The United States in The 1950s

Hello, and welcome to another podcast of U.S. History Repeated with Jimmy and Gene. This is Jimmy LaSalle. Today's podcast is on the 1950s, the decade of conformity.

There was tremendous growth in the United States. Populations boomed, aka the baby boomers. Roles of women changed over the course of the decade. They went from Rosie the Riveter to June Cleaver. With transportation easier, people moved to the suburbs. Infrastructure, building of highways, bridges, tunnels. President Eisenhower championed these infrastructure projects. You have the beginnings of rock and roll and the king and Chuck Berry and others. Television, movies, and other media.

showed idealized images of family life. Pop culture gave us the Barbie doll, Mr. Potato Head, Play-Doh, 50s slang, clothing. This episode has it all. So I'm going to split, but Jeannie's going to take this over with no sweat. Oh, and by the way, this is the decade that our parents grew up in. And here to tell us all about it is our resident history expert.

Jeanne Anzanakis, oh, and by the way, you might want to hang on for a little bit with a little bit of an outtake. We had some funny stuff for Greymoved. Jeanne, take it away. So the 1950s, the decade where our parents were children. Okay, so the 1950s is really such an interesting decade. You see economic prosperity. There is conflict both at home and abroad.

with the outbreak of the Korean War, the Cold War, the Red Scare, and of course the emergence of the civil rights movement, a much more organized civil rights movement. For the first time in its history, the United States was the world's strongest military power, and it's setting the tone for the world. second only to what the Soviet Union was doing in its sphere of influence in Eastern Europe and, of course, in different parts of Asia.

The 1950s saw tremendous growth for the United States. You have economic growth, you have the growth of cities in terms of the creation of suburban communities, you have growth of families with the baby boomer generation, and of course you have... The baby boom in the post-World War II era was not just in the United States. Populations boomed in a number of other countries as well.

The economic troubles brought on by the Great Depression and the years of war saw the size of American families shrink really drastically. And in the post-World War II years, we're looking at... the time frame from 1946 through 1964, you have more than 70 million people that are being born in the United States during that time.

And now it's estimated that about 4 million babies were being born each year in the 1950s, becoming what would eventually become known as the baby boomer or the baby boom generation.

By 1964, this generation made up 40% of the US population. Long gone were the propaganda posters encouraging women to work outside of the home. Long gone.

the opportunities for women in industries that for the first time had just become available or even options for women when the majority of able-bodied men were fighting in europe or in the pacific theaters of world war ii the new propaganda machine marketed the notions of marriage and motherhood for american women It was the nuclear family unit that set us apart from the communists.

That image of Rosie the Riveter was no longer the image for American women to portray. You have feminine hairdos. That's perfectly done. Dresses, heels, pearls. These things replace the image of a woman wearing coveralls. There was no greater calling for women than that of the American housewife and that of mother. And the typical age for women to get married was either right out of high school.

or while women were in college, if they attended a four-year school. Can we go back and talk about how that has changed between even the 1950s and then now today? Because having Rosie the Riveter... as a person to emulate during World War II when women were called to the workforce. And then... Now, reversing that script because you have men trying to reenter the workforce coming from the army, that had to be a little bit of a seesaw for women. What do you think like today as you today?

How would you say that kind of balanced for the women in that day? When you say balanced for women in that day, what do you like? How did women react? How did they respond? No, because because they were called to action in the Rosie the Riveter. Kind of thing. And now they were being told or being, I don't want to say told, but called to. Encouraged. Encouraged to be more of the housewife and mother as opposed to.

The person that was going to go and fill in those gaps in the workforce. And I wonder how that affected the people in the day. So there is this very. nationalistic movement of telling women it's your patriotic duty to go out into the workforce and many did in order to do what they could to defeat the nazis to defeat the japanese and to support whether it was their husbands who were fighting their fathers um well probably not their fathers but their brothers um their boyfriends their cousins

So women are going out and doing this, and it was not this abrupt stop to women working. Women did remain in the workforce in much smaller numbers.

than they had during World War II. Women are still in the workforce, but they're there in a very limited capacity in that women are not being encouraged to study to become engineers. Women are secretaries, women are teachers, women are nurses. nurses, women are typists in all sorts of offices. Up until really Title IX passes, which I'll talk about in a little bit, do you see the inclusion of women?

you have during the 50s and even in the 60s, certain colleges and universities having... quotas or not so much quotas as they have like a set amount of women that they'll allow in and after that the rest of the seats are for men and the number of women who who actually graduate those programs was not the same number that started out because the difficulty of walking into a room and no one else looks like you.

