Life During the 1950’s

Chapter 27 Section 2-4

A New Society

• White-collar workers outnumbered blue-collar workers

• Rise of franchises– Beginning of the end for mom and pop places

• People bought as much stuff as they could– Refrigerators, washing machines, vacuum

cleaners, air conditioners, coffeemakers, etc.

• Advertising b/c big business– Convince people they need your product

Original Waffle HouseAtlanta, Georgia

1952 Nash Rambler

The Baby Boom

• Baby boom – (1945-1961) birthrate exploded after WWII– More than 65 million children were born– A child was born every 7 seconds

• Factors contributing to the baby boom– Boys had been gone at war for years– GI benefits encouraged families – Popular culture celebrated pregnancy

Mass Media

• Televisions b/c more affordable– By 1957 over 80% of families had a tv

• Sitcoms begin– Dragnet, Gunsmoke, I Love Lucy

• Variety shows– A mix of comedy, music, acrobatics, etc

• Game shows– The $64,000 Question, Twenty-One

• Pro and college sports b/c entertainment

RCA Victor TelevisionsPizitz 1956

Rock ‘n’ Roll

• White artists b/g making music that stemmed from African American rhythms and sounds– This music came to be called Rock ‘n’ Roll

• White teenagers loved it! It had a good beat that they could dance to– Buddy Holly, Chuck Berry, Haley and the

Comets

• Elvis Presley was the first rock ‘n’ roll hero

“The King”

• Elvis Aron Presley was a $41-a-week truck driver for the Crown Electric Company in Memphis, Tennessee, when he first walked into a recording studio, uninvited, and in a baritone, alternately mean and sweet, laid down the simplest of tunes.

• He said the record would be a gift to his mother, to whom he was unashamedly devoted, but Gladys Presley was one of the few parents to happily greet the arrival of “the King.”

Elvis the Pelvis!

The Gospel According to Elvis

Hovie Lister &

The Statesmen Quartet

The Blackwood Brothers

QuartetJ.D. Sumner

and the Stamps Quartet

Jerry Lee Lewis

Hank Williams

Johnny Cash“The Man in Black”

African American Entertainers

• 1956 – Nat King Cole got his own 15 minute variety show– It was cancelled 2 years later b/c NBC could

not secure a sponsor for a show hosted by a black man

• Black Rock ‘n’ Roll– Chuck Berry, Ray Charles, Little Richard, the

Drifters

Little Richard

Poverty Amidst Prosperity

• 1 in 5 Americans lived b/l the poverty line– Poverty line – a figure the govt. set to reflect

the minimum income required to support a family

– Mainly single mothers, minorities, and the elderly

– Mainly in the urban sections

The Decline of the Inner City

• White families b/g to move to the suburbs– They took their tax money w/ them

• The cities b/c home to poorer, less educated minority groups

• Govt. tried to help, but only made matters worse– Urban renewal programs – tried to eliminate poverty by

tearing down slums and erecting new high-rise building for poor residents

• Often created an atmosphere of violence

– The govt. also unwittingly encouraged the residents of public housing to remain poor by evicting them as soon as possible