1950s

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1950s

The 1950s decade

Decade

A decade is a period of ten years. The word is derived from the late Latin language decas, from Greek language decas, from deca. The other words for spans of years also come from Latin: lustrum , century , millennium ....
was the years of 1950 to 1959 inclusive. The Fifties in the developed western world

Western world

The term Western world, the West or the Occident can have multiple meanings dependent on its context . Accordingly, the basic definition of what constitutes "the West" varies, expanding and contracting over time, in relation to various historical circumstances....
are generally considered socially conservative and highly materialistic

Consumerism

Consumerism is the equation of personal happiness with Consumption and the purchase of material possessions.The term is often associated with criticisms of consumption starting with Thorstein Veblen....
in nature. The Cold War

Cold War

The Cold War was the continuing state of conflict, tension and competition that existed between a number of world powers, including the United States, the Soviet Union, People's Republic of China, France, United Kingdom and those countries' respective allies from the mid-1940s to the early 1990s....
between the Soviet Union

Soviet Union

The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was a Constitution of the Soviet Union socialist state that existed in Eurasia from 1922 to 1991.The name is a translation of the , romanization of Russian Soyuz Sovetskikh Sotsialisticheskikh Respublik, abbreviated ????, SSSR....
and the United States played out through the entire decade. The beginning of decolonization in Africa and Asia occurred in this decade and accelerated in the following decade of the 1960s. The Library of Congress has dubbed the 1950s as the decade with the least musical innovation.

Social and political movements
Korean War
The Korean War

Korean War

The Korean War refers to a period of military conflict between North Korea and South Korea regimes, with major hostilities lasting from June 25, 1950 until the armistice signed on July 27, 1953....
, which lasted from June 25, 1950 until a cease-fire on July 27, 1953 (as of 2009, there has been no peace signed), started as a civil war

Civil war

A civil war is a war between organized groups to take control of a nation or region, or to change government policies. It is high-intensity conflict, often involving Regular Army, that is sustained, organized and large-scale....
between communist

Communism

North Korea

North Korea, officially the Democratic People's Republic of Korea , is a state in East Asia, occupying the northern half of the Korean Peninsula....
and the Republic

Republic

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Encyclopedia

The 1950s decade

Decade

Western world

Consumerism

Cold War

Soviet Union

Social and political movements

Korean War

The Korean War

Korean War

Civil war

Communism

North Korea

North Korea, officially the Democratic People's Republic of Korea , is a state in East Asia, occupying the northern half of the Korean Peninsula....
and the Republic

Republic

A republic is a state or country that is not led by a hereditary monarch but in which the people have an impact on its government. The word originates from the Latin term res publica....
of South Korea. When it began, North and South Korea existed as provisional governments competing for control over the Korean peninsula, due to the division of Korea

Division of Korea

The division of Korea into North Korea and South Korea stems from the 1945 Allies of World War II victory in World War II, ending Japan's 35-year Korea under Japanese rule....
by outside powers. While originally a civil war, it quickly escalated into a proxy war

Proxy war

A proxy war is a war that results when two powers use third parties as substitutes for fighting each other directly.While powers have sometimes used whole governments as proxies, terrorism groups, mercenaries, or other third parties are more often employed....
between the capitalist powers of the United States and its allies and the Communist powers of the People's Republic of China and the Soviet Union

Soviet Union

Douglas MacArthur

General of the Army Douglas MacArthur, Order of the Bath was an United States General officer, United Nations general and Field Marshal of the Philippine Army....
planned a grand strategy to dissect North Korean-occupied Korea at the city of Incheon

Incheon

Incheon is a Special cities of Korea and a major seaport on the west coast of South Korea, near Seoul.Human settlement at the location goes back to the Neolithic....
(Song Do port) to cut off further invasion by the North Korean army. Within a few days, MacArthur's army took back Seoul

Seoul

Seoul is the Capital and largest city of South Korea. With a population of over 10 million, It is one of the world's List of cities proper by population.The Seoul National Capital Area - which includes the major port city of Incheon and satellite towns in Gyeonggi-do, has 24.5 million inhabitants and is the world's second largest List of me...
(South Korea's capital). The plan succeeded, which allowed American and South Korean forces to cut off further expansion by the North Koreans. The war continued until a cease-fire was agreed to by both sides on July 27, 1953. The war left 33,742 American soldiers dead, 92,134 wounded, and 80,000 MIA

Missing in action

Missing in action is a status assigned to armed services personnel who are reported missing during active service. They may have been killed in action or Wounded in action in action, or become a prisoner of war, or may have Desertion....
or POW

Prisoner of war

A prisoner of war is a combatant who is held in continuing custody by an enemy power during or immediately after an armed conflict....
.

Suez Crisis

The Suez Crisis

Suez Crisis

The Suez Crisis, also referred to as the Tripartite Aggression, was a military attack on Egypt by United Kingdom, France, and Israel beginning on 29 October 1956....
was a war

War

...
fought on Egypt

Egypt

Egypt is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Western Asia. Covering an area of about , Egypt borders the Mediterranean Sea to the north, the Gaza Strip and Israel to the northeast, the Red Sea to the east, Sudan to the south and Libya to the west....
ian territory in 1956. Following the nationalisation of the Suez Canal in 1956 by Gamal Abdel Nasser

Gamal Abdel Nasser

Gamal Abdel Nasser was the second President of Egypt from 1956 until his death in 1970. Along with Muhammad Naguib, he led the Egyptian Revolution of 1952, which removed Farouk of Egypt and heralded a new period of industrialization in Egypt, together with a profound advancement of Arab nationalism, including a short-lived United Arab Republ...
, the United Kingdom, France and Israel

Israel

Israel officially the State of Israel , is a country in the Middle East located on the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea. It borders Lebanon in the north, Syria in the northeast, Jordan in the east, and Egypt on the southwest, and contains geographically diverse features within its relatively small area....
subsequently invaded. The operation was a military success, but after the United States and Soviet Union

Soviet Union

The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was a Constitution of the Soviet Union socialist state that existed in Eurasia from 1922 to 1991.The name is a translation of the , romanization of Russian Soyuz Sovetskikh Sotsialisticheskikh Respublik, abbreviated ????, SSSR....
united in opposition to the invasion, the invaders were forced to withdraw. This was seen as a major humiliation, especially for the two Western European countries, and symbolizes the beginning of the end of colonialism and the weakening of European global importance, specifically the collapse of the British Empire

British Empire

The British Empire comprised the dominions, Crown colony, protectorates, League of Nations mandate, and other Dependent territory ruled or administered by the United Kingdom , that had originated with the overseas colonies and trading posts established by England in the late 16th and early 17th centuries....
.

European Common Market

The European Community

European Community

The European Community is one of the three pillars of the European Union created under the Maastricht Treaty . It is based upon the principle of supranationalism and has its origins in the European Economic Community, the predecessor of the European Union....
(or Common Market), the precursor of the European Union

European Union

The European Union is an economic and political union of 27 European Union member state, located primarily in Europe. It was established by the Treaty of Maastricht on 1 November 1993 upon the foundations of the pre-existing European Economic Community....
, was established with the Treaty of Rome

Treaty of Rome

The Treaties of Rome are two of the treaties of the European Union signed on March 25 1957. Both treaties were signed by Inner Six: Belgium, France, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and West Germany....
in 1957.

Civil rights

During this time, African-Americans were subject to racial segregation, but the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s was soon to be brewing. Key figures like Martin Luther King, Malcolm X

Malcolm X

Malcolm X , also known as Hajji Malik El-Shabazz , was an African American Muslim minister, public speaker, and human rights activist. To his admirers, he was a courageous advocate for the rights of African Americans, a man who indicted white America in the harshest terms for its crimes against black Americans....
and Rosa Parks

Rosa Parks

Rosa Louise McCauley Parks was an African American civil rights activism whom the Congress of the United States later called the "Mother of the Modern-Day African-American Civil Rights Movement ."...
highlighted and challenged those who were against African-American rights and freedom. The Little Rock Nine integrated Central High School, which was a key event in the fight to end segregation in schools.

Cuban Revolution

The overthrow of Fulgencio Batista

Fulgencio Batista

Fulgencio Batista y Zald?var was a Cuban military officer, dictator and politician.Batista was the military leader of Cuba from 1933 to 1940 and President of Cuba from 1940 to 1944....
by Fidel Castro

Fidel Castro

Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz is a Cuban revolutionary leader who was prime minister of Cuba from February 1959 to December 1976 and then president, premier until his resignation from the office in February 2008....
, Che Guevara

Che Guevara

Ernesto "Che" Guevara , commonly known as Che Guevara, El Che, or simply Che, was an Argentina Marxism revolutionary, politician, author, physician, military theorist, and guerrilla leader....
and other forces in 1959 resulted in the creation of the first communist

Communism

Communism is a socioeconomic structure and political ideology that promotes the establishment of an egalitarianism, classlessness, stateless society based on common ownership and control of the means of production and property in general....
government in the Americas. The revolution marks the end of Cuban alignment with the western world and begins its association with the eastern world, especially the Soviet Union

Soviet Union

Culture

Juvenile delinquency
Juvenile delinquency

Juvenile delinquency refers to criminal act acts performed by juvenile s. Most legal systems prescribe specific procedures for dealing with juveniles, such as juvenile detention centers....
was said to be at unprecedented epidemic proportions in the United States, though some see this era as relatively low in crime
Crime

Societies define Crime as the breach of one or more rules or laws for which some Government or force may ultimately prescribe a punishment.The word crime originates from the Latin crimen , from the Latin root cerno and Greek ????? = "I judge"....
compared to today.
Continuing poverty
Poverty

Poverty is the shortage of common things such as food, clothing, shelter and safe drinking water, all of which determine our quality of life. It may also include the lack of access to opportunities such as education and employment which aid the escape from poverty and/or allow one to enjoy the respect of fellow citizens....
in some regions during recessions later on in this decade. The 1950s is often mistakenly painted as the pinnacle of American prosperity. To some, it also may be considered the peak of the modern American civilization. The '50s were supposed to be a time of the "Affluent Society".
The 1950s saw fairly high rates of unionization, government social spending, taxes, and the like in the United States and European countries. Most Western governments were liberal or moderate
Moderate

In politics and religion, a moderate is an individual who holds an intermediate position between two viewpoints, neither to be extreme or radical by those applying the term....
, though domestic politics were also affected by reactions to communism and the Cold War.
Beatniks, a culture of teenage and young adults who were seen as rebels and against the social norms, were popularized towards the end of the decade and criticised by older generations. They are seen as a predecessor for the counterculture
Counterculture of the 1960s

The counterculture of the 1960s refers to the counterculture supported by a loosely connected yet large community of people who, in their strength of numbers, powerful personalities, creative or destructive works, politics, and/or other activities, served as counterpoints to the existing "The Establishment" of "powers that be" in American so...
and hippie
Hippie

The hippie subculture was originally a youth movement that began in the United States during the early 1960s and spread around the world. The word hippie derives from hipster , and was initially used to describe beatniks who had moved into San Francisco's Haight-Ashbury district....
movements.
Optimistic visions of a semi-utopian technological future, including such devices as the flying car
Flying car

A flying car or roadable aircraft is a vehicle which can both travel on the roads and in the air. It is both an aircraft and an automobile....
, were popular.
The Day the Earth Stood Still hits movie theaters launching a cycle of Hollywood films in which Cold War fears are manifested through scenarios of alien invasion or mutation.
Considerable racial tension
Race relations

Race relations is the area of sociology that studies the social, political, and economic relations between Race at all different levels of society....
arose with military and school desegregation in mostly the southern part of the United States, though major controversy and uproar did not truly erupt until the 1960s.
Resurgence of evangelical Christianity
Christianity

Christianity is a Monotheistic religion #Christian view religion centered on the life and teachings of Jesus as New Testament view on Jesus' life....
including Youth for Christ (1943); the National Association of Evangelicals, the American Council of Christian Churches, the Billy Graham
Billy Graham

William Franklin Graham Jr. better known as Billy Graham, is an American evangelism and an Evangelicalism Christian . He has been a spiritual adviser to multiple President of the United States and was number seven on The Gallup Organization Gallup's List of Widely Admired People for the 20th century....
Evangelistic Association (1950), Conservative Baptist Association of America
Conservative Baptist Association of America

The first organization of Conservative Baptists was the Conservative Baptist Foreign Mission Society , now called WorldVenture, formed in Chicago, Illinois in 1943....
(1947); and Campus Crusade for Christ
Campus Crusade for Christ

Campus Crusade for Christ is an interdenominational Christianity organization that promotes evangelism and discipleship in over 190 countriesaround the world....
(1951). Christianity Today
Christianity Today

Christianity Today is an Evangelicalism Christian periodical based in Carol Stream, Illinois. It is the flagship publication of its parent company Christianity Today International, claiming circulation figures of 145,000 and readership of 304,500....
was first published in 1956. 1956 also marked the beginning of Bethany Fellowship, a small press that would grow to be a leading evangelical press.
Carl Stuart Hamblen
Carl Stuart Hamblen

Carl Stuart Hamblen was one of Radio programming first singing cowboys in 1926, and later became a Christian songwriter, Temperance movement supporter and recurring candidate for political office....
, a religious radio broadcaster, hosted the popular show "The Cowboy Church of the Air".
The Kinsey Reports
Kinsey Reports

The Kinsey Reports are two books on human sexual behavior, Sexual Behavior in the Human Male and Sexual Behavior in the Human Female , by Dr....
were published.
Hugh Hefner
Hugh Hefner

File:Hefner 1973 .jpgHugh Marston Hefner , sometimes known simply as Hef, is an American magazine publisher, founder and Chief Creative Officer of Playboy Enterprises....
launched Playboy
Playboy

Playboy is an American men's magazine, founded in Chicago, Illinois, by Hugh Hefner and his associates, which has grown into Playboy Enterprises, with a presence in nearly every medium....
magazine.

Popular music

Popular music is music that is accessible to the mainstream and disseminated by one or more of the mass media. It belongs to any of a number of musical genres, and stands in contrast to classical music, which historically was the music of the elite and upper strata of society, and traditional music which was disseminated orally....
in the early half of the 1950s featured vocalists like Frankie Laine

Frankie Laine

Frankie Laine, born Francesco Paolo LoVecchio , was a successful United States musician, singer and songwriter whose career spanned 75 years, from his first concerts in 1930 with a marathon dance company to his final performance of "That's My Desire " in 2005....
, Patti Page

Patti Page

Clara Ann Fowler , known by her professional name Patti Page, is an United States singer, one of the best-known female artists in traditional pop music....
, Johnnie Ray

Johnnie Ray

John Alvin Ray was an United States singer, songwriter, and pianist. Popular for most of the 1950s, Ray has been cited by critics as a major precursor of what would become rock and roll, for his jazz and blues-influenced music and his animated stage persona....
, Kay Starr

Kay Starr

Kay Starr is an United States jazz singer who enjoyed considerable success in the 1950s....
, Perry Como

Perry Como

Pierino "Perry" Como was an United States singer and television personality. During a career spanning more than half a century he recorded exclusively for the RCA Victor label after signing with it in 1943....
, Georgia Gibbs

Georgia Gibbs

Georgia Gibbs was an American singer, most pop music in the 1950s....
, Eddie Fisher

Eddie Fisher

Edward Fisher may refer to:*Edward Fisher, Canadian musician*Eddie Fisher *Eddie Fisher *Ed Fisher, baseball player*Ed Fisher ...
, Darin Kerns, Teresa Brewer

Teresa Brewer

Teresa Brewer was an United States pop and jazz singer who was one of the most popular female singers of the 1950s. Born Theresa Breuer in Toledo, Ohio, Brewer died of a neuromuscular disease at her home in New Rochelle at the age of 76....
, Guy Mitchell

Guy Mitchell

Guy Mitchell was a List of Croatian Americans popular music singer, was successful in his homeland as well in the United Kingdom and Australia....
and vocal groups like The Four Lads

The Four Lads

The Four Lads is a Canada male singing quartet. They grew up together in Toronto, Ontario, and were members of St. Michael's Choir School, where they learned to sing....
, The Four Aces

The Four Aces

The Four Aces were a pop singing group.The original members were Al Alberts , Dave Mahoney, Lou Silvestri, and Rosario "Sod" Vaccaro. They all came from Chester, Pennsylvania....
, The Chordettes

The Chordettes

The Chordettes were a female popular music singing quartet, usually singing a cappella, and specializing in traditional pop music. The Chordettes were one of the longest lived human voice musical ensemble with roots in the mainstream pop music and vocal harmony of the 1940s and early 1950s....
and The Ames Brothers. Jazz stars who came into prominence in their genre at this time included Charlie Parker

Charlie Parker

Charles Parker, Jr. was an American jazz saxophonist and composer.Parker is widely considered one of the most influential of jazz musicians, along with Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington....
, Dizzy Gillespie

Dizzy Gillespie

John Birks "Dizzy" Gillespie [/g?'l?spi/] was an United States jazz trumpeter, bandleader, singer, and composer. He was born in Cheraw, South Carolina, the youngest of nine children....
, Miles Davis

Miles Davis

Miles Dewey Davis III was an United States jazz trumpeter, bandleader, and composer.Widely considered one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century, Davis was at the forefront of almost every major development in jazz from World War II to the 1990s: he played on various early bebop records and recorded one of the first cool jaz...
, John Coltrane

John Coltrane

John William Coltrane was an United States jazz saxophonist and composer.Starting in bebop and hard bop, Coltrane later pioneered free jazz. He influenced generations of other musicians, and remains one of the most significant tenor saxophonists in jazz history....
, and Thelonious Monk

Thelonious Monk

Thelonious Sphere Monk was an American jazz pianist and composer.Widely considered one of the most important musicians in jazz -- he is one of only three jazz musicians to be featured on the cover of Time magazine -- Monk had a unique improvisational style and made numerous contributions to the standard jazz repertoire, including "Epi...
. Rock and roll emerged in the middle of the decade as the teen music of choice with Pat Boone

Pat Boone

Charles Eugene "Pat" Boone is an United States singer, actor and writer who was a successful pop singer in the United States during the 1950s and early 1960s....
, Chuck Berry

Chuck Berry

Charles Edward Anderson "Chuck" Berry is an American guitarist, singer and songwriter.Chuck Berry is an influential figure and one of the pioneers of rock and roll music....
, Fats Domino

Fats Domino

Antoine Dominique "Fats" Domino is a classic Rhythm and blues and rock and roll pianist and singer-songwriter....
, Little Richard

Little Richard

Rev. Richard Wayne Penniman , better known by the stage name Little Richard, is anAmerican singer, songwriter and pianist. He is considered a key figure in the transition from Rhythm and blues to Rock and roll in the 1950s....
and Buddy Holly

Buddy Holly

Charles Hardin Holley, known professionally as Buddy Holly was an American singer-songwriter and a pioneer of rock and roll. Although his success lasted only a year and a half before his The Day the Music Died, Holly is described by critic Bruce Eder as "the single most influential creative force in early rock and roll." His works and...
being notable exponents. Elvis Presley

Elvis Presley

Elvis Aaron Presley was an United Statesn singer, actor, and musician. A cultural icon, he is commonly known simply as "Elvis", and is also sometimes referred to as "List of honorific titles in popular music" or "The King"....
was the musical superstar of the period with rock, rockabilly, gospel, and romantic balladeering being his signatures. Bill Haley

Bill Haley

Bill Haley was one of the first American rock and roll musicians. He is credited by many with first popularizing this form of music in the mid-1950s with his group Bill Haley & His Comets and their hit song "Rock Around the Clock"....
, Jerry Lee Lewis

Jerry Lee Lewis

Jerry Lee Lewis is an American rock and roll and country music singer, songwriter and pianist. An early pioneer of rock and roll music, Lewis was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1986 and his pioneering contribution to the genre has been recognized by the Rockabilly Hall of Fame....
and Johnny Cash

Johnny Cash

Johnny Cash was a Grammy Award-winning American singer-songwriter and one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century. Primarily a country music artist, his songs and sound spanned many other genres including rockabilly and rock and roll , as well as blues, folk music and Gospel music....
were rockabilly musicians. Doo Wop was another popular genre at the time. Calypso

Calypso music

Calypso is a style of Afro-Caribbean music which originated in Trinidad and Tobago in the beginning of the 20th century....
enjoyed popularity with Jamaican Harry Belafonte

Harry Belafonte

Harold George Belafonte, Jr. is a Jamaican American musician, actor and social activist. One of the most successful popular singers in history, he was dubbed the "King of Calypso music" a title which he was very reluctant to accept for popularizing the Caribbean musical style with an international audience in the 1950s....
being dubbed the "King of Calypso". The Kingston Trio was instrumental in launching the folk music revival of the fifties and sixties. During the summer of 1952, a young John Lennon

John Lennon

John Winston Ono Lennon, Order of the British Empire was an English Rock music musician, singer, songwriter, artist, and peace activist who gained worldwide fame as one of the founding members of The Beatles....
was practicing as a blacksmith's apprentice in Spain. On March 14, 1958, the RIAA certified crooner Perry Como

Perry Como

Drama and musical theater

Dramas included William Inge

William Inge

William Motter Inge was an United States playwright and novelist, whose works typically feature solitary protagonists encumbered with strained sexual relations....
's Come Back, Little Sheba
Come Back, Little Sheba (play)

Come Back, Little Sheba is a 1950 in literature#New drama play by the American dramatist William Inge. The play was Inge's first, written while he was a teacher at Washington University in St....
(1950), the Pulitzer Prize-winning Picnic
Picnic (play)

Picnic is a 1953 play by William Inge. The play premiered at the Music Box Theatre, Broadway theatre on 19 February, 1953 in a production by the Theatre Guild, directed by Joshua Logan and ran for 477 performances....
(1953), Bus Stop
Bus Stop (play)

Bus Stop is a 1955 in literature#New drama Play by William Inge. The Bus Stop of the same name is only loosely based upon it....
(1955) and The Dark at the Top of the Stairs (1957). Tennessee Williams

Tennessee Williams

Tennessee Williams was an American playwright who received many of the top theatrical awards. He moved to New Orleans in 1939 and changed his name to "Tennessee", the state of his father's birth....
won a Tony Award

Tony Award

The Antoinette Perry Awards for Excellence in Theatre, more commonly known as the Tony Awards, recognize achievement in live United States theatre and are presented by the American Theatre Wing and The Broadway League at an annual ceremony in New York City....
for The Rose Tattoo
The Rose Tattoo

The Rose Tattoo is a Tennessee Williams play. It opened on Broadway theatre in February 1951, and a film adaptation was released in 1955. It tells the story of an Italy-American widow in Louisiana who has allowed herself to withdraw from the world after her husband's death, and expects her daughter to do the same....
(1952) and the Pulitzer Prize for Cat on a Hot Tin Roof
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof

Cat on a Hot Tin Roof is a Play by Tennessee Williams. The play won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1955 in literature....
(1955). Arthur Miller

Arthur Miller

Arthur Miller was an United States playwright and essayist. He was a prominent figure in Theater in the United States and film for almost 100 years, writing a wide variety of dramas, including celebrated Play such as The Crucible, A View from the Bridge, All My Sons, and Death of a Salesman, which are studied and performed w...
followed his 1949 success Death of a Salesman
Death of a Salesman

Death of a Salesman is a 1949 Play by American playwright Arthur Miller and is a classic of American theater. The play ran for 742 performances, directed by Elia Kazan with Lee J....
with The Crucible
The Crucible

The Crucible by Arthur Miller is a play based on the actual events that, in 1692, led to the Salem Witch Trials, a series of hearings before local magistrates to prosecute over 150 people accused of witchcraft in colonial Massachusetts between February 1692 and May 1693....
(1953) and A View from the Bridge
A View from the Bridge

A View from the Bridge is a play by American playwright Arthur Miller first staged on 29 September 1955 as a one-act verse drama with A Memory of Two Mondays at the Coronet Theatre on Broadway....
(1955). Eugene O'Neill

Eugene O'Neill

Eugene Gladstone O'Neill was an American playwright, and Nobel laureate in Nobel Prize in Literature. His plays are among the first to introduce into American drama the techniques of Realism , associated with Russian playwright Anton Chekhov, Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen, and Swedish playwright August Strindberg....
's Long Day's Journey Into Night
Long Day's Journey Into Night

Long Day's Journey into Night is a 1956 drama in four acts written by American playwright Eugene O'Neill. The play is widely considered to be his masterwork....
, written 1941, was first performed 1956 and A Touch of the Poet
A Touch of the Poet

A Touch of the Poet is a Play by Eugene O'Neill.It and its sequel, More Stately Mansions, were intended to be part of a nine-play cycle entitled A Tale of Possessors Self-Dispossessed....
, completed in 1942, was first performed 1958.

