasts of the U.S. Jim Hardie (Dale Robertson) was a troubleshooter for Wells Fargo who protected both people and cargo.
In the final season, they expanded the show to an hour and rooted Hardie to a ranch near San Francisco. Additional cast members were added. Although Hardie still worked for Wells Fargo, life that final season on the ranch wasn't nearly as exciting.

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A fiery horse with the speed of light, a cloud of dust and a hearty
'Hi-Yo Silver!' The Lone Ranger. With his faithfil companion Tonto, the daring and resourceful masked manof the plains led the fight for law and order in the early West. Return with us now to those thrilling days of yesteryear." The Lone Ranger rides again! "
Who was that masked man? John Reid was a Texas Ranger who was injured in an ambush by the Butch Cavendish Hole in the
Wall Gang. He was nursed back to health by Tonto, who had been a childhood friend and would remain the Lone Ranger's constant companion.
The Lone Ranger got his money from a secret silver mine he owned. It was run by Jim Blaine (Ralph Littlefield).The mine was also the source of his trademark, silver bullets.


They lived at the Double R Bar Ranch outside of Mineral City in modern times. The show was mostly kid stuff and predates the so called "adult" Westerns like Gunsmoke and Wagon Train.
Gene
Autry was his main competitor.
Roy Rogers took a successful movie career and moved it to the little screen of TV. Rogers, whose real name was Leonard Slye and who was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, had become known as the
King of the Cowboys. He was one of the first to see the potential of TV and zealously guarded the show to insure success. He sued the network to prohibit exhibition of his movies in competition with the TV show and won.

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
The Adventures of Superman 1952-58
The storyline of the Man of Steel is known to all.
Beginning as a comic written by teens in 1938, through radio in 1940 (Bud Collyer played
Superman), as feature length cartoons from 1941 to 1943, to 15 movie serials in 1948 and 1950 (Kirk
Alyn as Superman), then to the big screen in 1951 as Superman and the Mole Men with George Reeves in the lead, the Man of Steel grew in popularity.
Television propelled mild-mannered Clark Kent and his alter ego Superman into millions of American homes. After that we all knew that Kryptonite was a really bad thing and that Superman must have had a problem with doors as he usually crashed through a wall to enter a room.


Dragnet was pure Jack Webb. He owned a piece, he directed most episodes and he starred as Sergeant Joe Friday (later promoted to
Lieutenant.) He insisted on realism as he would with later shows like
Adam 12 and Emergency.
There was lots of cop jargon and supposedly, each show was based on an actual case. At the end of the show, you got to know what happened to the bad guys.
Joe Friday was a serious Los Angeles cop who as a consequence was, well, dull. Once or twice he had a love interest but they never lasted past
THAT episode. Joe Friday was all business - cop business. He spoke in a monotone, "It was 9:35 PM and we were working the night shift out of robbery...)
He ran through a few partners until he settled on Ofiicer Frank Smith
(Ben Alexander) who at least provided a laugh here and there. He stuck for the full first run.

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
Burns and Allen -1950-58
Unquestionably, one of the most talented pairs in show business history. Deadpan George Burns and scatterbrained
Gracie Allen. Of note, Gracie never saw herself as a comediene, but rather as an actress. Well, you could have fooled us. Gracie would get into all these situations, and then
George would just turn to the camera and calmly explain.
There were a bunch of actors playing Harry Morton, husband of Gracie's best friend and neighbor, Blanche. When Fred Clark left the role, George Burns just told the audience it was because he wanted too much money!
Gracie Allen retired in 1958 and George tried it on his own but it just wasn't the same. Burns got coaxed back to TV briefly in
1985 to host The George Burns Comedy Hour. He was nearly 90 at the time!
What is best remembered is the closing.
Burns: "Say Good-night Gracie!"
Allen: "Good-night Gracie"


The story was based on Danny Thomas' real life as a working, travelling comedy actor.
In 1956 Jean Hagen quit the show and so Thomas killed off the character of his wife. For the next season he was a bachelor, courting various ladies. Then he falls for Kathy, a widowed
Irish nurse with a daughter Linda.


