KATIE ROCCA
COOPER IRONS
NIKKI HARDWICK
ERIN PERELSTINE
JOHN DUFFY
MIKE AMBROSE
LET’S TRAVEL BACK IN TIME
1950
COMMUNISM
- IDENTIFY AND EXPLAIN THE ACTIONS TAKEN BY THE U.S.
GOVERNMENT TO LIMIT COMMUNISIM AT HOME
• President Truman set up a special office to
investigate federal employees because people
accused him of allowing communists in the U.S.
• Congress passed the House Un-American Activities
Committee to fight domestic Communism.
• Questioned the ties of people who belonged to labor
unions and liberal political groups.
• Congress also tried to fight communism at home by
passing the Internal Security Act in 1950.
• Required Communist Party members to register with the
federal government.
RESPONSE TO COMMUNISM
- EXPLAIN HOW THE AMERICANS RESPONDED TO REAL AND PERCEIVED
THREATS OF DOMESTIC COMMUNISM IN THE 1950S
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Paranoia
Avoided political activities
Kept opinions to self
Film would not feature social
or political issues
FBI & CIA opened private mail
Rock N’ Roll -> communist
music
Girl Scouts -> communist front
Definite end – 1990s
MCCARTHYISM
- EXPLAIN HOW THE AMERICANS RESPONDED TO REAL AND
PERCEIVED THREATS OF DOMESTIC COMMUNISM IN THE 1950S
• (DEF) – The practice of
making accusations of
disloyalty, especially of procommunist activity, in many
instances unsupported by
proof or based on slight,
doubtful, or irrelevant
evidence
• Blacklists
• Could loose job, life, and
reputation
• Charged people that weren’t
liked
• Charged people in order not
to be charged
TRUMAN
-DESCRIBE THE MAJOR GOALS OF PRESIDENT TRUMAN’S FAIR DEAL
AND RELATE WHETHER THEY WERE ACCOMPLISHED.
• His Fair Deals were a series of reforms
that he proposed to congress.
• The Fair Deals promised:
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Full employment
A higher minimum wage
A national health insurance program
Construction of affordable housing
Increased aid to farmers
The expansion of welfare benefits to more
people
• Truman managed to push through
some of his reforms.
• Fair Deals had limited success in an
increasingly conservative post war
political climate.
• He was able to push through:
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Increase minimum wage
Equal employment rights for all Americans
Construction of affordable housing
Expansion of welfare benefits
• He was unable to push through:
• All Americans having health insurance
EISENHOWER
- EXPLAIN HOW PRESIDENT EISENHOWER TRIED TO MANAGE THE
NATION’S PROBLEMS
• Pledged to balance federal budget, reduce
government regulation of the economy
• Eliminated thousands of government jobs
• Cut billions from federal budget
• Cut farm subsides
• Social Programs
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Expanded social society and unemployment benefits
Increased minimum wage
Increased educational spending
Federal debt grew by 9%
• International Affairs & Actions
• Vietnam
• Latin America
• Middle East
SUBURBS
- DESCRIBE SUBURBAN LIFE DURING THE 1950S
• (def). Residential communities on the outskirts of
cities
• Cities = “crowed, dirty, dangerous”
• Suburbs = “calm and quiet”
• One of the most dominant features of the 20th
century
WORKING PEOPLE IN THE SUBURBS
- DESCRIBE SUBURBAN LIFE DURING THE 1950S
• Still worked in cities
• Commuted to work
• Creation of Railroads & The Highway Act made
traveling to cities easy because they connected
cities to suburbs
HOUSING
- DESCRIBE SUBURBAN LIFE DURING THE 1950S
• Suburbs growing rapidly in
1950’s
• Women’s fertility rate soared
50% between 1940 and 1957
• Nearly half of all American
women had their first child
before they turned 20
• More families = demand for
houses
• Houses in suburbs were very
desirable
• “Ideal American Family”
• Affordable
• Close to shopping malls,
resturants, grocery stores, etc.
RAILROADS & HIGHWAYS
- DESCRIBE SUBURBAN LIFE DURING THE 1950S
Forever changed America
Transportation became easy
Tourism grew
Changed social aspect of
life: distance was no longer
an issue
• Bus business declined since
there was no longer a need
for inner-city travel
• Highways promoted mass
transportation (moving
products through different
cities)
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FASHION
Women’s
• Post WWII there was a
huge push to get women
back into the home and
kitchen
• soft shoulders, stiletto
heels, full skirts, and slim
waists
• “hourglass” figure was
accepted
• Corsets became popular
again, to slim the waist
even further
Men’s
• Clean, cut, and
conservative
• Charcoal suit with
penny loafers was
extremely popular
• known as the “American
suit”
FASHION
Teenage
• First generation of teenagers
to “rebel against elders”
• Rock n’ Roll becomes
popular
• “Greaser” look of jeans, white
t shirt, and leather jacket
• Neat pleated skirts, scoop
neck blouses, and ¾ sleeve
fitted shirts
Hairstyles
• Men had short clean hair, or
combed back
• Men’s hair didn’t touch their ears.
This was illegal in certain states
• Women had high maintenance,
curly hair.
