American Business
• more people move into higher-paying white collar professions (managers, sales, clerical)
• Corporations expand buying other companies, creating conglomerates
• Some form franchises – like Ray Croc who bought McDonalds & franchised out the business
Suburban America
• Middle-class whites leave the cities, go to suburbs “white flight”• Incredible # of children born after the war known as the “baby
boom”, family & values emphasized• 50s television also glorifies women as homemakers• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sam9wP_uMEA• Entertainment industry expands w incl. drive-in theatres & 3-D
movies & comics. Sports also very popular (MLB & NFL)
Automobile Culture• Suburban living made the car a necessity• Good advertising & easy credit terms made cars popular
Interstate Highway System• federal govt builds a nationwide network of roads & highways • Interstate Hwy make high speed trucking possible• People also flock to vacation spots
Pop Culture of the 50s• Television is the new form of mass media (5% of homes in 1950,
55% by 1954, 90% by 1959)
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WJ-IPXpvRaU
• Invention of TV Guide & TV Dinners make viewing easier
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=49Qn38WdTTs
Beatniks
• Beat movement starts in San Francisco, people who didn’t believe in the “mainstream” conformity of the 1950s
Teenagers
• 50s begins emergence of the teenager
• Numerous products geared towards teens (clothes, music, hygiene)
• Comics, movies & music geared toward the teenage audience
Rock ‘N Roll
•Chuck Berry, Richard Penniman & Bill Haley make Rock ‘N Roll popular amongst teens
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F5fsqYctXgM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ofD9t_sULM&feature=related
•Elvis Presley brings Rock ‘n Roll into the mainstream