The difficulty of walking into a room and everyone treating you as if you have not earned your space or your space that you are taking up could have been given to a man. So for women, it's not an abrupt end now saying now everybody has to leave, but there is this progression that happens. So for women who do decide to go to college, they often did not.

stay until they earned their degree. Women went to school sometimes, not all, to find a husband and it was called the MRS degree, the Mrs. degree. Fear of becoming an old maid if they weren't engaged or married by their early 20s was real. So while employment rates for women are still higher during this decade, during the 50s, than it was in earlier decades.

the image of the happy housewife that dominated American media. And so there's this notion of, well, this is what I want to be. This is my goal. And so for families that could afford to live on one salary, if the wife and mother of that family still chose to work, she was considered selfish.

putting her want of a career ahead of the needs of her husband and children and eventually if a woman is getting married at let's say the age of 18 or even 19 she's having a child right away there's there's very little birth control options for women. And there is no such thing as daycare in the sense that we have it today. So it becomes almost impossible for women to work once they have children, especially if they're not school aged yet. So oddly enough, many women worked to help pay.

for higher education degrees for their husbands. Some colleges and universities, they marked this by having separate ceremonies for wives of graduates and gave them honorary PhDs. putting the husband through how's that for a compliment right so there is putting the husband through putting the husband through they got they earned their pht so there is a difference between having a job and having a career.

or even having career aspirations. So when a person has a career, they have a path with goals in mind of what they want to achieve in this facet of their life. And they're looking at things from a strategic... perspective they're looking to get a raise or looking to get a promotion perhaps a certain title and so even when women first started to be admitted to some colleges

or colleges and universities that were specifically for women are established, there is a limit on the courses that were offered and the women who attended colleges and universities, the understanding was that they were expected to put domestic duties first. And so, I mean, I always tell this story when I returned. to work after having my first child, I can't tell you the number of people who asked me on my first day back, where's the baby? As if I had left him.

you know like with a little bowl of water and some food and was like you'll be all right and i returned to work months later my husband returned to work days after the baby was born And nobody asked him that question. I came home and I said, hey, when you came back to work, did everybody ask you or did anyone ask you, where is the baby? And he said, no, they just assumed he was with you. And mind you.

A significant number of the people asking me that question were women. Wow. You have to understand that once a woman, if she decides to become a mother. The world expects her to work as if she doesn't have children, but then also to parent as if she does not work. So there is much more stress. And there's that very famous comedian who said it takes so little to be considered a good dad, but so little to be considered a bad mom.

And that's the truth. So there is very much a double standard. What? I appreciate that. I see that. I see that on many fronts. I see that with the women that work with me in my... my regular job and, and women that I've come across in my career. I think that is, I think that is a truth, you know, you, and you've lived it firsthand and, and while you, you choose to stay home.

And that's kind of how this podcast kind of came to be. And by the way, I want to do a podcast on how the podcast came to be. We'll do that in the future. Like the history of history repeated, which has its own story. but no i i agree with you in that is judgment too hard of a word too harsh i think there's there's judgment i think there are societal pressures and i think a lot of the societal pressures

Sometimes we can put on ourselves to an extent, you know, but it's the stress is real and it's not easy to juggle. You know, there are certain times where. When my children are at school, work has 100% of my focus. As soon as my children come out of school, that kind of takes a backseat because I'm doing other things.

There is this kind of balancing act. And I would say it's much harder for women who work outside of the home. I'm lucky enough to work from home. So I think it's different. You must have a fantastic boss that just lets you. That just lets you work how you want to work and however you want to work. I mean, that's fantastic. Yep. I have a great boss. Sidebar, Gina works with me and my digital media company on the side. So just for disclosure. And Jimmy is my boss. So for women.

Here's a little look back in history. So it's a little known fact for people who are not history aficionados, let me say. So it's a little known fact that the Seneca Falls Convention wasn't just held in the hopes of gaining support for suffrage. And for those of you who don't know when that was, that was 18...