Musicals of the period included Guys and Dolls
Guys and Dolls

Guys and Dolls is a musical theater, with the music and lyrics written by Frank Loesser and book by Jo Swerling and Abe Burrows, based on "The Idyll of Miss Sarah Brown" and "Blood Pressure", two short stories by Damon Runyon....
(1950), Rogers and Hammerstein's The King and I
The King and I

The King and I is a musical theatre by Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II based on the book Anna and the King of Siam by Margaret Landon....
(1951), The Pajama Game
The Pajama Game

The Pajama Game is a musical based on the novel 7-1/2 Cents by Richard Pike Bissell. It features a score by Richard Adler and Jerry Ross ....
(1954), Peter Pan
Peter Pan (1954 musical)

Peter Pan is a musical theatre adaptation of J. M. Barrie's 1904 play Peter Pan and Barrie's own novelization of it, Peter and Wendy....
(1954), Damn Yankees
Damn Yankees

Damn Yankees is a musical comedy with a book by George Abbott and Douglass Wallop and music and lyrics by Richard Adler and Jerry Ross . The story is a Works based on Faust of the Faust legend set during the 1950s in Washington, D.C., during a time when the New York Yankees dominated Major League Baseball....
(1955), Lerner and Loewe

Lerner and Loewe

Lerner and Loewe are the American musical comedy writing team of lyricist and librettist Alan Jay Lerner and composer Frederick Loewe.Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe, more commonly known as Fritz, met in 1942 at an exclusive club where, according to Loewe, after mistakenly taking a wrong turn to the men's room he walked past Lerner'...
's My Fair Lady
My Fair Lady

My Fair Lady is a musical theater based upon George Bernard Shaw's Pygmalion and with book and lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner and music by Frederick Loewe....
(1956), Meredith Wilson's The Music Man
The Music Man

The Music Man is a musical theatre with book, music, and lyrics by Meredith Willson. The show is based on a story by Willson and Franklin Lacey....
(1957), Leonard Bernstein

Leonard Bernstein

Leonard Bernstein was a multi-Emmy-winning and Academy Award for Original Music Score nominated American Conductor , composer, author, music lecturer and Piano....
's West Side Story
West Side Story

West Side Story is a musical with a book by Arthur Laurents, music by Leonard Bernstein, and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim. The musical is based on William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet....
(1957), Lerner and Loewe's musical film adaptation of the stage play Gigi
Gigi (1958 film)

Gigi is a 1958 in film Cinema of the United States musical film directed by Vincente Minnelli. The screenplay by Alan Jay Lerner is based on the 1944 novella Gigi by Colette....
(1958), and Rogers and Hammerstein's The Sound of Music
The Sound of Music

The Sound of Music is a musical theater with music by Richard Rodgers, lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II and a book by Howard Lindsay and Russel Crouse....
(1959).

Film

See also: 1950s in film
1950s in film

The decade of the 1950s in film involved many significant films.----Contents1 #Events2 #List of films: ## #A #B #C #D #E #F #G #H #I #J #K #L #M #N #O #P #Q #R #S #T #U #V #W #X #Y #Z....

With television's rapidly growing popularity producing a marked decline in fifties movie-goings, Hollywood was prompted to seek ways to draw its former audience back to the theaters. New film techniques were developed (Cinemascope
CinemaScope

CinemaScope was a widescreen movie format used from 1953 to 1967. Anamorphices allowed the process to project film up to a 2.66:1 Aspect ratio , almost twice as wide as the conventional format of 1.37:1....
, VistaVision
VistaVision

VistaVision is a higher resolution, widescreen variant of the 35 mm film format which was created by Paramount Pictures in 1954 and based on the Glamorama and Superama widescreen systems....
, Cinerama
Cinerama

Cinerama is the trademarked name for a widescreen process which works by simultaneously projecting images from three synchronized 35 mm projectors onto a huge, deeply-curved screen, subtending 146? of arc....
, and 3-D film
3-D film

In film, the term 3-D is used to describe any visual presentation system that attempts to maintain or recreate moving images of the third dimension, the optical illusion of depth as seen by the viewer....
) that were ideally suited for the big budget sword and sandal epics
Sword and sandal

Sword and sandal films, or pepla are a class of Italian-made Adventure film or fantasy films that have subjects set in Bible or classical antiquity, often with contrived plots based very loosely on mythology or Greco-Roman history, or the surrounding cultures of the same era , etc....
The Robe

The Robe

The Robe is a 1942 historical novel about the Crucifixion written by Lloyd C. Douglas. The book was one of the best-selling titles of the 1940s....
, Demetrius and the Gladiators

Demetrius and the Gladiators

Demetrius and the Gladiators is a 1954 in film sword and sandal drama film and a sequel to The Robe . It was made by 20th Century Fox, directed by Delmer Daves and produced by Frank Ross....
, The Ten Commandments

The Ten Commandments (1956 film)

The Ten Commandments is a 1956 in film Film that dramatized the story of Moses, an adopted Egyptian prince-turned deliverer of the Hebrews Slavery....
, Ben-Hur

Ben-Hur (1959 film)

Hercules (1958 film)

Hercules is an Cinema of Italy feature film based upon the Hercules and the Golden Fleece. The film stars Steve Reeves as the titular hero and Sylva Koscina as his love interest Princess Iole....
(1958) and its follow-up Hercules Unchained launched internationally popular low budget epics with bodybuilders Steve Reeves
Steve Reeves

Stephen L. Reeves was an American bodybuilding, actor, and author....
, Gordon Scott, and others cast as the heroes of Greco-Roman mythology.

The spectacle approach to film-making, Cold War
Cold War

The Cold War was the continuing state of conflict, tension and competition that existed between a number of world powers, including the United States, the Soviet Union, People's Republic of China, France, United Kingdom and those countries' respective allies from the mid-1940s to the early 1990s....
paranoia, public fascination with Outer Space
Outer space

Outer space comprises the relatively empty regions of the universe outside the atmospheres of celestial bodies. Outer space is used to distinguish it from airspace and terrestrial locations....
, and a renewed interest in science sparked by the atom bomb lent itself well to science fiction films. Martians and other alien menaces were metaphors for Communism, foreign ideologies, and the misfits threatening democracy and the American way of life. The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951 film), Invaders from Mars

Invaders from Mars (1953 film)

Invaders from Mars is a science fiction film designed and directed by William Cameron Menzies from a scenario by Richard Blake, based on a story treatment by John Tucker Battle, who in turn was inspired by a recounted dream of his wife's....
, Them!, The War of the Worlds, The Time Machine

The Time Machine

The Time Machine is a novella by H. G. Wells, first published in 1895 and later directly adapted into at least two feature films of the same name, as well as two television versions, and a large number of comic book adaptations....
, It Came from Outer Space

It Came from Outer Space

It Came from Outer Space is a 1953 science fiction film 3-D films film directed by Jack Arnold , and starring Richard Carlson , Barbara Rush, and Charles Drake....
, Creature from the Black Lagoon

Creature from the Black Lagoon

Creature from the Black Lagoon is a monster film directed by Jack Arnold, and starring Richard Carlson , Julie Adams, Richard Denning, Antonio Moreno, and Whit Bissell....
, The Thing from Another World

The Thing from Another World

The Thing from Another World , is a science fiction film that tells the story of an Air Force crew and scientists at a remote Arctic research outpost who fight a malevolent plant-based alien being....
, This Island Earth, Earth vs. the Flying Saucers

Earth vs. the Flying Saucers

Earth vs. the Flying Saucers is an United States of America black and white science fiction film, directed by Fred F. Sears and was released in 1956 in film....
, and Forbidden Planet

Forbidden Planet

Forbidden Planet is a 1956 in film science fiction film directed by Fred M. Wilcox and starring Walter Pidgeon, Anne Francis and Leslie Nielsen....
were popular. Queen of Outer Space

Queen of Outer Space

Queen of Outer Space is an Allied Artists Pictures science fiction movie starring Zsa Zsa Gabor, Eric Fleming, and Laurie Mitchell in a tale about a revolt against a cruel Venusian queen....
(1958) with Zsa Zsa Gabor
Zsa Zsa Gabor

Zsa Zsa Gabor is a Hungarian people-born American actress and socialite....
brought sex to the genre. There were also Earth-based subjects, such as 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea

20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1954 film)

20,000 Leagues Under the Sea is a 1954 in film film starring Kirk Douglas as Ned Land, James Mason as Captain Nemo, Paul Lukas as Professor Pierre Aronnax and Peter Lorre as Conseil....
(1954) and When Worlds Collide

When Worlds Collide (film)

When Worlds Collide is a 1951 in film science fiction film based on the 1932 When Worlds Collide co-written by Philip Gordon Wylie and Edwin Balmer....
(1951). Companies such as American International Pictures
American International Pictures

American International Pictures was a film production company formed in April 1956 from American Releasing Corporation by James H. Nicholson, former Sales Manager of Realart Pictures, and Samuel Z....
, Japan's Toho
Toho

is a large Japanese independent film studio. It is headquartered in Chiyoda, Tokyo, and is one of the core companies of the Hankyu Hanshin Toho Group....
, and Britain's Hammer Film Productions
Hammer Film Productions

Hammer Film Productions is a film production company based in the United Kingdom. Founded in 1934, the company is best known for the series of Gothic fiction "Hammer Horror" films produced from the late 1950s until the 1970s....
were created to solely produce films of the fantastique genres. Japanese films included Godzilla

Godzilla

is a kaiju from the Godzilla series of science fiction films. He was first seen in the 1954 in film film Godzilla and has appeared in 28 films to date, all of which were produced by Toho As one of the most iconic characters in film history, Godzilla has also appeared in numerous Godzilla , Godzilla video games, novels and Godzilla in popula...
(1954), Godzilla Raids Again

Godzilla Raids Again

, also known in the United States as Gigantis, the Fire Monster, is a 1955, black and white, Japanese cinema tokusatsu kaiju film directed by Motoyoshi Oda, Shigeaki Hidaka and Takeo Murata and produced by Toho....
(1955), and Rodan

Rodan

is a kaiju, introduced in Rodan , a 1956 release from Toho, the company responsible for the Godzilla series. Like Godzilla and Anguirus, it is designed after a type of prehistoric reptile ....
(1956), The Mysterians

The Mysterians

The Mysterians, released in Japan as , is a tokusatsu science fiction film produced and released by Toho in 1957. It was directed by the "Golden Duo" of Ishiro Honda and Eiji Tsuburaya ....
(1957), Varan the Unbelievable

Varan the Unbelievable

Varan the Unbelievable, released in Japan as , is a 1958 kaiju eiga directed by Ishiro Honda and Eiji Tsuburaya , and their last black-and-white monster film....
(1958), and Battle in Outer Space

Battle in Outer Space

is a tokusatsu film produced and released by Toho in Japan in 1959, and distributed world-wide in 1960 by Columbia Pictures under the title Battle in Outer Space....
(1959).

Teen films came into their own during the decade, beginning with The Wild One

The Wild One

Blackboard Jungle

Blackboard Jungle is a 1955 in film social commentary film about teachers in an inner-city school. It is based on the Blackboard Jungle by Evan Hunter....
(1955) examined race and class dynamics in an inner-city high school, and is regarded by some as the spark that lit the Rock and Roll
Rock and roll

Rock and roll is a form of music that evolved in the United States in the late 1940s and early 1950s. Its roots lay mainly in rhythm and blues, Country music, folk music, gospel music, and jazz....
revolution by featuring Bill Haley & His Comets
Bill Haley & His Comets

Bill Haley & His Comets was an American rock and roll band that was founded in 1952 and continued until Haley's death in 1981. The band, also known by the names Bill Haley and The Comets and Bill Haley's Comets , was one of the earliest groups of white musicians to bring rock and roll to the attention of white America and the rest...
' Rock Around the Clock

Rock Around the Clock

"Rock Around the Clock" is a 12-bar blues from 1952 in music, written by Max C. Freedman and James E. Myers . The song is ranked #158 on the Rolling Stone magazine's list of Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Songs of All Time....
over the opening credits. Screenings of the film occasionally led to teen violence and vandalism, and, for some, the film marks the start of visible teen rebellion in the 20th century. Rebel Without a Cause

Rebel Without a Cause

Rebel Without a Cause is a 1955 in film film directed by Nicholas Ray that tells the story of a rebellious Adolescence#Teenagers played by James Dean, who comes to a new town, meets a girl, defies his parents, and faces the local high school bullies....
(1955) thrust its angst
Angst

Angst is a German language and Dutch language word for fear or anxiety. It is used in English to describe an intense feeling of strife. The term Angst distinguishes itself from the word Furcht in that Furcht usually refers to a material threat , while Angst is usually a nondirectional emotion....
-ridden star James Dean
James Dean

James Byron Dean was a two-time Academy Award-nominated American film actor. Dean's status as a cultural icon is best embodied in the title of his most celebrated film, Rebel Without a Cause, in which he starred as troubled stereotypical high school rebel Jim Stark....
to international stardom, and, unlike Blackboard Jungle, told its story from the viewpoint of its teen characters. Gidget

Gidget (film)

Gidget is a Columbia Pictures feature film starring Sandra Dee, Cliff Robertson, and James Darren in a story about a teenager's initiation into the California surf culture and her affliated romance with a young surfing....
(1959) set off a tsunami of light-hearted teen beach party and surfing
Surf culture

Surf culture includes the people, language, fashion and life surrounding the sport of modern surfing.The culture began early in the 20th century, spread quickly during the 1950s and 1960s, and continues to evolve....
movies that flirted with sex but respected fifties morality, conformism, and traditional values. Love, sex, marriage, divorce, alcoholism, dysfunctional families, and adultery were themes of A Summer Place

A Summer Place (film)

A Summer Place is the title of a 1959 film based on the A Summer Place by Sloan Wilson....
featuring Sandra Dee
Sandra Dee

Sandra Dee was an American film actress.Dee began her career as a model and progressed to film. Best known for her portrayal of Ingenue , Dee won a Golden Globe Award for New Star Of The Year - Actress in 1959 as one of the year's most promising newcomers, and over several years her films were popular....
and Troy Donahue
Troy Donahue

Troy Donahue was an United States actor and teen idol of the late 1950s and early 1960s....
as teen lovers and Dorothy McGuire
Dorothy McGuire

Dorothy Hackett McGuire was an Academy Award-nominated United States actress....
and Richard Egan
Richard Egan

Richard Egan may refer to:*Richard Egan , American film actor*Richard Egan , American businessman, one-time Ambassador to Ireland*Richard Egan , American ragtime composer and performer...
as their adulterous parents. Low budget teen films punctuated with rock and roll soundtracks were produced through the decade with provocative titles such as High School Hellcats

High School Hellcats

High School Hellcats is an United States of America black and white 1958 film about a high school girl gang. The film stars Yvonne Lime, Bret Halsey, and Jana Lund....
, High School Confidential

High School Confidential

High School Confidential is the third gold disc for piano rocker Jerry Lee Lewis, released in 1958 as soundtrack album to the High School Confidential ....
, Girls in the Night, Girls Town, Hound-Dog Man, Lost, Lonely, and Vicious, Running Wild, Hot Rod Girl, Juvenile Jungle, Teenage Devil Dolls

Teenage Devil Dolls

Teenage Devil Dolls is a mid-1950s United States of America black and white film about a high school graduate whose life spirals out of control when she becomes addicted to heroin....
, and the Ed Wood-scripted The Violent Years

The Violent Years

The Violent Years is an United States of America exploitation film from 1956 starring Jean Moorhead as Paula Parkins, the leader of a gang of juvenile delinquent high school girls....
. Teen and sci-fi genres were wedded in B-film The Blob

The Blob

The Blob is an independent film American horror/science-fiction film from 1958 depicting a giant amoeba-like Extraterrestrial life that terrorizes the small community of Downingtown, Pennsylvania....
with Steve McQueen in his first starring role while teen horror flick I Was a Teenage Werewolf

I Was a Teenage Werewolf

I Was a Teenage Werewolf is a 1957 horror film starring Michael Landon as a troubled teenager and Whit Bissell as the primary adult. It was co-written and produced by cult film producer Herman Cohen, and was one of the most successful films released by American International Pictures ....
launched Michael Landon
Michael Landon

Michael Landon was an United States actor, writer, television director, and Television producer, who starred in three popular NBC TV series that spanned three decades....
's Hollywood career.

The Walt Disney Studios enjoyed a decade of prosperity with animated feature-length films Cinderella

Cinderella (1950 film)

Cinderella is a 1950 animated feature produced by Walt Disney, and released to theaters on February 15, 1950 by RKO Radio Pictures. The twelfth animated feature in the List of Disney animated features, the film was directed by Clyde Geronimi, Hamilton Luske and Wilfred Jackson, based the fairy tale "Cinderella" by Charles Perrault....
, Alice in Wonderland

Alice in Wonderland (1951 film)

Alice in Wonderland is a 1951 animated feature film produced by Walt Disney and originally premiered in London, England on July 26, 1951 by RKO Pictures....
, Peter Pan

Peter Pan (1953 film)

Peter Pan is an animated feature produced by Walt Disney based on the play Peter and Wendy by J. M. Barrie. It is the fourteenth film in the List of Disney animated features and was originally released to theaters on February 5, 1953 by RKO Pictures....
, Lady and the Tramp

Lady and the Tramp

Lady and the Tramp is a 1955 animated feature film produced by Walt Disney, and originally released to theaters on June 22, 1955 by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures....
(Disney's first wide-screen animated film), and Sleeping Beauty

Sleeping Beauty (1959 film)

Sleeping Beauty is a 1959 animated feature produced by Walt Disney and originally released to theatres on January 29, 1959, by Buena Vista Distribution....
. The studio began producing live-action period and historical films such as The Sword and the Rose, Davy Crockett, King of the Wild Frontier

Davy Crockett, King of the Wild Frontier

Davy Crockett, King of the Wild Frontier is a 1955 live action The Walt Disney Company adventure film starring Fess Parker as Davy Crockett....
, Johnny Tremain

Johnny Tremain (film)

Johnny Tremain is a 1957 film made by Walt Disney Pictures, based on the 1944 Newbery Medal-winning children's Johnny Tremain by Esther Forbes, retelling the story of the years in Boston, Massachusetts prior to the outbreak of the American Revolution....
, Old Yeller

Old Yeller (1957 film)

Old Yeller is a Walt Disney Productions feature film starring Tommy Kirk, Jeff York and Beverly Washburn about a boy and a stray dog in post-American Civil War Texas, based upon the 1956 Newbery Honor-winning book Old Yeller by Fred Gipson....
, Light in the Forest, Tonka, and Darby O'Gill and the Little People

Darby O'Gill and the Little People

Darby O'Gill and the Little People is a Walt Disney Pictures feature film starring Albert Sharpe, Janet Munro, and Sean Connery in a tale about a wily Ireland and his battle of wits with leprechauns....
. The studio produced its first live-action contemporary comedy The Shaggy Dog

The Shaggy Dog

The Shaggy Dog is the title of three films:* The Shaggy Dog , starring Fred MacMurray and Tommy Kirk* The Shaggy Dog, a 1994 made-for-TV remake starring Ed Begley, Jr....
in 1959 with Disney teen stars Annette Funicello
Annette Funicello

Annette Joanne Funicello is an United States singer and actress. She was Walt Disney's most popular Mickey Mouse Club, and went on to appear in a series of beach party films....
and Tommy Kirk
Tommy Kirk

Thomas Lee Kirk, better known as Tommy Kirk is a former United States actor, and later a businessman....
.

