| Cruisin' the Past |
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| Cruisin’ the Past by Ed Dooley |
Fifties Reality Check
We often hear people today say that the 1950s was a simpler, less hurried, relaxed time.
We, too, may be guilty of looking back with nostalgia and fondness to the days of our youth
sometimes characterized as “happy days.” There is some truth to this pleasant view of the
50s, but the ideal picture painted of that time falls far off the mark. As the 1950s were
coming to a close in December 1959 (50 years ago), an article appeared in the Tucson
newspapers that presented a sober assessment of the period. Titled “Fearsome And Never
Secure, ‘Frenzied Fifties’ Enter History,” and quoted below in full, it provides us with a reality
check on the decade.
“The ‘Frenzied Fifties’ were great news-making years – a decade of heartaches and
successes foreshadowing more startling things to come.
“The space age was born. And as the ten-year span 1950-1959 came to a close, man was
getting set for interplanetary travel.
“In the decade great events tugged at the hearts of men everywhere.
“It was a fast and exciting period. The gloom and pessimism occasioned by the outbreak of
war in Korea in 1950 changed to cautious optimism and hope in 1959 as Nikita Khrushchev’
s visit to the United States and President Eisenhower’s unprecedented good-will tour of
Europe, Mideast and Asia.
“Science made phenomenal strides. With the space age, American and Russian probes
into outer space brought within range the possibility of interplanetary travel.
“A Soviet rocket hit the moon. The United States fired a variety of missiles into orbit and
selected seven astronauts, or spacemen – one of whom may be hurled into space in 1961.
“Jet planes brought nations closer together. A nonstop flight whipped around the world in
less than 48 hours. Travel time between the United States and Europe was cut to about
seven hours. And the U.S. shot to the forefront in the development and production of atom-
powered submarines.
“Familiar names usurped the page one headlines – Eisenhower, Khrushchev, Mcmillan,
Truman, Nixon, De Gauller, De Gaulle, Pope John XXIII, Churchill, Queen Elizabeth II,
Princess Grace Kelly Ranier, Nasser and Fidel Castro.
“The fifties were sometimes frantic, often fearsome and never secure as the cold war poised
the threat of a nuclear war that could annihilate millions of people in double-quick time.
“In this period of stress and strain, America’s role as a world power reached its zenith.
Competitively, the Soviet Union flexed its military and economic muscles and rose to the
most exalted stature in its history.
“Heavily-populated, ideological-minded China stirred itself and menaced peaceful Asia.
Freedom-aspiring Hungary was violated and its revolution crushed by Soviet tanks. The
free world, of necessity, tightened its alliance through NATO. And the United Nations
carried on its ceaseless struggle to maintain peace.
“Selecting the bigger stories of this stirring decade was no easy task. However, in the
opinion of United Press International client newspapers and UPI editors who balloted year
after year in the nation-wide polls, these were the top 10.
“1950 – Communist invasion of Korea and U.N. intervention.
“1951 – Truman fires Gen. MacArthur as U.S. commander in Far East.
“1952 – Eisenhower wins GOP nomination and is elected first Republican president in 20
years, defeating Gov. Adlai Stevenson of Illinois.
“1953 – Death of Stalin marks new alignment of power in the Kremlin.
“1954 – Army-McCarthy hearings and subsequent condemnation of McCarthy by Senate.
“1955 – President Eisenhower’s heart attack.
“1956 – Revolt of Hungary against Communist rule.
“1957 – Sputniks.
“1958 – America’s continuing struggle over racial integration of schools.
“1959 –Khrushchev tours United States and agrees with Eisenhower to negotiate further on
Berlin with a deadline.
“Of course many other big stories broke in those 10 years – from the conviction of Alger
Hiss for perjury in 1950 to the confession of Charles Van Doren in the TV quiz show scandal
in 1959.
“Beginning with 1950, there was the sensational stick-up of the Brinks express office in
Boston. Masked men got away with $2,775,395.12, of which $1,218,211.29 was in cash.
“That same year two Puerto Rican fanatics invaded Blair House and tried to assassinate
President Truman.
