1950s
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| Millennia: | 2nd millennium |
| Centuries: | 19th century - 20th century - 21st century |
| Decades: | 1920s 1930s 1940s - 1950s - 1960s 1970s 1980s |
| Years: | 1950 1951 1952 1953 1954 1955 1956 1957 1958 1959 |
| Categories: | Births - Deaths - Architecture Establishments - Disestablishments |
The 1950s decade refers to the years of 1950 to 1959 inclusive. The Fifties in the United States and much of Western Europe are generally considered conservative in contrast to the social revolution of the next decade. Mass suburband developments and nuclear family ideals serve as symbols of the era from the end of the Second World War in 1945 to the inauguration of United States President John F. Kennedy in 1961. Education grew explosively because of a very strong demand for high school and college education. The Cold War between the Soviet Union and the United States played out through the entire decade. The fifties also revolutionized entertainment with the mainstream introduction of television, rapid growth of the recording industry and new genres of music, and movies targeted at teenage audiences. Due to the conservative norms of the era and the sometimes violent suppression of social movements, seeds of rebellion grew and were manifested through Rock and Roll, movies emphasizing rebelliousness, expansion of the Civil Rights Movement, the so-called Beat Generation of poets and artists. All of these played significant roles in the Social Revolution of the Sixties (1960s).
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[edit] Ascendancy of the United States
The 1950s in the U.S. were marked with a sharp rise in the economy for the first time in almost 30 years, and a return to the 1920s-type consumer society built on credit and boom-times, as well as the baby boom from returning GIs who went to college under the G.I. Bill and settled in suburban America. Most of the internal conflicts that had developed in earlier decades like women's rights, civil rights, and imperialism were relatively suppressed or neglected during this time as a world returning from the brink hoped to see a more consistent way of life as opposed to the radicalism of the 1930s and 1940s. The effect of suppressing social problems in the 1950s would have a significant impact on the rest of the twentieth century.
[edit] Social and political movements
[edit] Trends
In the West, an American generation troubled by the Great Depression and World War II created a culture with emphasis on organization and suppression. African Americans took a generally different approach to a post-war society, aiming for a greater inclusiveness and social awareness after a global crisis in the preceding decades that many blamed on the failings of free market capitalism, and the fifties were marked by the establishment of a Welfare State in many countries in Western Asia. There was a lot5 of trends in the 1950's which involved fashion being taken over by teenagers.
[edit] Korean War
The Korean War, lasted from June 25, 1950 until a cease-fire on July 27, 1953 (as of now, there has been no peace treaty signed), started as a civil war between communist North Korea and the Republic of South Korea. When it began, North and South Korea existed as provisional governments competing for control over the Korean peninsula, due to the division of Korea by outside powers. While originally a civil war, it quickly escalated into a proxy war between the capitalist powers of the United States and its allies and the Communist powers of the People's Republic of China and the Soviet Union.
On September 15, General Douglas MacArthur planned a grand strategy to dissect North-Korean-occupied Korea at the city of Incheon (Song Do port) to cut off further invasion by the North Korean army. Within a few days, MacArthur's army took back Seoul (South Korea's capital). The plan succeeded which allowed American and South Korean forces to cut off further expansion by the North Koreans. The war continued until a cease-fire was agreed to by both sides on July 27, 1953. The war left 33,742 American soldiers dead, 92,134 wounded, and 51,000 MIA(missing in action).
[edit] Suez Crisis
The Suez Crisis was a war fought on Egyptian territory in 1956. Following the nationalisation of the Suez Canal in 1956 by Gamal Abdel Nasser, the United Kingdom, France and Israel subsequently invaded. The operation was a military success, but after the USA and Soviet Union united in opposition to the invasion, the invaders were forced to withdraw. This was seen as a major humiliation, especially for the two European countries, and symbolises the beginning of the end of colonialism and weakening of European global importance.
