The Mood of the 1950s

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The Mood of the 1950s

• Angela Brown
• Chapter 17 Section 2

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Comfort and SecurityYouth Culture

• Silent Generation little interest in the
  problems and crises of the world
• More kids in school due to strong economy.
• More leisure time to organize parties and pranks
  joining fraternities and sororities.

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• Businesses marketed products directly to youth.
• Ads and movies helped build an image of what it
  means to be a teenager.
• Girls bobby sox and poodle skirts boys in
  letter sweaters conformity

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Resurgence in Religion

• New interests in religion in response to Cold War
  struggles against godless communism hope to
  face threat of nuclear war.
• 1954 Congress added words under God to Pledge
  of Allegiance.
• 1955 In God We Trust on all currency .

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• could call Dial-a-Prayer
• Slogans The family that prays together stays
  together
• Evangelists on TV and radio
• End of 1950s 95 Americans felt linked to some
  formal religious group

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Billy Graham

• Billy Graham Charlotte, North Carolina
• 1939 ordained as a Southern Baptist minister
• Joined youth for Christ to minister to young
  soldiers during WWII
• Gained widespread recognition at Crusades in Los
  Angeles (8 weeks) New York (16 weeks

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• Known as fundamentalisms chief spokesperson
• Televised crusades, published sermons, stated
  magazine Decision, wrote 18 books, frequent guest
  at White House
• 1996 awarded Congressional Gold Medal

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Mens and Womens Roles

• Men school, job to support wife and kids
  public sphere, judged by what they could buy
• Women play supporting role for husband, keep
  house, cook, raise children, PTA, campfire girls,
  charity causes, exercise twice a week to maintain
  size 12 figure
• Pediatrician Dr. Benjamin Spock stated mothers
  should stay home with children.

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• Many women of 1950s married with children held
  paying jobs
• 24 of all married women jobs to pay for the
  good life
• By 1960 31 worked married women with jobs
  outnumbered single women beginning in WWII

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Challenges to Conformity

• 1955 film Rebel without a Cause captured
  feelings of alienation
• James Dean became a teen idol and film legend.

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• 1951 The Catcher in the Rye J.D. Salinger-
  troubled by hypocrisy of phonies struggle
  against pressure to conform

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• 1953, Alan Freed, a radio disc jockey in
  Cleveland, Ohio began playing rock and roll
  Chuck Berry, Bill Haley, and the Comets, Little
  Richard, and Elvis Presley

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Elvis Presley
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• Adults disliked the new music feared a rise in
  immorality.
• Made efforts to ban rock concerts and keep
  records out of stores.
• Beat Generation called beatniks stressed
  spontaneity and spirituality
• Challenged traditional patterns of
  respectability, more open sexuality and use of
  illegal drugs, met in coffee houses.