Established stars appeared in films that have come to be regarded as classics such as Sunset Boulevard (Gloria Swanson
Gloria Swanson

Gloria Swanson was an Academy Award-nominated, Golden Globe-winning United States actress. She was prolific during the silent film era as both an actress and a fashion icon, especially under the direction of Cecil B....
), All About Eve

All About Eve

All About Eve is an Cinema of the United States drama film, written and directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz, based on the short story "The Wisdom of Eve," by Mary Orr....
(Bette Davis
Bette Davis

Ruth Elizabeth "Bette" Davis was an American actress of film, television and theatre. Noted for her willingness to play unsympathetic characters, she was highly regarded for her performances in a range of film genres; from contemporary crime films to historical film and period piece and occasional comedy, though her greatest successes were h...
), Some Like It Hot

Some Like It Hot

Some Like It Hot is an Cinema of the United States comedy film directed by Billy Wilder and starring Marilyn Monroe, Tony Curtis, and Jack Lemmon....
(Marilyn Monroe
Marilyn Monroe

Marilyn Monroe was an American actress, singer, model, and a sex symbol.After spending much of her childhood in foster homes, Monroe began a career as a model, which led to a film contract in 1946....
, Tony Curtis
Tony Curtis

Tony Curtis is an United States film acting. He is best known for light comic roles, especially as a musician on the run from gangsters in Some Like It Hot with Jack Lemmon and Marilyn Monroe....
, and Jack Lemmon
Jack Lemmon

'John Uhler "Jack" Lemmon III' was an United States actor known principally for his comedic roles. He starred in over 60 films including Some Like It Hot, The Apartment, Days of Wine and Roses , Irma La Douce, The Odd Couple , The Out-of-Towners , Glengarry Glen Ross , The China Syndrome and JFK ....
), High Noon

High Noon

High Noon is an Cinema of the United States 1952 in film western film directed by Fred Zinnemann and starring Gary Cooper and Grace Kelly. The film tells the story of a town marshal who is forced to face a gang of killers by himself....
(Gary Cooper
Gary Cooper

Frank James ?Gary? Cooper was an Cinema of the United States film actor and iconic star. He was renowned for his quiet, understated acting style and his stoic, individualistic, emotionally restrained, but at times intense screen persona, which was particularly well suited to the many Western movie he made....
and Grace Kelly
Grace Kelly

Grace Patricia Kelly was an Academy Award-winning United States film and Stage actor and fashion icon. Upon marrying Rainier III, Prince of Monaco in 1956, she became Her Serene Highness The Princess of Monaco, but was generally known as Princess Grace of Monaco....
), The Searchers

The Searchers (film)

The Searchers is a 1956 in film epic Western film directed by John Ford, based on the 1954 novel by Alan Le May, which tells the story of Ethan Edwards, a bitter, middle-aged loner and American Civil War veteran played by John Wayne, who spends years looking for his abducted niece....
(John Wayne
John Wayne

John Wayne was an Academy Award- and Golden Globe Award-winning United States film actor. He epitomized rugged masculinity and has become an enduring American icon....
), North by Northwest

North by Northwest

North by Northwest is an Cinema of the United States Thriller directed by Alfred Hitchcock, starring Cary Grant, Eva Marie Saint and James Mason, and featuring Leo G....
(Cary Grant
Cary Grant

Archibald Alec Leach , better known by his stage name, Cary Grant, was a British-born American actor. With his distinctive yet not quite placeable accent, he was noted as perhaps the foremost exemplar of the debonair leading man, handsome, virile, charismatic and charming....
), The Bridge on the River Kwai

The Bridge on the River Kwai

The Bridge on the River Kwai is a Cinema of the United Kingdom 1957 in film World War II film by David Lean; based on the novel The Bridge over the River Kwai by French writer Pierre Boulle....
(Alec Guinness
Alec Guinness

Sir Alec Guinness, Order of the Companions of Honour, Order of the British Empire was an Academy Award for Best Actor winning English actor....
), Singin' in the Rain

Singin' in the Rain (film)

Singin' in the Rain is a 1952 in film comedy musical film starring Gene Kelly, Donald O'Connor, and Debbie Reynolds and directed by Kelly and Stanley Donen, with Kelly also providing the choreography....
(Gene Kelly
Gene Kelly

Eugene Curran "Gene" Kelly was an United States dancer, actor, singer, film director, Film producer, and choreographer.A major exponent of 20th century filmed dance, Kelly was known for his energetic and athletic dancing style, his good looks and the likeable characters that he played on screen....
and Donald O'Connor
Donald O'Connor

Donald David Dixon Ronald O?Connor was an American dancer, singer, and actor who came to fame in a series of movies in which he co-starred alternately with Gloria Jean, Peggy Ryan, and Francis the Talking Mule....
), White Christmas

White Christmas (film)

White Christmas is a 1954 in film jukebox musical movie starring Bing Crosby and Danny Kaye that features the songs of Irving Berlin, including the titular "White Christmas "....
(Bing Crosby
Bing Crosby

Harry Lillis "Bing" Crosby was an United States popular singer and actor whose career lasted from 1926 until his death.One of the first multimedia stars, from 1934 to 1954 Bing Crosby held a nearly unrivaled command of record sales, radio ratings and motion picture grosses....
), and Ben-Hur

Ben-Hur (1959 film)

Ben-Hur is a 1959 in film movie directed by William Wyler, and is the third film version of Lew Wallace's novel Ben-Hur . It premiered at Loews Cineplex Entertainment in New York City on November 18, 1959....
(Charlton Heston
Charlton Heston

Charlton Heston was an United States actor of film, theater and television.Heston is known for having played heroic roles, such as Moses in The Ten Commandments , Colonel George Taylor in Planet of the Apes , El Cid in El Cid , and Judah Ben-Hur in Ben-Hur , for which he won the Academy Award for Best Actor....
), a film which holds (with Titanic and Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King

The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (film)

The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King is a 2003 in film fantasy film directed by Peter Jackson that is based on the The Two Towers and The Return of the King of J....
) a record for most Academy Awards. The Stanislavski method's natural approach to acting was exemplified in screen stars Marlon Brando
Marlon Brando

Marlon Brando, Jr. was an Academy Award-winning American actor whose body of work spanned over half a century. He is widely considered one of the greatest actors of all time, and was named the fourth AFI's 100 Years......
and Paul Newman
Paul Newman

Paul Leonard Newman was an United States actor, film director, entrepreneur, Humanitarianism, and auto racing enthusiast. He won numerous awards, including an Academy Award for his performance in the 1986 Martin Scorsese film The Color of Money and eight other nominations three Golden Globe, a BAFTA Award, a Screen Actors Guild Award, a...
. Brando's performances in The Wild One

The Wild One

The Wild One is a 1953 in film outlaw biker film directed by L?szl? Benedek and produced by Stanley Kramer. It is remembered for Marlon Brando's portrayal of the gang leader Johnny Strabler, dressed in a Perfecto motorcycle jacket and riding a 1950 Triumph_Thunderbird....
and A Streetcar Named Desire influenced sales of T-shirts and motorcycles.

European cinema experienced a renaissance in the fifties following the deprivations of World War II
World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global military conflict which involved a Participants in World War II, including all of the great powers, organised into two opposing military alliances: the Allies of World War II and the Axis powers....
. Italian
Italian people

The Italian people are a Southern European ethnic group located primarily in Italy and, by virtue of a wide-ranging Italian diaspora, throughout Western Europe, the Americas and Australia....
director Federico Fellini
Federico Fellini

Federico Fellini, Italian orders of merit was an Italy film director. Known for a distinct style which meshes fantasy and baroque images, he is considered as one of the most influential and widely revered filmmakers of the 20th century....
won the first foreign language film Academy Award with La strada

La Strada (film)

La strada is an Italian neorealism film, directed by Federico Fellini. The movie is a drama about a naive young girl who is sold to a brutish man in a coastal town in Italy....
and garnered another Academy Award with Nights of Cabiria

Nights of Cabiria

Nights of Cabiria is an Italy film directed by Federico Fellini. Fellini's wife, Giulietta Masina, plays Cabiria Ceccarelli, a feisty but naive prostitute in Ostia , then a seedy section of Rome....
. In 1955, Swedish director Ingmar Bergman
Ingmar Bergman

Ernst Ingmar Bergman was a Sweden director, writer and Film producer for film, stage and television. He depicted bleakness and despair as well as comedy and hope in his explorations of the human condition....
earned a Jury Prize at the Cannes Film Festival
Cannes Film Festival

The Cannes Film Festival , founded in 1946, is one of the world's oldest, most influential and prestigious film festivals alongside Venice Film Festival and Berlin Film Festival....
with Smiles of a Summer Night

Smiles of a Summer Night

Smiles of a Summer Night is a 1955 in film film directed by Ingmar Bergman. It was the first to bring the director international success with exposure at the 1956 Cannes Film Festival....
and followed the film with masterpieces The Seventh Seal

The Seventh Seal

The Seventh Seal is an existentialism 1957 in film Sweden film directed by Ingmar Bergman about the journey of a medieval knight across a pestilence-ridden landscape, and a monumental game of chess between himself and the personification of Death , who has come to take his life....
and Wild Strawberries

Wild Strawberries (film)

Wild Strawberries is a 1957 film written and directed by Ingmar Bergman, about an old man recalling his past. The original Swedish language title is Smultronst?llet, which literally means "the wild strawberry patch", but idiomatically means an underrated gem of a place ....
. Jean Cocteau
Jean Cocteau

Jean Maurice Eug?ne Cl?ment Cocteau was a French poet, novelist, dramatist, designer, boxing manager, playwright and filmmaker. Along with other Surrealists of his generation Cocteau grappled with the "algebra" of verbal codes old and new, mise en sc?ne language and technologies of modernism to create a paradox: a classical avant-garde....
's Orphée, a film central to his Orphic Trilogy, starred Jean Marais
Jean Marais

Jean-Alfred Villain-Marais , was a France actor and director....
and was released in 1950. French director Claude Chabrol
Claude Chabrol

Claude Chabrol is a French Cinema of France director and one of the core members of the French New Wave group of filmmakers who first came to prominence in the late 1950s and early 1960s....
's Le Beau Serge

Le Beau Serge

Le Beau Serge is a French film directed by Claude Chabrol, released in 1958 in film...
is now widely considered the first film of the French New Wave
French New Wave

The New Wave was a blanket term coined by critics for a group of Cinema of France of the late 1950s and 1960s, influenced by Italian Neorealism and classical Hollywood cinema....
. Notable European film stars of the period include Brigitte Bardot
Brigitte Bardot

Brigitte Anne-Marie Bardot is a French actress, former model , singer and Animal rights. In 2007 she was named among Empire 's 100 Sexiest Film Stars....
, Sophia Loren
Sophia Loren

Sophia Loren is an Academy Award-winning Italian people film actress. She is widely considered to be the most popular Italian actress of her time and is also famous for being a major international sex symbol....
, Marcello Mastroianni
Marcello Mastroianni

Marcello Vincenzo Domenico Mastroianni was an Italians actor.During his career, Mastroianni had won or been nominated multiple times for awards such as Volpi Cup, Best Actor Award , BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role, David di Donatello for Best Actor, Nastro d'Argento, Sant Jordi Award, Golden Globe Award for Best Actor - Motion...
, Max von Sydow
Max von Sydow

, is a Swedish people actor , known in particular for his collaboration with filmmaker Ingmar Bergman. He has been nominated for the Academy Award, the Emmy, and the Golden Globe, and has won the Pasinetti Award, the European Film Award, and the Honorary Cannes Award....
, and Jean-Paul Belmondo
Jean-Paul Belmondo

Jean-Paul Belmondo is a French actor initially associated with the French New Wave of the 1960s....
. Japanese cinema reached its zenith with films from director Akira Kurosawa
Akira Kurosawa

was a prominent Japanese people filmmaker, film producer, screenwriter and film editing. His first credited film as director, , was released in 1943, his last as director, , in 1993....
including Rashomon

Rashomon (film)

is a 1950 in film Cinema of Japan directed by Akira Kurosawa, working in close collaboration with cinematographer Kazuo Miyagawa. It stars Toshiro Mifune, Takashi Shimura, Machiko Kyo, Masayuki Mori and Minoru Chiaki....
, Ikiru

Ikiru

is a 1952 in film Cinema of Japan written and Film director by the acclaimed Japanese filmmaker Akira Kurosawa. The film examines the struggles of a Tokyo bureaucrat and his final quest for meaning....
, Seven Samurai, Throne of Blood

Throne of Blood

is a 1957 in film directed by Akira Kurosawa, which transposes the plot of William Shakespeare play Macbeth to feudal Japan. It is regarded as one of Kurosawa's best films, and by many critics as one of the best film adaptations of Macbeth, despite having almost none of the play's script....
, and The Hidden Fortress

The Hidden Fortress

File:The Hidden Fortress poster 2.jpgFile:The Hidden Fortress poster 3.jpg is a 1958 in film film directed by Akira Kurosawa and starring Toshiro Mifune as General Rokurota Makabe and Misa Uehara as Princess Yuki....
. Other distinguished Japanese directors of the period were Yasujiro Ozu
Yasujiro Ozu

was an influential Japanese people filmmaker. Known for his distinctive technical style, developed since the silent films, marriage and family were among the most persistent themes in his body of work....
and Kenji Mizoguchi
Kenji Mizoguchi

Kenji Mizoguchi was a Japanese people filmmaker and screenwriter. He is most famous for his film Ugetsu which won the Silver Lion at the Venice Film Festival, and for his mastery of long take and mis-en-scene....
. Russian fantasy director Aleksandr Ptushko
Aleksandr Ptushko

Aleksandr Lukich Ptushko is a Soviet animation and fantasy film director, and Meritorious Artist. Ptushko is frequently referred to as "the Soviet Walt Disney," due to his prominent early role in animation in the Soviet Union, though a more accurate comparison would be to Willis O'Brien or Ray Harryhausen....
's mythological epics Sadko

Sadko

Sadko was a legendary hero of a Kiev Rus bylina of the same name, a merchant and gusli musician from Novgorod. The word "?????" is slavonic adoptation of jevish word "Zaddik/Zedek"....
, Ilya Muromets

Ilya Muromets

Ilya Muromets is a Kievan Rus' Slavic mythology hero. He is celebrated in numerous bylina . Along with Dobrynya Nikitich and Alyosha Popovich he is regarded as the greatest of all the legendary bogatyrs ....
, and Sampo

Sampo

In Finnish mythology, the Sampo was a Artifact of indeterminate type constructed by Ilmarinen that brought good fortune to its holder. When the Sampo was stolen, it is said that Ilmarinen's homeland fell upon hard times and sent an expedition to retrieve it, but in the ensuing battle it was smashed and lost at sea....
were internationally acclaimed.

Television
Sales of television
Television

Television is a widely used telecommunication mass-media for transmitting and receiving moving , either monochrome or color, usually accompanied by sound....
sets boomed in the fifties. Shows aired monochromatically. Popular programs included Your Show of Shows

Your Show of Shows

Your Show of Shows was a live 90-minute sketch comedy television series appearing weekly in the United States on NBC, from February 25, 1950 until June 5, 1954, featuring Sid Caesar and Imogene Coca....
, a live 90-minute weekly sketch comedy television series (1950-1954) with Sid Caesar
Sid Caesar

Isaac Sidney "Sid" Caesar is an Emmy Award-winning United States comic actor and writer known as the leading man on the 1950s television series Your Show of Shows and Caesar's Hour, and to younger generations as Coach Calhoun in Grease and Grease 2....
and Imogene Coca
Imogene Coca

Imogene Fernandez de Coca was an United States Emmy-winning comic actress best known for her role opposite Sid Caesar on Your Show of Shows....
, and Producers' Showcase

Producers' Showcase

Producers' Showcase was an Emmy Award-winning United States anthology television series broadcast in compatible color by NBC. Prestigious Live television 90-minute programs covering a wide variety of genres and featuring A-list talent were aired under the title every fourth Monday at 8pm ET for three seasons, beginning October 18, 1954....
(1954-1957), a 37-episode, multi-Emmy Award-winning, 90-minute NBC anthology series that featured A-list talent such as Margot Fonteyn
Margot Fonteyn

Dame Margot Fonteyn de Arias, Order of the British Empire, , the British prima ballerina Ballerina#Prima ballerina assoluta, was considered by many to be the greatest English ballerina, and one of the greatest dancers of the 20th Century....
in The Sleeping Beauty Ballet, Helen Hayes
Helen Hayes

Helen Hayes was an United States actress, whose career spanned almost 70 years. She eventually garnered the nickname "First Lady of the American Theater", and was one of the nine people List of persons who have won Academy, Emmy, Grammy, and Tony Awards....
in The Skin of Our Teeth

The Skin of Our Teeth

The Skin of Our Teeth is a stage play by Thornton Wilder which won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. It opened on October 15, 1942 at the Shubert Theatre in New Haven, Connecticut, before moving to the Plymouth Theatre on Broadway theatre on November 18, 1942....
, and The Fourposter

The Fourposter

The Fourposter is a 1951 play written by Jan de Hartog. The two-character story spans thirty-five years, from 1890 to 1925, as it focuses on the trials and tribulations, laughters and sorrows, and hopes and disappointments experienced by Agnes and George throughout their marriage....
with original Broadway cast members Hume Cronyn
Hume Cronyn

Hume Blake Cronyn, Order of Canada was a Canadian actor of Theatre and screen, who enjoyed a long career, often appearing professionally alongside his second wife, Jessica Tandy....
and Jessica Tandy
Jessica Tandy

Jessie Alice "Jessica" Tandy was a United Kingdom-United States stage and film actress....
. Other anthology series included Lux Video Theatre

Lux Video Theatre

Lux Video Theatre is a weekly television anthology series, produced from 1950 until 1959. The series presented both comedy and drama in original stories, as well as abridged adaptations of films and plays....
, Fireside Theater

Fireside Theater

This program should not be confused with The Firesign Theatre.Fireside Theater is an United States Anthology series dramatic programming that ran from on NBC from 1949 to 1958, and was the first successful filmed series on American television....
. and Kraft Television Theater.