[edit] European Common Market
The European Community (or Common Market), the precursor of the European Union, was established with the Treaty of Rome in 1957
[edit] Civil rights
During this time, African-Americans were subject to racial segregation, but the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s was brewing. Key figures like Martin Luther King, Malcolm X and Rosa Parks highlighted and challenged those who were against African-American rights and freedom. The Little Rock Nine integrated Central High School, which was a key event in the fight to end segregation in schools.
[edit] Culture
- Brylcreem and other hair tonics had a period of popularity
- Juvenile delinquency was said to be at unprecedented epidemic proportions in the United States, though some see this era as relatively low in crime compared to today.
- Continuing poverty in some regions during recessions later on in this decade. The 1950s is often mistakenly painted as the pinnacle of American prosperity. To some, it also may be considered the peak of our modern American civilization. The '50s were supposed to be a time of the "Affluent Society".
- The 1950s saw fairly high rates of unionization, government social spending, taxes, and the like in the United States and European countries. Most Western governments were liberal or moderate, though domestic politics were also affected by reactions to communism and the Cold War.
- Beatniks, a culture of teenage and young adults who were seen as rebels and against the social norms, were popularized towards the end of the decade and criticised by older generations. They are seen as a predecessor for the counterculture and hippie movements.
- Optimistic visions of a semi-utopian technological future, including such devices as the flying car, were popular.
- The Day the Earth Stood Still hits movie theaters launching a cycle of Hollywood films in which Cold War fears are manifested through scenarios of alien invasion or mutation.
- Considerable racial tension arose with military and school desegregation in mostly the southern part of the United States, though major controversy and uproar did not truly erupt until the 1960s.
- Resurgence of evangelical Christianity including Youth for Christ (1943); the National Association of Evangelicals, the American Council of Christian Churches, the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association (1950), Conservative Baptist Association of America (1947); and the Campus Crusade for Christ (1951). Christianity Today was first published in 1956. 1956 also marked the beginning of Bethany Fellowship, a small press that would grow to be a leading evangelical press.
- Carl Stuart Hamblen, a religious radio broadcaster, hosted the popular show "The Cowboy Church of the Air".
- .The Kinsey Reports were published. Hugh Hefner launched Playboy magazine. Teenage girls formed "non virgin clubs" to hold sex orgies. They voted in new members and prospective boy members had to pass inspection by the girls.[1][2][3]
Flying in the face of continuity, logic, and erudite sociological predictions, fashion in the 1950s, far from being revolutionary and progressive, bore strong nostalgic echoes of the past. A whole society which, in the 1920s and '30s, had greatly believed in progress, was now much more circumspect. Despite the fact that women had the right to vote, to work, and to drive their own cars, they chose to wear dresses made of opulent materials, with corseted waists and swirling skirts to mid-calf. As fashion looked to the past, haute couture experienced something of a revival and spawned a myriad of star designers who profited hugely from the rapid growth of the media. Throughout the 1950s, although it would be for the last time, women around the world continued to submit to the trends of Parisian haute couture. Three of the most prominent of the Parisian couturiers of the time were Cristobal Balenciaga, Hubert de Givenchy, and Pierre Balmain. Also notable is the return of Coco Chanel (who detested the New Look) to the fashion world. After the war, the American look (which consisted of broad shoulders, floral ties, straight-legged pants, and shirts with long pointed collars, often worn hanging out rather than tucked in) became very popular among men in Europe. The designers of Hollywood created a particular type of glamour for the stars of American film, and outfits worn by the likes of Marilyn Monroe, Lauren Bacall, or Grace Kelly were widely copied. By the end of the decade mass-manufactured, off-the-peg clothing had become much more popular than in the past, granting the general public unprecedented access to fashionable styles.
