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Celebrating The 50's The Time of Our Youth - When We Were Teenagers |
The end of World War II brought thousands of young servicemen back to America to pick up their lives and start new families in new homes with new jobs. With an energy never before experienced, American industry expanded to meet peacetime needs. Americans began buying goods not available during the war, which created corporate expansion and jobs. Growth was everywhere. The baby boom was underway... If you were a teenager in the 50's, your major cultural influences were television and Rock'n'Roll. At the beginning of the decade very few of our families had a TV set and our friends and neighbors who had one were very popular. By the mid-50's, most of our families had joined the television era and many had multiple sets. Popular music in the early part of the decade featured volcalists like Perry Como, Teresa Brewer, Tony Bennett, Nat "King" Cole, Eddie Fisher & Doris Day. In 1954, Decca Records released "Rock Around the Clock" by Bill Haley and his Comets. In 1955, the movie "Blackboard Jungle" was released and it featured "Rock Around the Clock" playing under the opening credits. The Rock'n'Roll era had begun. No one exemplifies the Rock'n'Roll era of the 1950's better than Elvis Presley, whose 75th birthday is being celebrated in 2010. Elvis was born on January 8, 1935 in Tupelo, MS. He cut hist first commercial recordings for Sun Records in Memphis, TN in the Summer of 1954 including the now famous "That's All Right Momma". In 1955, RCA Victor purchased Presley's contract from Sun Records and in January 1956 "Heartbreak Hotel", his first hit single was released. It was quickly followed by "Blue Suede Shoes", "Hound Dog" and "Don't Be Cruel". At the same time, Elvis made his first TV appearances on "The Ed Sullivan Show". |
Here are some of the top songs of the 1950's by year. Do you know the names of the artists who put them on "Your Hit Parade"? |
Do you remember buying some of these 45's? Do you still have any of them? |
The TV Shows We Watched |
In 1950, many of our families were buying their first TV sets. Remember the ones with the round screens and others with square screens and rounded corners? Beside RCA, Zenith and GE there was DuMont, Philco, Motorola, Capehart, Crosley, Magnavox, and a 19" set was a "big screen. None of the ear;y sets worked very well and they blew tubes frequently. We all had antennas on our roofs pointed toward downtown. In 1950 there were only four channels (WBKB - 4, WMAQ - 5, WENR - 7, and WGN - 9, and as 10-11 year old kids we watched Super Circus on Sunday afternoons and Howdy Doody after school. Our families watched many of these Top 15 shows: |
Early 50's Texaco Star Theatre (Milton Berle) Fireside Theatre Philco TV Playhouse Your Show of Shows (Syd Caesar & Imogene Coca) The Colgate Comedy Hour (Eddie Cantor, Martin & Lewis) Gillette Cavalcade of Sports The Lone Ranger Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scouts Hopalong Cassidy Mama (I Remember Mama) Robert Montgomery Presents Martin Kane, Private Eye Man Against Crime Kraft Television Theatre The Toast of the Town (Ed Sullivan) |
Mid 50's I Love Lucy The Jackie Gleason Show Dragnet You Bet Your Life (Groucho Marx) The Toast of the Town Disneyland (Walt Disney Presents) The Jack Benny Show The George Gobel Show Ford Theatre December Bride Buick-Berle Show This Is Your Life I've Got a Secret Two for the Money Your Hit Parade |
Late 50's Gunsmoke The Danny Thomas Show Tales of Wells Fargo Have Gun Will Travel I've Got a Secret The Life & Legend of Wyatt Earp General Electric Theatre The Restless Gun December Bride You Bet Your Life The Perry Como Show Alfred Hitchcock Presents Cheyenne The Ford Show The Red Skelton Show |
By the end of the decade, westerns such as Gunsmoke, Maverick, Cheyenne, Wagon Train, The Texan, Zane Grey Theater, and the Rifleman had taken over from the "comedy / variety" shows. "Cookie" was combing his hair on 77 Sunset Strip and Ricky Nelson was singing on every episode of Ozzie & Harriet. Color tv's were already on the market and UHF stations had begun to appear. |
The Movies We Watched & Where We Watched Them |
When the 50's began, there still were many neighborhood theaters showing "second run" movies. Other theaters, like the Gayety, specialized in westerns, war movies, and "cops & robbers" and gave us a Saturday afternoon haven to enjoy them. Saturday afternoons at the movies, complete with 5 cartoons, cost $.25 plus $.10 for popcorn and gave our parents some peace and quiet for a few hours. "Hopalong Cassidy", Johnny Mack Brown, "Lash" Larue, and Ken Maynard were some of our western heros and World War II was our battlefield. By the mid-50's they all had moved to TV and neighborhood movie theaters started to close. |