The Stone family lived in Hilldale. Alex (Carl Betz) was a pediatrician who had his office in the house. Donna (Donna Reed) and Alex had been married for 15 years when the show began and they had two kids, Mary (Shelley Fabares), who was three years older, and Jeff (Paul Petersen).
Mary goes off to college in 1962 and Jeff followed two season later. Paul Petersen's real life sister, Patty joins the cast as Trish, an eight year old orphan who wants to live with the Stones and gets her wish.

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Lucille Ball was a pathfinder who paved the way for all the women in
TV to follow. Without Lucy, arguably, there might not have been a
Carol Burnett or Mary Tyler Moore.
She proved women could be the leads and carry a show. Not one show, but several.
She was the first female head of a studio. While running Desilu, her willingness to take a risk lead her to approve production of Mission
Impossible and Star Trek. That's right, without Lucille Ball, no Captain
Kirk.
She was a woman who didn't mind looking funny, as long as she WAS funny.
None of which takes away from Desi Arnaz's estimable talents as a producer. His "can do" attitude made the "I Love Lucy Show" work. He innovated the three camera filming format still in use today.
Previously, shows like this were performed before a live audience and preserved on kinescope which makes poor copies. Desi's filiming of
Lucy is the reason there are great copies today.
For the "I Love Lucy Show" the casting of William Frawley and the then unknown Vivian Vance was sheer genius. Although Vance was often unhappy to be playing the frumpy wife of a man who was 22 years her senior, she would stick with Lucille Ball into the "Lucille Ball Show" and "Here's Lucy."

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Leave it to Beaver contributed to the notion of the perfect Fifties family. Parents never raised their voices or were too busy for the kids. Dad didn't work late.
Mom, well, poor Mom seemed obliged to remain perfectly coifed and dressed regardless of task. Dusting, vacuuming, cooking. No matter. She always had a dress and her heels on. What they never showed was Mom ironing which must have been a daily ordeal to keep all those nice outifts pressed.
A life crisis consisted of a lost report card or failure to eat your vegetables.
Still, we watched. Amused by the comings and goings of the Cleaver family and I suspect, wishing our own families could be as perfect as the Cleavers.
Ward (Hugh Beaumont) was an accountant and they lived at 211 Pine Street in
Mayfield. At the start, Beaver (Jerry Mather) was in the second grade and his brother Wally (Tony Dow) was in the eighth.
Eventually Wally moves on the Mayfield High School and becomes captain of the football team. Beaver never seems to mature.
Eddie Haskell (Ken Osmond), who called Beaver "Squirt," was my favorite of Wally's friends. A kid who sucked up to parents and two timed you behind your back. A kid you loved to hate.

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Father Knows Best was the ideal. That was the family we all wanted and no one got. Role models are a good thing, but sometimes I wonder if all those perfect people don't set the bar too high and ultimately leave people feeling cheated somehow.
Robert Young never raised his voice, lost patience or did stupid things. He came home and traded his suit coat for a sweater and proceeded to dispense wisdom.
To the show's credit, Mom (Jane Wyatt) wasn't an airhead. She did her fair share to reconcile problems.
Amazingly, when the show first aired, it was a flop, probably because of its 10 PM time slot and too few kids still awake to watch. So CBS cancelled it in March of 1955. Viewers wrote in which caught NBC's attention. They picked the show up and moved it to a new time (8:30 PM) and Father Knows Best was a success. That perked CBS up and the following season, they got the show back!
In 1960 Robert Young had had enough of playing the good dad and he decided to leave the show, of which he owned part. That did it for original shows. But the show was so popular that for the next three years the showed reruns, first on CBS and then on ABC.

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Serious banker Cosmo Topper (Leo G. Carroll) and his wife Henrietta (Lee Patrick) move into a new home. Much to Cosmo's dismay, the house is haunted by the previous owners, George (Robert Sterling) and Marion Kirby (Anne Jeffreys). Worse, only Topper could see or hear them.
The Kerbys had died in a skiing accident on their fifth wedding anniversary. Their beloved St Bernard dog Neil (Buck) had tried to rescue them and lost his life in the attempt. Poor Neil had developed a drinking problem with a preference for brandy.
The Kerby's were fun people and they could get away with anything they wanted.
Topper's life would have been very boring without them.
Anne Jeffreys and Robert Sterling were married in real life.