- See also: Timeline of musical events#1950s
Popular music up to the early 1950s were mainly bebop and other variations of jazz music, with names such as Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Thelonious Monk between innumerable others. But the teenagers who had been gaining gradual attention from the media and the industry preferred a new sound somewhat different from that which their parents listened to. A new sound then arrived at the ears and, thanks to television, to the eyes of the young: Rock and Roll. Rock and roll music emerges of a mixture of American black music with American white music in the United States of the 1950s. Some important names of this genre at the time were musicians such as Little Richard, Chuck Berry and Buddy Holly or Stephen Tindale. Bill Haley with his hit "Rock Around the Clock" as well as Jerry Lee Lewis and Johnny Cash would also be important rockabilly musicians.
Doo Wop was another very popular genre at the time, which can be defined as a mixture of rhythm and blues with harmonic vocals.
[edit] World cinema
The 1950s represent what many see as the epitome of Japanese cinema, starting in 1950 with Rashomon, the first major success of legendary Japanese director Akira Kurosawa, which is considered to be one of the greatest films of all time. [4] Kurosawa followed this success with a string of classics such as Ikiru (1952), Seven Samurai (1954), Throne of Blood (1957), and The Hidden Fortress (1958).
Other Japanese directors who were very successful in this period were Yasujiro Ozu and Kenji Mizoguchi. Ozu made Tokyo Story in 1953, which is widely considered one of the best films ever made, as well as the best Japanese film ever made. [5] [6] Ozu followed this success with a remake of his earlier A Story of Floating Weeds, only this time in color and sound, which are both regarded as some of Ozu's best work.
In 1953 and 1954, Mizoguchi made the two films that are widely considered to be his masterpieces, Ugetsu and Sansho the Bailiff.
In addition to Japanese cinema receiving vast success worldwide, European cinema was experiencing a reboot after World War II. In 1953, renowned Italian director Federico Fellini made what is widely considered to be his first masterpiece, I vitelloni. Although it did not achieve significant success at the time, Fellini followed it up with his international breakthrough, La strada, which went on to win the first competitive foreign language film Oscar. Fellini followed the success of La strada with another huge success, Nights of Cabiria. Nights of Cabiria was lauded worldwide and earned Fellini another Oscar.
Meanwhile, in Sweden, a young Ingmar Bergman was starting to leave his indelible stamp in cinema. In 1955, after a string of financial flops, Bergman achieved his first international success, Smiles of a Summer Night. Smiles of a Summer Night received international acclaim and earned Bergman a Jury Prize at the Cannes Film Festival. Bergman followed up the success of Smiles with what remains his most famous film to this day, The Seventh Seal (1957).
The Seventh Seal was an ambitious project in which Antonious Block, after returning from the Crusades plays chess with Death in the hope that Death will allow him to live. The Seventh Seal earned unanimous praise worldwide and established Bergman as one of cinema's most promising, young directors and is still considered to be one of his best films, and some even consider it to be his masterpiece.
That same year, Bergman decided to follow The Seventh Seal with a more personal project on a much smaller scale, Wild Strawberries. Wild Strawberries is the story of an old man (played by Victor Sjöström) who goes on a trip to receive an honorary degree with his daughter in law (Ingrid Thulin). During the trip, she tells him he is cold and unfeeling and he thinks over all the failures of his life. Bergman explores such trademark themes as the existence of God and mortality in this film. Wild Strawberries also received enormous acclaim and only further emphasized his talent. It is now considered one of his greatest films, and 1957 is considered a year of prodigious output for the young Bergman.
Meanwhile, over in France, young critics such as Jean-Luc Godard, François Truffaut, Claude Chabrol, and Éric Rohmerfor the influential magazine Cahiers du Cinéma were starting to make their stamp in film. In 1958, Chabrol made Le Beau Serge, the film that is widely considered to be the first film of the French New Wave. But the New Wave only started receiving recognition in 1959, when Truffaut released his debut feature, The 400 Blows. The 400 Blows struck a chord in audiences worldwide and praise was lavished upon it. Today it is considered one of Truffaut's two best films, along with 1961's Jules and Jim.
Later that year, Godard released his first film, Breathless. It received attention for its radical storytelling methods and mocking of American gangster clichés. It is now regarded as a masterpiece, and one of Godard's best films. It remains Godard's only box office success to date.