Academy Award Winners of the 1950's |
Best Picture |
1950 All About Eve 1951 An American In Paris 1952 The Greatest Show On Earth 1953 From Here To Eternity 1954 On The Waterfront 1955 Marty 1956 Around The World In 80 Days 1957 The Bridge On The River Kwai 1958 Gigi 1959 Ben-Hur |
Best Actor |
1950 Cyrano de Bergerac - Jose Ferrer 1951 The African Queen - Humphrey Bogar 1952 High Noon - Gary Cooper 1953 Stalag 17 - William Holden 1954 On The Waterfront - Marlon Brando 1955 Marty - Ernest Borgnine 1956 The King And I - Yul Brynner 1957 The Bridge On The River Kwai - Alec Guiness 1958 Separate Tables - David Niven 1959 Ben-Hur - Charlton Heston |
Best Actress |
1950 Born Yesterday - Judy Holliday 1951 A Streetcar Named Desire - VivienLeigh 1952 Come Back, Little Sheba - Shirley Booth 1953 Roman Holiday - Audrey Hepburn 1954 The Country Girl - Grace Kelly 1955 The Rose Tattoo - Anna Magnani 1956 Anastasia - Ingrid Bergman 1957 The Three Faces Of Eve - Joanne Woodward 1958 I Want To Live! - Susan Hayward 1959 Room At The Top - Simone Signoret |
In the 1950's there were two movie theaters at 92nd St. & Commercial Avenue: The Gayety and the Commercial. The Gayety showed "B" pictures until 1957 when it switched to Spanish language movies. It was destroyed by fire in 1982. A McDonalds now occupies this site, while the popular Gayety Candy Co., which was next store relocated to Lansing, IL. The Commercial Theater was opposite the Gayety at 9150 S. Commercial. It was a second run theteater. Remodeled in 1942, it had a large marquee with many lights in a zig-zag pattern. The Commercial closed in the 1960's and was torn down. There is a Walgreen Drug Store on this site. |
The Avalon Theater was located at 1645 E. 79th Street, just east of Stony Island Ave. Opened in 1927, the Avalon was a first run theater which seated 2,500. Its fantastic decor included an atmospheric style auditorium with a star-filled deep blue sky and a Persian bazaar on the side walls. Hanging from the soaring lobby ceiling is what was once described as the largest oriental rug ever made, a flying carpet if you will. Additionally, there are five huge murals in the lobby, which were made of tiny inlaid mosaic tiles, and a giant stage, which is guarded by four menacing gargoyles. The theater also once contained a 3/15 Wurlitzer theater organ. The Avalon closed as a theater in the 1970's and for a while became home to a church. In 1987 it was restored and became a performing arts center named the New Regal Theater. |
This picture of the Jeffery Theater was taken in the 1950's. Note the Martin & Lewis feature on the marquee and the Buick about to enter the intersection. An inbound Illinois Central Electric train is waiting at the Bryn Mawr station. The Jeffery Theater was located at 1952 E. 71st Street, just west of Jeffery Blvd. in South Shore. Neo-classical in design, it seated 1,798 as a first run neighborhood theater. The Jeffery shared the building with the South Shore National Bank, now called the South Shore Bank. The theater, which had been closed for many years, was demolished in the 1990's, except for the facade and lobby area which have been incorporated into the bank. A drive-up banking facility was built on the site of the former theater auditiorium. |
Other south side theaters we patronized included the Chelten, located at in South Shore at 7945 S. Exchange Ave. The Chelten was a second run theater which later showed Spanish language movies. It closed in the early 80's and the building is home to the Lighthouse Baptist Church. The Hamilton Theater at 2150 E. 71st Street was a first run neighborhood theater serving South Shore. It seated 996 and in the 50's was under the same management as the Jeffery. After being shuttered for many years, the Hamilton was demolished in 2002. The property is now a vacant lot. The Hegewisch Theater at 13320 S. Baltimore Ave. seated about 300 people. It closed in the mid-1950 and was later used by a fraternal organization. The building is currently unoccupied. The Ray Theater was originally called the Windsor Park and was located at 2638 E. 75th Street in South Shore, near 75th & Exchange Ave. After clsoing as a movie theater in the early 50's, it operated briefly as a ballroom. The location is now a vacant lot. |
A Gallery of 50's Images |