27 Midcentury

1. 27Midcentury

2. GROWTH • Post WW II: expansion • Auto • Govt. • Infrastructure, military

3. INTERSTATE HIGHWAY ACT • 41k miles • $$$

4. 5 in Anaheim 133 Irvine

5. Depression • War

6. Population

7. An aerial view of 1950s tract houses in the suburban development of Levittown, New York. Mass production techniques were key to providing affordable housing in the new postwar suburbs—but they required a “cookie cutter” approach to architecture, with little or no variation among the houses. SOURCE:Getty Images,Inc/Hulton Archive Photos.

8. SUBURBAN LIFE • Conformity: • Housing • Culture • Disneyland, McDonalds, Holiday Inn

9. A 1950s family watching “I Love Lucy,” one of the most popular situation comedies in the early days of television. Manufacturers designed and marketed TV sets as living room furniture and emphasized their role in fostering family togetherness.

10. A crowded commuter train in Philadelphia, ca. 1955. The rapid growth of suburbs in the postwar era made commuting to work, either by mass transit or auto, a routine part of life for millions of Americans. SOURCE:Getty Images Inc./Hulton Archive.

11. Consumers $$$

12. Credit: 1950, Diner’s club • Visa, etc. • $8 bil – 1946 • $45 bil – 1958

14. T.V. CULTURE • Ads $$ • T.V. dinner: 1954 • Good life=endless spending

16. FIGURE 27.1 The Growth of the Suburbs, 1950–70 Suburban growth, at the expense of older inner cities, was one of the key social trends in the twenty-five years following World War II. By 1970, more Americans lived in suburbs than in either inner cities or rural areas. SOURCE:Adapted from U.S.Bureau of the Census,Current Censuses, 1930 –1970 (Washington DC:U.S.Government Printing Office,1975).

19. FIGURE 27.2 L. A. County Population 1920–80

20. CLASS/RACE • Suburbs: no minorities • VA, FHA segregation • Private banks • “red lining”

21. REBELS

22. MUSIC • Rock n Roll • Black R&B • Diverse • Ritchie Valens

23. This photo of Elvis Presley singing at a 1956 state fair in Memphis captured his dramatic stage presence. Performing with only a trio, his sound was spare but hard driving. Both the music and Presley’s stage moves owed a great deal to African American rhythm and blues artists. SOURCE:Getty Images,Inc.(C422).

24. Erotic power

25. Rock pioneer Chuck Berry and one of his many younger disciples, Bruce Springsteen, played together at the grand opening of the Hall in September 1995. Berry was among the inaugural class of inductees in 1986. Terry Knerem/Corbis/Sygma.

26. MEN • Boring, dull, middle-class male

27. Hugh Hefner • Playboy • “good life” • Sexual pleasures, consumerism

28. PLAYBOY • What does this magazine tell you about life in the 1950’s? • Compare and contrast to our world today?

29. BEAT • Writers, artists • Non-conformity, jazz, drugs

30. TEENS • Consumers • Music, magazines • Parents?

31. POVERTY • Economic growth: middle, upper classes • The rest: poverty

33. Signs designating “White” and “Colored” rest rooms, waiting rooms, entrances, benches, and even water fountains were a common sight in the segregated South. They were a constant reminder that legal separation of the races in public spaces was the law of the land. SOURCE:(left)Photo by Dan McCoy.Black Star;(right)Segregation Trailways.CORBIS.

34. ORIGINS? • WWII experiences • Double V • Harlem Renaissance

35. Lemon grove • Mexican-American children • Separate school • Latinos=“White” • Roberto Alvarez, 1931

36. Mendez vs. westminster • Orange County • 1947 • Felicitas and Gonzalo • “Separate but Equal”

37. BROWN VS. BOARD (1954) • Plessy v. Ferguson • Segregation • “separate but inherently unequal”

38. Hernandez vs. texas (1954) • Texas, Southwest • Law: Mexicans=White • Reality: discrimination, racism

39. Hernandez vs. texas • ??? • Mexican-American civil rights • Expansion of equal protection • Beyond Black/White

41. EMMETT TILL • 14 • Brutally murdered

44. Dr. King