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Dobie Gillis (Dwayne Hickman) was an average teen. He thought about money, cars and girls. He wished he had more of all three.
Dobie's best friend was Maynard G. Krebs (Bob Denver), a beatnik who shuttered at the word "work."
Dobie's father was a grocer, an honorable profession, but
Dobie always felt that the "rich guys" got the girls. First it was Milton Armitage played by a young Warren Beatty.
Later it was Chatsworth Osborne Jr. (Steve Franken) who struttted his stuff.
Zelda Gilroy (Sheila James Kuehl) saw Dobie as her future.
But Zelda was none of the things Dobie wanted. Now
Thalia Menniger (Tuesday Weld) was another story, except that she was unattainable.
The show began and ended with Dobie contemplating life under a statue of Rodin's "the Thinker

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
For 14 years we watched Ozzie, in his alpaca cardigan and
Harriet, with her ever ready pot of coffee and a plate of brownies. Boomers grew up with Ricky and David.
When asked if this was a realistic view of family life, the answer is a resounding no. Their idea of a life crisis was having two chairs mistakenly delivered to the house.
Speaking of the house at 522 Sycamore Road, Hilldale, the set was an exact replica of their real life home in Hollywood.
If you remember all those scenes in the kitchen, that's because up until 1956, Hotpoint, the sponsor, was displaying their products! After that, you probably recall more outdoors scenes.
Did you notice the cameras around everyone's necks? Yup, Kodak became the sole sponsor.
Ozzie was producer, director and head writer. In short, he had control.

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
The $64,000 Question
1955 - 1958
30 minutes
Black and White
Hal March, host
One of the game shows rightly swept into the Quiz Show scandals.
Why? Because producers and sponsors tampered with the results.
Contestants entered an isolation booth and "struggled" to answer the most arcane questions in their personally chosen category.
Unbeknownst to the viewers and (some of the players) the producers had already provided answers to the more charismatic contestants. If a contestant was likeable, the viewer was more apt to tune in next week to follow their progress.
Interestingly, one contestant preselected by the producers to fail actually succeeded in going all the way to the big prize. Her name -
Dr. Joyce Brothers. The subject - prize fighting. Needing the money, she studied for three months before the show and was unstoppable.

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Mark Goodson - Bill Todman Production
1952 - 1967
30 minutes
Black and White 1952-1966
Garry Moore, host
Panelists included Bill Cullen, Jayne
Meadows, Henry Morgan, Gary Moore,
Kitty Carlisle and Betsy Palmer
This show was played strictly for laughs.

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Price is Right
30 minutes
1956 - 1965
Black and White/Color
Bill Cullen, host
Don Pardo, Announcer
Toni Wallace, June Fergusen, Models
Before the venerable Bob Barker took the reins,
Bill Cullen hosted the Price is Right. Popular and sought after as a host and panelist, Cullen was a regular on a couple of networks at the same time. Between radio and TV he has been on 25 game shows. No scandal has ever been associated with Bill Cullen.

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
This is Your Life
1952-1961
30 minutes
Black and White
Ralph Edwards, host
This was like a surprise party for the guests, who'd be reunited with people from their pasts. The guest was lured to the show under a pretext and then Edwards would exclaim, "This is Your Life!" Sometimes the honoree was a famous person and other times a worthy one. Celebs appearing as guests or honorees included Bob Hope, Stan
Laurel and Oliver Hardy, Bette Davis and Jack Benny. Most took it in good humor. Except Lowell Thomas, who flatly refused - on camera and live - to participate. Never let a smile pass his lips.

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5. To Tell The Truth Mark Goodson - Bill Todman
Production
1956-1968
30 minutes
Black and White/Color
Bud Collyer, host
Panelists included Kitty Carlisle, Orson Bean, Polly Bergen,
Tom Poston, Peggy Cass, Bill Cullen, and Don Ameche
Polly Bergen, Kitty Carlisle, Tom Poston Each contestant claimed to be the same person and panelists had to guess which one was telling the truth. The phony claimants could lie but the actual person had "to tell the truth" when questioned. At the conclusion of the show, Collyer would say, "would the real ________ please stand up."