48 was the Seneca Falls Convention in upstate New York. So it wasn't just held in the hopes of gaining support for suffrage, but also to gain support for education for women. As recently as 1970. and it is recent, women are still barred from male-only courses and fields of study. That is not that long ago. As recently as 1970, women had to get... their husband's approval if they were married to be able to get a credit card in their own name. That's not that long ago. So even participation in...

high school and college sports, it was significantly limited for women until the passage of Title IX in 1972. And I'll talk about that a bit more when we get up to that time in history. Lack of available contraception choices, which I spoke about a little bit earlier, for women saw large families become the norm. Yes, you have condoms, but there is no recourse for women if her husband did not want to wear one.

A woman had as many children as she really has her husband deemed because she had no control over it. There is no oral contraceptives. They're created. in the 1950s, but it isn't until the next decade and beyond that oral contraceptives for women are widely available.

There are a number of different obstacles for women to get into the workforce and to stay there. When you think of the United States during the 1950s, this is really the golden age. of capitalism, the golden age of growth. The United States economy in the post-World War II years, the GDP more than doubled between 1945 and 1960. And so people have more. There is more money to go around. Men who returned from World War II, they have the money from the GI Bill. So where are people going to live?

people begin to live in what eventually becomes known as the suburbs. Now, you can't discuss the creation of suburbs in the United States without mentioning one man, and that man is William Levitt. Levitt was a World War II veteran. And when he returned home to the United States, he recognized the need for affordable housing. Levitt knew how to build homes and to build them quickly using a mass production assembly line type.

method. And Levitt cut costs in a number of ways. He purchased materials directly from manufacturers, he built a factory in order to make his own nails, and he didn't use union laborers. So the homes in William Levitt's areas, which eventually became known as Levittowns, the homes were built for their uniformity. This cookie cutter idea that all of the houses were the same.

In the 1950s, you'll sometimes hear it being referred to as a time of conformity. Now, I agree with that to a certain extent, and I disagree with it on other fronts. Conformity didn't just pertain to the style of homes and the way people dressed and the roles that men and women were expected to play within society. William Levitt's first neighborhood was located on Long Island in the town of Hempstead, and it was named Levittown. The homes were fully furnished and cost $8,000. Could you imagine?

Oh, that's fantastic. Fantastic. Can't get a house for that price now. He went on to build... Levittowns in New Jersey, in Pennsylvania, and even in Puerto Rico. So how's that for a fun fact? And Levitt became one of the wealthiest men in America.

He is not without his negatives. Levitt's refusal to hire union workers wasn't the only reason that protesters came to the picket lines. William Levitt refused. to integrate his neighborhoods and to ensure that Levittown remained an all-white neighborhood.

The sale agreements included restricted covenants which said that when buyers sold their homes, they had to resell them to white families or to whites. With the invention of the automobile, came the possibility of being able to live further away from where you worked. You didn't have to live in or near the city. And as more roads were paved and highways were built with at least four lanes, they had to have two.

in each direction in order to reduce congestion and to allow largely populated areas to be evacuated quickly and safely if needed in an emergency. It wasn't always easy. to get from one place to another. At one point, the idea or the concept of traveling, let's say someplace that was 10 miles away from your home, that was a task that could take an entire day, if not two days. So it wasn't easy. convincing elected officials to build highways and those highways which of course

did have a tremendous positive impact on society. They also had a number of negative effects like the displacement of whole neighborhoods at times, especially in areas where... You're talking about the city where there's such a huge amount of people living in a given area. Well, expansion required eminent domain.

Yes. Right. Like where they would just go and take over the land and be like, look, this is the greater good. We have to go and we have to move and we have to move on and we have to do it now. Yes. Today.

People think of nothing of hopping in their car and journeying across the country, either bound for the East Coast or the West Coast or even the Deep South, wherever that journey is taking them. And when automobiles first become commonplace... that isn't something that people even dared to do it was far safer to take a train most roads were made out of packed dirt and when it rained they became almost unpassable automobiling as it was

called at the time was considered an adventure. Cars were not commonplace. By 1920 you have one car for every 18,000 Americans. It's a far cry from what life is like today. You didn't just hop into your car and go out on the open road. That would take decades to happen. We will get to that part of history, but first, a little story. Wait, hold on. Before you go into that story, can I make a prediction? Sure. So you had here that in 1920, you had one car for every 18,000 Americans.