Sitcoms offered a romanticized vision of traditional middle class
Middle class

Middle class is the group of people in contemporary society who are between the working class and nobility. This socioeconomic class includes professionals, highly skilled workers, and lower and middle management....
American life with The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet

The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet

The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet is an United States Situation comedy, airing on American Broadcasting Company from October 3, 1952 to September 3, 1966, starring the real life Nelson family....
(1952-1966), Father Knows Best

Father Knows Best

Father Knows Best is a long-run United States radio and television comedy series which portrayed middle class family life in the Midwest. It was created by writer Ed James in the 1940s....
(1954-1960), and ABC's The Donna Reed Show

The Donna Reed Show

The Donna Reed Show is an United States situation comedy which aired on American Broadcasting Company from 1958 in television to 1966 in television....
(1958-1966) exemplifying the genre. Emmy
Emmy Award

The Emmy Award, also known as the 'Emmy', is a television production award, similar in nature to the Peabody Awards but more focused on entertainment, and is considered the television equivalent to the Academy Awards....
-winning comedy I Love Lucy

I Love Lucy

I Love Lucy is an United States situation comedy, starring Lucille Ball, Desi Arnaz, Vivian Vance and William Frawley. The black-and-white series originally ran from October 15 1951 to April 1 1960 on CBS....
(1952-1957) starred husband and wife Desi Arnaz
Desi Arnaz

Desi Arnaz was a Cuban musician, actor and television producer....
and Lucille Ball
Lucille Ball

Lucille Ball was an United States comedian, film, television, stage and radio actress, model , film industry, and star of the landmark sitcoms I Love Lucy, The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour, The Lucy Show and Here's Lucy....
and enjoyed such popularity that some businesses closed early on Monday nights in order to allow employees to hurry home for the show. In Life of Riley (1953-1958), blue collar Chester A. Riley (William Bendix
William Bendix

William Bendix was an United States film actor.Bendix, named for his paternal grandfather, was born in Manhattan, New York City, the only son of Cleveland-born Oscar and London-born Hilda Bendix....
) became the protype for a long line of bumbling television patriarchs that included Fred Flintstone
Fred Flintstone

Frederick Joseph "Fred" Flintstone is a fictional character who originated in the animated cartoon sitcom The Flintstones on American Broadcasting Company....
and Archie Bunker
Archie Bunker

Archibald "Archie" Bunker is a fictional character in the long-running and top-rated United States television sitcom All in the Family and its spin-off Archie Bunker's Place....
. The show's first incarnation for the DuMont Television Network
DuMont Television Network

The DuMont Television Network, also known as the DuMont Network, DuMont, Du Mont, or Dumont was the world's first commercial television network, beginning operation in the United States in 1946....
lasted a season (1949-1950) and won an Emmy during the first Emmy Awards in 1949. The Honeymooners

The Honeymooners

The Honeymooners debuted as a half-hour series on October 1 1955. Although initially a Nielsen Ratings success?it was the #2 show in the United States?it faced stiff competition from the popular Perry Como....
(1955-1956) followed bus driver Ralph Kramden (Jackie Gleason
Jackie Gleason

Herbert Walton Gleason, Jr. , whose birth name was John Herbert "Jackie" Gleason, was an American comedian, actor and musician.He was known for his brash visual and verbal comedy styling, especially as delivered by his character Ralph Kramden on the sitcom The Honeymooners....
) and his sewer-working sidekick Ed Norton (Art Carney
Art Carney

Arthur William Matthew ?Art? Carney was an Academy Award- and Emmy Award-winning United States actor in film, Stage , television and radio programming....
) while archetypal suburban life was limned in Leave It to Beaver

Leave It to Beaver

Leave It to Beaver is a 1950s and 1960s family-oriented American television situation comedy about an inquisitive but often naive boy named Theodore "Beaver" Cleaver and his adventures at home, in school, and around his suburban neighborhood....
(1957-1963), purportedly the first sitcom to be told from a child's point of view and the first to strike a blow for television realism by displaying a toilet in an early episode. Genre series were popular with Dragnet

Dragnet (series)

Dragnet, also known as L.A. Dragnet and syndicated as Badge 714, is a long-running radio and television Police procedural about the cases of a dedicated Los Angeles police detective, Sergeant Joe Friday, and his partners....
(1952) starring Jack Webb
Jack Webb

John Randolph "Jack" Webb was an Emmy Award-nominated United States actor, television producer, film director and author, who is most famous for his role as Sergeant#Police 2 Joe Friday in the radio and television series Dragnet ....
representing police procedural drama, British syndicated
Television syndication

In broadcasting, syndication is the sale of the right to broadcast radio shows and television shows to multiple individual stations, without going through a broadcast network....
series The Adventures of Robin Hood

The Adventures of Robin Hood (TV series)

The Adventures of Robin Hood was a popular United Kingdom television series comprising 143 half-hour, black and white episodes starring Richard Greene as the outlaw Robin Hood and Alan Wheatley as his nemesis the Sheriff of Nottingham....
(1955) starring Richard Greene
Richard Greene

Richard Marius Joseph Greene - some sources list his birth date as 1914 - was a noted England movie and television actor. A matinee idol who appeared in more than 40 films, he was perhaps best known for the lead role in the long-running British TV series The Adventures of Robin Hood , which ran 143 episodes from 1955 to 1960....
representing historical drama, and Gunsmoke

Gunsmoke

Gunsmoke is an American radio and television Western drama series created by director Norman MacDonnell and writer John Meston. The stories take place in and around Dodge City, Kansas, during the settlement of the American West....
(1955) with James Arness
James Arness

James Arness is an Emmy-nominated United States actor best known for portraying Marshal Matt Dillon onGunsmoke for 20 years. Arness has the distinction of having played the role of Marshal Matt Dillon in five separate decades: 1955 to 1975 in the weekly series, then in the decade of the 1980s Return to Dodge, and four more made-for...
and Amanda Blake
Amanda Blake

Amanda Blake , was an American actress best known for the role of the red-haired saloon proprietress "Miss Kitty Russell" on the longest-running television drama, CBS's Gunsmoke series ....
representing the western. Mid-decade, Warner Bros. produced a clutch of five westerns with Maverick

Maverick

A maverick is an unbranded range animal, especially a motherless calf. It can also mean a person who thinks independently, a lone dissenter, a non-conformist or rebel....
starring James Garner
James Garner

James Garner is an United States film and television actor.He has starred in several television program spanning a career of more than five decades....
and Cheyenne starring Clint Walker
Clint Walker

Norman Eugene "Clint" Walker is an United States actor best known for his cowboy role as "Cheyenne Bodie" in the western film television series, Cheyenne ....
leading the group in popularity.

Musical programs distinguished the decade. Gian Carlo Menotti
Gian Carlo Menotti

Gian Carlo Menotti was an Italy composer and libretto. Although he often referred to himself as an American composer, he kept his Italian citizenship....
's Amahl and the Night Visitors

Amahl and the Night Visitors

Amahl and the Night Visitors is an opera in one act by Gian Carlo Menotti with an original English libretto by the composer. It was commissioned by NBC and first performed on December 24, 1951 in New York City, at NBC studio 8H in Radio City Music Hall, where it was broadcast live on television as the debut production of the Hallmark Hall...
, the first opera
Opera

Opera is an Performing arts in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work which combines a text and a musical score. Opera is part of the Western classical music tradition....
written for television, was performed on December 24, 1951 at the NBC studios in New York City, where it was telecast as the debut production of the Hallmark Hall of Fame
Hallmark Hall of Fame

Hallmark Hall of Fame is an anthology program on United States television. It has had a historically long run, beginning in 1951 and still continuing today....
. The opera was performed live on or near Christmas Eve
Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve, December 24, is the night before Christmas Day, which celebrates the birth of Jesus Christ ....
annually until the mid-sixties when a production starring Teresa Stratas
Teresa Stratas

Teresa Stratas Order of Canada , is a Canada soprano opera singer....
was filmed and telecast for several years. The Broadway
Broadway theatre

Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 39 large professional theaters with 500 seats or more located in the Theatre District, New York in Manhattan, New York City....
musical Peter Pan

Peter Pan (1954 musical)

Peter Pan is a musical theatre adaptation of J. M. Barrie's 1904 play Peter Pan and Barrie's own novelization of it, Peter and Wendy....
was televised in 1955 on NBC with Mary Martin
Mary Martin

Mary Virginia Martin was an Tony Award and Emmy Award winning actress. She originated many roles over her career including Nellie Forbush in South Pacific and Maria in The Sound of Music....
and Cyril Ritchard
Cyril Ritchard

File:Cyril Ritchard & Eddie Mayehoff VtaSP.jpgCyril Ritchard was an Australian theatre, film and television actor, and television director....
in their original roles as Peter Pan and Captain Hook. The telecast drew the largest ratings for a single television program up to that time, and was restaged in 1956 and 1960. On January 28, 1956, Elvis Presley
Elvis Presley

Elvis Aaron Presley was an United Statesn singer, actor, and musician. A cultural icon, he is commonly known simply as "Elvis", and is also sometimes referred to as "List of honorific titles in popular music" or "The King"....
made his first televised appearance on Stage Show, while, the same year, musical film The Wizard of Oz starring Judy Garland
Judy Garland

Judy Garland was an American actress and alto singer. Through a career that spanned 45 of her 47 years, Garland attained international stardom as an actress in musical and dramatic roles, as a recording artist and on the concert stage....
saw its first telecast on November 3 on CBS. Rogers and Hammerstein's Cinderella was written for a live television broadcast in 1957 and starred Julie Andrews
Julie Andrews

Dame Julie Elizabeth Andrews, Order of the British Empire is an award-winning English actress, singer, author and Cultural icon. She is the recipient of Golden Globe, Emmy, Grammy, BAFTA, People's Choice Award, Theatre World Award, Screen Actors Guild and Academy Awards honours....
.

Children's programs included the 19-season, Emmy-winning CBS
CBS

CBS Broadcasting Inc. is an American radio network and television network. The name is derived from the initials of Columbia Broadcasting System, its former legal name....
dramatic series Lassie

Lassie (1954 TV series)

Lassie is an United States television series that follows the adventures of a female rough collie named Lassie and her companions, human and animal....
(1954-1973), sci-fi series Adventures of Superman

Adventures of Superman

Adventures of Superman or The Adventures of Superman may refer to:*The Adventures of Superman , program of the 1940s*The Adventures of Superman , written in 1942 by George Lowther...
(1952), variety show The Mickey Mouse Club (1955), anthology series Disneyland

Disney anthology television series

For the Disney's California Adventure theme park show with the similar title, see Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color .The first incarnation of the Walt Disney anthology television series, commonly called The Wonderful World of Disney, premiered on American Broadcasting Company on October 27, 1954 under the name Disney...
(1955), and live-action fairy tale
Fairy tale

A fairy tale is a fictional story that may feature folklore characters such as Fairy, goblins, Elf, trolls, giant , and talking animals, and usually enchanted, often involving a far-fetched sequence of events....
anthology series Shirley Temple's Storybook

Shirley Temple's Storybook

From 1958 to 1961, Shirley Temple made a brief return to show business with a one-hour children's television series. Shirley Temple's Storybook premiered on NBC January 12, 1958 and moved to American Broadcasting Company in 1959, when it last aired on December 1 of that year....
(1958). Bozo the Clown
Bozo the Clown

Bozo the Clown was a clown character very popular in the United States in the 1950s, as a result of widespread franchising in early television....
enjoyed widespread franchising in early television, making him the best-known clown character in the United States. Ding Dong School

Ding Dong School

Ding Dong School was a half-hour children's TV show which aired on NBC on weekdays from November 1952 to 1956, and on WMAQ-TV a few months earlier....
(1952), Captain Kangaroo

Captain Kangaroo

Captain Kangaroo was a children's television series which aired weekday mornings on the United States television network CBS from 1955 until 1984....
(1955) and Romper Room

Romper Room

Romper Room was a children's television series which ran in the United States from 1953 to 1994 as well as at various times in Australia, Canada, Japan, Puerto Rico and the United Kingdom....
were aimed at pre-schoolers. Howdy Doody

Howdy Doody

Howdy Doody is a Children's television series that was broadcast on NBC in the United States from 1947 until 1960. It was a pioneer in children's programming and set the pattern for many similar shows....
(1947-1960) was a pioneer in early color production during the period. Fury

Fury (TV series)

Fury is an United States Western television series that aired on National Broadcasting Company from 1955-1960, starring Peter Graves as Jim Newton , Bobby Diamond as Jim's adopted son, Joey Clark Newton, and the late William Fawcett as ranch hand Pete Wilkey....
, Sky King

Sky King

Sky King was a 1940s and 1950s United States radio and television adventure series. The title character was Arizona rancher and fixed-wing aircraft aviator Schuyler "Sky" King....
, The Roy Rogers Show

The Roy Rogers Show

The Roy Rogers Show is an United States Western television series that ran for six seasons from December 30, 1951 to June 9, 1957 on NBC, with a total of 100 episodes....
, Heckle and Jeckle

Heckle and Jeckle

Heckle and Jeckle was a theatrical cartoon series created by Paul Terry , and released by his own studio, Terrytoons. The characters were a pair of identical magpies who calmly outwitted their foes in the manner of Bugs Bunny, while maintaining a mischievous streak reminiscent of Woody Woodpecker....
, Mighty Mouse

Mighty Mouse

Mighty Mouse is an animation superhero mouse character created by the Terrytoons studio for 20th Century Fox....
and similar live-action and animated half-hour shows held sway on Saturday mornings.

Quiz and panel shows included The $64,000 Question, What's My Line, I've Got a Secret

I've Got a Secret

I've Got a Secret is a weekly panel game show produced by Mark Goodson and Bill Todman for CBS television. Created by comedy writers Allan Sherman and Howard Merrill, it was a derivative of Goodson-Todman's own panel show What's My Line?....
, The Price is Right

The Price Is Right

The Price Is Right is an United States television game show that is currently owned by the FremantleMedia subsidiary of the RTL Group. It was originally created by Bob Stewart for Mark Goodson-Bill Todman Productions in the United States in 1956, and was significantly revamped by them in 1972....
, Beat the Clock

Beat the Clock

Beat the Clock is a Goodson-Todman Productions game show which ran on CBS from 1950-1958 and American Broadcasting Company from 1958-1961, with later revivals....
, Truth or Consequences

Truth or Consequences

Truth or Consequences was an American Game show, originally hosted on NBC radio by Ralph Edwards and later on television by Edwards , Jack Bailey , Bob Barker , Bob Hilton and Larry Anderson ....
, Queen for a Day

Queen for a Day

Queen for a Day was an American Radio network and Television program which helped to usher in American listeners' and viewers' fascination with big-prize giveaway shows when it was born on radio , before moving to television ....
, and Name That Tune

Name That Tune

Name That Tune was a television game show that put two contestants against each other to test their knowledge of songs.Premiering in the United States in the early 1950s, the show was created and produced by Harry Salter and his wife, Roberta Semple Salter....
. The quiz show scandals
Quiz show scandals

The United States quiz show scandals of the 1950s were the result of the revelation that contestants of several popular television quiz shows were secretly given assistance by the producers to arrange the outcome of a supposedly fair competition....
of the period rocked the nation and were the result of the revelation that contestants were secretly given assistance by the producers to arrange the outcome of a supposedly fair competition.

Newscasting and journalism were distinguished by NBC's Chet Huntley
Chet Huntley

Chester Robert "Chet" Huntley was an American television newscaster....
and David Brinkley
David Brinkley

David McClure Brinkley was an American newscaster for NBC News, and later American Broadcasting Company in a career spanning from 1951–1997....
, and CBS' Walter Cronkite
Walter Cronkite

Walter Leland Cronkite, Jr. is a retired United States Broadcast journalism, best known as anchorman for the The CBS Evening News for 19 years ....
. On July 7, 1952, the term "anchor" was coined to describe Cronkite's role at both the Democratic and Republican National Conventions, which marked the first nationally-televised convention coverage. Talk shows had their genesis in the decade with NBC's Today creating the much-sopied genre format. The Tonight Show

The Tonight Show

The Tonight Show is a long-running American late-night talk show and variety show airing on NBC whose The Tonight Show with Jay Leno has been hosted by Jay Leno since 1992....
debuted in 1954 with Steve Allen
Steve Allen

Steve Allen may refer to:*Steve Allen , American musician, comedian, and writer*Steve Allen , presenter on the London-based talk radio station LBC 97.3...
as host. The coronation
Coronation

A coronation is a ceremony marking the investiture of a monarch with regal power, specifically involving the placement of a coronation crown upon his or her head, and the presentation of other items of regalia....
of Elizabeth II was televised on June 2, 1953, highlighting the start of pan-European cooperation with regards to the exchange of TV programs. The Academy Awards
Academy Awards

The Academy Awards, popularly known as the Oscars, are presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize excellence of professionals in the film industry, including directors, actors, and writers....
show was first televised in 1953 on NBC, and the show holds the distinction of having won the most Emmys
Emmy Award

The Emmy Award, also known as the 'Emmy', is a television production award, similar in nature to the Peabody Awards but more focused on entertainment, and is considered the television equivalent to the Academy Awards....
in history, with 38 wins and 167 nominations.

Comics

See also: 1950s in comics

1950s in comics

See also:1940s in comics,1950s,1960s in comics and thelist of years in comics#Publications: #1950 - #1951 - #1952 - #1953 - #1954 - #1955 - #1956 - #1957 - #1958 - #1959...

Comic book audiences grew during and after World War II
World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global military conflict which involved a Participants in World War II, including all of the great powers, organised into two opposing military alliances: the Allies of World War II and the Axis powers....
, with young adult males and returning GIs preferring material depicting sex and violence. Newspaper comic strip reprint books such as Ace Comics
Ace Comics

Ace Comics is a comic book series published by David McKay Publications during and just prior to the Golden Age era of comics. The first issue, written by Alex Raymond with Jungle Jim, Blondie , and Felix, debuted on April 1937....
and King Comics
King Comics

King Comics was a short-lived comic book imprint of King Features Syndicate, and an attempt by King to publish comics of its own characters, rather than through other publishers....
ended their decade-long runs while caped crimefighters and superheroes declined in popularity. Attempts to bring out single character comic strip reprints, such as Flash Gordon

Flash Gordon

Steven "Flash" Gordon is the hero of a science fiction adventure comic strip originally drawn by Alex Raymond, which was first published on January 7, 1934....
, Steve Canyon

Steve Canyon

File:Stevecanyon11171963.jpgSteve Canyon was a long-running United States adventure comic strip by writer-artist Milton Caniff. Launched shortly after Caniff retired from his previous strip, Terry and the Pirates , Steve Canyon ran from January 13, 1947 until June 4, 1988, shortly after Caniff's death....
, and Terry and the Pirates

Terry and the Pirates

Terry and the Pirates is the title of:* Terry and the Pirates , the comic strip created by Milton Caniff* Terry and the Pirates , a radio serial based on the comic strip...
were unsuccessful. The Golden Age of Comic Books
Golden Age of Comic Books

The Golden Age of Comic Books was a period in the history of American comic books, generally thought as lasting from the late 1930s until the late 1940s....
gave way to the Silver Age
Silver Age of Comic Books

The Silver Age of Comic Books was a period of artistic advancement and commercial success in mainstream American comic books, predominantly those which featured the superhero archetype....
with romance comics
Romance comics

Romance comics in the United States was a genre of American comic books that featured realistic scripts and art about love, domestic strife, and heartache....
, horror comics
Horror comics

American horror comics published between 1947 and 1954 are characterized by their gruesomely scripted and illustrated tales of ghosts and ghouls, zombies and vampires, haunted houses and graveyards, sexual perversion and sadomasochism, torture, cannibalism, lycanthropy, dementia and other outr? horror fiction elements....
, western comics, science fiction comics, and crime comics
Crime comics

Crime comics are a genre of American comic books that were popular in the 1940s and 1950s. The genre is marked by a moralistic editorial tone and graphic depictions of violence and criminal activity....
in demand.

Romance comics kicked-off in 1947 with Joe Simon
Joe Simon

Joseph H. Simon is a Jewish-American comic book writer, artist, editing, and publishing. Simon created or co-created many important characters in the 1930s-1940s Golden Age of Comic Books, and who served as the first editor of Timely Comics, the company that would evolve into Marvel Comics....
and Jack Kirby
Jack Kirby

Jacob Kurtzberg , better known by the pen name Jack Kirby, was an American comic book artist, writer and editing. Growing up poor in New York City, Kurtzberg entered the nascent comics industry in the 1930s....
's Young Romance and its companion title Young Love. While both titles generally featured innocuous stories about youthful relationships, other romance comics of the period ventured into grim tales of alcoholic spouses, two-timing, and wife-beating. The genre was hugely successful with more than 150 series published during the early 1950s. Good girl
Good girl art

Good girl art is found in drawings or paintings which feature a strong emphasis on attractive women no matter what the subject or situation. GGA was most commonly featured in comic books, pulp magazines and crime fiction....
comics of the period depicted the exploits of voluptuous women in bosom-hugging sweaters or jungle heroines clad in animal skin bikinis. 'Headlight' covers featured young women bound with ropes or chains
Bondage (BDSM)

In the context of BDSM, bondage involves people being tied up or otherwise restrained for pleasure. Bondage is usually, but not always, a human sexual behavior....
, their ample breasts swelling against torn clothing.

Horror comics enjoyed a heyday during the same period. While superheroes had been menaced by warlocks, zombies, and vampires in the employ of Nazis and the Japanese through the war years, it wasn't until 1947 that the horror genre was established with Avon Periodicals' Eerie Comics

Eerie Comics

Eerie is a one-shot Horror comics in the United States, 1947–1954 cover-dated January 1947 and published by Avon Periodicals as Eerie #1....
, the first out-and-out horror comic. Marvel, Harvey Comics
Harvey Comics

Harvey Comics was an United States comic book publisher, founded by Alfred Harvey in 1941, after buying out small publisher Brookwood Publications....
, and American Comics Group hopped aboard with the latter's Adventures Into the Unknown (1948) enjoying a twenty year run. In 1950, EC Comics
EC Comics

Entertaining Comics, more commonly known as EC Comics, was an United States publisher of comic books specializing in crime fiction, horror fiction, satire, war novel and science fiction from the 1940s through the 1950s, until censorship pressures prompted it to concentrate on the seminal humor magazine Mad , which became a major p...
published The Haunt of Fear

The Haunt of Fear

The Haunt of Fear, Tales from the Crypt and The Vault of Horror are three bi-monthly horror comics anthology series published by EC Comics in the early 1950s....
, Tales from the Crypt

Tales from the Crypt

Tales from the Crypt may refer to:*Tales from the Crypt , a comic book published by EC Comics during the 1950s*Tales from the Crypt , a horror anthology television series that ran from 1989 to 1996...
, and The Vault of Horror

The Vault of Horror

The Vault of Horror, Tales from the Crypt , and The Haunt of Fear are three bi-monthly horror comics anthology series published by EC Comics in the early 1950s....
with characters meeting gruesomely violent ends. Horror titles numbered in the dozens in the early years of the decade, most crudely scripted and drawn.

Western comics were fueled by popular television westerns. Dell Comics
Dell Comics

Dell Comics was the comic book publishing arm of Dell Publishing, which got its start in pulp magazines. It published comics from 1929 to 1973....
ate his ear, dedicated to sheep such as Roy Rogers
Roy Rogers

Roy Rogers , was a singer and cowboy actor, as well as the founder of the famous Roy Rogers Restaurants chain. He and his third wife Dale Evans, his golden palomino Trigger , and his German Shepherd Dog, Bullet, were featured in over one hundred movies and The Roy Rogers Show....
, Gabby Hayes, The Lone Ranger
The Lone Ranger

The Lone Ranger is an United States, long-running, old-time radio and early television show created by George W. Trendle , and developed by writer Fran Striker....
, and Gene Autry
Gene Autry

Orvon Gene Autry was an United States performing arts who gained fame as "Singing cowboy" on the Radio in the United States, in Cinema of the United States and on Television in the United States for more than three decades beginning in the 1930s....
. The Lone Ranger's pal, Tonto, had his own title. Dell also published titles based on popular television shows and films such as I Love Lucy

I Love Lucy

Davy Crockett, King of the Wild Frontier

Davy Crockett, King of the Wild Frontier is a 1955 live action The Walt Disney Company adventure film starring Fess Parker as Davy Crockett....
. DC published several western titles while Marvel saw fifty different titles including The Rawhide Kid, The Arizona Kid, Kid Colt, and The Ringo Kid.