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6. What's My Line Mark Goodson - Bill Todman Production
30 minutes
1950 - 1967
Black and White 1950- 1966
John Daly, host
Panelists included Arlene Francis, Steve Allen, Bennett
Cerf, Fred Allen, Tony Randall and Dorothy Kilgallen.
Arlene Francis, Dorothy Kilgallen, Bennett Cerf A panel of four celebrities tried to guess the occupation of the guest by asking a series of yes or no questions. The guest got $5 for each "no" answer.
Panelists were blindfolded for the weekly mystery guest who was a celebrity. Some famous folks who dropped by:
Warren Beartty, James Cagney, Bette Davis, Ty Cobb,Walt
Disney, Ronald Reagan, Alfred Hitchock and Elizabeth
Taylor.

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Captain Kangaroo -1955-84
Captain Kangaroo taught us good manners, respect and fair play. Mr. Green
Jeans taught us to be nice to animals. We learned a lot from that show and had fun doing it.
Bob Keeshan first came to attention as Clarabell the Clown on Howdy Doody
He had been a page at NBC in the early days of TV and was asked to do odd jobs on the show. But they decided it looked bad to have a page running about the set, so they gave him a clown costume. He got paid so little that
Buffalo Bob Smith used to slip him $5 after every show.
Just as well that he left Clarabell behind because Keeshan was born to be
Captain Kangaroo. His easy manner and quiet morality made parents trust him and kids love him.
Keeshan had high standards for the show. In a time when advertisers wielded heavy influence, Keeshan stood fast against any ads which he felt were inappropriate for children. No cast members ever delivered commercials and he was one of the first to insert "bumpers", those announcements that separate the show from the ad.
Mr. Green Jeans (Hugh Brannum) would bring live animals on the show and we'd learn their habits. He was something of an inventor too.
Tom Terrific with his sidekick, Mighty Manfred the Wonder Dog, was a popular serialized feature. Tom could turn himself into anything! Cool!
Briefly, they gave Tom his own show but he is best remembered as part of
Captain Kangaroo.

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Although the Mickey Mouse Club TV series premiered on
October 3, 1955, the Mouseketeers made their first television appearance on July 17, 1955 - on the ABC broadcast special celebrating the opening of Disneyland.
Walt Disney was adamant that the Mouseketeers be regular kids, not actors. Producers searched schools looking for kids with that special spark.
The Mousketeers went to school 5 days a week on the
Disney lot. Not only did they work 6 days but Sundays were often spent performing for the public. Being a Mousketeer wasn't easy.
The Mousketeers became close friends and remain so to this day.

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Seen Monday through Friday, the Ding
Dong School was one of the first educational shows for kids. It pioneered the style later used by Mr. Rogers and others. Our "teacher" was Dr. Frances
Horwich, who was head of the Education
Department at Roosevelt College in
Chicago. But we knew her as "Miss
Francis."
The opening sequence was a hand ringing a bell. This prompted producer Reinald
Werrenrath's three year old daughter to give the show it's name!

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Golf: Ben Hogan

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The win at Carnoustie was but a part of Hogan's watershed 1953 season, in which he won five of the six tournaments he entered and the first three major championships of the year (a feat known as the "Hogan
Slam". It still stands among the greatest single seasons in the history of professional golf. Hogan was unable to enter — and possibly win — the 1953 PGA Championship
(to complete the Grand Slam) because its play (July 1-7) overlapped the play of the British Open at Carnoustie
(July 6-10), which he won. His nine career professional
Major Championships tie him (with Gary Player) for fourth all-time, trailing only Jack Nicklaus (18), Tiger
Woods (12) and Walter Hagen (11).
Broke down the golf swing.