“Armistice negotiations in Korea were instituted in 1951, Sir Winston Churchill returned to
power, and Sen. Estes Kefauver (D-Tenn) launched his spectacular televised crime
hearings.
“Harry S. Truman decided not to run again for president in 1952 and Gen. Eisenhower
became the Republican nominee, defeating Sen. Robert A. Taft of Ohio at the GOP
convention and beating Stevenson in the presidential election in the fall.
“The U.S. conducted its first successful H-bomb experiments. Elizabeth II became Queen on
the death of her father, King George VI, Iran broke relations with Britain over oil and King
Farouk was ousted from his Egyptian throne.
“The death of Stalin in 1953 paved the way for Khrushchev’s ultimate rise to No. 1 man of
Russia. Rioting broke out in East Germany, the coronation of Queen Elizabeth was staged
in London, a British team scaled Mt. Everest, and Sen. Joseph R. McCarthy of Wisconsin
launched hearings on subversive influences in government.
“A truce ended the fighting in Korea. Sen. Taft died. History’s worst air disaster killed 129
persons in Tokyo and the atom spies Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were executed in Sing
Sing prison.
“In 1954 the nation was shocked by the shooting of five congressmen in the House of
Representatives by Puerto Rican fanatics.
“The U.S. Supreme Court outlawed segregation in the nation’s schools and the trial in
Cleveland of Dr. Samuel Sheppard for the murder of his wife hit front pages.
“President Eisenhower’s heart attack in 1955 evoked deep sympathy and concern
throughout the country, and abroad.
“The AFL-CIO merged. In Argentina the Peron government fell. And at the University of
Michigan it was announced that Dr. James E. Salk’s polio vaccine is an effective preventive
of paralytic polio.
“Brooklyn’s beloved Dodgers won their first world series, defeating the highly-touted New
York Yankees in seven games.
“Top news of 1958 was the revolt in Hungary which was put down by Russian troops and
tanks in a blood bath. The Suez Canal crisis also worried the world, and violence broke out
in the South over school integration.
“Don Larsen of the Yankees pitched a perfect world series game against the Dodgers.
Feminine readers reveled in the fairy princess story of the wedding of Grace Kelly to Prince
Ranier in Monaco.
“President Eisenhower suffered a mild stoke in 1957, precipitating a controversy over
presidential disability.
“The Soviets were busy sending up sputniks. Federal troops were used in integration
trouble at Little Rock Central High School. The Milwaukee Braves won the World Series
and the Brooklyn Dodgers and New York Giants moved to the West Coast.
“In 1958 the indictment of Industrialist Bernard Goldfine on charges of contempt of
Congress stirred up a lot of excitement in Washington. Soon thereafter presidential
assistant Sherman Adams resigned.
“Pope Pius XII died and John XXIII was elected as his successor. Business took a sharp turn
for the better in the United States and Lana Turner’s daughter fatally stabbed Johnny
Stompanato in Hollywood.
“The visit of Khrushchev to the United States followed by President Eisenhower’s triumphant
good-will tour of Europe, Asia, and the Mideast commanded world attention in 1959.
“Of great interest too was the Soviet Union’s announcement that it had hit the moon with a
rocket, and Vice President Nixon’s visit to Russia.
“Ingemar Johansson of Sweden took the world’s heavyweight championship from Floyd
Patterson in New York. The Los Angeles Dodgers took the World Series.
“Secretary of State John Foster Dulles died of cancer. Revolutionary leader Fidel Castro
assumed control of Cuba, Gen. Charles de Gaulle was proclaimed president of the fifth
French Republic.
“And Alaska and Hawaii were accepted as the 49th and 50th states in the nation.”
Not mentioned in this lengthy article, but surely “news-makers,” were the rise of Rock and
Roll music, the appearance of Elvis Presley, and all the other developments that affected
teenagers like us. Nor was mention made the French defeat at Dien Bien Phu and the U.S.
military assistance pact with Vietnam, the announcement of Einstein’s “General Field
Theory” in 1950, the first use of atomically generated power in the U.S., the launch of the U.
S. artificial earth satellite Explorer I in 1958, the creation of NASA, and developments in
computers, all of which would have great significance for the future.
We often hear people today say that the 1950s was a simpler, less hurried, relaxed time.