Science fiction comics were published in abundance. DC Comics
DC Comics

DC Comics is one of the largest and most popular American comic book and related media companies, along with Marvel Comics. A subsidiary of Warner Bros....
picked-up on the public's interest in science and Outer Space
Outer space

Outer space comprises the relatively empty regions of the universe outside the atmospheres of celestial bodies. Outer space is used to distinguish it from airspace and terrestrial locations....
with Strange Adventures

Strange Adventures

Strange Adventures was the title of several American comic books published by DC Comics, most notably a long-running science fiction anthology that began in 1950 in comics....
and Mystery in Space

Mystery in Space

Mystery in Space is the name of two science fiction comic book series published by DC Comics....
. EC Comics
EC Comics

Entertaining Comics, more commonly known as EC Comics, was an United States publisher of comic books specializing in crime fiction, horror fiction, satire, war novel and science fiction from the 1940s through the 1950s, until censorship pressures prompted it to concentrate on the seminal humor magazine Mad , which became a major p...
published Weird Science

Weird Science

Weird Science is the name of:*Weird Science , a 1985 film directed by John Hughes**Weird Science , a television series based on the film**Weird Science , the theme song to the film and the TV series by Oingo Boingo...
and Weird Fantasy

Weird Fantasy

Weird Fantasy was a science fiction anthology comic that was part of the EC Comics line in the early 1950s. The companion comic for Weird Fantasy was Weird Science ....
.

Public disapproval and the 1954 Senate subcommittee hearings

The Cold War era seemed to encourage witch-hunting and comics found themselves blamed for the alarming increase in juvenile delinquency and other social ills. In 1948, American children across the country piled their comic book collections in schoolyards, and, encouraged by parents, teachers, and clergymen, set them ablaze. In the same year, the media began kicking comic books around. John Mason Brown of the Saturday Review of Literature described comics as the "marijuana of the nursery; the bane of the bassinet; the horror of the house; the curse of kids, and a threat to the future." Dr. Fredric Wertham's book Seduction of the Innocent

Seduction of the Innocent

Seduction of the Innocent is a book by American psychiatrist Fredric Wertham, published in 1954, that warned that comic books were a bad form of popular literature and a serious cause of juvenile delinquency....
rallied opposition to violence, gore, and sex in comics, arguing that it was harmful to the children who made up a large segment of the comic book audience.

The Senate Subcommittee on Juvenile Delinquency
Senate Subcommittee on Juvenile Delinquency

The United States Senate Subcommittee on Juvenile Delinquency was established by the United States Senate in 1953 to investigate the problem of juvenile delinquency....
hearings in April and June 1954, focused specifically on graphic crime and horror comic books. When publisher William Gaines contended that he sold only comic books of good taste, one of Gaines' comics cover was entered into evidence which showed an axe-wielding man holding aloft a severed woman's head. When asked if he considered the cover in "good taste", Gaines replied: "Yes, I do -- for the cover of a horror comic."

Because of the unfavorable press coverage resulting from the hearings, the comic book industry adopted the Comics Code Authority
Comics Code Authority

The Comics Code Authority is part of the Comics Magazine Association of America , and was created to regulate the content of American comic book....
(CCA), a self-regulatory ratings code that is still used by some publishers today in a modified form. In the immediate aftermath of the hearings, several publishers were forced to revamp their schedules and drastically censor or even cancel many popular long-standing comic series.

Comics trivia

Charles Schulz's Peanuts
Peanuts

Peanuts is a print syndication daily strip and Sunday strip comic strip written and illustrated by Charles M. Schulz, which ran from October 2, 1950, to February 13, 2000 , continuing in reruns afterward....
appeared for the first time on October 2, 1950 in seven US newspapers.
Superman's sweetheart Lois Lane
Lois Lane

Lois Joanne Lane-Kent is the primary love interest of Superman in the DC Comics? Superman stories. Created by writer Jerry Siegel and artist Joe Shuster, she First appearance in Action Comics #1 ....
received her own title.
Classics Illustrated
Classics Illustrated

Classics Illustrated is a comic book series featuring adaptations of literary classics such as Moby Dick, Hamlet, and The Iliad....
continued its literary adaptations, ending its run in the early 1970s after 169 titles. In 1953, Classics Illustrated Junior debuted with fairy tale adaptations for the younger set.

Toys

Popular toys of the period included Wham-O
Wham-O

File:Whamoheadquarters.jpgWham-O Inc. is a toy company currently located in California, United States. They are known for marketing many popular toys, including the Hula Hoop, the Frisbee, Slip 'N Slide, Super Ball, Super Stuff and Trac-Ball....
's Hula Hoop
Hula hoop

A hula hoop is a toy hoop that is twirled around the waist, limbs, or neck. They are usually made of plastic, though they may also be made out of wood or other materials....
and its flying disc Frisbee
Frisbee

Flying discs are disc-shaped objects, which are generally plastic and roughly 20 to 25 centimeters in diameter, with a lip. The shape of the disc, an airfoil in cross-section, allows it to flight by generating lift as it moves through the air while rotating....
, both introduced in 1957. Kids got around on Schwinn bicycles and Radio Flyer wagons. Nomura's 9" tall, tin, remote-controlled Robbie the Robot walked, moved his arms, and sported moving lighted pistols. Girls wanted Ohio Art Company
Ohio Art Company

Founded in 1908, The Ohio Art Company is principally engaged in two lines of business. The first line of business is the sales, marketing and distribution of toys including the Etch A Sketch, K's Kids and Betty Spaghetty....
's tin lithographed tea sets and Little Chefs Stoves, Ideal Toy Company
Ideal Toy Company

Ideal Toy Company was founded as Ideal Novelty and Toy Company in New York in 1907 by Morris Michtom after they had invented the Teddy bear in 1903....
's diaper-wetting Betsy Wetsy
Betsy Wetsy

Betsy Wetsy was a doll originally issued by the Ideal Toy Company of New York in 1934. Named for the daughter of Abraham Katz, the head of the company, the doll's special feature was urinating after a fluid was poured into her open mouth....
, and Mattel
Mattel

Mattel Inc. is the world's largest toy importing company based on revenue. The products it produces include Barbie dolls, Hot Wheels and Matchbox cars, American Girl dolls, board games, and, in the early 1980s, video game consoles....
's 1959 adult-bodied fashion doll Barbie
Barbie

Barbie is a fashion doll manufactured by Mattel and launched in March 1959. USA businesswoman Ruth Handler is credited with the creation of the doll using a Germany doll called Bild Lilli doll as her inspiration....
. Boys wanted Daisy BB guns, Lincoln Logs
Lincoln Logs

Lincoln Logs are a toy consisting of notched miniature logs, about ? inches in diameter. Analogous to real logs used in a log cabin, Lincoln Logs have notches in their ends so that small Scale model log buildings can be built....
, and miniature Matchbox vehicles. In 1955, Walt Disney's Davy Crockett, King of the Wild Frontier

Davy Crockett, King of the Wild Frontier

Davy Crockett, King of the Wild Frontier is a 1955 live action The Walt Disney Company adventure film starring Fess Parker as Davy Crockett....
saw the production of 'coonskin caps' and other frontier-themed toys. View-Master
View-Master

View-Master is a device for viewing seven stereogram on a paper disk. Although it is now considered a children's toy, it originally was not marketed as such....
s, Silly Putty
Silly Putty

Silly Putty is the Crayola owned trademark name for a class of silicone polymers known as Bouncing Putty. It is marketed today as a toy for children, but was originally created by accident during research into potential rubber substitutes for use by the United States in World War II....
, and Slinky
Slinky

Slinky is a helix-shaped toy that can travel down stairs end-over-end as it stretches and re-forms itself with the aid of gravity and its own momentum....
were bestsellers. Mr. Potato Head
Mr. Potato Head

Mr. Potato Head is an American toy consisting of a plastic model of a potato which can be decorated with a variety of attachable plastic parts such as ears and eyes to make a face....
, a toy of plastic face parts that could be stuck into a potato, was the first toy to be advertised on network television, and in its first year of production (1952) made over $4 million. Television shows and films generated show-related toys and books. Popular board games included Milton Bradley
Milton Bradley

Milton Bradley an United States board game pioneer, was credited by many with launching the board game industry in North America with Milton Bradley Company....
's Candyland (1949), Chutes and Ladders, and Careers

Careers (board game)

Careers is a board game first manufactured by Parker Brothers in 1955, which has been reprinted from time to time up to the present day. It was devised by the sociologist James Cooke Brown....
(1955).

Vehicles

This decade many auto companies produced large luxury cars designed to appear to flow through the air. Considered the "Jet Age", the new aircraft and rockets had an influence on vehicles. All Detroit manufacturers built cars with "Tail fins" and "bullet lights" --- for this reason the 1950s are referred to as the "Finned Fifties". The Cadillac Eldorado
Cadillac Eldorado

The Eldorado model was part of the Cadillac line from 1953 to 2002. The Cadillac Eldorado was the longest running American personal luxury car as it was the only one sold after the 1998 model year....
is an example of this. Cadillac is considered the epitome of luxury at this time.

Literature

Beatnik
Beatnik

Beatniks were part of a sociocultural movement in the 1950s and early 1960s that subscribed to an anti-materialistic lifestyle in the wake of WWII....
s and the beat generation
Beat generation

The Beat Generation is a term used to describe a group of American writers who came to prominence in the 1950s, and also the cultural phenomena that they wrote about and inspired ....
, an anti-materialistic literary movement that began with Jack Kerouac
Jack Kerouac

Jack Kerouac was an American author, poet and Painting. Alongside William S. Burroughs and Allen Ginsberg, he is considered a pioneer of the Beat Generation....
in 1948 and stretched on into the early-mid 1960s, was at its zenith in the 1950s. Such groundbreaking literature as William S. Burroughs
William S. Burroughs

William Seward Burroughs II was an United States novelist, essayist, social critic, Painting and spoken word performer.Much of Burroughs's work is semi-autobiographical, drawn from his experiences as an opiate addict, a condition that marked the last fifty years of his life....
' Naked Lunch

Naked Lunch

Naked Lunch is a novel by William S. Burroughs originally published in 1959.The book was originally published with the title The Naked Lunch in Paris in 1959 by Olympia Press....
, Allen Ginsberg
Allen Ginsberg

Irwin Allen Ginsberg was an United States poet. Ginsberg is best known for the poem "Howl" , celebrating his friends who were members of the Beat Generation and attacking what he saw as the destructive forces of materialism and conformity in the United States....
's Howl

Howl

Howl is a poem written by Allen Ginsberg as part of his 1956 collection of poetry titled Howl and Other Poems.The poem is considered to be one of the principal works of the Beat Generation along with Jack Kerouac's On the Road and William S....
, William Golding
William Golding

Sir William Gerald Golding was a United Kingdom novelist, poet and Nobel Prize for Literature laureate best known for his novel Lord of the Flies....
's Lord of the Flies

Lord of the Flies

Lord of the Flies is an Allegory novel by Nobel Prize for Literature-winning author William Golding. It discusses how culture created by man fails, using as an example a group of United Kingdom school-boys stuck on a desert island who try to govern themselves with disastrous results....
, Jack Kerouac's On the Road

On the Road

On the Road is a novel by American writer Jack Kerouac, written in April 1951, and published by Viking Press in 1957 in literature. It is a largely Autobiography work that was based on the spontaneous road trips of Kerouac and his friends across mid-century America....
, and J.D. Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye

The Catcher in the Rye

The Catcher in the Rye is a 1951 in literature novel by J. D. Salinger. Originally published for adults, the novel has become a common part of high school and college curricula throughout the English-speaking world; it has also been translated into almost all of the world's major languages....
were published. Also published in this decade was J. R. R. Tolkien
J. R. R. Tolkien

John Ronald Reuel Tolkien, Order of the British Empire was an English people English literature, poetry, Philology, and university professor, best known as the author of the classic high fantasy works The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings and The Silmarillion....
's epic The Lord of the Rings

The Lord of the Rings

The Lord of the Rings is an Epic poetry high fantasy novel written by Philology J.R.R. Tolkien. The story began as a sequel to Tolkien's earlier, less complex children's fantasy novel The Hobbit , but eventually developed into a much larger work....
as well as C.S. Lewis' The Chronicles of Narnia

The Chronicles of Narnia

The Chronicles of Narnia is a series of seven fantasy novels for children written by C. S. Lewis. It is considered a classic of children's literature and is the author's best-known work, having sold over 120 million copies in 41 languages....
. This decade is also marked by some of the most famous works of science fiction
Science fiction

Science fiction is a broad genre of fiction that often involves speculations based on current or future science or technology. Science fiction is found in books, art, television, films, games, theatre, and other media....
by science fiction writers Isaac Asimov
Isaac Asimov

Isaac Asimov , was a Russian-born United States author and professor of biochemistry, best known for his works of science fiction and for his popular science books....
, Arthur C. Clarke
Arthur C. Clarke

Sri Lankabhimanya Sir Arthur Charles Clarke, Order of the British Empire was a British people science fiction author, inventor, and Futurology, most famous for the novel 2001: A Space Odyssey , written in collaboration with director Stanley Kubrick, a collaboration which also produced the 2001: A Space Odyssey ; and as a host and comment...
, Theodore Sturgeon
Theodore Sturgeon

Theodore Sturgeon was an United States science fiction author.Though his mainstream success was relatively limited, Sturgeon is now widely recognized as one of the most important and influential science fiction writers of his era....
, A. E. van Vogt
A. E. van Vogt

Alfred Elton van Vogt was a Canada-born science fiction author who was one of the most prolific and complex writers of the mid-twentieth century "Golden Age of Science Fiction" of the genre....
, and Robert A. Heinlein
Robert A. Heinlein

Robert Anson Heinlein was an United States novelist and science fiction writer. Often called "the dean of science fiction writers", he is one of the most popular, influential, and controversial authors of the genre....
. Other significant literary works included James Jones
James Jones (author)

James Ramon Jones was an United States author known for his explorations of World War II and its aftermath....
' From Here to Eternity

From Here to Eternity

From Here to Eternity is a 1953 in film Academy Award winning drama film based on the From Here to Eternity by James Jones . It deals with the troubles of soldiers stationed on Hawaii in the months leading up to the attack on Pearl Harbor....
, Ernest Hemingway
Ernest Hemingway

Ernest Miller Hemingway was an American novelist, short story author, and journalist. He was part of the 1920s expatriate community in Paris, France, and one of the veterans of World War I later known as "the Lost Generation"....
's The Old Man and the Sea

The Old Man and the Sea

The Old Man and the Sea is a novella by Ernest Hemingway, written in Cuba in 1951 and published in 1952 in literature. It was the last major work of fiction to be produced by Hemingway and published in his lifetime....
, John Cheever
John Cheever

John Cheever was an United States novelist and short story writer, sometimes called "the Anton Chekhov of the suburbs." His fiction is mostly set in the Upper East Side of Manhattan, the Westchester County, New York suburbs, and old New England villages based on various South Shore towns around Quincy, Massachusetts, where he was born....
's The Wapshot Chronicle

The Wapshot Chronicle

The Wapshot Chronicle is a 1957 novel by John Cheever about an eccentric family who live in a Massachusetts fishing village.It won a National Book Award in 1958 and was followed by a sequel during 1964, The Wapshot Scandal....
, Tennessee Williams
Tennessee Williams

Tennessee Williams was an American playwright who received many of the top theatrical awards. He moved to New Orleans in 1939 and changed his name to "Tennessee", the state of his father's birth....
' Cat on a Hot Tin Roof

Cat on a Hot Tin Roof

Cat on a Hot Tin Roof is a Play by Tennessee Williams. The play won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1955 in literature....
, Arthur Miller
Arthur Miller

Arthur Miller was an United States playwright and essayist. He was a prominent figure in Theater in the United States and film for almost 100 years, writing a wide variety of dramas, including celebrated Play such as The Crucible, A View from the Bridge, All My Sons, and Death of a Salesman, which are studied and performed w...
's The Crucible

The Crucible

The Crucible by Arthur Miller is a play based on the actual events that, in 1692, led to the Salem Witch Trials, a series of hearings before local magistrates to prosecute over 150 people accused of witchcraft in colonial Massachusetts between February 1692 and May 1693....
, Lorraine Hansberry
Lorraine Hansberry

Lorraine Hansberry was an African-American playwright and author of political speeches, letters, and essays. Her most famous work, A Raisin in the Sun, was inspired by her family's legal battle against racially segregated housing laws in the Washington Park Subdivision of the South Side of Chicago, Illinois during her childhood....
's A Raisin in the Sun

A Raisin in the Sun

A Raisin in the Sun is a play by Lorraine Hansberry that debuted on Broadway theatre in 1959. The story is based upon a family's own experiences growing up in the Washington Park Subdivision of Chicago, Illinois's Woodlawn, Chicago neighborhood....
, Ralph Ellison
Ralph Ellison

Ralph Waldo Ellison was a scholar and writer. He was born in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, named by his father after Ralph Waldo Emerson. Ellison was best known for his novel Invisible Man , which won the National Book Award in 1953 in literature....
's Invisible Man

Invisible Man

Invisible Man, a novel written by Ralph Ellison. It was the only novel that Ellison published during his lifetime, and it won him the National Book Award in 1953 in literature....
, Saul Bellow
Saul Bellow

Saul Bellow , was an acclaimed Canada-United States writer born in Canada of Russian-Jewish origin. He won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1976 and the National Medal of Arts in 1988....
's The Adventures of Augie March, Ray Bradbury
Ray Bradbury

Ray Douglas Bradbury is an United States literature, fantasy, Horror fiction, science fiction, and mystery writer.Best known for his dystopian novel Fahrenheit 451 and The Martian Chronicles, Bradbury is widely considered one of the greatest and most popular American writers of speculative fiction of the twentieth century....
's Fahrenheit 451

Fahrenheit 451

Fahrenheit 451 is a dystopian speculative fiction novel authored by Ray Bradbury and first published in 1953.The novel presents a future American society in which the masses are Hedonism, and critical thought through reading is outlawed....
, Richard Matheson
Richard Matheson

Richard Matheson is an United States author and screenwriter, typically of fantasy fiction, Horror film, or science fiction.Born in Allendale, New Jersey, New Jersey to Norway immigrant parents, Matheson was raised in Brooklyn and graduated from Brooklyn Technical High School in 1943....
's I Am Legend

I Am Legend

I Am Legend is a 1954 science fiction/horror fiction novel by Richard Matheson about the last man alive in Los Angeles. It was influential on the developing modern Vampires in popular culture as well as the Zombies in popular culture, in popularizing the concept of a worldwide apocalypse due to disease, and in exploring the notion of vamp...
, John Knowles
John Knowles

John Knowles was an United States author, best known for his novel A Separate Peace.A 1945 graduate of Phillips Exeter Academy in Exeter, New Hampshire, Knowles graduated from Yale University as a member of the class of 1949....
' A Separate Peace

A Separate Peace

A Separate Peace is John Knowles' first published novel, released in 1959. The coming-of-age novel is Knowles' most widely-known work....
, Ayn Rand
Ayn Rand

Ayn Rand , was a Russian-American novelist, philosopher, playwright, and screenwriter. She is known for her best-selling novels and for developing a philosophical system called Objectivism ....
's Atlas Shrugged

Atlas Shrugged

Atlas Shrugged is a novel by Ayn Rand, first published in 1957 in literature in the United States. It was Rand's fourth, List of longest novels, and last novel....
, Vladimir Nabokov
Vladimir Nabokov

Vladimir Vladimirovich Nabokov was a Multilingualism Russian-American novelist and short story writer.Nabokov wrote his first nine novels in Russian language, then rose to international prominence as a master English prose stylist....
's Lolita

LOLITA

LOLITA is a natural language processing system developed by Durham University between 1986 and 2000. The name is an acronym for "Large-scale, Object-based, Linguistics Interactor, Machine translation and Analyzer"....
, Grace Metalious
Grace Metalious

Grace Metalious was an United States author, best known for her controversial novel Peyton Place ....
' Peyton Place

Peyton Place (novel)

Peyton Place is a 1956 in literature novel by Grace Metalious. "Peyton Place" has become an expression to describe a place whose inhabitants have sordid secrets....
, C.S. Lewis' Till We Have Faces

Till We Have Faces

Till We Have Faces: A Myth Retold is a 1956 in literature parallel novel by C. S. Lewis. It is a retelling of the Greek mythology of Cupid and Psyche, which had haunted Lewis all his life, and which is itself based on a chapter of The Golden Ass of Apuleius....
, and Boris Pasternak
Boris Pasternak

Boris Leonidovich Pasternak was a Nobel Prize-winning Russian poet and writer. In the West he is best known for his epic novel Doctor Zhivago , a tragedy whose events span the last period of Tsarist Russia and the early days of the Soviet Union....
's Doctor Zhivago

Doctor Zhivago

The name Doctor Zhivago can refer to:...
. Agatha Christie was also at a stage where she published at an average rate of one book every year.

Art Movements

Abstract expressionism
Abstract expressionism

Abstract expressionism was an American post?World War II art movement. It was the first specifically American movement to achieve worldwide influence and also the one that put New York City at the center of the art world, a role formerly filled by Paris....
, the first art movement
Art movement

An art movement is a tendency or style in art with a specific common philosophy or goal, followed by a group of artists during a restricted period of time, or, at least, with the heyday of the movement more or less strictly so restricted ....
specifically American to gain worldwide influence, was responsible for putting New York City in the centre on the artistic world, a place previously owned by Paris, France. This movement acquired its name for combining the German expressionism
German Expressionism

German Expressionism refers to a number of related creative movements which emerged in Germany before the first world war and reached a peak in 1920s Berlin, during the 1920s....
's emotional intensity with the anti-figurative aesthetic of the European abstract schools such as Futurism
Futurism

Futurism or Futurist may refer to:* Futurology* Futurists * Futurist architecture* Futurist meals, a gastronomic movement based on Futurism...
, Bauhaus
Bauhaus

' is the common term for the ', a school in Germany that combined crafts and the fine arts, and was famous for the approach to design that it publicized and taught....
and Synthetic Cubism. Jackson Pollock
Jackson Pollock

Paul Jackson Pollock was an influential American painter and a major force in the abstract expressionism movement. In October 1945, he married the artist Lee Krasner....
was one of the most influential painters of this movement, creating famous works such as No. 5, 1948
No. 5, 1948

No. 5, 1948 is a painting by Jackson Pollock , an United States painter known for his contributions to the abstract expressionist movement. The painting was done on an 8' x 4' sheet of fiberboard, with thick amounts of brown and yellow paint drizzled on top of it, forming a nest-like appearance....
.