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
Campanella played for the Brooklyn Dodgers
(now the Los Angeles Dodgers) from 1948 to
1957, as their regular catcher. In 1948, he had three different uniform numbers (33, 39, and
56) before settling down to number 39 for the rest of his career.
His first game was on April 20, 1948.
He played in the All-Star Game every year from
1949 to 1956.
He received the Most Valuable Player (MVP) award in the National League three times: in
1951, 1953, and 1955. He was in tenth place in the MVP voting in 1952.


Willie Mays, the "Say Hey Kid," played with enthusiasm and exuberance while excelling in all phases of the game - hitting for average and power, fielding, throwing and base running. His staggering career statistics include 3,283 hits and 660 home runs. The Giants' superstar earned
National League Rookie of the Year honors in
1951 and two MVP awards. He accumulated 12
Gold Gloves, played in a record-tying 24 All-Star games and participated in four World Series. His catch of Vic Wertz's deep fly in the '54 Series remains one of baseball's most memorable moments.


Exhibiting an understated style that became his trademark, Hank Aaron became the all-time home run champion via one of the most consistent offensive careers in baseball history. In addition to his 755 home runs, he also holds the major league record for total bases, extra-base hits and RBI. Aaron was named the 1957 National League MVP, won three Gold Gloves for his play in right field and was named to a record
24 All-Star squads.

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Mickey Mantle was a star from the start, parlaying a talent for the game and boyish good looks into iconic status. In spite of a series of devastating injuries, Mantle accumulated a long list of impressive accomplishments, finishing his
18-year career with 536 home runs and a .298 batting average. The switch-hitting "Commerce
Comet" won three MVP awards (1956, ’57, ’62) and a Triple Crown (1956). He contributed to 12 pennants and seven World Series titles in his first
14 seasons, while establishing numerous World
Series records, including most home runs (18).

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NBA desegregates

Bill Russell
To acquire Russell, the Celtics' Red Auerbach traded Ed Macauley and
Cliff Hagan to the St. Louis Hawks, who had selected Russell with the
No. 2 pick in the draft. Then Boston had to wait until Russell was finished leading the United States to a gold medal in the 1956
Olympics, which ran until December in Melbourne. Once he returned home, Russell signed a one-year, $19,500 contract with Boston.
Russell established his rebounding prowess right away, averaging 19.6 per game, and helped the Celtics win their first NBA title.
That championship might have been the first of 10 in a row for Boston if Russell, the 1957-58 MVP, had not sprained his ankle in Game 3 of the 1958 Finals. When the Hawks won the title in six games, it marked the last time someone other than Boston would win the championship until 1967.
The rivalry with Chamberlain began Nov. 7, 1959, at Boston Garden.
Chamberlain outscored Russell 30-22, Russell outrebounded
Chamberlain 35-28, and the Celtics beat the Philadelphia Warriors
115-106.
Against Russell, Chamberlain won the battles, becoming the first to win MVP and Rookie of the Year honors the same season. But Russell and the Celtics won the first of eight consecutive championship wars.

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Tennis

Althea Gibson
 was an American sportswoman who, on
August 22, 1950, became the first African-
American woman to be a competitor on the world tennis tour. She is sometimes referred to as "the Jackie Robinson of tennis" for breaking the "color barrier".

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Maureen Conley was an American tennis player who was the first woman to win the Grand Slam.

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Rocky Marciano was an Italian-American boxer Rocky was the World Heavyweight Boxing Champion from September 23, 1952, to November
30, 1956. Marciano was one of very few champion boxers in the history of the sport to retire with a perfect winning record. He is considered to be one of the greatest heavyweights of all time. The title of the movie Rocky was inspired by this fighter

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Guns and holsters
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Frisbee
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Hula-hoop
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Etch a sketch
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LEGOS
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Coon Skin Caps

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Mr. Potato Head
Tang
The Portable Dishwasher
Frozen Pizza
The Electric Guitar
Split-level-homes
Swanson TV Dinners
Neutrogena Soap
Saran Wrap
Tupperware

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The Volkswagen Beetle
Denny’s
International House of Pancakes
Little Caesar’s Pizza
Dunkin Doughnuts
Kentucky Fried Chicken
Burger King
Pizza Hut
Fizzies
Chunky Candy Bars

