1950s Pop History – 1950

Note: Music History and Song Lists for 1950 are located HERE

	The population of the United States as reported by the 1950 Census is 150,697,361. The population of the world is approximately 2.5 billion. More 1950 Census Info
	The population of the world is 2.52 billion
	64% of Americans now live in cities
	There are 1,667,231 marriages to 385,144 divorces (23%). By 1998 there will be 2,256,000 marriages and 955,000 divorces (43%)
	1950’s marriage records show the median age for 1st marriage is 22.8 years old for men and 20.3 for women. By 1998, it will be 26.7 years old for men and 25 for women. Noting statistics one above, you can assume older but no wiser. Marriage prospects of single men and women.
	A.C. Nielsen’s Audimeters track viewer watching.
	Walt Disney’s Cinderella opens in theaters. Buy Cinderella on DVD
	Sugar Pops are introduced.
	Antihistamines enter popular use for treatment of allergies and head-colds.
	RCA 45 RPM record attachment – now you can play RCA’s new 45’s! – includes 6 records – $12.95
	Zenith introduces “lazy bones” tuning – change all television stations from the comfort of your easy chair. Hand held device plugs into TV.
	Silly Putty is introduced!
	And the winner is… Oscar stuff
	21.6 percent of wives worked outside the home. By 1960, that number hit 30.5 percent. The reason for the jump? There was simply so much to buy.
	The Pillsbury Company launches it’s annual “Bake-off” to promote flour.
	Pillsbury and General Mills introduce prepared cake mixes.
	CBS receives an FCC license to begin broadcasting in color.
	Ball-O-Fire gumballs arrive!
	KRAFT® Deluxe process cheese slices – the first commercially packaged sliced process cheese – are introduced.
	North Korea invades South Korea. Truman orders the U.S. into the war. 3 million soldiers and civilians will be killed or wounded before it ends in 1953.
	36.3% of all advertising dollars are spent on newspapers – 3.3% on TV. See chart of all ad dollars.
	The U.S. will import 21,287 passenger cars. That number will climb to 668,070 by 1959, which will be a stellar year for imports.
	Guys & Dolls opens on Broadway. Buy the Original Cast CD
	Albert Einstein warns against the hydrogen bomb, which President Truman okays building.
	USSR announces they have developed the atomic bomb.
	Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel and the Port Authority open in NYC
	Swiss parliament refuses voting right for women. A pox on your clocks, gentleman.
	Briefly In Sports…
	Pulitzer prize awarded to Rodgers & Hammerstein for South Pacific. Buy South Pacific
	Hank Snow makes his first appearance on the “Grand Ole Opry”

	Hopalong Cassidy, starring William Boyd, debuted on TV and 600,000 Hoppy lunchboxes were sold in 1950 alone
	Seeburg begins selling jukeboxes which play 45 RPM records, which would become THE jukebox for soda shop, bowling alleys and bars.
	Nobel for literature awarded to William Faulkner
	Paul Harvey begins his national radio broadcast
	Death penality abolished in Belgium
	Prince Rainier III becomes ruler of Monaco
	Brinks Robbery in Boston – 11 men – 2.8 million – 17 minutes
	Alger Hiss is convicted.
	Joseph McCarthy begins Soviet witch hunt.
	Leo Fender’s guitar company introduced their Broadcaster and Esquire models, the first mass-produced solid body electric guitars.
	Smokey the Bear gains national popularity.
	Minute Rice is launched with the first consumer advertising ever put behind rice.
	The Open Kettle, a coffee and donut shop in Quincy Mass. is renamed Dunkin’ Donuts. The first franchise is offerred in 1955.
	PaperMate is the first leak-proof ballpoint pen in 1950.
	Haloid Corporation (later renamed Xerox) develops the first xerographic copy machine.
	Tennis admits first Black woman, Althea Gibson.
	There are now 2,200 drive-in movie theatres, twice as many as in 1949.
	Diner’s Club becomes the first credit card.
	Peanuts debuted on October 2, 1950.
	FBI institutes the 10 Most Wanted list. Wanna see the current crop of Bad Guys?
	Cartoonist Hank Ketcham created one of the most enduringly irresistible imps in the world., “Dennis the Menace.” By 2000,Today the comic panel appears in more than 1,200 newspapers in 48 countries and in 19 languages.
	There are 407 beer breweries in operation.
	Nobel peace prize awarded to Ralph J Bunche. This first Black recipient was undersecretary of the U.N. at the time.
	Telephone Answering Machine created by Bell Laboratories and Western Electric.
	Mother Teresa founded the first Mission of Charity in Calcutta, India.
	President Harry Truman ordered the Army to seize control of the nation’s railroads to avert a strike.
	There are 10,500,000 TV sets in 10,400,000 homes.
	The first self-service elevator is installed by Otis Elevator in Dallas
	There was a 34.3% business failure rate. Chart for 1946-1964
	There were 34,763 motor vehicle related deaths. While in the air, there were 6 accidents resulting in 144 fatalities.
	Unemployment is 5.3%
	US GNP (Gross National Product) is $288.5 billion