Color Field
Color Field

Color Field painting is a style of abstract painting that emerged in New York City during the 1940s and 1950s. Inspired by European modernism and closely related to Abstract Expressionism with many of its important early proponents being among the pioneering Abstract Expressionists....
painting and Hard-edge painting
Hard-edge painting

Hard-edge painting is painting in which abrupt transitions are found between color areas. Color areas are often of one unvarying color. Color transitions often take place along straight lines, though curvilinear edges of color areas are also common....
followed close on the heels of Abstract expressionism
Abstract expressionism

Abstract expressionism was an American post?World War II art movement. It was the first specifically American movement to achieve worldwide influence and also the one that put New York City at the center of the art world, a role formerly filled by Paris....
, and became the idiom for new abstraction in painting during the late 1950s. The term second generation was applied to many abstract artists who were related to but following different painterly directions than the earliest abstract expressionists. In the early 1950s Jackson Pollock
Jackson Pollock

Paul Jackson Pollock was an influential American painter and a major force in the abstract expressionism movement. In October 1945, he married the artist Lee Krasner....
and Willem de Kooning
Willem de Kooning

Willem de Kooning was an abstract expressionist artist, born in Rotterdam, the Netherlands.In the post-World War II era, de Kooning painted in a style that came to be referred to variously as Abstract expressionism, Action painting, and the New York School....
were enormously influential. However by the late 1950s Barnett Newman
Barnett Newman

Barnett Newman was an United States artist. He is seen as one of the major figures in abstract expressionism and one of the foremost of the color field painters....
and Mark Rothko
Mark Rothko

Mark Rothko, born Marcus Rothkowitz , was a Latvian-born United States painter and printmaker. He is classified as an abstract expressionism, although he himself rejected this label, and even resisted the classification as an "abstract painter"....
's paintings became more in focus to the next generation.

Pop art
Pop art

Pop art is a visual art movement that emerged in the mid 1950s in UK and in the late 1950s in the United States. Pop art challenged tradition by asserting that an artist's use of the mass-produced visual commodities of popular culture is contiguous with the perspective of Fine Art since Pop removes the material from its context and isolates...
used the iconography
Iconography

Iconography is the branch of art history which studies the identification, description, and the interpretation of the content of images. The word iconography literally means "image writing", and comes from the Ancient Greek e???? and ??afe?? ....
of television, photography, comics, cinema and advertising. With its roots in dadaism, it started to take form towards the end of the 1950s when some European artists started to make the symbols and products of the world of advertising
Advertising

Advertising is a form of communication that typically attempts to persuade potential customers to Purchasing or to consume more of a particular brand of Product or Service ....
and propaganda
Propaganda

Propaganda is the dissemination of information aimed at influencing the opinions or behaviors of large numbers of people. As opposed to Objectivity providing information, propaganda in its most basic sense presents information in order to influence its audience....
the main subject of their artistic work. This return of figurative art
Figurative art

Figurative art, sometimes written as figurativism, describes artwork - particularly paintings and sculptures - which are clearly derived from real object sources, and are therefore by definition representation ....
, in opposition to the abstract expressionism that dominated the aesthetic scene since the end of World War II was dominated by Great Britain until the early 1960s when Andy Warhol
Andy Warhol

Andrew Warhola , more commonly known as Andy Warhol, was an United Statesn Painting, Printmaking, and filmmaker who was a leading figure in the Art movement known as pop art....
, the most known artist of this movement began to show Pop Art in galleries in the United States.

Science and technology

The Miller-Urey experiment
Miller-Urey experiment

The Miller?Urey experiment was an experiment that simulated hypothetical conditions thought at the time to be present on the early Earth, and tested for the occurrence of abiogenesis....
showed in 1953 that under simulated conditions resembling those thought to be possible to have existed shortly after Earth was first created, many of the basic organic molecules that form the building blocks of life are able to spontaneously form.
Francis Crick
Francis Crick

Francis Harry Compton Crick Order of Merit Royal Society , Ph.D., was a British molecular biology, physics, and neuroscience, and most noted for being one of the co-discoverers of the structure of the DNA molecule in 1953....
, James D. Watson
James D. Watson

James Dewey Watson is an American molecular biology, best known as one of the co-discoverers of the structure of DNA. Watson, Francis Crick, and Maurice Wilkins were awarded the 1962 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine "for their discoveries concerning the molecular structure of nucleic acids and its significance for information transfer...
, and Rosalind Franklin
Rosalind Franklin

Rosalind Elsie Franklin was an English people biophysicist and X-ray crystallography who made important contributions to the understanding of the fine molecular structures of DNA, viruses, coal and graphite....
discovered the helical structure of DNA
DNA

Deoxyribonucleic acid is a nucleic acid that contains the genetics instructions used in the development and functioning of all known living organisms and some viruses....
at the Cavendish Laboratory
Cavendish Laboratory

The Cavendish Laboratory is the University of Cambridge's Department of Physics, and is part of the university's School of Physical Sciences. It was opened in 1874 as a teaching laboratory and was initially located on the New Museums Site, Free School Lane, in the centre of Cambridge....
at the University of Cambridge
University of Cambridge

The University of Cambridge , located in Cambridge, England, is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation university in the Anglosphere....
in 1953.
Bruce C. Heezen
Bruce C. Heezen

Bruce Charles Heezen was an American geologist. He is most famous as being the leader of a team from Columbia University which mapped the Mid-Atlantic Ridge during the 1950s....
discovered the Mid-Atlantic Ridge
Mid-Atlantic Ridge

The Mid-Atlantic Ridge is a mid-ocean ridge, a divergent tectonics plate boundary located along the floor of the Atlantic Ocean, and the longest mountain range in the world....
.
The first polio vaccine
Polio vaccine

Two polio vaccines are used throughout the world to combat poliomyelitis . The first was developed by Jonas Salk and first tested in 1952. Announced to the world by Salk on April 12, 1955, it consists of an injected dose of inactivated poliovirus....
, developed by Jonas Salk, was introduced to the general public in 1955.
The first organ transplant
Organ transplant

Organ transplant is the moving of an organ from one body to another , for the purpose of replacing the recipient's damaged or failing organ with a working one from the donor site....
s were done in Boston
Boston, Massachusetts

Boston is the State capital and largest city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is considered the economic and cultural center of the region, and is sometimes regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England." Boston city proper had a 2007 est...
and Paris in 1954.
The term artificial intelligence
Artificial intelligence

Artificial intelligence is the intelligence of machines and the branch of computer science which aims to create it. Major AI textbooks define the field as "the study and design of intelligent agents,"...
was coined in 1956 by John McCarthy
John McCarthy (computer scientist)

John McCarthy , is an United States computer scientist and cognitive scientist who received the Turing Award in 1971 for his major contributions to the field of Artificial Intelligence ....
.
Sputnik 1
Sputnik 1

Sputnik 1 was the world's first Earth-orbiting artificial satellite. It was launched into a low altitude elliptical orbit by the Soviet Union on October 4, 1957, and was the first in a series of satellites collectively known as the Sputnik program....
was launched in 1957.
BOAC
Boac

Boac can refer to:* Boac, Marinduque, a municipality in the Southern Philippines* British Overseas Airways Corporation the former United Kingdom state-owned airline...
brings into service the de Havilland Comet
De Havilland Comet

The de Havilland Comet was the world's first commercial jet airliner to reach production. Developed and manufactured by de Havilland, it first flew in 1949 and was considered a landmark United Kingdom aeronautical design....
, the world's first commercial jet airliner to reach production.
Fortran
Fortran

Fortran is a general-purpose programming language, procedural programming language, imperative programming language programming language that is especially suited to numerical analysis and scientific computing....
, perhaps the single most important milestone in the development of programming languages, was developed at IBM.

Prizes
Albert Schweitzer
Albert Schweitzer

Albert Schweitzer was a German theology, musician, philosopher, and physician. He was born in Kaysersberg in the province of Elsass-Lothringen of the German Empire....
is awarded the Nobel Peace Prize
Nobel Peace Prize

The Nobel Peace Prize is one of five Nobel Prizes bequeathed by the Swedish industrialist and inventor Alfred Nobel. According to Nobel's will , the Peace Prize should be awarded "to the person who shall have done the most or the best work for :wikt:fraternity between nations, for the abolition or reduction of standing armies and for the h...
in 1952. In 1953 Churchill is given the Nobel Prize
Nobel Prize

The Nobel Prize , established in the 1895 will of Swedish chemist Alfred Nobel; it was first awarded in Nobel Prize in Physics, Nobel Prize in Chemistry, Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, Nobel Prize in Literature, and Nobel Peace Prize in 1901....
for literature. In 1955 Laxness is awarded the Nobel Prize for literature for his work with Iceland
Iceland

Iceland, officially the Republic of Iceland , is an island country located in the North Atlantic Ocean between mainland Europe and Greenland....
ic literature. Pulitzer Prize
Pulitzer Prize

The Pulitzer Prize is an United States award regarded as the highest national honor in newspaper journalism, literary achievements and musical composition....

Sports

Alberto Ascari
Alberto Ascari

Alberto Ascari was an Italy racing driver and twice Formula One List of Formula One World Drivers' Champions. He is one of only two Italian Formula One World Champions in the history of the sport....
(Italian racing driver)
Roger Bannister
Roger Bannister

Sir Roger Gilbert Bannister, Order of the British Empire is an England former athlete best known as the first man in history to run the mile in Four-minute mile....
(English track and field athlete)
Yogi Berra
Yogi Berra

Lawrence Peter "Yogi" Berra is a former Major League Baseball player and manager. He played almost his entire career for the New York Yankees and was elected to the baseball National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum in 1972....
(American baseball
Baseball

Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two team sport of nine players each. The goal of baseball is to score run by hitting a thrown Baseball with a baseball bat and touching a series of four markers called base arranged at the corners of a ninety-foot square, or diamond. Players on one team take turns hitting against...
player)
Maureen Connolly
Maureen Connolly

Maureen Catherine Connolly was an American tennis player who was the first woman to win all four Grand Slam tournaments during the same calendar year....
(American tennis
Tennis

Tennis is a sport played between two players or between two teams of two players each . Each player uses a strung racquet to strike a hollow rubber Tennis ball covered with felt over a net into the opponent's tennis court....
player)
Colin Cowdrey
Colin Cowdrey

Michael Colin Cowdrey, Baron Cowdrey of Tonbridge, Order of the British Empire was an England cricket team cricketer and later cricket administrator,...
(English cricketer)
Alfredo Di Stéfano
Alfredo Di Stéfano

Alfredo di St?fano Laulh? is an Argentina - Spain former football and coach . He is most associated with Real Madrid C.F. and was instrumental in their domination of the UEFA Champions League during the 1950s, a period in which the club won the trophy in five consecutive seasons from 1956....
(Argentinian football
Association

Association may refer to:*Voluntary association, a group of individuals who voluntarily enter into an agreement to accomplish a purpose** 501 non-profit organization...
er)
Juan Manuel Fangio
Juan Manuel Fangio

Juan Manuel Fangio , nicknamed "El Chueco" or "El Maestro" , was a race car driver from Argentina, who dominated the first decade of Formula One racing....
(Argentinian racing driver)
Tom Finney
Tom Finney

Sir Thomas Finney, Order of the British Empire is a former English football er, famous for his loyalty to his league club, Preston North End F.C., and for his performances in the England national football team....
(English football
Association

Association may refer to:*Voluntary association, a group of individuals who voluntarily enter into an agreement to accomplish a purpose** 501 non-profit organization...
er)
Garrincha
Garrincha

Manuel Francisco dos Santos , known by the nickname "Garrincha" , was a Brazilian football right Midfielder#Winger and Striker who helped the Brazil national football team win the Football World Cup of 1958 FIFA World Cup and 1962 FIFA World Cup....
(Brazilian football
Association

Association may refer to:*Voluntary association, a group of individuals who voluntarily enter into an agreement to accomplish a purpose** 501 non-profit organization...
er)
Neil Harvey
Neil Harvey

Robert Neil Harvey Order of the British Empire is a former Australian cricketer who represented the Australian cricket team between 1948 and 1963....
(Australian cricketer)
Sepp Herberger
Sepp Herberger

Josef "Sepp" Herberger was a Germany football player and manager. He is most famous for being the manager of the Germany national football team which won the 1954 FIFA World Cup - The Miracle of Bern....
(German football
Association

Association may refer to:*Voluntary association, a group of individuals who voluntarily enter into an agreement to accomplish a purpose** 501 non-profit organization...
manager)
Gordie Howe
Gordie Howe

Gordon "Gordie" Howe, Order of Canada is a retired professional ice hockey player from Canada who played for the Detroit Red Wings and Hartford Whalers of the National Hockey League , and the Houston Aeros and Hartford Whalers in the World Hockey Association ....
(Canadian ice hockey
Ice hockey

Ice hockey, often referred to simply as hockey, is a team sport played on ice. It is a fast paced and physical sport. Ice hockey is most popular in areas that are sufficiently cold for natural reliable seasonal ice cover such as Canada, the northern United States, Scandinavia and Russia, though with the advent of indoor artificial ice r...
player)
Len Hutton
Len Hutton

Sir Leonard Hutton was an England cricketer, who dominated the national and international cricket scene for the decade after the Second World War and was honoured with the England team captaincy, breaking an age-old tradition that the position could be held only by an amateur....
(England cricketer)
Mickey Mantle
Mickey Mantle

Mickey Charles Mantle was an American baseball player who was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1974.He played his entire 18-year major-league professional career for the New York Yankees, winning 3 American League MVP titles and playing for 16 Major League Baseball All-Star Game teams....
(American baseball
Baseball

Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two team sport of nine players each. The goal of baseball is to score run by hitting a thrown Baseball with a baseball bat and touching a series of four markers called base arranged at the corners of a ninety-foot square, or diamond. Players on one team take turns hitting against...
player)
Rocky Marciano
Rocky Marciano

Rocky Marciano , born Rocco Francis Marchegiano, was the heavyweight champion of the world from 1952 to 1956. Marciano, with forty-three knockouts to his credit , remains the only heavyweight champion in boxing history to retire having won every fight in his professional career....
(American boxer
Boxing

Boxing is a combat sport where two participants, generally of similar human weight, fight each other with their fists. Boxing is supervised by a referee and is typically engaged in during a series of one to three-minute intervals called rounds....
)
Stanley Matthews
Stanley Matthews

Sir Stanley Matthews, Order of the British Empire was an English Football player. Often regarded as one of the greats of the Football in England, he is the only player to have been knighted while still playing, as well as the first European Footballer of the Year and the first Football Writers' Association Footballer of the Year....
(English football
Association

Association may refer to:*Voluntary association, a group of individuals who voluntarily enter into an agreement to accomplish a purpose** 501 non-profit organization...
er)
Willie Mays (American baseball
Baseball

Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two team sport of nine players each. The goal of baseball is to score run by hitting a thrown Baseball with a baseball bat and touching a series of four markers called base arranged at the corners of a ninety-foot square, or diamond. Players on one team take turns hitting against...
player)
Pelé
Pelé

Edison Arantes do Nascimento, Order of the British Empire , best known by his nickname Pel? is a Brazilian former Association football player, rated by many as the greatest footballer of all time....
(Brazilian football
Association

Association may refer to:*Voluntary association, a group of individuals who voluntarily enter into an agreement to accomplish a purpose** 501 non-profit organization...
er)
Ferenc Puskás
Ferenc Puskás

Ferenc Pusk?s was a legendary Hungarian people football and Coach and is regarded as one of the greatest footballers of all time. He scored a remarkable 84 goals in 85 international matches for Hungary national football team, and 514 goals in 529 matches in the Hungarian League and La Liga leagues....
(Hungarian football
Association

Association may refer to:*Voluntary association, a group of individuals who voluntarily enter into an agreement to accomplish a purpose** 501 non-profit organization...
er)
Helmut Rahn
Helmut Rahn

Helmut Rahn, known as Der Boss , was a German football player. He became a legend for having scored the winning goal in the 1954 FIFA World Cup Final of the 1954 FIFA World Cup ....
(German football
Association

Association may refer to:*Voluntary association, a group of individuals who voluntarily enter into an agreement to accomplish a purpose** 501 non-profit organization...
er)
Real Madrid (Hegemony over European soccer)
Maurice Richard
Maurice Richard

Joseph Henri Maurice "Rocket" Richard, Queen's Privy Council for Canada, Order of Canada, National Order of Quebec was a professional ice hockey player who played for the Montreal Canadiens from 1942?43 NHL season to 1959?60 NHL season....
(Canadian ice hockey
Ice hockey

Ice hockey, often referred to simply as hockey, is a team sport played on ice. It is a fast paced and physical sport. Ice hockey is most popular in areas that are sufficiently cold for natural reliable seasonal ice cover such as Canada, the northern United States, Scandinavia and Russia, though with the advent of indoor artificial ice r...
player)
Jackie Robinson
Jackie Robinson

Jack Roosevelt "Jackie" Robinson was the first African-American Major League Baseball player of the modern era. Although not the first African-American professional baseball player in United States history, Robinson's 1947 Major League debut with the Brooklyn Dodgers ended approximately 60 years of baseball Racial_segregation#United_States_...
(American baseball
Baseball

Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two team sport of nine players each. The goal of baseball is to score run by hitting a thrown Baseball with a baseball bat and touching a series of four markers called base arranged at the corners of a ninety-foot square, or diamond. Players on one team take turns hitting against...
player)
Sugar Ray Robinson
Sugar Ray Robinson

Sugar Ray Robinson was a professional boxer. Frequently cited as the greatest boxer of all time, Robinson's performances at the welterweight and middleweight divisions prompted sportswriters to create "pound for pound" rankings, where they compared fighters regardless of weight....
(American boxer
Boxing

Boxing is a combat sport where two participants, generally of similar human weight, fight each other with their fists. Boxing is supervised by a referee and is typically engaged in during a series of one to three-minute intervals called rounds....
)
Bill Russell (American basketball
Basketball

Basketball is a team sport in which two teams of five active players each try to score points against one another by propelling a basketball through a 10 feet high hoop under organized rules....
player)
Gary Sobers (West Indies cricketer)
Brian Statham
Brian Statham

John Brian "George" Statham, CBE was one of the leading English fast bowling in 20th century England cricket. Initially a bowler of a brisk fast-medium pace, Statham was able to remodel his action to generate enough speed to become genuinely fast....
(England cricketer)
Eduard Streltsov
Eduard Streltsov

Eduard Anatoliyevich Streltsov was a Soviet Union football player, who was nicknamed Russian Pel?. He scored 100 times for Torpedo Moscow in 222 appearances and scored 25 in 38 for Soviet national football team....
(Russian football
Association

Association may refer to:*Voluntary association, a group of individuals who voluntarily enter into an agreement to accomplish a purpose** 501 non-profit organization...
er)
Frank Tyson
Frank Tyson

Frank Holmes Tyson was an English cricket team cricketer of the mid-1950s. His fast bowling gave him the nickname "Typhoon Tyson", and both Don Bradman and Richie Benaud considered him to be the quickest they had ever seen....
(England cricketer)
Frank Worrell
Frank Worrell

Sir Frank Mortimer Maglinne Worrell is sometimes referred to by his nickname of Tae and was a West Indies cricketer and Jamaican senator....
(West Indies cricketer)
Billy Wright
Billy Wright (footballer)

William Ambrose "Billy" Wright, Order of the British Empire was an English football , who spent his whole career at Wolverhampton Wanderers F.C.....
(English football
Association

Association may refer to:*Voluntary association, a group of individuals who voluntarily enter into an agreement to accomplish a purpose** 501 non-profit organization...
er)
Lev Yashin
Lev Yashin

Lev Ivanovich Yashin was a Russian, USSR national football team goalkeeper , considered by many to be the greatest goalkeeper in the history of the game....
(Russian football
Association

Association may refer to:*Voluntary association, a group of individuals who voluntarily enter into an agreement to accomplish a purpose** 501 non-profit organization...
er)
Emil Zátopek
Emil Zátopek

Emil Z?topek was a Czech Republic Athletics probably best known for his amazing feat of winning three gold medals in athletics at the 1952 Summer Olympics in Helsinki....
(Czech runner)

Olympics

1952 Summer Olympics
1952 Summer Olympics

The 1952 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the XV Olympiad, were an international multi-sport event held in Helsinki, Finland in 1952....
held in Helsinki
Helsinki

Helsinki is the Capital and largest List of cities and towns in Finland of Finland. It is in the southern part of Finland, on the shore of the Gulf of Finland, by the Baltic Sea....
, Finland
1952 Winter Olympics
1952 Winter Olympics

The 1952 Winter Olympics, officially known as the VI Olympic Winter Games, were a winter multi-sport event which was celebrated in 1952 in Oslo, Norway....
held in Oslo
Oslo

is the Capital and largest List of cities in Norway in Norway.Metropolitan Oslo or the Greater Oslo Region makes up the third largest urban area in Scandinavia after Metropolitan Stockholm and Metropolitan Copenhagen....
, Norway
1956 Summer Olympics
1956 Summer Olympics

The 1956 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the XVI Olympiad, were an international multi-sport event which was held in Melbourne, Australia, in 1956, with the exception of the Equestrian at the 1956 Summer Olympics, which could not be held in Australia due to quarantine regulations....
held in Melbourne
Melbourne

Melbourne is the more common name for the geographic region and Census in Australia of the Greater Melbourne metropolitan area. It is the second List of cities in Australia by population in Australia, with a population of approximately 3.8 million and serves as the List of Australian capital cities of Victoria ....
, Australia
1956 Winter Olympics
1956 Winter Olympics

The 1956 Winter Olympics, officially known as the VII Olympic Winter Games, were a winter multi-sport event which was celebrated in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy....
held in Cortina d'Ampezzo
Cortina d'Ampezzo

Cortina d'Ampezzo is a town and municipality in Alps and the province of Belluno, Veneto, northern Italy. Located in the heart of the Dolomites in an alpine valley, it is a popular winter sport resort known for its ski-ranges, scenery, accommodations, shops and apr?s-ski scene....
, Italy

FIFA World Cups

1950 World Cup hosted by Brazil
Brazil

Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is a country in South America. It is the List of countries and outlying territories by total area country by geographical area, occupying nearly half of South America, the List of countries by population country, and the fourth most populous democracy in the world....
, won by Uruguay
Uruguay

Uruguay is a country located in the southeastern part of South America. It is home to 3.46 million people, of whom 1.7 million live in the capital Montevideo and its metropolitan area....
1954 World Cup
1954 World Cup

1954 World Cup may refer to:*1954 Rugby League World Cup*1954 FIFA World Cup...
hosted by Switzerland
Switzerland

Switzerland is a landlocked Swiss Alps country of roughly 7.7 million people in Western Europe with an area of 41,285 km?. Switzerland is a federal republic consisting of 26 states called Cantons of Switzerland....
, won by West Germany
West Germany

West Germany was the common English name for the Germany , from its formation in May 1949 to German reunification in October 1990, when East Germany was dissolved and its States of Germany became part of the Federal Republic, ending the more than 40-year division of Germany....
1958 World Cup hosted by Sweden
Sweden

Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic countries on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden has land borders with Norway to the west and Finland to the northeast, and it is connected to Denmark by the ?resund Bridge in the south....
, won by Brazil
Brazil

Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is a country in South America. It is the List of countries and outlying territories by total area country by geographical area, occupying nearly half of South America, the List of countries by population country, and the fourth most populous democracy in the world....

