The Capsule

First Appearances

The Mickey Mouse Club. Disneyland. 3-D movies. Cinemascope. McCarthyism. Red Channels. Playboy. Centerfolds. Rock 'n' roll. Tranquilizers. Transistor radios. Xerox copiers. Credit cards. Frozen TV dinners. TV Guide. Sports Illustrated. Mad. Diet soft drinks, Kentucky Fried Chicken. Corvette. Thunderbird. Edsel. The sack dress. Pantyhose. Stereo records. Videotape recording. Mercedes 300SL. Nikon 35mm SLR. 007. Sputnik. Astronauts. ICBM. Barbie. Lolita. Frisbee. Hula Hoop. Ann Landers. Vibrating mattresses. Mattachine Society. Daughters of Bilitis. Society for the Scientific Study of Sex. Citizens for Decent Literature. John Birch Society. Beat Generation.

WHO'S HOT

Ike. Uncle Miltie. Joe McCarthy. Edward R. Murrow. Frank Sinatra. Marilyn Monroe. Marlon Brando. James Dean. Elvis. Annette Funicello. Brigitte Bardot. Liz Taylor. Doris Day. Rock Hudson. Lucille Ball. Sid Caesar. Martin and Lewis. Mitch Miller. Liberace. Harry Belafonte. Mickey Mantle. Willie Mays. Rocky Marciano. Sugar Ray Robinson. Mort Sahl. Lenny Bruce. Mickey Spillane. Grace Metalious. Jackson Pollock. Jack Kerouac, Hef. Lady Chatterley.

WHO'S NOT

People blacklisted for suspected Communist leanings; Larry Adler, Alvah Bessie, Bertolt Brecht, Charlie Chaplin, Norman Corwin, José Ferrer, John Garfield, Jack Gilford, Lee Grant, Dashiell Hammett, Lillian Hellman, Kim Hunter, Ring Lardner Jr., Canada Lee, Gypsy Rose Lee, Arthur Miller, Zero Mostel, Larry Parks, Dore Schary, Pete Seeger, Irwin Shaw, Lionel Stander, Dalton Trumbo and Josh White.

We the People

Population of U.S. in 1950: 151 million. Population of U.S. in 1960: 179 million. Life expectancy of a male in 1950: 65.6 years. Life expectancy of a female: 71.1 years. Life expectancy of a male in 1960: 66.6; of a female: 73.1. Marriages per 1000 in 1950: 11.1. In 1960: 8.5. Births per 1000 in 1950: 24.1. In 1960: 23.7. In the Thirties, number of months after marriage first baby born: 24. In the Fifties: 13. Total number of babies born 1946 to 1964: 76.4 million. Percentage of population that believes in God: 94.

Money Matters

Gross national product in 1950: $284.8 billion. Gross national product in 1960: $503.7 billion. Year the Dow Jones Industrial Average reached 404, surpassing the level of the pre-Crash high of 1929: 1954. The year minimum hourly wage rose from 75 cents to $1: 1955. Median income of a U.S. family in 1948: $3187. In 1958: $5087. The number of individuals earning $1 million or more a year in 1929: 513. Number earning $1 million or more in 1954: 154.

The Tube

Number of U.S. homes with television sets in 1948: 172,000. In 1952: 15.3 million. In 1955: 32 million. Percentage of population that owns a television by 1959: 86. Circulation of TV Guide in 1954 (after one year of publication): 1.5 million. Number of stations in 1950: 97. In 1960: 579. Number of hours average person spends watching TV per week in 1959: 42.

Bachelor Blues

Percentage of people interviewed in 1955 who thought an unmarried person could be happy: 10. Typical adjectives used to describe bachelors, according to The Way We Never Were: immature, infantile, narcissistic, deviant, pathological. Percentage of people interviewed in 1957 who thought bachelors were sick, neurotic and immoral: 80. Name of one man who didn't: Hugh M. Hefner.

Drive-In Movie Trivia

Year the first drive-in movie theater built (by Richard Hollingshead in Camden, New Jersey): 1933. Number of drive-ins built between 1946 and 1953: 2976.

What teens watched when they weren't making out: Eighteen and Anxious, Born to Be Bad, I Was a Teenage Werewolf, Teenagers From Outer Space, Hard, Fast and Beautiful, High School Confidential!, Born Reckless, Teenage Crime Wave, Untamed Youth, The Beat Generation, Vice Raid, The Innocent and the Damned. Number of these 12 motion pictures that starred Mamie Van Doren: 6.

Slang Me

New terms added to the language, according to American Chronicle: captive audience, integration, mambo, rat pack, spaceman, cool jazz, hot rod, panty raid, printed circuit, drag strip, countdown, doublethink, girlie magazine, split-level, fallout, hip, cool, crazy pants, greaser, isolation booth, cue card, blast off, atomic rain, fuzz, cop-out, put-on, shook up, funky, sex kitten, action painting, reentry, beatniks, gung ho, joint, head, make the scene, a groove, bugged, chick.

Final Appearances

1950: Edna St. Vincent Millay

1955: Theda Bara

1955: James Dean

1955: Charlie Parker

1956: Alfred Kinsey

1956: H.L. Mencken

1957: Humphrey Bogart

1957: Senator Joseph McCarthy

1959: Errol Flynn

1959: Billie Holiday

1959: Buddy Holly