•1951 – Transcontinental
Television
•Created a National
“Ideal”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ULK_PNaS6d0
•Edward R. Murrow –
“See It Now”
•1st TV News Magazine
POLIO
Easily spread
Affects nervous
system and enters
spinal cord =
Which American
Paralysis
President was plagued by
the effects of Polio?
Polio Vaccine
Jonas Salk
1952 – 1st Successful
Vaccine
Made of 3 types of
virus grown in monkey
kidney cultures
1954 – Drug Trials
1955 – Government
distributed vaccine
Polio Vaccine
Initial Problems
260 Cases of
Paralysis
10 Deaths
What are the current
controversies
It was corrected
concerning
and became 70 –
vaccinations?
90% protection rate
1952 – US Started discussing
Satellite possibilities
• Why was it such an issue that the
Didn’t
have
capability
to launch
Soviet
Union
launched
Sputnik
before we
were able
to get alaunched
1957
– October
– USSR
satellite into
Sputnik
I space?
• How does the use of Satellites
connect to the FEAR and
paranoia of the Cold War?
1957 – November – USSR launched
even bigger satellite
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KMFvr1VwSSo&list=PLfrReN-izGQiZ2zzHZc-olL9fav6WZ1I2
1957 – US Responded with a 3
phase plan
Phase I – launch 2 artificial
satellites
Phase II – launce 5 TV satellites
Phase III – launch 1
surveillance satellite
1958 – The Explorer Series began
Became permanent in 1946
• When was HUAC established?
9 Members
• Why do you think it was created
Goal:attothis
investigate
threats to “the
time specifically?
form of government guaranteed by our
• Primary Source Activity –
Constitution.”
Disney and the Fear of
Hollywood
Blacklist – included Charlie
Communism
Chaplin
 Klaus Fuchs – scientist
 2 X in 1945 Fuchs met with a
Soviet Agent
 Fuchs confessed but implicated
another Scientist Gold as his
messenger
Fuchs was sentenced to 14
years – maximum for sharing
military secrets with a friendly
nation
Gold was sentenced to 30
years – released on parole in
1966
Served as a
witness in other Spy
investigations
Julius and Ethel Rosenberg
1939 – 1943 were members of the
Young Communist League
Dropped out in 1943 to “raise their
family”
David and Ruth Greenglass
David was Ethel’s brother
He was a member of the Manhattan
Project
When David and Ruth were accused of
espionage they implicated Julius
July 17, 1950 Julius was arrested
August 11, 1950 Ethel was arrested
– her arrest was used to threaten
Julius into confessing
Both David and Ruth Greenglass
were witnesses for the prosecution
Evidence against Ruth was weak
and relied solely on David’s
testimony, which he has recently
admitted to making up.
Julius and Ethel were
sentenced to death
After numerous pleas
for clemency they were
executed at Sing Sing in
1953
The Greenglass’
currently live under
assumed identities in the
NY area
Who was Alger Hiss?
•Harvard Trained
Lawyer
•Accused of Being a
Soviet Spy
•Convicted of Perjury
in 1950
Who Accused him?
•Time Magazine’s Managing
Editor – Whittaker Chambers
•Soviet Spy turned
Government informant
•Accused Hiss of being a
Soviet Spy
Richard Nixon
•Member of HUAC
•Believed Chambers’
accusations
GUILTY?
INNOCENT?
•1952 – A former member
of the Communist
organization the Ware
Group, testified that Hiss
was also a member
•1988 – Gordievsky – KGB
Agent – identified Hiss as
being the spy “ALES”
•The Woodstock Typewriter
– Hiss’ personal typewriter
that implicated him – Nixon
claimed that it was
fabricated
•FBI agent knowingly
committed perjury during
the trial, stating that it was
impossible to forge a
document by typewriter.
GUILTY?
•1992 – Hungarian Interior
Ministry archives
mentioned Hiss as a
Communist Spy
•1995 – The Venona
Project – identified Hiss’
spy name as “ALES”
•The Haunted Wood – book
published affirming Hiss’
guilt – based on ALES
being his Spy Name.
INNOCENT?