International issues

Cold War
Cold War

The Cold War was the continuing state of conflict, tension and competition that existed between a number of world powers, including the United States, the Soviet Union, People's Republic of China, France, United Kingdom and those countries' respective allies from the mid-1940s to the early 1990s....
and proxy wars involving the influence of the rival superpowers of the Soviet Union
Soviet Union

The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was a Constitution of the Soviet Union socialist state that existed in Eurasia from 1922 to 1991.The name is a translation of the , romanization of Russian Soyuz Sovetskikh Sotsialisticheskikh Respublik, abbreviated ????, SSSR....
and the United States.
Decolonization
Decolonization

Decolonisation refers to the undoing of colonialism, the establishment of governance or authority through the creation of settlements by another country or jurisdiction....
Establishment of the Non-aligned Movement
Non-Aligned Movement

The Non-Aligned Movement is an international organization of states considering themselves not formally aligned with or against any major power bloc....
.

Africa

Large-scale decolonization
Decolonization

Decolonisation refers to the undoing of colonialism, the establishment of governance or authority through the creation of settlements by another country or jurisdiction....
in Africa first began in the 1950s. In 1951, Libya
Libya

Libya , officially the Great Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamahiriya , is a country located in North Africa. Bordering the Mediterranean Sea to the north, Libya lies between Egypt to the east, Sudan to the southeast, Chad and Niger to the south, and Algeria and Tunisia to the west....
became the first African country to gain independence in the decade, and in 1954 guerrillas began the Algerian Civil War
Algerian Civil War

The Algerian Civil War was an armed conflict between the Algerian government and various Islamist rebel groups which began in 1991. It is estimated to have cost between 150,000 and 200,000 lives....
. 1956 saw Sudan
Sudan

Sudan is a country in northeastern Africa. It is the largest in the African continent and the Arab World, and List of countries and outlying territories by total area by area....
, Morocco
Morocco

Morocco , officially the Kingdom of Morocco , is a country located in North Africa with a population of nearly 34 million and an area just under 447,000 km2....
, and Tunisia
Tunisia

Tunisia , officially the Tunisian Republic , is a country located in North Africa. It is bordered by Algeria to the west and Libya to the southeast....
all become independent, and the next year Ghana
Ghana

The Republic of Ghana is a country in West Africa. It borders C?te d'Ivoire to the west, Burkina Faso to the north, Togo to the east, and the Gulf of Guinea to the south....
became the first sub-saharan Africa
Sub-Saharan Africa

Sub-Saharan Africa is a geographical term used to describe the area of the African continent which lies south of the Sahara, or those African countries which are fully or partially located south of the Sahara....
n nation to gain independence.
The Mau Mau began their terrorist attacks against the British in Kenya. This led to concentration camps in Kenya, the retreat of the British, and the election of former terrorist Kenyatta as leader of Kenya.
Africa experienced the beginning of large-scale top-down economic intervention
Intervention

Intervention may refer to:* Intervention , an attempt to compel a subject to "get help" for an addiction or other problem* Intervention , when a central bank buys or sells foreign currencies in an attempt to adjust exchange rates...
s in the 1950s that failed to cause improvement and led to charitable exhaustion by the West
Western world

The term Western world, the West or the Occident can have multiple meanings dependent on its context . Accordingly, the basic definition of what constitutes "the West" varies, expanding and contracting over time, in relation to various historical circumstances....
as the century went on. The widespread corruption was not dealt with and war, disease, and famine continue to be constant problems in this region.
Egyptian general Gamal Nasser overthrows the Egyptian monarchy, establishing himself as President of Egypt
Egypt

Egypt is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Western Asia. Covering an area of about , Egypt borders the Mediterranean Sea to the north, the Gaza Strip and Israel to the northeast, the Red Sea to the east, Sudan to the south and Libya to the west....
. Nasser becomes an influential leader in the Middle East in the 1950s, leads Arab states into war with Israel
Israel

Israel officially the State of Israel , is a country in the Middle East located on the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea. It borders Lebanon in the north, Syria in the northeast, Jordan in the east, and Egypt on the southwest, and contains geographically diverse features within its relatively small area....
, is a major leader of the Non-Aligned Movement
Non-Aligned Movement

The Non-Aligned Movement is an international organization of states considering themselves not formally aligned with or against any major power bloc....
and promotes pan-Arab unification
Pan-Arabism

Pan-Arabism is a movement for unification among the peoples and countries of the Arab World, from the Atlantic Ocean to the Arabian Sea....
.

Americas

In the 1950s Latin America
Latin America

Latin America is a region of the Americas where Romance languages ? particularly Spanish language and Portuguese language, and variably French language ? are primarily spoken....
was the center of covert and overt conflict between the Soviet Union
Soviet Union

The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was a Constitution of the Soviet Union socialist state that existed in Eurasia from 1922 to 1991.The name is a translation of the , romanization of Russian Soyuz Sovetskikh Sotsialisticheskikh Respublik, abbreviated ????, SSSR....
and the United States. Their varying collusion with national, populist, and elitist interests destabilized the region. The United States CIA orchestrated the overthrow of the Guatemalan government
Operation PBSUCCESS

The 1954 Guatemalan coup d'?tat was a covert operation organized by the United States Central Intelligence Agency to overthrow Jacobo Arbenz Guzm?n, the democratically-elected President of Guatemala....
in 1952. In 1957 the military dictatorship of Venezuela was overthrown. This continued a pattern of regional revolution and warfare making extensive use of ground forces
Ground Forces

The Hungarian Ground Forces are one of the branches of the Military of Hungary. It is the army which handles Ground activities and troops including artillery, tanks, APC's, IFV's and ground support....
.
In 1957, Dr. François Duvalier
François Duvalier

Dr. Fran?ois Duvalier, known as "Papa Doc" , was the List of Presidents of Ha?ti of Haiti from 1957 to 1971. In 1964 he made himself President for Life....
came to power in an election in Haiti
Haiti

Haiti , officially the Republic of Haiti , is a Haitian Creole language- and French language-speaking Caribbean country. Along with the Dominican Republic, it occupies the island of Hispaniola, in the Greater Antilles archipelago....
. He later declared himself president for life, and ruled until his death in 1971.
In 1959 Fidel Castro
Fidel Castro

Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz is a Cuban revolutionary leader who was prime minister of Cuba from February 1959 to December 1976 and then president, premier until his resignation from the office in February 2008....
overthrew the regime of Fulgencio Batista
Fulgencio Batista

Fulgencio Batista y Zald?var was a Cuban military officer, dictator and politician.Batista was the military leader of Cuba from 1933 to 1940 and President of Cuba from 1940 to 1944....
in Cuba
Cuba

The Republic of Cuba is a country in the Caribbean. It consists of the island of Cuba , the island of Isla de la Juventud, and several adjacent small islands....
, establishing a communist
Communism

Communism is a socioeconomic structure and political ideology that promotes the establishment of an egalitarianism, classlessness, stateless society based on common ownership and control of the means of production and property in general....
government in the country. The popularity of the revolution, and such leaders as the Argentinian Che Guevara
Che Guevara

Ernesto "Che" Guevara , commonly known as Che Guevara, El Che, or simply Che, was an Argentina Marxism revolutionary, politician, author, physician, military theorist, and guerrilla leader....
gave it global appeal and recognition. The United States however, opposed the new government led by Castro and sought to isolate it and overthrow it, resulting in Cuba
Cuba

The Republic of Cuba is a country in the Caribbean. It consists of the island of Cuba , the island of Isla de la Juventud, and several adjacent small islands....
moving closer to the Soviet Union
Soviet Union

The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was a Constitution of the Soviet Union socialist state that existed in Eurasia from 1922 to 1991.The name is a translation of the , romanization of Russian Soyuz Sovetskikh Sotsialisticheskikh Respublik, abbreviated ????, SSSR....
.
NORAD signed in 1959 by Canada and the United States creating a unified North American aerial defense system.

Asia

Reconstruction continues in Japan in the 1950s, funded by the United States which continued its occupation of Japan since World War II
World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global military conflict which involved a Participants in World War II, including all of the great powers, organised into two opposing military alliances: the Allies of World War II and the Axis powers....
. Social changes took place, including democratic elections and universal suffrage.
Korean War
Korean War

The Korean War refers to a period of military conflict between North Korea and South Korea regimes, with major hostilities lasting from June 25, 1950 until the armistice signed on July 27, 1953....
from 1950 to 1953. Communist forces in North Korea
North Korea

North Korea, officially the Democratic People's Republic of Korea , is a state in East Asia, occupying the northern half of the Korean Peninsula....
were supported by the People's Republic of China and the Soviet Union
Soviet Union

The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was a Constitution of the Soviet Union socialist state that existed in Eurasia from 1922 to 1991.The name is a translation of the , romanization of Russian Soyuz Sovetskikh Sotsialisticheskikh Respublik, abbreviated ????, SSSR....
while South Korea was supported by the United States and other western countries. This war resulted in a permanent division between the north and south sections of Korea along political lines.
In 1953 the French colonial rulers of Indochina
Indochina

Indochina, or the Indochinese Peninsula, is a subregion in Southeast Asia. It lies roughly east of India, south of China.The word has French origins, Indochine, and was adopted when French colonizers in Vietnam began expanding their territory to bordering countries....
tried to contain a growing communist insurgency against their rule led by Ho Chi Minh
Ho Chi Minh

H? Ch? Minh was a Vietnamese communism revolutionary and statesman who was Prime Minister and President of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam ....
. After their defeat at Dien Bien Phu
Dien Bien Phu

Dien Bien Phu is a town in Tay Bac Vietnam. It is the capital of Dien Bien province, and is known for the events there during the First Indochina War, the Battle of Dien Bien Phu, during which the region was a breadbasket for the Viet Minh....
in 1954 they were forced to cede independence to the nations of Cambodia
Cambodia

The Kingdom of Cambodia is a country in South East Asia with a population of over 13 million people. The kingdom's capital and largest city is Phnom Penh....
, Laos
Laos

Laos , officially the Lao People's Democratic Republic, is a landlocked country in southeast Asia, bordered by Burma and People's Republic of China to the northwest, Vietnam to the east, Cambodia to the south, and Thailand to the west....
and Vietnam
Vietnam

Vietnam , officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam , is the easternmost country on the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia. It is bordered by People's Republic of China to the north, Laos to the northwest, Cambodia to the southwest, and the South China Sea to the east....
. The Geneva Conference of 1954 separated French supporters and communist nationalists for the purposes of the ceasefire, and mandated nationwide elections by 1956; Ngo Dinh Diem established a government in the south, and refused to hold elections. Conflict then resumed between the communist north and American-supported south.

Europe
With the help of the Marshall Plan
Marshall Plan

The Marshall Plan was the primary plan of the United States for rebuilding and creating a stronger foundation for the countries of Western Europe, and repelling communism after World War II....
, post-war reconstruction succeeded, with some countries (including West Germany) preferring free market capitalism while others preferred Keynesian-policy welfare states. Europe continued to be divided into Western and Soviet bloc countries. The geographical point of this division came to be called the Iron Curtain

Iron Curtain

The Iron Curtain was the symbolic, ideological, and physical boundary dividing Europe into two separate areas from the end of World War II in 1945 until the end of the Cold War in 1991....
. It divided Germany into East

German Democratic Republic

The German Democratic Republic was a self-declared socialist state created in the Soviet Zone of occupied Germany and the East Berlin of Allied Occupation Zones in Germany....
and West Germany. In 1955 West Germany joined NATO

NATO

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization , also called the Atlantic Alliance, is a military alliance established by the signing of the North Atlantic Treaty on 4 April 1949....
. In 1956 Soviet troops marched into Hungary.

The Soviet Union

Soviet Union

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global military conflict which involved a Participants in World War II, including all of the great powers, organised into two opposing military alliances: the Allies of World War II and the Axis powers....
. In 1953 Joseph Stalin

Joseph Stalin

Joseph Stalin was the General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union's Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1922 until his death in 1953....
, the leader of the Soviet Union, died and in the resulting power struggle, head of the KGB

KGB

KGB is the Russian language abbreviation of Committee for State Security , which was the official name of the umbrella organization serving as the Soviet Union's premier security agency, secret police, and intelligence agency, from 1954 to 1991....
Lavrenti Beria was denounced and executed. Popular rebellions in East Germany in 1953 and Hungary in 1956 were brutally put down.

In 1957 the Treaty of Rome

Treaty of Rome

European Union

Oceania

People

Entertainers

Actors: Marilyn Monroe

Marilyn Monroe

Marilyn Monroe was an American actress, singer, model, and a sex symbol.After spending much of her childhood in foster homes, Monroe began a career as a model, which led to a film contract in 1946....
, Montgomery Clift

Montgomery Clift

Edward Montgomery Clift was an United Statesn film actor. He was known for his brooding, sensitive, working-class character roles, and received four Academy Award nominations during his career....
, Dorothy Dandridge

Dorothy Dandridge

Dorothy Jean Dandridge was an United States actress and popular singer. Dandridge was the first African American to be nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress....
, James Dean

James Dean

James Byron Dean was a two-time Academy Award-nominated American film actor. Dean's status as a cultural icon is best embodied in the title of his most celebrated film, Rebel Without a Cause, in which he starred as troubled stereotypical high school rebel Jim Stark....
, Sandra Dee

Sandra Dee

Sandra Dee was an American film actress.Dee began her career as a model and progressed to film. Best known for her portrayal of Ingenue , Dee won a Golden Globe Award for New Star Of The Year - Actress in 1959 as one of the year's most promising newcomers, and over several years her films were popular....
, Troy Donahue

Troy Donahue

Troy Donahue was an United States actor and teen idol of the late 1950s and early 1960s....
, Audrey Hepburn

Audrey Hepburn

Audrey Hepburn was a Belgian-born, Dutch-raised actress of British and Dutch ancestry.Born in Brussels, Hepburn lived in Arnhem in The Netherlands during her childhood and for the duration of the World War II....
, Charlton Heston

Charlton Heston

Charlton Heston was an United States actor of film, theater and television.Heston is known for having played heroic roles, such as Moses in The Ten Commandments , Colonel George Taylor in Planet of the Apes , El Cid in El Cid , and Judah Ben-Hur in Ben-Hur , for which he won the Academy Award for Best Actor....
, Bob Hope

Bob Hope

Bob Hope, Order of the British Empire, Order of St. Gregory the Great , was an British-born American comedian and actor who appeared in vaudeville, on Broadway theatre, and in radio, television and movies....
, Rock Hudson

Rock Hudson

Rock Hudson was an United States film and television actor, recognised as a romantic leading man during the 1960s and 1970s. Hudson was voted 'Star of the Year', 'Favorite Leading Man', and similar titles by numerous movie magazines and was unquestionably one of the most popular and well-known movie stars of the time....
, Grace Kelly

Grace Kelly

Grace Patricia Kelly was an Academy Award-winning United States film and Stage actor and fashion icon. Upon marrying Rainier III, Prince of Monaco in 1956, she became Her Serene Highness The Princess of Monaco, but was generally known as Princess Grace of Monaco....
, Jerry Lewis

Jerry Lewis

Jerry Lewis is an American comedian, actor, producer, writer, director and singer. He is best-known for his slapstick humor on stage, screen and television, his singing ability in a string of music album recordings and his charity fund-raising telethons for the Muscular Dystrophy Association ....
, Sophia Loren

Sophia Loren

Sophia Loren is an Academy Award-winning Italian people film actress. She is widely considered to be the most popular Italian actress of her time and is also famous for being a major international sex symbol....
, Sal Mineo

Sal Mineo

Salvatore Mineo, Jr. , better known as Sal Mineo, was a Golden Globe-winning United States film and theatre actor, best known for his Academy Awards-nominated performance opposite James Dean in the film Rebel Without a Cause....
, Jayne Mansfield

Jayne Mansfield

Jayne Mansfield was an United States actor working both on Broadway theatre and in Hollywood. One of the leading blonde sex symbols of the 1950s, Mansfield, like Marilyn Monroe, was a Playboy Playmate, and appeared in the magazine several more times over the years....
, Jerry Mathers

Jerry Mathers

Jerry Mathers is an United States television, film, and stage actor.Mathers is best known for his role in the television sitcom series Leave It to Beaver , in which he played Theodore "Beaver" Cleaver, the younger son of archetypal suburban couple June Cleaver and Ward Cleaver , and the brother of Wally Cleaver ....
, Hayley Mills

Hayley Mills

Hayley Catherine Rose Vivien Mills is an Academy Award and Golden Globe Award-winning England actor....
, Paul Newman

Paul Newman

Paul Leonard Newman was an United States actor, film director, entrepreneur, Humanitarianism, and auto racing enthusiast. He won numerous awards, including an Academy Award for his performance in the 1986 Martin Scorsese film The Color of Money and eight other nominations three Golden Globe, a BAFTA Award, a Screen Actors Guild Award, a...
, Kim Novak

Kim Novak

Kim Novak is an United States actor who was one of her nation's most popular movie stars in the late 1950s. She is best known for her performance in Alfred Hitchcock's Vertigo ....
, Jon Provost

Jon Provost

Jon Provost is a former child actor of film and television. He is best known for his role as young Timmy Martin in the CBS television series, Lassie ....
, Debbie Reynolds

Debbie Reynolds

Mary Frances "Debbie" Reynolds is an Academy Award-nominated United States actor, singer, and dancer....
, George Reeves

George Reeves

George Reeves was an United States actor, best known for his role as Superman in the 1950s television program Adventures of Superman and his death by a self-inflicted gunshot wound at the age of 45....
, Steve Reeves

Steve Reeves

Stephen L. Reeves was an American bodybuilding, actor, and author....
, William Holden

William Holden

William Holden was an Academy Award-winning United States film actor. One of the top stars of the 1950s, he was named one of the "Top 10 stars of the year" six times and appeared on the American Film Institute's AFI's 100 Years......
, Gregory Peck

Gregory Peck

Gregory Peck was an American film actor. He was one of 20th Century Fox's most popular film stars, from the 1940s to the 1960s, and played important roles well into the 1990s....
, and Van Johnson

Van Johnson

Van Johnson was an American film and television actor and dancer who was a major star at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer studios during World War II.Johnson was the embodiment of the "boy next door," playing "the red-haired, freckle-faced soldier, sailor or bomber pilot who used to live down the street" in MGM movies during the Second World War years...
.

Musicians: Perry Como

Perry Como

Paul Anka

Paul Albert Anka, Order of Canada is a Canada singer, songwriter, and actor of Lebanese people origin. He became a Naturalization US citizen in 1990....
, Maria Callas

Maria Callas

Maria Callas was an American-born Greeks soprano and one of the most renowned opera singers of the twentieth century. She combined an impressive bel canto technique with great dramatic gifts....
, Bo Diddley

Bo Diddley

Bo Diddley , was an original and influential American rock and roll singer, guitarist, and songwriter. He was known as "The Originator" because of his key role in the transition from blues music to rock & roll, influencing a host of legendary acts including Buddy Holly, Jimi Hendrix and Eric Clapton....
, Charles Mingus

Charles Mingus

Charles Mingus was an United States jazz bassist, composer, bandleader, and occasional pianist. He was also known for his activism against racism....
, Ella Fitzgerald

Ella Fitzgerald

Ella Jane Fitzgerald , also known as "Jazz royalty" and the "First Lady of Song", is considered one of the most influential jazz vocalists of the 20th century....
, Buddy Holly

Buddy Holly

Little Richard

Jerry Lee Lewis

Thelonious Monk

Elvis Presley

Joan Sutherland

Dame Joan Alston Sutherland, Order of Merit, Order of Australia, Order of the British Empire is an Australian voice type soprano noted for her contribution in the renaissance of the bel canto repertoire in the late 1950s, 1960s and 1970s....
, Buddy Rich

Buddy Rich

Bernard "Buddy" Rich was an United States Jazz drumming, bandleader and former Marine. Rich was billed as "the world's greatest drummer" and was known for his virtuoso technique, power, and speed....
, and Andy Williams

Andy Williams

Howard Andrew "Andy" Williams is a legendary American pop singer. Andy Williams has recorded 18 gold and three platinum certified albums. When Ronald Reagan was president, he declared Andy's voice to be "a national treasure"....
.