[edit] Hollywood
Known as the "Golden Age", this era of movie-making saw the release of many classics, talented stars and directors. Films like Sunset Boulevard with William Holden and Gloria Swanson, All About Eve with Bette Davis, and Ben-Hur with Charlton Heston, would become instant classics.
Westerns were getting bigger in the 1950s, with films like High Noon starring Gary Cooper, and Cheyenne with Clint Walker, wrangling moviegoers back to the time of outlaws and wild shoot-outs. There was no shortage of war movies: the 1950s saw the release of Stalag 17, directed by Billy Wilder, The Bridge over the River Kwai starring Alec Guinness, and Stanley Kubrick's Paths of Glory, a potent anti-war film that starred Kirk Douglas as the French Col. Dax, defending three soldiers accused of cowardice.
The Stanislavski style of acting also took prominence during this time, its natural approach to stage and film manifested in the likes of students such as Marlon Brando and Paul Newman, both regarded this day as some of greatest and most influential actors of all time. The rebellious and overly masculine nature of Brando's roles (such as roles in The Wild One and A Streetcar Named Desire) also influenced sales of T-shirts and Motorcycles.
Thrillers were also turning into a huge genre in post-war Hollywood. Alfred Hitchcock directed many big name pictures, including Rear Window, starring James Stewart and Grace Kelly, North by Northwest with Cary Grant, and Vertigo, with James Stewart and Kim Novak.
Musicals including Singin' in the Rain and An American in Paris with Gene Kelly were released and White Christmas starring Bing Crosby.
The Mickey Mouse Club premiered on October 3rd in 1955 and tens of thousands of boys and girls tuned in to watch their favorite Mouseketeers perform.
Animated films included Walt Disney's Cinderella, Alice in Wonderland and Peter Pan.
Comedies are always popular, and the 1950s were no exception. It Happens Every Spring, Some Like It Hot with Marilyn Monroe, Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon, and The Ladykillers starring Alec Guinness and Peter Sellers, would be loved by many. The year 1951 would have an important comedy milestone, the last film of the great comedy duo, Laurel and Hardy, Atoll K, in which the pair starred as the inheritors of an island in the Pacific.
[edit] Literature
- See also: List of years in literature#1950s
Beatniks and the beat generation, an anti-materialistic literary movement that began with Jack Kerouac in 1948 and stretched on into the early-mid 1960s, was at its zenith in the 1950s. Such groundbreaking literature as William S. Burroughs's Naked Lunch, Allen Ginsberg's Howl, William Golding's Lord of the Flies, Jack Kerouac's On the Road, and J.D. Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye were published. Also published in this decade was J. R. R. Tolkien's epic The Lord of the Rings as well as C.S. Lewis's The Chronicles of Narnia. This decade is also marked by some of the most famous works of science fiction by science fiction writers Isaac Asimov, Arthur C. Clarke, Theodore Sturgeon, A. E. van Vogt, and Robert A. Heinlein. Other significant literary works included James Jones' From Here to Eternity, Ernest Hemingway's The Old Man and the Sea, John Cheever's The Wapshot Chronicle, Tennessee Williams' Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Arthur Miller's The Crucible, Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin in the Sun, Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man, Saul Bellow's The Adventures of Augie March, Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451, Richard Matheson's I Am Legend, John Knowles' A Separate Peace, and Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged.
[edit] Art Movements
[edit] Abstract Expressionism
Main Article: Abstract Expressionism
First art movement specifically American to gain worldwide influence, abstract expressionism is also responsible for putting New York in the centre on the artistic world, a place previously owned by Paris, France. This movement acquired its name for combining the German expressionism's emotional intensity with the anti-figurative aesthetic of the European abstract schools such as Futurism, Bauhaus and Synthetic Cubism. Jackson Pollock was one of the most influential painters of this movement, creating famous works such as No. 5, 1948.