• The invention of hair dryers and
curlers helped women keep the
curls
SPORTS
• Golf
• Televised well, it was slow and easy to follow
• Could be attempted by anyone, it was everywhere
• Became widely assumed that a person could not succeed in
business without knowing how to play golf
• Most courses excluded blacks and confined women to playing
once a week on Ladies’ Day
• Basketball
• NBA became integrated in 1950 by Sweetwater Clifton, Chuck
Cooper, and Earl Lloyd
• Game’s first black superstar was Elgin Baylor who played for
the Los Angeles Lakers
• Other early stars included Wilt Chamberlin, Bob Cousy, George
Mikan, Oscar Robinson, and Dolph Schayes
• Played in virtually every high school and college nation wide
SPORTS
• Baseball
• Huge part of American life
• Players weren’t well paid so fans could relate to them which increased
popularity
• Every team had network of radio stations that broadcast games over
wide area
• Wasn’t a big deal in high schools
• Football
• Popular in high schools all over the country
• College football became more popular as television during the time
period progressed
• Star football players of the time period included Jim Brown, Frank
Gifford, and Sammy Baugh
• Others
• Boxing, horseracing, and tennis were also widely followed
• Hockey didn’t follow well in the U.S.
• The Olympics had a huge following during the time period as well
POPULAR PEOPLE IN SPORTS
HISTORIC EVENTS
• The Korean Conflict
• Began on June 25, 1950
• 75,000 soldiers from the North Korean People’s Army poured
across the 38th parallel
• The invasion was the first military action of the Cold War
• July, American troops had entered the war on South
Korea’s behalf
• Brown v. Board of Education
• It was a case decided in 1954 in which the Supreme Court
of the United States declared racial segregation in public
schools to be unconstitutional.
HISTORIC EVENTS
• Immigration and Nationality Act
• Created in 1952
• Also known as the McCarran-Walter Act
• Meant to exclude certain immigrants from immigrating to America, post World War II
and in the early Cold War
• The main objective of this was to block any spread of communism from outside post
WWII countries as well as deny any enemy of the US during WWII such as Japan and
favor “good Asian” countries such as China.
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The Highway System
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On June 29, 1956 President Dwight Eisenhower signed the Federal-aid Highway Act
of 1956.
Eisenhower was determined to build the highways
The bill created 41,000-mile “National System of interstate and Defense Highways.”
Passed in June 1956
They were intended to have several purposes:
• eliminate traffic congestion
• make coast-to-coast transportation efficient
• make it easy to get out of big cities in case of an atomic attack
More than 46,000 miles long.
HISTORIC EVENTS
• Explorer 1
• Spacecraft
• America’s first satellite on
January 31, 1958
• Launched after the Soviet
Union’s success with
Sputnik
• Carried an instrument
package
• Package provided
evidence that the earth is
surrounded by intense
bands of radiation, now
called the Van Allen
radiation belt.
• First major scientific
discovery of the space
age.
HISTORIC PEOPLE
• Rosa Parks
• On December 1, 1955, Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat
on a bus for a white passenger
• Arrested for not giving up seat
• 50,000 African Americans from Montgomery in protest
organized a boycott against the bus system
• total of 381 days
Involved in the civil rights movement
Held office in the Montgomery chapter of the NAACP
Worked for Representative John Conyers in 1967
Won numerous awards including the Congressional Gold
Medal of Honor
• In November of 1956, the Supreme Court’s ruling that
segregation on transportation is unconstitutional
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MUSIC
• Popular Types:
Boogie-Woogie
Doo Wop
R&B
Rock n’ Roll
• Famous Names:
Elvis
Little Richard
Frank Sinatra
Buddy Holly
Johnny Cash
• Top Songs:
Rock Around the Clock – Bill Haley & the Comets
Great Balls of Fire – Jerry Lee Lewis
Hound Dog – Elvis
Whole Lot of Shakin’ Going On – Jerry Lee Lewis
ROCK N’ ROLL
“WHITE BOYS SINGING BLACK BOYS’ MUSIC”
• Had to be played on the television, not allowed on
radio
• 1st rock concert – Cleveland 1952
• Parents disapproved:
- lyrics suggestive
- caused Caucasians and African
Americans to mix
• Law makers tried to stop the fast spread of Rock n’
Roll
• Elvis was always shown from the guitar up when he
was on television
1950’S MUSIC
POPULAR MOVIES OF THE 1950’S
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Singin’ in the Rain – 1952
Rear Window – 1954
Ben – Hur – 1959
Peter Pan – 1953
Vertigo – 1958
Some Like it Hot – 1959
Alice in Wonderland – 1951
Sleeping Beauty – 1959
POPULAR MOVIE STARS OF THE 1950’S
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Marlon Brando
James Dean
James Stewart
Doris Day
Marilyn Monroe
John Wayne
Katherine Hepburn
Elvis Presley
Annette Funicello
POPULAR TV SHOWS OF THE 1950’S
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Leave it to Beaver
I Love Lucy
American Bandstand
The Twilight Zone
Superman
Lassie
The Mickey Mouse Club
1950’S
Popular Theatre
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Death of a Salesman
The Sleeping Prince
The Seven Year Itch
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof
The Diary of Anne Frank
Popular Radio Programs
• Dragnet
• Minus One
• Tales of the Texas
Ranger
ARTISTIC OUTLETS OF THE
1950S
• Pop Art – Iconography of TV, photography, comic,
cinema, and advertising
• Film Formats – Cinemascope, VistaVision, Cinerama,
and 3D Film methods
INVENTIONS & DISCOVERIES:
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Polio Vaccine
First McDonalds
Car Seat-belts
Color Television
Phone Answering Machines
Credit Card
Video Tape/VCR
END