Right now, I would go and venture to say it's one car for every four Americans. I don't know what the numbers are, but I think with the autonomous driving and the things that we're looking at right now. you are going to see a reversion where people are not going to own a car. It is going to be a car that comes and gets you and takes you where you want to go for the most part. That is my prediction.

That would be great for people who live in the city. Parking is a hassle. Absolutely. It won't even, it won't even, it'll, it'll replace Uber and Lyft. Like it'll be a different type of thing. Like you won't have a car. She'll just have like a rideshare. I don't know what they're going to call it. I'll term the phrase rideshare right here. Well, there is such a thing as rideshare. You can share an Uber with other people and it costs you less.

No, but people don't commonly use the term rideshare. I think they'll use it more commonly. All right. Well, you heard it here first. Just my prediction. Just a prediction. So let's get into this little story. In 1919. 11 cars departed the White House on a journey west in order to determine the feasibility of a westward trip for military vehicles.

On average, that caravan was able to do about 40 miles per day. Now, it took upwards of 7 to 10 hours to be able to drive that distance, 40 miles a day. lack of paved roads, lack of rest stops, lack of gas stations, even mechanic shops. It required massive amounts of planning for this caravan. They had to select the best roads to take in order to reach their final destination. They had to have all sorts of

supplies and extra parts and additional gasoline containers until they could get to another gas station. So it was tremendous amount of planning. And it took 62 days for this caravan to get from the White House to their destination in San Francisco, which they were welcome to great fanfare and a parade. And one of the men...

In this expedition was none other than Dwight Eisenhower. He would famously rise up the ranks in the military, become Supreme Allied Commander during World War II, become a household name in the United States, and be elected. president in 1953. But in 1919, he was part of this caravan. So the report that this group put together concluded that travel through Midwestern states by car was simply just impractical. You have road conditions that needed to be improved.

And one of the first intercontinental road system was known as the Lincoln Highway. And this highway was dedicated back in 1913 and stretched from New York's Times Square to Lincoln Park in San Francisco. California and this was actually interestingly enough the first national memorial to President Abraham Lincoln the Lincoln Memorial wouldn't be finished until 1922 and so that Lincoln Highway

It helped to improve the economies of the cities and the towns that it connected all along that route. And so the federal government looked to continue to improve conditions of roadways again in 1916.

We're marked $75 million for the construction and the improvement of highways, but the outbreak of World War I would limit the success of that program because the funds were needed for... the war effort and so for dwight eisenhower who's part of this caravan when he goes and is supreme allied commander during world war ii and he sees for himself the audubon that

the Germans built and he sees what incredible feat this was and how instrumental that was to their success. He sees firsthand what life is like when you don't have a proper highway system and then when you do.

So it makes sense why when he becomes president, he really is a champion of the Interstate Highway Act. So in 1956, when the Interstate Highway Act was passed, it was incredibly... But when the harsh realities of really the necessary evils of building these new highways came to life, we see large-scale backlash and protests. In urban areas, land was...

It's just not an abundance. And so neighborhoods would need to be leveled in order to make way for the new highways. The majority of neighborhoods that were affected were urban communities of color. And according to the US Department of Transportation, it's estimated that about a million people

were displaced. And one of the most infamous urban planners during this time period was New York City's Robert Moses. Moses once famously said that when building highways, you go through cities, you don't go around them. And while Moses was a genius in his field and able to see things on a map that most people couldn't, he really was a visionary. And he's known for building New York City into what it is today.

He was a staunch racist. He's known for building Jones Beach State Park. He's known for building the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel. It has a new name now, but I will always call it the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel. What's the new name? I think it's the Hugh L. Carey Tunnel. Oh, I call it the Brooklyn Battery. It's always the Brooklyn Battery to me. Sorry, folks. You have the Triborough Bridge. The Tappan Z will always be the Tappan Z. Yep, yep.

the Tribor Bridge, you have the Throgs Neck Bridge, the Marine Parkway Bridge, the Verrazano Bridge, the Whitestone Bridge, the BQE, the Staten Island Expressway. Jeannie, we're getting very New York here. And a lot of our listeners are all over the country, but this is very New Yorkish. Well, I'm talking about Robert Moses. I know, but all these things that you mentioned are all new. I'm just saying, I'm just saying for our listeners, they're all...