[edit] Pop art
Main Article: Pop art
With its roots in dadaism, pop art started to take form towards the end of the 1950s when some artists, after studying symbols and products of the world of propaganda in the United States, started to make them the main subject of their artistic work. That way, they used the most ostensive components of popular culture, with powerful influence in the daily life of the second half of the 20th century. It was the return of a figurative art, in opposition to the abstract expressionism that dominated the aesthetic scene since the end of World War II. Pop art used iconography of television, photography, comics, cinema and advertising. Andy Warhol was the most known artist of this movement, and in spite of it having initiated in the 50s, its most famous works date of the later decade.
[edit] Science and philosophy
- The Miller-Urey experiment showed in 1953 that under simulated conditions resembling those thought to be possible to have existed shortly after Earth was first created, many of the basic organic molecules that form the building blocks of life are able to spontaneously form.
- Francis Crick, James D. Watson, and Rosalind Franklin discovered the helical structure of DNA at the Cavendish Laboratory at the University of Cambridge in 1953.
- Bruce C. Heezen discovered the Mid-Atlantic Ridge.
- The first polio vaccine, developed by Jonas Salk, was introduced to the general public in 1955.
- The first organ transplants were done in Boston and Paris in 1954.
[edit] Prizes
Albert Schweitzer is awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1952. In 1953 Churchill is given the Nobel Prize for literature. In 1955 Laxness is awarded the Nobel Prize for literature for his work with Icelandic literature
[edit] Sports
- Lindsey Sloan (German football player, Olympic Gymnast)
- Alberto Ascari (Italian racing driver)
- Roger Bannister (English track and field athlete)
- Yogi Berra (American baseball player)
- Maureen Connolly (American tennis player)
- Colin Cowdrey (English cricketer)
- Juan Manuel Fangio (Argentinian racing driver)
- Tom Finney (English footballer)
- Neil Harvey (Australian cricketer)
- Gordie Howe (Canadian ice hockey player)
- Len Hutton (England cricketer)
- Mickey Mantle (American baseball player)
- Rocky Marciano (American boxer)
- Stanley Matthews (English footballer)
- Willie Mays (American baseball player)
- Ferenc Puskás (Hungarian footballer)
- Alfredo Di Stéfano (Argentinian footballer (but played for Spain))
- Real Madrid (Hegemony over European soccer)
- Maurice Richard (Canadian ice hockey player)
- Sugar Ray Robinson (American boxer)
- Bill Russell (American basketball player)
- Gary Sobers (West Indies cricketer)
- Brian Statham (England cricketer)
- Eduard Streltsov (Russian footballer)
- Frank Tyson (England cricketer)
- Frank Worrell (West Indies cricketer)
- Billy Wright (English footballer)
- Lev Yashin (Russian footballer)
- Jackie Robinson (American baseball player)
- Helmut Rahn (German footballer)
- Sepp Herberger (German football manager)
- Pelé (Brazilian footballer)
- Garrincha (Brazilian footballer)
- Jenniffer Rodriguez (American basketballer)
[edit] Olympics
- 1952 Summer Olympics held in Helsinki, Finland
- 1952 Winter Olympics held in Oslo, Norway
- 1956 Summer Olympics held in Melbourne, Australia
- 1956 Winter Olympics held in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy
[edit] Technology
- Sputnik 1 was launched in 1957.
- BOAC brings into service the de Havilland Comet the world's first commercial jet airliner to reach production.
- Fortran, perhaps the single most important milestone in the development of programming languages, was developed at IBM.
[edit] International issues
[edit] Middle East
Most of the countries of the Middle East continued in the national divisions created by former European empires. However, with the growing importance of their abundance of oil, the otherwise mostly impoverished states experienced an increase of wealth to mostly the elite aristocratic or later theocratic regimes.
The growth of the state of Israel continued.
Mahmoud Abbas became involved in Palestinian politics in Qatar.
In 1958 American troops entered Lebanon to create chaos and show their support of Israel.
