THE 1950s:THE AMERICAN DREAM

IN THE 1950s

• Returning veterans would cause problems in the work force

• Needed to keep them out of the work force

• GI Bill– Gave them money to go to

college• This would produce a skilled

labor force and not an unskilled labor force

– Gave them money to buy a home• This would help stimulate the

economy

The GI Bill

Baby Boom“It seems to me that every other young housewife I see is pregnant.” -- British visitor to America, 1958

Baby Boom

Dr. Benjamin Spock was the expert on raising children in

the 1950

• During the late 1940s and through the early 1960s the birthrate in the U.S. soared

• At its height in 1957, a baby was born in America every 7 seconds (over 4.3 million babies in ’57 alone)

• Baby boomers represent the largest generation in the nation’s history

Suburban Living“The American Dream”

Most Americans worked in cities, but fewer and fewer of them lived there.

New highways and the affordability of cars and gasoline made commuting possible.

Of the 13 million homes built in the 1950s, 85% were built in suburbs.

For many, the suburbs were the “American Dream”

Suburban Living:Levitt Towns in New

Yorkk 1 story highk 12’x19’ living room

k 2 bedroomsk tiled bathroomk garagek small backyardk front lawn

1949 William Levitt produced 150 houses per week.

By 1960 1/3 of the U. S. population in the suburbs.

$7,990 or $60/month with no down payment.

Suburban Living:TV represented the ideal

Suburban Families

The Donna Reed Show1958-1966

Leave It to Beaver1957-1963

Father Knows Best

1954-1958The Ozzie & Harriet

Show1952-1966

• mass-production of affordable homes

• the increase in personal income

• the baby boom.• a system of highway and

roads.

Reasons for Suburb Living

Consumerism

ConsumerismBy the mid-1950s, nearly 60% of Americans were members of the middle class

Consumerism (buying material goods) came to be equated with success and status

1950 Introduction of the Diner’s Card

Gender RolesDuring the 1950s, the role of homemaker and mother was glorified in popular magazines, movies and television

Men were the wage earner of the family

Women took care of the home and family

A Changing WorkplaceNew Corporate Culture: “The Company Man” 1956 Sloan Wilson’s The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit

White collar vs Blue Collaridentified with occupation

The Culture of the Car Car registrations: 1945 25,000,000

1960 60,000,0002-family cars doubles from 1951-1958

1956 Interstate Highway Act President Eisenhower built the largest public works project in American history!

Å Cost $32 billion.Å 41,000 miles of new highways built.

1959 Chevy Corvette

1958 Pink Cadillac

The Culture of the Car

First McDonald’s (1955)

America became a more homogeneous (look the same) nation because of the automobile.

Drive-In Movies

Howard Johnson’s

The Culture of the Car The U. S. population was on the move in the

1950s.NE & Mid-W S & SW (“Sunbelt” states)

1955 Disneyland opened in Southern California. (40% of the guests came from outside California, most by car.)

Frontier Land

Main Street Tomorrow Land

Television 1946 7,000 TV sets in the U. S.

1950 50,000,000 TV sets in the U. S.

Mass Audience TV celebrated traditionalAmerican values.

Television is a vast wasteland. Newton Minnow, Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, 1961

Truth, Justice, and the American way!

• A new era of mass media led by television emerged in the 1950s

• In 1948, only 9% of homes had T.V

• In 1950, 55% of homes had T.V.

• By 1960, 90% of American homes had T.V.

Television – The WesternDavy Crockett

King of the Wild Frontier

The Lone Ranger(and his faithfulsidekick, Tonto): Who is that masked man??

Sheriff Matt Dillon,

Gunsmoke

Teen CultureIn the 1950s the word “teenager”

entered the American language.

By 1956 13 mil. teens with $7 bil. to spend a year.1951 new type of music “ROCK ‘N

ROLL”

Elvis Presley “The King”

Teen CultureThe “Beat” Generation:

Centered in San Francisco, L.A. and York’s Greenwich Village, the Beat Movement expressed social nonconformity

Followers, called “beatniks”, tended to shun work and sought understanding through Zen Buddhism, music, and sometimes drugs

Rebelled against conformity and traditional social patterns

Teen Culture

“Beatnik”

“Clean” Teen

Teen CultureBehavioral Rules of the

1950s:U Obey Authority.U Control Your Emotions.U Don’t Make Waves Fit in

with the Group.U Don’t Even Think About

Sex!!!

The American Dream

• Middle Class• Two kids• A home in the suburbs with a

white picket fence• Leisure time

American Dream for all?