The Postwar Economy of the 1950’s

By Angela Brown

Bellringer: Think and Write

• Brainstorm a list of the inventions that would be completely new to a person from the 1950s if he or she were suddenly transported to the present.

• What modern invention do you think is the most important today?

Business Reorganization

• U.S. embarked on one of its greatest periods of economic expansion

• GNP: 212 billion in 1945 to $504 billion in 1960

• Per Capita income – average income per person, increased from $1526 to $2788

• GM’s Ford, Chrysler controlled automobile industry

• General Electric and Westinghouse controlled electrical business

http://www.allposters.com/gallery.asp?aid=423764051&c=c&search=13722

Giant corporations feared investing resources in a single business due to great Depression became Conglomerates – large corporation that owns many smaller companies that produce entirely different goods and services

Is the second largest mediaconglomerate after AOL TimeWarner.

• 1954 Ray Kroc purchased Mac Donald’s and built a nationwide chain

• Others quickly saw benefits in selling franchises – the right to open a restaurant using a parent company’s brand name and system

http://www.roadsideamerica.com/attract/ILDESmcd.html

Television

• By 1953 2/3 of all families owned a TV

• By 1955 watched 4 to 5 hours a day on average

• Howdy Doody, The Mickey Mouse Club, American Bandstand, I Love Lucy, and Father knows best

• Howdy Doody and Buffalo Bob Smith

http://www.mousestars.com/steve/annette/afmouse1.htm

http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.fiftiesweb.com/tv/howdy-doody-c.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.fiftiesweb.com/tv/howdy-doody.htm&h=219&w=191&sz=11&tbnid=zLGeABKmhmsJ:&tbnh=100&tbnw=88&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dhowdy%2Bdoody%26hl%3Den%26lr%3D&oi=imagesr&start=2

Three networks controlled TV programming .

They raised money through advertising

The companies got their monies worth – America bought

http://www.the-forum.com/advert/nesbitt.htm

http://atlantaantiquegallery.com/gallery/i-4920_ice_cream_sign_1950s.html

The Computer Industry

• Grace Hopper, researcher at Harvard University computation lab created software that runs a computer.

• Hopper coined the phrase “debugging”

• She removed a moth • 1948 Bell telephone lab

invented transistor – tiny circuit device that amplifies, controls, and generates signals

http://www.jamesshuggins.com/h/tek1/grace_hopper_portraits.htm

• Giant machines that Giant machines that filled room could now filled room could now fit on a desk due to fit on a desk due to transistortransistor

• The Census Bureau The Census Bureau purchased one of first purchased one of first computer systems for computer systems for 1950 census1950 census

http://www.snopes.com/inboxer/hoaxes/computer.asp

Nuclear Power

• Generation of electrical power through the use of atomic energy resulted from research on atomic bomb

• 1957 first commercial nuclear power plant in Shippingport, Pennsylvania

• From 1940s to early 1970s – fed government exposed as many at 1800 people to radiation in experiments that provided little to no medical benefit

• American citizens were used as nuclear calibration instruments

Advances in Medicine

• 1954 Dr. Jonas Salk and Dr. Thomas Francis conducted successful test of Polio vaccine (killed or disabled 20,000 U.S. children every year)

• 1944 advances in production of antibiotics – penicillin saved countless lives – 1950s discovered other antibiotics

• Lessons learned in war allowed doctors to operate to correct heart defects

http://info.detnews.com/history/story/index.cfm?id=179&category=events

Changes in the Work Force

• By 1956 a majority of all American workers held white-collar jobs – no longer produced goods but performed services at counters or in offices

• Workers were encouraged by working conditions but large corporations were impersonal

• Employers pressured employees to dress, think and act alike

• Blue Collar conditions also improved – guaranteed cost-of-living increases

• 1955 – 33% of total labor forces – AFL and CIO merged (American Federation of Labor – Congress of Industrial Organizations)

Baby Boom of WWII continued

25 births per 1000 in peak year 1957

http://kclibrary.nhmccd.edu/decade50.html

Moving to the Suburbs

• WWII veterans enjoyed the Servicemens Readjustment Act of 1944 = GI Bill- gave low-interest mortgages to purchase new homes

Average Americans could afford to buy homes

http://www.historyplace.com/unitedstates/pacificwar/2146.jpg

Levitt Town’s

• Developers pioneered mass-production in home building

• Precut and preassembled materials built homes in weeks (William J. Levitt – Levitttown’s

Some complained developments all looked alike “Little Boxes” – through usually well-designed and well built

http://tigger.uic.edu/~pbhales/Levittown/

http://tigger.uic.edu/~pbhales/Levittown.html

Cars and Highways

• Stores moved from cities to shopping centers in suburbs

• Americans more dependent on automobile than public transportation = new car designs every year

http://www.webshots.com/g/d2000/4-nw/9612.html

• 1956 Interstate Highway Act provided $26 billion to build an interstate highway system more than 40,000 miles long – allowed for evacuation of major cities in event of emergency

• Drive-in movies inspired by car culture

http://www.wtv-zone.com/moe/moesboomerabilia/

The Growth of Consumer Credit

• Gasoline companies offered credit cards to loyal customers

• Americans willingly went into debt to purchase products they wanted

http://history1900s.about.com/od/1950s/a/firstcreditcard.htm

http://www.dinersclubnewsroom.com/anniversary.cfm

• Diner’s club card 1950 – 1959

• American Express Card = Bank Americard (VISA)

• U.S. had become “the affluent society” Frank X. McNamara.

Courtesy of Diners Club.

http://history1900s.about.com/od/1950s/a/firstcreditcard_2.htm