We, too, may be guilty of looking back with nostalgia and fondness to the days of our youth
sometimes characterized as “happy days.” There is some truth to this pleasant view of the
50s, but the ideal picture painted of that time falls far off the mark. As the 1950s were
coming to a close in December 1959 (50 years ago), an article appeared in the Tucson
newspapers that presented a sober assessment of the period. Titled “Fearsome And Never
Secure, ‘Frenzied Fifties’ Enter History,” and quoted below in full, it provides us with a reality
check on the decade.
“The ‘Frenzied Fifties’ were great news-making years – a decade of heartaches and
successes foreshadowing more startling things to come.
“The space age was born. And as the ten-year span 1950-1959 came to a close, man was
getting set for interplanetary travel.
“In the decade great events tugged at the hearts of men everywhere.
“It was a fast and exciting period. The gloom and pessimism occasioned by the outbreak of
war in Korea in 1950 changed to cautious optimism and hope in 1959 as Nikita Khrushchev’
s visit to the United States and President Eisenhower’s unprecedented good-will tour of
Europe, Mideast and Asia.
“Science made phenomenal strides. With the space age, American and Russian probes
into outer space brought within range the possibility of interplanetary travel.
“A Soviet rocket hit the moon. The United States fired a variety of missiles into orbit and
selected seven astronauts, or spacemen – one of whom may be hurled into space in 1961.
“Jet planes brought nations closer together. A nonstop flight whipped around the world in
less than 48 hours. Travel time between the United States and Europe was cut to about
seven hours. And the U.S. shot to the forefront in the development and production of atom-
powered submarines.
“Familiar names usurped the page one headlines – Eisenhower, Khrushchev, Mcmillan,
Truman, Nixon, De Gauller, De Gaulle, Pope John XXIII, Churchill, Queen Elizabeth II,
Princess Grace Kelly Ranier, Nasser and Fidel Castro.
“The fifties were sometimes frantic, often fearsome and never secure as the cold war poised
the threat of a nuclear war that could annihilate millions of people in double-quick time.
“In this period of stress and strain, America’s role as a world power reached its zenith.
Competitively, the Soviet Union flexed its military and economic muscles and rose to the
most exalted stature in its history.
“Heavily-populated, ideological-minded China stirred itself and menaced peaceful Asia.
Freedom-aspiring Hungary was violated and its revolution crushed by Soviet tanks. The
free world, of necessity, tightened its alliance through NATO. And the United Nations
carried on its ceaseless struggle to maintain peace.
“Selecting the bigger stories of this stirring decade was no easy task. However, in the
opinion of United Press International client newspapers and UPI editors who balloted year
after year in the nation-wide polls, these were the top 10.
“1950 – Communist invasion of Korea and U.N. intervention.
“1951 – Truman fires Gen. MacArthur as U.S. commander in Far East.
“1952 – Eisenhower wins GOP nomination and is elected first Republican president in 20
years, defeating Gov. Adlai Stevenson of Illinois.
“1953 – Death of Stalin marks new alignment of power in the Kremlin.
“1954 – Army-McCarthy hearings and subsequent condemnation of McCarthy by Senate.
“1955 – President Eisenhower’s heart attack.
“1956 – Revolt of Hungary against Communist rule.
“1957 – Sputniks.
“1958 – America’s continuing struggle over racial integration of schools.
“1959 –Khrushchev tours United States and agrees with Eisenhower to negotiate further on
Berlin with a deadline.
“Of course many other big stories broke in those 10 years – from the conviction of Alger
Hiss for perjury in 1950 to the confession of Charles Van Doren in the TV quiz show scandal
in 1959.
“Beginning with 1950, there was the sensational stick-up of the Brinks express office in
Boston. Masked men got away with $2,775,395.12, of which $1,218,211.29 was in cash.
“That same year two Puerto Rican fanatics invaded Blair House and tried to assassinate
President Truman.
“Armistice negotiations in Korea were instituted in 1951, Sir Winston Churchill returned to
power, and Sen. Estes Kefauver (D-Tenn) launched his spectacular televised crime
hearings.