New York games. Yeah. The Verrazano Bridge was also the Guinea gangplank. But I mean, if you ever come to New York, you will see all of these things. And of course, the ones Shea Stadium. I had to do that for you because you're a big Mets fan. Shea Stadium, now Citi Field. So the list goes on and on and on and urban planners

The reason why I talk, I know this is very New York centered, but the reason why I talk about this is that urban planners came from all over the country and even the world to learn from Robert Moses. So what Robert Moses does in New York. other urban planners from other cities, whether it be Philadelphia, whether it be Chicago, whether it be cities in the Midwest or even in California, they're emulating his ideas.

So in many of his projects, Moses hoped to keep neighborhoods white or to prevent people of color from being able to get there. And especially... Jones Beach out on Long Island. And so there were a number of negative impacts with the interstate highway system. So for towns that were bypassed by these new roads, they couldn't compete.

And many of those towns died out. You mentioned eminent domain earlier. Eminent domain left people with very little recourse and they had no choice but to settle elsewhere. So these negatives, while significant for those who were directly impacted by them, they tend to be overshadowed by the positives. Now these roads connected the people and the economies of the continental United States. It allowed for people and goods to travel both safer and faster.

And it allowed for the movement of people from the cities to suburban communities. And it helped to connect people in even the most rural of communities. And it took decades to complete the highway system. And it well surpassed the initial budget. The total cost was about $114 billion. Wait, wait. Billion dollars back in 1950? Well... Up until 1992, the final miles of the roads planned out in the Interstate Highway Act of 1956 were not completed until 1992.

What once took 62 days, right, to travel from the White House, Washington, D.C., to San Francisco, one could now travel by car from East Coast to West Coast. In just 42 hours. Pedal to the metal. Now we can't talk about the 1950s without talking about American women. We spoke about that a little bit earlier.

When World War II came to an end, the dynamic of many American households, it shifted dramatically. Women who stepped into critical roles in factories and offices during the war, they're now being encouraged to return to a more traditional domestic lifestyle.

And this push was fueled by societal expectations that we talked about and also the longing for pre-war family structures. You have men who are returning from the front lines. They expected... to resume their positions within their family as the primary breadwinners, which often meant that women had to leave their wartime jobs. This transition wasn't always straightforward. During the war, women had experienced a level of independence, a certain amount of responsibility.

That was new for many of them. They had not only proven their capabilities, but they had also enjoyed a sense of achievement that came from contributing to the economy. to their communities, and contributing to their own life and the way that they could live now with this money coming in. And so for these women... a return to exclusively domestic roles kind of felt like a step back. And so this created internal conflicts between having certain aspirations.

societal norms that were expected. So daily life in the 1950s was heavily influenced by the media which often promoted the idea of the perfect Housewife, you have television shows and advertisements. They're depicting women as being the heart of the home. They're responsible for maintaining a spotless house, preparing meals, caring for children, all while looking.

immaculate right dress heels pearls your hair perfectly curled these images set a very high bar making it difficult for women to meet those expectations without feeling a certain sense of inadequacy. So additionally, you have this post-war baby boom, which added another layer of complexity with larger families to care for.

the demands on a woman's time, her energy, it only increased. So many women found themselves juggling household chores, child rearing, and in some cases, part-time work to help make ends meet or two. get their own phd right putting the husband through so despite the pressures to conform to traditional roles some women found ways to balance their new domestic

duties with their desire for personal growth. They formed social clubs. They engaged in community service. They sought educational opportunities, all of which proved or all which provided, I should say, a sense of fulfillment beyond that role at home. So it was a bit of a balancing act. There is a cultural landscape of the 1950s that shaped the lives of American women and even American men. Television and other media outlets, they frequently showcased.

This idealized image of family life where women were often seen as devoted homemakers. You have shows like Leave it to Beaver or Father Knows Best and these become household staples. You know, I'm going to do a whole other episode on television and the invention of television and what television meant to the American public in the 1950s. But if you look at that show, I Love Lucy. In the show, she's portraying this very stereotypical role, but behind the scenes, Lucy is in charge. She is...

part owner of this country. She's part owner of this company. She is calling the shots. So very interesting. In addition to television, you have magazines and advertisements. They're also promoting, you know, very specific ideals of beauty and behavior. Women are encouraged to look immaculate, perfectly styled hair, makeup. fashion of the 1950s it emphasized femininity with full skirts fitted waists elegant dresses becoming the norms the beauty industry boomed

As women were urged to use all sorts of different products in order to achieve that perfect look. So what do you think of as far as how this portrays like the magazines of the day to social media today? I think it's very similar. Yes, I think there's, you know, still this incredible amounts of stress to, you know, look your best and, and for women not to age, for example, you know, you're dying your hair.

