1. 50’s Teen Culture.
With the debut of rock and roll and influential artists, teens were boppin’ and
swingin’ their hips more than ever before. The music brought with it a culture
of rebellion. Never before were the wholesome teens exposed to sex and
drugs.
2. Slang.
1950s slang wasn’t particularly colorful as these
things go. The Sixties, with its drug and protest
culture to draw from, would be slang heaven. In the
Fifties, hot-rodders and Beats provided inspiration.
About the Beat Culture. This was by no means a
mainstream movement. I didn’t actually know any
Beats nor I suspect did most of my peers across
America. But they sure seemed “cool” to us. A sharp
contrast from the way real teens lived in a preppy,
conservative, conformist world.
Many of these words, in fact most words can have
“ville” added to them. There was coolsville,
deadsville, Doodyville, squaresville, weirdsville and so
forth.
3. Fads/Family Life.
Army men were first manufactured in the late 1930s in metal. They didn’t gain widespread popularity until the
1950s. Switching from metal to plastic brought the costs down to mere pennies per figure. The post war baby
boom meant that the majority of kids, Dad’s , were recently in a war so interest in the toys skyrocketed.
Barbie was the inspiration of Ruth Handler, founder with her husband Elliot, founders of Mattel.
Barbie as not their first success. In 1955, the Handlers bought 52 weeks of advertising on the new “Mickey Mouse
Club” television show, marking the first time toys had been advertised on a year-round basis. In conjunction with
the company’s sponsorship of the show, Mattel introduced a child-size”Mouseguitar,” which became an instant
sensation in the industry.
1950s Fads included this from Richard Knerr and Arthur “Spud” Melin, founders of the Wham-O Company, are the
architects of the biggest fad of all time – the hula hoop!
They began manufacturing Play Doh in earnest in 1956. Initially the doh was only available in off-white 1
½ pound cans. The three pak would be born shortly after in 1957 with red, blue and yellow and the
famous four pak, including white, the following year!
4. Main Concerns and Stresses.
During the 1950’s many parents did not like Rock and Roll because they thought that it caused juvenile
delinquency. At the time the music contained sexual connotation, this vulgarism and suggestive choice of
words made the teens want to listen to it more because their parents did not approve and teens felt like
they had something to belong to.