•FBI had an informer on
Hiss’ defense team
•Prosecution illegally
withheld information from
Hiss and his defense team
•“Pumpkin Papers” – they
were the center of Nixon’s
case, and 1 roll of film was
blank, and 2 rolls were
about life rafts and fire
extinguishers
GUILTY?
INNOCENT?
•Hiss was readmitted to the
Massachusetts Bar in 1975
• Based on the•1992
evidence
– ado
review of Soviet
you think Hiss was guilty?
Intelligence archives
Why or why not?
revealed
no evidence that
• Why do you think
Hiss was
Hiss was a spy
targeted?
• What motive •“ALES”
would
– information
Chambers have
for add up that this
doesn’t
accusing him?
was actually him
Fueled by the Alger
Hiss Hearings
Senator Joe McCarthy
personally accused over
200 people of being
Communists
Writers & Entertainers
were Blacklisted i.e.
Arthur Miller and Charlie
Chaplin
Edward R. Murrow –
Journalist
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-
YOIueFbG4g&list=PLgo3mLEQKWfOgXi8P4-gSqtlBc70VGVW-
Mort Stahl – Comedian
Can you relate
They stood up this
to McCarthy
to the
media today?
McCarthy’s accusations
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h5yd3Nqp19s
were eventually proven untrue
and he was censured by the
Senate for unbecoming
conduct
Started in 1940s
Spontaneous Personal
Expression
Large Paintings
Abstract
Action Painting
Jackson Pollock
1912-1956
26 – suffered a
breakdown
Alcoholic
Died in a Car
Crash
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CrVE-WQBcYQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9h9cQLQFSrk
•1917 – 1997
•1929 – entered US as a
stowaway on British freighter –
SS Shelly
•1935 – Worked on WPA
Federal Art Project
•1950s– Influenced by Freud –
Abstract Impressionism
•1980 – Diagnosed with
Alzheimer's
Philosophical
movement
Emphasizes:
Individualism
Freedom
Subjectivity
Rejected the
existence of God
Rothko – 1903 – 1970
Russian Immigrant
Nonrepresentational
Art
Emotional and
Spiritual Content
1970 committed
suicide
Wright wanted to “provide Middle
Class Americans with beautiful
architecture at an affordable price.”
1950s was his last decade
Art became “vulgar & repetitive”
Usonian Architecture
“Affordable housing at its
best”
How do you think the art
and architecture of the
1950s was influenced by
the Cold War and the fears
of society?
•“The Ideal Suburb”
•Compromise between Extreme
Economy and Promise of
Appropriate Living Space
•Under $8,000 to purchase
Rapid construction using
standardized parts
Assembly line technique
One person was
responsible for painting
all the window sills of all
the houses
Uniform Construction – 2
types of houses – Cape
Cod and Ranch
Levitt’s firm and its
subsidiaries owned
all areas of
production
Lumberyards wholesalers
The Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1952
Provided $25 million a year
1954 – added $175 million a year
The Highway Revenue Act of 1956
Created National Standards for design
How does the
Minimum of 2 lanes each way
establishment of the
12 ft. lane widths
interstate highway
system affect everyday
10 ft. shoulder on right
life?
4 ft. shoulder on left
Length – 41,000 miles total
1954 Brown v. Board of
Education
Chief Justice Earl Warren
Integration of Public
Schools – ended Separate but
Equal
1956 – Autherine Lucy enrolled
in the University of Alabama
1957 – Elizabeth Eckford
entered Little Rock Central H.S.