Once you start getting those fine lines and wrinkles, even think about all of the things that exist. The emphasis on appearance added... as women felt the need to present themselves flawlessly while managing their homes and their families. The rise of suburban living during this decade, it brought about a new set of cultural expectations. The suburban ideal included a comfortable home, a well-kept lawn, an active social life centered around all sorts of neighborhood.

activities and women were often the planners and the organizers of these social events and that kind of solidified their their role within both the home and the community and so while that That suburban lifestyle offered certain comforts. It also came with its own set of pressures and expectations. Life in the United States for people of color.

It's changing as well, but it's changing slowly. And one of the things that we discussed during a few of our World War II episodes was the concept of the Double V campaign. Black soldiers were fighting for freedom abroad, but... They were also fighting for freedom at home to be considered first class citizens, to be able to register to vote, to have equal protection under the law, to bring an end to segregation and Jim Crow. And we are going to have a series of episodes on the civil rights.

We're going to have episodes about leaders of the civil rights movement and key events like Brown versus the Board of Education and the desegregation of schools. The bus boycotts, Emmett Till, Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King. We're going to be talking about all of that. There is no way I could jam even just a condensed version of that into this particular episode. So I do...

want to briefly discuss some of the changes we begin to see. President Truman desegregated the U.S. military in the late 1940s, but before that we see the emergence of a number of important groups like core core which was established in 1942 in chicago and core stands for congress of racial equality and activists who established core were heavily influenced by the teachings of Gandhi and peaceful non-violent protests. You have the NAACP, which was established.

in the early 1900s, and that is continuing on with their work to bring about racial equality. And I will get into more of those specifics in later episodes.

When talking about the 1950s, we also have to talk about pop culture. The Barbie doll was the first... toy doll with adult features that came out in 1959 and it was designed by a husband and wife team at the Mattel toy company and Barbie whose full name is Barbara Millicent Roberts, would go on to become one of the most iconic, if not the iconic children's toy of all time. And the doll, interestingly enough,

was modeled after a doll made based on a German comic strip character named Lily. And the doll was marketed as... you know, a very racy gag gift. And it was sold in tobacco shops. Another interesting toy from the time period is Mr. Potato Head, which was sold by Hasbro. And it was the very first toy that was marketed on television. And at first, Mr. Potato Head was sold with just the plastic accessories and push pins so that it could be attached to real potatoes or other vegetables. Play-Doh.

Play-Doh became available to the public in 1956, but it was invented much earlier and for a very different... It was actually used as a pliable dough in order to remove soot from wallpaper. And as people used... coal or firewood less to heat their homes, the company looked for another use for their product and the owner's sister-in-law

tested out the non-toxic dough with her students and they loved molding it into different shapes. Thus, Play-Doh was born and the product sold more as a toy than it did for its original purpose. that of a wallpaper cleaner. If you think of the 1950s, you have to talk about slang. And some of the words or some of the terms that they use in the 1950s still exist today. So an ankle biter, this was, you know, particularly a misbehaving child. If somebody was considered a wet rag or a...

Somebody had the personality of a wet mop. This was somebody who was no fun. If you said, let's split, it meant you were bored. Let's get out of here. Let's, you know, let's leave. If you said no sweat, it meant that it was easy. It was not a problem. I did it, no sweat. So that's the equivalent of things like Riz and Ohio that we hear kids talking about today. You can't talk about the 1950s without...

talking about rock and roll. The 1950s saw the emergence of rock and roll music. which has its origins in a blend of different musical traditions, particularly rhythm and blues, country, and even gospel. Now, this unique combination created a sound that was both familiar and entirely new. And it caught the attention of young audiences that were really hungry for something different.

And the post-World War II era saw a significant shift in societal attitudes and music became a key outlet for this change. And as musicians experimented with these different styles, rock and roll began to take shape as a genre that really defied the conventional norms of the time. It was a really big departure from the music of the 1940s. In the 1940s, you have big bands and orchestra.