“Harry S. Truman decided not to run again for president in 1952 and Gen. Eisenhower
became the Republican nominee, defeating Sen. Robert A. Taft of Ohio at the GOP
convention and beating Stevenson in the presidential election in the fall.
“The U.S. conducted its first successful H-bomb experiments. Elizabeth II became Queen on
the death of her father, King George VI, Iran broke relations with Britain over oil and King
Farouk was ousted from his Egyptian throne.
“The death of Stalin in 1953 paved the way for Khrushchev’s ultimate rise to No. 1 man of
Russia. Rioting broke out in East Germany, the coronation of Queen Elizabeth was staged
in London, a British team scaled Mt. Everest, and Sen. Joseph R. McCarthy of Wisconsin
launched hearings on subversive influences in government.
“A truce ended the fighting in Korea. Sen. Taft died. History’s worst air disaster killed 129
persons in Tokyo and the atom spies Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were executed in Sing
Sing prison.
“In 1954 the nation was shocked by the shooting of five congressmen in the House of
Representatives by Puerto Rican fanatics.
“The U.S. Supreme Court outlawed segregation in the nation’s schools and the trial in
Cleveland of Dr. Samuel Sheppard for the murder of his wife hit front pages.
“President Eisenhower’s heart attack in 1955 evoked deep sympathy and concern
throughout the country, and abroad.
“The AFL-CIO merged. In Argentina the Peron government fell. And at the University of
Michigan it was announced that Dr. James E. Salk’s polio vaccine is an effective preventive
of paralytic polio.
“Brooklyn’s beloved Dodgers won their first world series, defeating the highly-touted New
York Yankees in seven games.
“Top news of 1958 was the revolt in Hungary which was put down by Russian troops and
tanks in a blood bath. The Suez Canal crisis also worried the world, and violence broke out
in the South over school integration.
“Don Larsen of the Yankees pitched a perfect world series game against the Dodgers.
Feminine readers reveled in the fairy princess story of the wedding of Grace Kelly to Prince
Ranier in Monaco.
“President Eisenhower suffered a mild stoke in 1957, precipitating a controversy over
presidential disability.
“The Soviets were busy sending up sputniks. Federal troops were used in integration
trouble at Little Rock Central High School. The Milwaukee Braves won the World Series
and the Brooklyn Dodgers and New York Giants moved to the West Coast.
“In 1958 the indictment of Industrialist Bernard Goldfine on charges of contempt of
Congress stirred up a lot of excitement in Washington. Soon thereafter presidential
assistant Sherman Adams resigned.
“Pope Pius XII died and John XXIII was elected as his successor. Business took a sharp turn
for the better in the United States and Lana Turner’s daughter fatally stabbed Johnny
Stompanato in Hollywood.
“The visit of Khrushchev to the United States followed by President Eisenhower’s triumphant
good-will tour of Europe, Asia, and the Mideast commanded world attention in 1959.
“Of great interest too was the Soviet Union’s announcement that it had hit the moon with a
rocket, and Vice President Nixon’s visit to Russia.
“Ingemar Johansson of Sweden took the world’s heavyweight championship from Floyd
Patterson in New York. The Los Angeles Dodgers took the World Series.
“Secretary of State John Foster Dulles died of cancer. Revolutionary leader Fidel Castro
assumed control of Cuba, Gen. Charles de Gaulle was proclaimed president of the fifth
French Republic.
“And Alaska and Hawaii were accepted as the 49th and 50th states in the nation.”
Not mentioned in this lengthy article, but surely “news-makers,” were the rise of Rock and
Roll music, the appearance of Elvis Presley, and all the other developments that affected
teenagers like us. Nor was mention made the French defeat at Dien Bien Phu and the U.S.
military assistance pact with Vietnam, the announcement of Einstein’s “General Field
Theory” in 1950, the first use of atomically generated power in the U.S., the launch of the U.
S. artificial earth satellite Explorer I in 1958, the creation of NASA, and developments in
computers, all of which would have great significance for the future.
| News Makers of the 50's |
| Dwight D, Eisenhower |
| Fidel Castro |
| Charles de Gaulle |
| Nikita Khrushchev |
| General Douglas MacArthur |
| Richard Nixon |
| Senator McCarthy |
| Elvis Presley |