Rudolf Flesch –
believed educators
were failing to teach
reading
Ridiculed “look and
guess” method
Promoted the
phonics approach to
reading
Reflected a conflict
between self-satisfaction
(Happy Days) and self-doubt
Explored the true worth of
American Values
Writers such as:
JD Salinger
Ernest Hemmingway
John Steinbeck
At 18 he became a journalist
and then joined the Red Cross
as an Ambulance Driver in WWI
He was injured in the war
6 days before his 19th
birthday – 227 scars on his
knee and foot
Late 30s went to Spain to
cover the Spanish Civil War
Suffered from Anthrax
infection
1954 In Africa – 2 successive plane
crashes
Sprained rt. shoulder, arm and
left leg
Concussion
Temporary loss of vision and
hearing in left side
Crushed vertebra
Ruptured liver, spleen and
kidney
1st degree burns
One month later injured
in bushfire
2nd degree burns on
his legs, torso, lips, left
hand and forarm
The Old Man and the
Sea
Won Pulitizer in 1953
Won Nobel Prize for
Literature in 1954
•July 2, 1961 – Committed suicide with a
gun he purchased from Abercrombie and
Fitch
 Beatniks
referred to
people:
living like
bohemians
acting rebellious
Appearing to
advocate a revolution
Jack Kerouac – Writer
who epitomized the Beat
Generation
Viewers watched and
copied the lives
portrayed
TheHoneymooners
Lassie
Father Knows Best
I Love Lucy
Disneyland
Established ABC
Helped finance Disney’s
Theme Parks
“Davey Crocket”
Ed Sullivan Show
Longest running variety
show
Rock Bands, Slapstick
Comedy, Dramatic Writings…
Helped advertisers sell
products to homemakers
“soap operas” – 1st one
was Guiding Light
Commercials reflected the
“ideal” portrayed on TV
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vyfaY5sFQ0
Women in the 1950s
WWII employment for women
Women’s Auxiliary Corps laboratory
technician conducts an experiment, Fort
Jackson State Hospital, 1944
Aircraft engine technician and senior
supervisor, Naval Air Base, 1942
Post-WWII employment
A secretary and her boss, an industrial
designer, New York City, 1950
Social pressures
• Early marriage
• Childbearing
• Stay-at-home
motherhood
• Nuclear family
Kennedy wedding, Jacqueline throwing the bouquet, 1953
Births
The Baby Boom
Year
Media portrayals of gender
A photo of the Cleaver family from Leave it to Beaver, a popular TV show in
the 1950s-60s
Suburbia, home of the “happy housewife”
• G.I. Bill
• Mass-produced,
affordable
homes
• Great Migration
and “white
flight”
Levittown track homes of the 1950s
Household products marketed to women
A 1950s ad for a cleaning
product
A 1950s ad for an electric iron
Is the image of the happy 1950s
housewife accurate?
•Were housewives happy in their lives?
•Were women in the 1950s just staying home?
•Documents A and B say women were staying at
home; but Documents C and D say that women
were politically involved and even working. Who
should we believe?
•Do you think African-American, Latina, Asian
American, and women from other minority groups
had similar experiences to those depicted in
these documents?
A Blend of the Southern Blues
and Gospel Music w/ an added
back beat
1955 – Bill Haley’s Rock Around
the Clock became popular
50’s Rock = Feel Good
Innocence
“The King of Rock ‘n Roll”
“The King”
Most Commercially
successful Rock ‘n Roll singer
Set records for…
Concert attendance
TV ratings
Record Sales
Love Me Tender
1955 – San Diego and
Florida police warned him
that if he moved at all
during his performances
they would arrest him on
obscenity charges
Love Me Tender
1957 – Producers of Ed
Sullivan would only allow
him to be shot from the
waist up
One of the founding fathers
of Rock ‘n Roll
Influenced by Elvis Presley
Bridged some of the racial
divide in Rock n Roll by
performing at the Apollo
Theater
Eventually won over an
all black audience
Oh Boy
Influenced The Beatles and
Bob Dylan
“The Wild Man
of Rock ‘n Roll”
“The Killer”
Early pioneer of
Rock ‘n Roll
Piano Rock
Name given to male singers of
pop standards
Negative term - most people
wouldn’t consider themselves
crooners
Nat King Cole
Frank Sinatra
Singer & Academy
Award winning actor
Part of the Rat Pack
– w/ Dean Martin,
Sammy Davis Jr. and
Joey Bishop
Died in May of 1998
Singer Songwriter &
Jazz Pianist
1956 – members of the
“White Citizens Council of
Birmingham, Alabama
rushed stage & beat him –
they had confused Nat’s
crooning for R&B
Unforgettable
Supported JFK w/
Sinatra