You have crooners like Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong, Bing Crosby, Nat King Cole, Frank Sinatra. These people are mainstays within the 1940s music scene. So in the 1950s... It's a period of great change and you have now the use of electric guitar. You know, the guitar is providing this very raw and powerful sound that...

it resonated deeply with the listeners of this music. And so as rock and roll gains popularity, it started to reflect the diverse experiences of its audiences. You have African-American artists in particular that are playing a crucial role. and shaping the sound and spirit of rock and roll. Radio stations played a pivotal role in introducing rock and roll to the masses. You have disc jockeys who embrace this new sound.

And they helped to bring it into the mainstream, making it accessible to a wider audience. Elvis Presley is probably one of the most prominent figures in rock and roll and by the end of 1956 Elvis had achieved really a remarkable feat. He became the first artist ever to have nine singles simultaneously on the Hot 100 chart.

You can't talk about rock and roll without talking about Chuck Berry. He also makes significant contributions. He had this very unique style and he influenced a number of artists who came after him. Little Richard. Also, you know, these piano-driven hits that he creates without people like Elvis, Chuck Berry, Little Richard, Buddy Holly even. Music in the 1950s is a very different place. Even Jerry Lee Lewis, this very wild, unpredictable...

You know, Elvis, when he's shown on television, he can only be shown from the waist up. He was called Elvis the pelvis because he shook his hips back and forth. It was considered, you know, taboo to show this kind of thing. Yeah, I mean, for these young girls who are now screaming as he's playing music, this was a very different scene from what parents saw in the 40s and the 30s from their children. So this was like a whole new ballgame for people.

It's generational. Listen, today and what you grew up with and what I grew up with, and I'm 10 years older than you, so what mom and dad saw with my music and what I saw with your music was not. So different to you and me, but to them, maybe. But now today with what I see and what's going on as a parent, you know, it's a little racy. Yep.

But I'm sure our parents said the same thing with the things we were doing. I can only imagine what it's going to be in another 20 years. Well, we shall see. Maybe it'll go back the other way. Maybe. Find out. According to you, they won't be driving though. They'll be getting picked up. So if we look at just music, if you look at television, if you look at film and movie stars.

You know, the 1950s, you have people like Alfred Hitchcock with Dial M for Murder, which of course starred Grace Kelly, who would go on to marry the Prince of Monaco and became a real princess, not just Hollywood royalty. Another Kelly of the 50s, my favorite. personally gene kelly and one of my favorite favorite favorite films of all time singing in the rain um

During this time, you have some of the most famous actors in history making their mark. You have Marilyn Monroe in Some Like It Hot. You have Elizabeth Taylor, Audrey Hepburn, Gregory Peck, Judy Garland. in the film a star is born on the male side you have actors like john wayne who is famous for his characters in old westerns you have charlton heston who of course his portrayal of ben-hur So you have these real life, larger than life movie stars of the 50s. And so when we think of this decade.

Like I said earlier, it's sometimes referred to as a decade of conformity. And you certainly see that in terms of gender roles, the rise of suburban life with what appears to be like this cookie cutter lifestyle. But the truth is that not everyone is living this way. The 1950s also gives way to great change and movements, especially if you look at the civil rights movement.

forms of change of technological advances that are made during the decade. And so I hope that you'll join us for some upcoming episodes, whether it be on Dwight Eisenhower, we're going to have two or three episodes on him where we're joined by the Dwight Eisenhower Presidential Museum and Library, our series of episodes on the civil rights movement of the 1950s, and to discuss the people and events that served as a catalyst for great

and necessary change within American society. Fantastic. Okay, before we get to the conclusion, as promised, here's that little outtake of Jeannie using her mom voice and reprimanding her children. I don't know whether I'm going to keep this in or not, but I'd love that she just yelled at her kids. And if I keep it in, she'll kill me. But I think it'll be worth it. This will be our little secret.

Freaking blasting the blender and Joseph's on the drums. All right. Sorry, you'll have to take that out. Thank you for listening to U.S. History Repeated with Jimmy and Gene. Tell your friends about our podcast and where you learn all this great stuff about U.S. history. Follow us on social media and get onto our email list to learn about special events. They're coming up again. There's always more to learn. Talk to you soon.