During the 1950s, there was an absolute explosion of entertainment. Television may have kept many moviegoers at home but the stars of Hollywood kept the magic alive. New Broadway musicals made their debuts from Guys and Dolls in 1950 to the Sound of Music in 1959.
Americans were also enjoying popular music with a steady parade of new hits from vocalists such as Rosemary Clooney and Perry Como. But by the mid-fifties things began to change on the music front and Americans were being blasted with the revolutionary music called rock and roll.
The Movies
Back in 1951 movie producer David O. Selznick moaned that ” Hollywood’s like Egypt. Full of crumbling pyramids….It’ll just keep on crumbling until finally the wind blows the last studio prop across the sands.” And actually at that time he wasn’t far wrong. As more and more families owned television sets and were entertained in their own living rooms movie attendances dropped dramatically..
However, Hollywood may have had some financial woes but that did not stop it from producing a host of classic movies during the fifties featuring casts of already known stars such as Judy Garland and Gary Cooper but also introducing us to some new faces like Marilyn Monroe and Marlon Brando.
It was during this movie period that the epic Ben-Hur, starring Charlton Heston was made.
Ben-Hur was the costliest movie that had ever been produced costing 15 million dollars. But as history has shown it turned out to be a good investment.
One thing that encouraged Americans to keep going to the movies was the stars. This was the time of Grace Kelly, Marilyn Monroe, Elizabeth Taylor and Brigitte Bardot. These glittering goddesses possessed a unique combination of glamour, beauty, elegance and sex appeal. And lets not forget the likes of Marlon Brando, James Dean, Humphrey Bogart and James Stewart.
The Music
The juke boxes in the fifties were filled with clean cut singers such as Frank Sinatra, Eddie Fisher, Rosemary Clooney and Kay Starr.
That started to change when in 1954 a country singer and band leader by the name of Bill Haley rocketed out of obscurity and into the pop charts with ‘Shake, Rattle and Roll.’
This was the beginning of the frenzied teenage music craze. That same year Chuck berry stepped up the heat with ‘Maybellene’ followed a year or so later with his next big hit ‘Roll over Beethoven.’
Rock and Roll was here to stay and with it came a young guy from Memphis Tennessee, Elvis Presley.
In 1956 Elvis made the transition from a regional star to a national star with his hits like “Heartbreak Hotel’, ‘Don’t be cruel’ and ‘Hound Dog.
After appearing on television Elvis soon found himself disliked by many journalists, Churchmen and parents. In fact newspaper columnist Eddie Condon denounced Elvis for behaving ‘like a sex maniac in public before millions of impressionable kids’.
Although the airwaves were inundated with rock and roll there was still room for new stylists such as Johnny Mathis to find their niche.
The 50’s really was the decade when leisure and entertainment came of age.
Source:
The American Dream: The 50’s (Our American Century), by Richard B. Stolley, Time-Life Books
