By Jeff Little
Every decade leaves us with things to be remembered fondly.
It's much more fun to forget the dark times and look back instead at
the entertaining, sometimes frivolous and even downright silly things
that occurred in the past. And for such light-hearted memories, you
need look no further than the 50's?
Voltaire said, "Anything too stupid to be said is sung."
The 1950's definitely proved that with deeply poignant lyrics such as:
"Well Be Bop A Lula she's my baby
Be Bop A Lula I don't mean maybe"
Gene Vincent
Friedrich Nietzsche recommended, "We should consider every day
lost in which we have not danced at least once."
The 50's had that covered too.
The Twist, The Stroll, The Bristol Stomp, The Hand Jive, etc., etc.,
etc. Some 50's dances became timeless, while others passed faster than
a cigarette outside a high school gymnasium. But, hey, they were fun
weren't they?
Ken Dodd once said, "Honolulu. It's got everything. Sand for
the children, sun for the wife and sharks for the wife's mother. "
True or not, Hawaii became our fiftieth state in 1959. Earlier that
year, Alaska had become our forty-ninth.
Groucho Marx told us, "I find television very educational.
Every time somebody turns on the set, I go into the other room and
read a book."
Despite such sage advice, millions of Americans tuned-in religiously.
Television overtook radio and threatened the stability of the film
industry as it became our county's favorite medium in the 50's.
Reminiscing, George Burns said, "I can remember when the air
was clean and sex was dirty."
Sexual morality loosened-up noticeably in the 50's, no doubt due to
the publication of Dr. Alfred Kinsey's book Sexual Behavior in
the Human Male in 1948. In the 50's Kinsey furthered the cause with
1953's Sexual Behavior in the Human Female. Aiding Kinsey in a cause
near and dear to his heart, Hugh M. Hefner published the first edition
of Playboy, also in 1953.
Theodor Geisel (better known as Dr. Seuss) gave us a brief
glimpse of his personality by telling us, "I like nonsense, it wakes
up the brain cells. Fantasy is a necessary ingredient in living; it's
a way of looking at life through the wrong end of a telescope. Which
is what I do, and that enables you to laugh at life's realities."
In 1954, Life published a report which included an opinion that
children were having trouble reading because their books were boring.
This prompted Geisel's publisher to send him a list of 400 words he
felt were important, asked him to cut the list to 250 and write a
book. Nine months later, using just 220 of the words, Geisel completed
The Cat in the Hat.
The 1950's also had various instances of war, famine,
pestilence, political upheaval, medical breakthroughs, space
exploration and lots of other boring stuff that forever affected
humankind as we know it. But why dwell on such mundane issues when we
can all, instead, focus on fun?
Go
to Rewind the Fifties Home