[edit] Africa
Decolonization was occurring in Africa in the 1950s. In 1956 Sudan, Tunisia, and Morocco became independent. In 1954 guerrillas started the Algerian War of Independence.
The Mau Mau began their terrorist attacks against the British in Kenya. This led to concentration camps in Kenya, the retreat of the British, and the election of former terrorist Kenyatta as leader of Kenya.
Africa experienced the beginning of large-scale top-down economic interventions in the 1950s that failed to cause improvement and led to charitable exhaustion by the West as the century went on. The widespread corruption was not dealt with and war, disease, and famine continue to be constant problems in this region.
[edit] Asia
The nations of the People's Republic of China and Indonesia began their history after their establishment in the late 1940s. Mao Zedong began to rise in prominence in China as he helped lead a revolution against the Nationalist government. In 1953 the French occupiers of Indochina tried to contain a growing communist insurgency against their rule led by Ho Chi Minh. After their defeat at Dien Bien Phu in 1954 they were forced to cede independence the nations of Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam. Vietnam however was divided between the communist north and American-influence south, and conflict continued. By 1953 the three-year war between North Korea, supported by the USSR and China (PRC), and South Korea, supported by the United States, had ended. This war resulted in a permanent border between the north and south sections of this country.
After World War II the United States occupied Japan and assisted in its rebuilding. Social changes took place, including democratic elections and universal suffrage.
[edit] Latin America
In the 1950s Latin America was the center of covert and overt conflict between the CIA and the KGB. Their varying collusion with national, populist, and elitist interests destabilized the region. The United States CIA orchestrated the overthrow of the Guatemalan government in 1952. In 1957 the military dictatorship of Venezuela was overthrown. This continued a pattern of regional revolution and warfare making extensive use of ground forces.
[edit] Europe
Post-war reconstruction succeeded, thanks to mostly the return of free-market capitalism in West Germany and elsewhere, combined with the facets of the West's post-war boom, while the non-corrupt implementation of the Marshall Plan slowed economic recovery with Keynesian-policy welfare states. Europe continued to be divided into Western and Soviet bloc countries. The geographical point of this division came to be called the Iron Curtain. It divided Germany into East and West Germany. In 1955 West Germany joined NATO. In 1956 Soviet troops marched into Hungary.
In 1957 the Treaty of Rome was part of the beginning of the process that led to the European Union.
[edit] Soviet Union and the Eastern Bloc
The Soviet Union continued its domination of the territories it conquered during World War II. Life was economically harsh. (See the Black Book of Communism.) In 1953 Joseph Stalin, the leader of the Soviet Union, died and in the resulting power struggle head of the KGB Lavrenti Beria was denounced and executed. Popular rebellions in East Germany in 1953 and Hungary in 1956 were brutally put down.
[edit] Caribbean
In 1957, Dr. François Duvalier came to power in an election in Haiti. He later declared himself president for life, and ruled until his death in 1971.
In 1959 Fidel Castro overthrew the corrupt Batista regime in Cuba, initiating widespread social reform on the island. The romance and popularity of the revolution, and such leader as the Argentinian Che Guevara gave it global appeal and recognition. The United States was, however, now unable to meddle with either its social or economic development and was angered when Castro redistributed land that had been owned by American companies. It would thus become involved in an embargo and clumsy attempts to overthrow Castro, with Cuba as a result moving closer to the Soviet Union.
[edit] People
[edit] Entertainers
[edit] World leaders
[edit] External links
- FiftiesWeb - History, fashion, music, classic TV and more
- WWW-VL: 1950s History
- The 1950s Week-By-Week includes news, trends & pop culture
- Hollywood and The Movies During the 1950s
- The Literature & Culture of the American 1950s
- Remembering The 50s: Take a trip back to yesteryear and those fabulous fifties
- The Golden Age of Couture: Paris and London 1947-57, exhibition about 1950s fashion. Victoria and Albert Museum.
