Television and film back then presented the 1950s as friendly, quiet, peaceful, patriotic and naive/wholesome. In reality, the fifties had greasers (delinquents), knife-wielding street gangs, socially cynical beatniks, brothels, probably much more accepted domestic abuse, not to mention blatantly hardcore bigotry. Few of these things, though, you saw on I Love Lucy. When I see an old B&W sitcom or movie, I have to wonder if the medium was being used to *manipulate* society into seeing itself a certain way to get people to behave accordingly.

Well hell, you couldn't even say 'pregnant' on I Love Lucy,.


When they were making Rebel Without a Cause in the early 1950s, the script went through many different treatments, they were taking things out of the newspaper headlines but most of what they were going to use had to be cut out because it was all too violent, anybody who's seen that movie will note they don't even show Buzz's gang beating on the old man in the beginning which is where the toy monkey James Dean is playing with comes from; the gang jumps a man who's taking presents home to his family for Easter and they start beating him and that's why they're all locked up for the night, but they could only allude to that, they couldn't show it, they couldn't even flat out say it, and some earlier treatments had the boys whipping a girl who was naked from the waist up, but naturally that too was too much for its time of production codes and whatever, so it also had to go.

The image of the moral 1950s is a legend, largely based on a smokescreen (a smokescreen that THEY bought into and believed, even if things weren't as clean behind closed doors.) I don't doubt the conservative ambiance of the time, but were they were as "pure" as they thought they were or wanted to be? Of course not. I think society back then was more hypocritical than moral.

All eras have their strengths and weaknesses. Hence, I don't buy into some ridiculous "forward" movement as if the common thought of today is somehow more enlightened than the 50's. Truth is truth and I say take the truths of each decade and accept them regardless of whether or not they are inconvenient.

Shale wrote:

Impact wrote:

...were they were as "pure" as they thought they were or wanted to be? Of course not. I think society back then was more hypocritical than moral.

In the area of sexuality, the whole culture was in denial. Alfred Kinsey did his groundbreaking research in 1948 revealing that what our society relegated as "perversions" were actually the norm.

Not only did Ricky and Lucy actually share the same bed but Fred and Ricky were prolly messing around in the boiler room on the downlow. I found out my dad did all the things that I did in the "sexual revolution" of the late '60s, but he snuck around, whereas we did it in the road. That was the culture of the day, saving face, keeping secrets, keeping up appearances.

That is what my gen rebelled against. Just the total conformity by rote and living a lie because of that.

Now, it must have been a safer place to live. I can't believe that as a 10-year-old child I walked all over St. Louis inner city by myself. Along the riverfront, the rail yards, everywhere and no one was concerned that I could have been molested or attacked. Also, my rebellion as a teen was smoking cigarettes - drugs were not even on the radar.

I archived VH1's four-part documentary of Sex: The Revolution from 2008 on my DVR. Each hour was dedicated to reflecting on the culture of sex, and society's attitudes toward it, from the 1950s through the 1980s. During the 50s episode, they spoke of Kinsey, and said that government really witch-hunted him after he published his research findings. They accused him of attempting to corrupt the values of society with perversion.

Chris wrote:

Television and film back then presented the 1950s as friendly, quiet, peaceful, patriotic and naive/wholesome. In reality, the fifties had greasers (delinquents), knife-wielding street gangs, socially cynical beatniks, brothels, probably much more accepted domestic abuse, not to mention blatantly hardcore bigotry. Few of these things, though, you saw on I Love Lucy. When I see an old B&W sitcom or movie, I have to wonder if the medium was being used to *manipulate* society into seeing itself a certain way to get people to behave accordingly.

Movies and especially TV throughout the ages have presented a false reality. Same could be said for today, although I'd take 2011 phony over 1952 phony.

I like some of those old 50's TV shows and movies, and I even like some of the classier fashions but it's not a time I wish I was around to see.

http://www.madisonavenuejournal.com/2007/01/15/microsofts_vaporware_on_mlks/

Quote :

Separate water fountains in North Carolina, 1950.

Sometimes a photo is worth more than a 1,000 articles. While the one above sums it all from an era that still plagues us in society, one must question how far Madison Avenue has come in changing these 1950's era water fountains in the advertising business.

The fifties and even the sixties wasn't a good time for America.Discrimination was rampant in the south.The saying"those who don't learn from their mistakes are destined to repeat them in the future" certainly holds true.
This nation must learn that racism is an evil sickness and no race or color is better than another.

imcurousnow wrote:

The fifties and even the sixties wasn't a good time for America.Discrimination was rampant in the south.The saying"those who don't learn from their mistakes are destined to repeat them in the future" certainly holds true.
This nation must learn that racism is an evil sickness and no race or color is better than another.