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Brown v. the Board of Education of Topeka
Kansas-desegregated schools.
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Rosa Parks
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Montgomery Bus Boycott

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The Rosenberg Spy Case
Dwight Eisenhower becomes President in
1952 and again in 1956.
Hurricane Diane
Sputnik I

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Panty Raids
Rat Pack bop, stroll( line dance), swing, hully gully

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 beatnik-a person who was cool and rejected by mainstream society.
cat-a cool guy chick-a cool girl cool-expression of approval square-uncool squaresville-place where an uncool person came from.
cooties-a curse carried by a social outcast.
first base-kissing knuckle sandwich-a punch in the face passion pit-the drive-in.
turf-territory controlled by a youth gang.
cherry-a beautifully restored car.

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The Fashion of teens in the 50s compare with the
fashion of teens today: The fashion of the 50's much more conservative, although there was some loosening growth of style and color that began with rock and roll around 1956.
But this was a very slow process with "mainstream"
America throughout 1956- 1959. Some areas in which 50's clothing was conservative.....1.color: plaids, less colors and mostly the true colors 2. lengths were longer below the knee. Actually, girls skirt lengths were monitored
(measured) at school.. Showed less of the bodies skin...no midriff showing.. 3. less style choices. 4. shoes: color mostly black or white. Teens wore their dress shoes to school. Girls wore flats.. 5. Teen girls wore dress or skirt and blouse or sweater, boys nice buttoned shirt and nice pants - although jeans (and a nice buttoned shirt) became ok in the 50s

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Men’s Fashions:
 the gray flannel suit.
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Sincere neckties (skinny)
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Hawaiian Shirts
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Bermuda shorts

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Lucille Ball
Milton Berle
Dwight Eisenhower
Joseph McCarthy
Jonas Salk
Dr. Seuss
Frosty the Snowman popular Christmas song written by Steve "Jack"
Rollins and Steve Nelson in 1950. It was written after
Gene Autry recorded "Rudolph the Red-Nosed
Reindeer" and the single sold 2 million copies. Rollins and Nelson shipped the new song to Autry, who recorded "Frosty" in search of another seasonal hit.
Like "Rudolph", "Frosty" was subsequently adapted to other media including a popular television special.

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
Mad Magazine
Mad is an American humor magazine founded by publisher
William Gaines and editor Harvey Kurtzman in 1952.
Peanuts was a syndicated daily comic strip written and illustrated by Charles M. Schulz, which ran from October 2, 1950 to the day after Schulz's death, February 13, 2000. The strip was one of the most popular and influential in the history of the medium. At its peak Peanuts ran in over 2,600 newspapers, with a readership of 355 million in 75 countries, and was translated into 40 languages. It helped to cement the four-panel gag strip as the standard in the
United States. Reprints of the strip are still syndicated and run in many newspapers.
Playboy is an American adult entertainment magazine, founded in
1953 by Hugh Hefner and his associates, which has grown into Playboy Enterprises, Inc., reaching into every form of media. Playboy is one of the world's best known brands. In addition to the flagship magazine in the United States, special nation-specific versions of Playboy are published worldwide.

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The Old Man and the Sea-Ernest
Hemingway
The Betty Crocker Picture Cookbook
From Here To Eternity-James Jones
The Power of Positive Thinking-Norman
Vincent Peale
Sexual Behavior and the Human Female-
Alfred Kinsey
Lolita-Vladamir Nabokov
Peyton Place-Grace Metalious
Sports Illustrated

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MAD-Mutually assured destruction

Americans were fearful of nuclear attacks.

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Containment Policy
Domino Effect
N. Korea attacks S. Korea-The Korean
War
Hungarians revolt against communism and lose
Cuba falls to communism under Fidel
Castro
Joseph McCarthy claims that there are communists in the government.

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Life Expectancy:
Male 65.6
Female 71.1
Three leading Causes of Death
1. Heart Disease
2. Cancer
3. The Flu
Average Employee Earnings $2,992
Cost of Food:
Eggs 72 cents
Quart of milk 21 cents