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The 1950s were a time of change and are known for their unique style and "Booms" of all kinds.

What was it like in the 1950s in America?

In the 50s

  • America was the top military power
  • The Economy was booming with lots of highways, schools, military equipment, and technology being created
  • Unemployment was low, inflation was low, and wages were high
  • The middle class had a lot of money and a lot to buy with it.

The 3 "Booms"

Industry grew rapidly after World War II and the solders that came home bought a lot, which lead to the first boom, the Economic Boom.

The third and last boom was the suburban boom.

The suburban boom happened because after WWII

a lot of land was bought just outside of cities and made

in to neighborhoods. The neighborhoods had rows of low cost houses each similar to each other. Millions of people flooded into the suburbs because of the low prices ( there were even special rates for solders) and the practicality for the the average family.

Fashion in the 50s

Womens Fashion

After WWII, there was a push to get women into houses and kitchens to be wives and mothers instead of working and the popular clothing back then was influenced by this movement.

What was popular for women?

  • Full flowing skirts
  • Pencil slim skirts
  • Small hats with veils
  • Wrist length gloves
  • Stiletto heels

Women would generally wear clothes with soft shoulders and clothes that showed their

"Hourglass Figure".

Men's Fashion

Men's fashion was very conservative and usually consisted of grey or navy blue Flannel suits paired with penny loafers. Most men wore crew cuts and it was considered rebellious to have a type of hair cut called a D.A.

Many teenagers of the time thought it would be cool

to get the D.A. Hollywood influenced many people to

associate this bad hair cut with violence and trouble.

The Men's fashion style is thought to be

based off the style of dress from people that

were in Ivy League Colleges.

Teen Style

The 50s were the first time in history when teenagers rebelled from their elders and created a style and way of life all their own. Frankly many elders did not like it.

There were 3 main groups of teens in the 50s, one was called the Greasers and one was called preps and the last one was called Beatniks.

Greasers

Greasers were working class teens that usually came from

middle to low class. They were called greasers because they are known for greasing back their hair with brill cream or Vaseline which gave their hair a wet dark look.

A lot of greasers like cars and especially motorcycles and are known for wearing black leather jackets, white shirts, jeans, and black motor cycle boots.

Preps

Preps usually had a good education and came from Upper middle class. Most preps went on to college.

Prep girls would wear circular skirts with parts sewn on ,such as the iconic poodle, polyester skirts were also popular. The preps would also wear cardigans and the men would sometimes wear suits and suede shoes.

Beatniks

I don't think the Beatniks were as popular as the

others but they still had their own style and way of mind

Beatniks are known for wearing berets with a black turtlenecks and sunglasses and playing the bongos. They were kind of the early hippies and would hitchhike and do drugs.

Music in the 50s

There was 4 main genres of music that were popular in the 50s with Rock and Roll and Rockabilly being the most important and influential (especially to the youth). Some popular artists were...

  • Gene Vincent
  • Chuck Berry
  • Buddy Holly
  • And the "King of Rock and Roll" Elvis Presley

Pop was also popular in the early 1950s before Rock and Roll became mainstream. Some important artists were...

  • Tony Bennett
  • Patti Page
  • Nat Cole

The third popular genre was Country with singers such as...

  • Johnny Cash
  • Patsy Cline
  • Hank Williams
  • Gene Autry

The last popular music genre was Rhythm and Blues with artists as...

  • Little Richard
  • Lloyd Price
  • Frankie Lymon
  • Ray Charles

Entertainment

Since TVs were a new invention in the 1950s it was very important for people to watch a lot of TV. One survey actually said that the average kid watched 6 hours of TV a day. Some popular TV shows were ...

  • American Bandstand
  • I Love Lucy
  • The Twilight Zone
  • Mickey Mouse Club

Movies and Concerts were also another source of entertainment for many young people.

Toys and Inventions in the 50s

Silly Putty, Legos, Matchbox cars, Hula Hoops, Barbies, and Etch-a-Sketch were all toys invented in and around the 50s.

The TV, ball point pen, copy machine, polio vaccine, plastic coke bottle, and the solar battery were all inventions of the 50s.

Fun Facts

There was 10,500,000 TV sets in just 10,400,000 houses in the 50s.

The Peanuts comics debuted on October 2, 1950

In 1950 the world population was only 2.52 Billion people.

In 1950 the average house cost $14,500 and gas was only 20 cents a gallon.

The 1950s in America

Citations

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As solders came home they wanted to have kids because they thought only peace and prosperity was to come which lead to the Baby Boom. Between 1946 and 1964, 77 million babies were born and in the 1950s, 4 million babies were born each year.

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Thomas, Pauline Weston. "1950s Teenager's Fashion C20th Fashion History 1950s." Fashion-Era. N.A., 10 2005. Web. 30 Oct 2012. <http://www.fashion-era.com/1950s/1950s_4_teenagers_teddy_boys.htm>.

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