Others: Hugh Hefner

Hugh Hefner

File:Hefner 1973 .jpgHugh Marston Hefner , sometimes known simply as Hef, is an American magazine publisher, founder and Chief Creative Officer of Playboy Enterprises....
(publisher), film directors Jacques Tati

Jacques Tati

Jacques Tati was a noted France comedic filmmaker. He was born Jacques Tatischeff, the son of Russians father Georges-Emmanuel Tatischeff and Dutch people mother Marcelle Claire Van Hoof, in Le Pecq, Yvelines, and died in Paris, France....
and Raj Kapoor

Raj Kapoor

Raj Kapoor or Ranbirraj Kapoor , also known as 'the show-man', was a legendary Cinema of India actor, Film producer and Film director of Bollywood....
, comics Ernie Kovacs

Ernie Kovacs

Ernie Kovacs was an United States comedian whose uninhibited, often ad-libbed, and visually experimental comic style came to influence numerous television comedy programs for years after his early death in an automobile accident....
and Steve Allen

Steve Allen

Steve Allen may refer to:*Steve Allen , American musician, comedian, and writer*Steve Allen , presenter on the London-based talk radio station LBC 97.3...
, television personalities Jack Paar

Jack Paar

Jack Harold Paar was an United States radio and television talk show host most noted for his stint as host of The Tonight Show....
, Dave Garroway

Dave Garroway

David Cunningham Garroway was the founding host of NBC's Today from 1952 to 1961. His easygoing, relaxed, and relaxing style belied a battle with depression that may have contributed to the end of his days as a leading television personality?and, eventually, his life....
, Gary Moore

Gary Moore

Gary Moore is a Northern Irish guitarist. In a career dating back to the 1960s, he has played with artists including Thin Lizzy, Colosseum II, Greg Lake and the Blues-rock band Skid Row , as well as having a successful solo career....
, and Johnny Carson

Johnny Carson

John William ?Johnny? Carson was an American television host and comedian, known as host of The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson for 30 years....
,

Desi Arnaz
Desi Arnaz

Desi Arnaz was a Cuban musician, actor and television producer....
Lucille Ball
Lucille Ball

Lucille Ball was an United States comedian, film, television, stage and radio actress, model , film industry, and star of the landmark sitcoms I Love Lucy, The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour, The Lucy Show and Here's Lucy....
Jack Benny
Jack Benny

Jack Benny was an American comedian, vaudeville, and actor for radio programming, television, and film.Widely recognized as one of the leading American entertainers of the 20th century, Benny was known for his comic timing and his ability to get laughs with either a pregnant pause or a single expression, such as his signature exasperated "...
Chuck Berry
Chuck Berry

Charles Edward Anderson "Chuck" Berry is an American guitarist, singer and songwriter.Chuck Berry is an influential figure and one of the pioneers of rock and roll music....
Pat Boone
Pat Boone

Charles Eugene "Pat" Boone is an United States singer, actor and writer who was a successful pop singer in the United States during the 1950s and early 1960s....
Marlon Brando
Marlon Brando

Marlon Brando, Jr. was an Academy Award-winning American actor whose body of work spanned over half a century. He is widely considered one of the greatest actors of all time, and was named the fourth AFI's 100 Years......
Yul Brynner
Yul Brynner

Yul Brynner was a Russian-born actor of stage and screen, perhaps best known for his portrayal of the Thailandese king in the Rodgers & Hammerstein musical The King and I on both stage and screen, as well as Rameses II in the 1956 Cecil B....
June Carter
Johnny Cash
Johnny Cash

Johnny Cash was a Grammy Award-winning American singer-songwriter and one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century. Primarily a country music artist, his songs and sound spanned many other genres including rockabilly and rock and roll , as well as blues, folk music and Gospel music....
Clay Cole
Clay Cole

Clay Cole is a former host and disk jockey, best known for his eponymous television dance program, The Clay Cole Show, which aired in New York City on WNET and WPIX-TV from 1959 to 1968....
John Coltrane
John Coltrane

John William Coltrane was an United States jazz saxophonist and composer.Starting in bebop and hard bop, Coltrane later pioneered free jazz. He influenced generations of other musicians, and remains one of the most significant tenor saxophonists in jazz history....
Tony Curtis
Tony Curtis

Tony Curtis is an United States film acting. He is best known for light comic roles, especially as a musician on the run from gangsters in Some Like It Hot with Jack Lemmon and Marilyn Monroe....
Peter Cushing
Peter Cushing

Peter Wilton Cushing, Order of the British Empire was an English people actor, known for his many appearances in Hammer Films, in which he played Victor Frankenstein and Abraham Van Helsing, amongst many other roles, often appearing opposite his close friend Christopher Lee....
Dalida
Dalida

Dalida was an Italy singer born and grown up in Egypt who lived most of her life in France. She received 55 gold records and was the first singer to receive a diamond disc....
Miles Davis
Miles Davis

Miles Dewey Davis III was an United States jazz trumpeter, bandleader, and composer.Widely considered one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century, Davis was at the forefront of almost every major development in jazz from World War II to the 1990s: he played on various early bebop records and recorded one of the first cool jaz...
Diana Dors
Diana Dors

Diana Dors was an English actress and sex symbol.She was born Diana Mary Fluck in Swindon, England and was educated at Colville House in Swindon....
Kirk Douglas
Kirk Douglas

Kirk Douglas is an Academy Award-nominated United States actor and film producer known for his cleft chin, his gravelly voice and his recurring roles as the kinds of characters Douglas himself once described as "sons of bitches"....
Ava Gardner
Ava Gardner

Ava Lavinia Gardner was an Academy Award-nominated United States actress. She is listed as one of the American Film Institute's AFI's 100 Years......
John Gregson
John Gregson

John Gregson was a United Kingdom actor.He was born as Harold Thomas Gregson in Wavertree, Liverpool, England, of Ireland descent, where he was educated at the St Francis Xavier's College ....
Dizzy Gillespie
Dizzy Gillespie

John Birks "Dizzy" Gillespie [/g?'l?spi/] was an United States jazz trumpeter, bandleader, singer, and composer. He was born in Cheraw, South Carolina, the youngest of nine children....
The Goons
Lionel Hampton
Lionel Hampton

Lionel Leo Hampton , was an American jazz vibraphonist, pianist, percussionist, bandleader and actor. Like Red Norvo, he was one of the first jazz vibraphone players....
Tony Hancock
Tony Hancock

Anthony John "Tony" Hancock was a popular British actor and comedian....
William Holden
William Holden

William Holden was an Academy Award-winning United States film actor. One of the top stars of the 1950s, he was named one of the "Top 10 stars of the year" six times and appeared on the American Film Institute's AFI's 100 Years......
Jerry Lewis
Jerry Lewis

Jerry Lewis is an American comedian, actor, producer, writer, director and singer. He is best-known for his slapstick humor on stage, screen and television, his singing ability in a string of music album recordings and his charity fund-raising telethons for the Muscular Dystrophy Association ....
Dean Martin
Dean Martin

Dean Martin was an United States singer, film actor and comedian of Italians descent. He was one of the best known musical artists of the 1950s and 1960s....
Charles Mingus
Charles Mingus

Charles Mingus was an United States jazz bassist, composer, bandleader, and occasional pianist. He was also known for his activism against racism....
Charlie Parker
Charlie Parker

Charles Parker, Jr. was an American jazz saxophonist and composer.Parker is widely considered one of the most influential of jazz musicians, along with Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington....
Patti Page
Patti Page

Clara Ann Fowler , known by her professional name Patti Page, is an United States singer, one of the best-known female artists in traditional pop music....
Art Pepper
Art Pepper

Art Pepper , born Arthur Edward Pepper, Jr., was an United States alto saxophonist....
James Dean
James Dean

James Byron Dean was a two-time Academy Award-nominated American film actor. Dean's status as a cultural icon is best embodied in the title of his most celebrated film, Rebel Without a Cause, in which he starred as troubled stereotypical high school rebel Jim Stark....
Carl Perkins
Carl Perkins

Carl Lee Perkins was an United States of America pioneer of rockabilly music who recorded most notably at Sun Records Studio in Memphis, Tennessee beginning in 1954....
Jimmie Rodgers
Jimmie Rodgers (pop singer)

James Frederick Rodgers is an American singer, sometimes classified as a rock and roll singer, but with a style more typical of folk rock or traditional pop music....
Gale Storm
Gale Storm

Josephine Owaissa Cottle , better known as Gale Storm, is an American actress and singer, who starred in two popular television programs of the 1950s, My Little Margie and The Gale Storm Show....
Jack Webb
Jack Webb

John Randolph "Jack" Webb was an Emmy Award-nominated United States actor, television producer, film director and author, who is most famous for his role as Sergeant#Police 2 Joe Friday in the radio and television series Dragnet ....
P.Ramlee

World leaders

President Arturo Frondizi
Arturo Frondizi

Arturo Frondizi was the President of Argentina of Argentina between 1 May 1958 and 29 March 1962 for the Intransigent Radical Civic Union....
(Argentina)
Prime Minister Robert Menzies
Robert Menzies

Sir Robert Gordon Menzies, Order of the Thistle, Order of Australia, Order of the Companions of Honour, Queen's Counsel , Australian politician, was the twelfth Prime Minister of Australia....
(Australia)
President Getúlio Vargas
Getúlio Vargas

Get?lio Dornelles Vargas served as President of Brazil of Brazil from 1930 to 1945 and from 1951 until his suicide in 1954....
(Brazil
Brazil

Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is a country in South America. It is the List of countries and outlying territories by total area country by geographical area, occupying nearly half of South America, the List of countries by population country, and the fourth most populous democracy in the world....
)
President Juscelino Kubitschek (Brazil
Brazil

Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is a country in South America. It is the List of countries and outlying territories by total area country by geographical area, occupying nearly half of South America, the List of countries by population country, and the fourth most populous democracy in the world....
)
Prime Minister Louis St. Laurent
Louis St. Laurent

Louis Stephen St-Laurent, Queen's Privy Council for Canada, Order of Canada, Queen's Counsel , was the 12th Prime Minister of Canada from November 15, 1948, to June 21, 1957....
(Canada)
Prime Minister John Diefenbaker
John Diefenbaker

John George Diefenbaker, Queen's Privy Council for Canada, Order of the Companions of Honour, Queen's Counsel, Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, Royal Society of Arts was the 13th Prime Minister of Canada, serving from June 21, 1957 to April 22, 1963....
(Canada)
Chairman Mao Zedong
Mao Zedong

Mao Zedong was a China military and politics dictator. Mao led the Communist Party of China to victory against the Kuomintang in the Chinese Civil War, and was the leader of the People?s Republic of China from its establishment in 1949 until his death in 1976....
(People's Republic of China)
President Chiang Kai-shek
Chiang Kai-shek

Chiang Kai-shek , Order of the Bath , served as Generalissimo of the Nationalist Government of the Republic of China from 1928 to 1948. He was sometimes referred to simply as "the Generalissimo"....
(Republic of China
Republic of China

The Republic of China , also known as Nationalist China is a country in East Asia that has evolved from a single-party state with full global recognition into a multi-party democratic state with Political status of Taiwan....
on Taiwan)
King George VI
George VI of the United Kingdom

George VI was British monarchy and the United Kingdom Dominions from 11 December 1936 until his death. He was the last Emperor of India and the last King of Ireland , and the first Head of the Commonwealth....
(Commonwealth realm
Commonwealth Realm

A Commonwealth realm is any one of 16 Sovereignty states within the Commonwealth of Nations that each have Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom as their monarch....
s)
Queen Elizabeth II
Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom

Elizabeth II is the queen regnant of sixteen independent states known as the Commonwealth realms: Monarchy of the United Kingdom, Monarchy of Canada, Monarchy of Australia, Monarchy of New Zealand, Monarchy of Jamaica, Monarchy of Barbados, the Bahamas, Grenada, Papua New Guinea, the Monarchy of the Solomon Islands, Tuvalu, Saint Lucia, Sain...
(Commonwealth realm
Commonwealth Realm

A Commonwealth realm is any one of 16 Sovereignty states within the Commonwealth of Nations that each have Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom as their monarch....
s)
President Gamal Abdel Nasser
Gamal Abdel Nasser

Gamal Abdel Nasser was the second President of Egypt from 1956 until his death in 1970. Along with Muhammad Naguib, he led the Egyptian Revolution of 1952, which removed Farouk of Egypt and heralded a new period of industrialization in Egypt, together with a profound advancement of Arab nationalism, including a short-lived United Arab Republ...
(Egypt
Egypt

Egypt is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Western Asia. Covering an area of about , Egypt borders the Mediterranean Sea to the north, the Gaza Strip and Israel to the northeast, the Red Sea to the east, Sudan to the south and Libya to the west....
)
Emperor Haile Selassie (Ethiopia
Ethiopia

Ethiopia , officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country situated in the Horn of Africa. Ethiopia is bordered by Eritrea to the north, Sudan to the west, Kenya to the south, Somalia to the east and Djibouti to the northeast....
)
President Vincent Auriol
Vincent Auriol

Jules-Vincent Auriol was a France politician who served as the first President of France of the French Fourth Republic from 1947 to 1954. He also served as interim President of the Provisional Government from November to December 1946, making him one of only three people who were heads of state of the French Republic on two separate occasi...
(France)
President René Coty
René Coty

Ren? Jules Gustave Coty was President of France from 1954 to 1959. He was the second and last president under the French Fourth Republic....
(France)
President Charles de Gaulle
Charles de Gaulle

Charles Andr? Joseph Marie de Gaulle , , was a French people general and statesman who led the Free French Forces during World War II. He later founded the French Fifth Republic in 1958 and served as its first President of France from 1959 to 1969....
(France)
Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru
Jawaharlal Nehru

Jawaharlal Nehru The son of the wealthy Indian barrister and politician Motilal Nehru, Nehru became a leader of the left-wing of the Indian National Congress at a remarkably young age....
(India)
Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion
David Ben-Gurion

was the first Prime Minister of Israel. Ben-Gurion's passion for Zionism, which began early in life, culminated in his instrumental role in the founding of the state of Israel....
(Israel
Israel

Israel officially the State of Israel , is a country in the Middle East located on the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea. It borders Lebanon in the north, Syria in the northeast, Jordan in the east, and Egypt on the southwest, and contains geographically diverse features within its relatively small area....
)
Taoiseach John A. Costello
John A. Costello

John Aloysius Costello , a successful barrister, was one of the main legal advisors to the government of the Irish Free State after independence, Attorney General of Ireland from 1926–1932 and Taoiseach from 1948–1951 and 1954–1957....
(Ireland
Republic of Ireland

Ireland is an Island country in north-western Europe. The modern Sovereignty state occupies about five-sixths of the island of Ireland, which was partitioned by the British on 3 May 1921....
)
Taoiseach Éamon de Valera
Éamon de Valera

?amon de Valera was one of the dominant political figures in 20th century Ireland. His political career spanned over half a century, from 1917 to 1973; he served multiple terms as head of government and head of state, and is credited with a leading role in the authorship of the present-day Constitution of Ireland....
(Ireland
Republic of Ireland

Ireland is an Island country in north-western Europe. The modern Sovereignty state occupies about five-sixths of the island of Ireland, which was partitioned by the British on 3 May 1921....
)
Taoiseach Seán Lemass
Seán Lemass

Se?n Francis Lemass was one of the most prominent Irish politicians of the 20th century. He served as Taoiseach from 1959 until 1966.A veteran of the Easter Rising, the Irish War of Independence and the Irish Civil War, Lemass was first elected as a Sinn F?in Teachta D?la for the Dublin South constituency in a Dublin South by-election, 1...
(Ireland
Republic of Ireland

Ireland is an Island country in north-western Europe. The modern Sovereignty state occupies about five-sixths of the island of Ireland, which was partitioned by the British on 3 May 1921....
)
Emperor Hirohito
Hirohito

, also known as , was the 124th Emperor of Japan of Japan according to the traditional order, reigning from 25 December 1926 until his death in 1989....
(Japan)
Prime Minister George Borg Olivier (Malta
Malta

Malta , officially the Republic of Malta , is a densely populated developed country European microstates microstate in the European Union....
)
Prime Minister António de Oliveira Salazar
António de Oliveira Salazar

Ant?nio de Oliveira Salazar, Order of Infante D. Henrique, Order of the Tower and Sword, Order of St. James of the Sword, pronunciation....
(Portugal)
Francisco Franco
Francisco Franco

Francisco Paulino Hermenegildo Te?dulo Franco y Bahamonde, Salgado y Pardo de Andrade , commonly known as Francisco Franco or Francisco Franco y Bahamonde was the dictator and Head of State of Spain from October 1936, and de facto regent of the nominally restored Kingdom of Spain from 1947 until his death in 1975....
(Spain)
Joseph Stalin
Joseph Stalin

Joseph Stalin was the General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union's Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1922 until his death in 1953....
(Soviet Union
Soviet Union

The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was a Constitution of the Soviet Union socialist state that existed in Eurasia from 1922 to 1991.The name is a translation of the , romanization of Russian Soyuz Sovetskikh Sotsialisticheskikh Respublik, abbreviated ????, SSSR....
)
Nikita Khrushchev
Nikita Khrushchev

Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev served as General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1953 to 1964, following the death of Joseph Stalin, and Premier of the Soviet Union from 1958 to 1964....
(Soviet Union
Soviet Union

The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was a Constitution of the Soviet Union socialist state that existed in Eurasia from 1922 to 1991.The name is a translation of the , romanization of Russian Soyuz Sovetskikh Sotsialisticheskikh Respublik, abbreviated ????, SSSR....
)
Prime Minister Tage Erlander
Tage Erlander

was a Sweden politician. He was the leader of the Swedish Social Democratic Party and Prime Minister of Sweden from 1946 to 1969.Erlander holds the record as the longest serving head of government of any democratic country, as he held his post for 23 years....
(Sweden)
President Celal Bayar
Celal Bayar

Mahmut Celal Bayar was a Turkey politician, statesman and the third President of Turkey....
(Turkey)
Prime Minister Adnan Menderes
Adnan Menderes

Ali Adnan Ertekin Menderes was a Turkish people Liberalism statesman and the first democratically elected leader in Turkish history. He served as Turkish Prime Minister between 1950?1960....
(Turkey)
Prime Minister Sir Winston Churchill
Winston Churchill

Sir Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill, Order of the Garter, Order of Merit, Order of the Companions of Honour, Territorial Decoration, Fellow of the Royal Society, Her Majesty's Most Honourable Privy Council, Queen's Privy Council for Canada was a Politics of the United Kingdom known chiefly for his leadership of the United King...
(United Kingdom)
Prime Minister Sir Anthony Eden
Anthony Eden

Robert Anthony Eden, 1st Earl of Avon, Order of the Garter, Military Cross, Privy Council of the United Kingdom was a British people Conservative Party politician, who was Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs for three periods between 1935 and 1955, including during World War II....
(United Kingdom)
Prime Minister Harold Macmillan
Harold Macmillan

Harold Macmillan, 1st Earl of Stockton, Order of Merit, Her Majesty's Most Honourable Privy Council was a British Conservative Party politician and Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 10 January 1957 to 18 October 1963....
(United Kingdom)
President Harry S. Truman
Harry S. Truman

Harry S. Truman was the List of Presidents of the United States President of the United States . As the List of Vice Presidents of the United States Vice President of the United States, he succeeded Franklin D....
(United States)
President Dwight D. Eisenhower
Dwight D. Eisenhower

Dwight David ?Ike? Eisenhower was the List of Presidents of the United States President of the United States from 1953 until 1961 and a General of the Army in the United States Army....
(United States)
Pope Pius XII
Pope Pius XII

Pope Pius XII , born Eugenio Maria Giuseppe Giovanni Pacelli , reigned as the 260th pope, head of the Roman Catholic Church and monarch of Vatican City, from March 2, 1939 until his death in 1958....
(Vatican
Holy See

The Holy See is the episcopal jurisdiction of the Bishop of Rome, commonly known as the Pope, and is the preeminent episcopal see of the Roman Catholic Church, forming the central government of the Church....
)
Pope John XXIII
Pope John XXIII

Blessed Pope John XXIII , born Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli , known as Blessed John XXIII since his beatification, was elected as the 261st Pope of the Roman Catholic Church and monarch of Vatican City on 28 October 1958....
(Vatican
Holy See

The Holy See is the episcopal jurisdiction of the Bishop of Rome, commonly known as the Pope, and is the preeminent episcopal see of the Roman Catholic Church, forming the central government of the Church....
)
Chancellor Konrad Adenauer
Konrad Adenauer

Konrad Hermann Josef Adenauer , 5 January 1876 ? 19 April 1967) was a Germany statesman.Although his political career spanned sixty years, beginning as early as 1906, he is most noted for his role as the Chancellor of Germany of West Germany from 1949?1963 and chairman of the Christian Democratic Union from 1950 to 1966....
(West Germany)
President Josip Broz Tito
Josip Broz Tito

Josip Broz Tito, original name Josip Broz was the leader of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia from 1945 until his death in 1980. During World War II, Tito organized the anti-fascist resistance movement known as the People's Liberation Movement led by Yugoslav Partisans....
(Yugoslavia
Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia

The Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and in Slovene language: Socialisticna Federativna Republika Jugoslavija The Slovene language name also uses this Gaj?s Latin alphabet version with a slight difference in spelling....
)
Tuanku Abd Rahman Putra Al Haj (Malaya
Malaya

Malaya can refer to:...
)

Others

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