Step Into The Past With Iconic ’50s Photos
No matter what era a person lives in, they’ll find that life and the people around them are complicated. Still, as new complexities arise in the world, it’s hard not to yearn for a time when people knew how to slow down a little.
Although the 1950s were a time that saw big changes in America, many of those changes felt comfortable and convenient after the world spent so long at war. With war rationing a thing of the past, the spirit of America seemed more optimistic than it had in decades. Naturally, this makes photos from the ’50s instantly nostalgic.
Train Travel Used To Be A Little Different
On one hand, it’s convenient for modern trains to have food and beverages brought to your seat like we’re airplane passengers. That said, there’s still a lot to miss about the classic dining cars like the one on this Brazilian train.
This was apparently a buffet car, which definitely adds an extra layer of motivation for bringing back dining cars. Even taking that fact aside, however, these men clearly have so much more space to enjoy their refreshments and it’s hard not to envy that a little.
A Comparison Of Cameras
On the left is a CBS cameraman filming a baseball game at Yankee Stadium and from the looks of it, his camera’s design is about what one would expect from the era.
However, it wouldn’t be long before its technology would be considered retro, as the ’50s had already made color television a possibility. The bulkier, more complex cameras on the right were what they used to film in color back then. Thankfully, color video cameras would soon become much more portable.
His Parents Knew Who He Was Talking To
While it’s very commonplace for youths to have cell phones and silently text whoever (probably multiple whoevers) to their heart’s content today, kids of the ’50s often had to make do with very exposed landlines.
Some kids may have been lucky enough to have phones in their rooms but unless they were very good liars, it was hard to slip much by their parents when the phone was in the kitchen like this. The only problem is that the kid’s siblings would get made at him for tying up the lines if he talked long enough.
A Pretty New Aquatic Phenomenon
Here, we can see a French engineer named Dimitri Rebikoff showing off a new model of “Pegase” torpedos at a Cannes beach in 1953. However, onlookers would likely be just as fascinated by his scuba gear as the torpedos.
While people go scuba diving all the time nowadays, this version of the technology had only existed for about a decade by the time this photo was taken. Since it was first developed in German-occupied France, this could very well have been onlookers’ first time seeing a scuba diver, at least in person.
Baseball Stars Were As Popular As Movie Stars
Although he may not be the most famous baseball player from the ’50s, Andy Carey had a respectable track record as the New York Yankees’ starting third baseman throughout the mid-to late ’50s. From the looks of it, he was also a much more popular player at the time.
After all, this group of young women all seemed to want his autograph specifically. That was quite a feather in Carey’s cap at a time when legends like Mickey Mantle, Whitey Ford, and Yogi Berra were also on the team.
Roller Skating Was Everywhere
When people imagine drive-in restaurants from the ’50s, they picture carhops rollerskating up to customers and bringing them what they ordered. While that was certainly a feature of the times, people loved their roller skates during their leisure hours as well.
On the far left is French actress Brigitte Fossey and from the looks of it, she and her friends had a lot of fun at a roller rink. If that wasn’t normally what this building was, that’s the purpose it served that night.
A Softer Side Of Zsa Zsa Gabor
Zsa Zsa Gabor was an actress and socialite who very clearly enjoyed the finer things in life, but she was also known to have quite the soft spot for animals. According to Pasadena Weekly, she was one of the most outspoken voices calling for Vegas entertainer Bobby Berosini’s firing after he was caught on camera beating the orangutans in his act.
However, this moment caught her in a cuter and more intimate moment as she rescues a loving pup from an animal shelter. The fact that she has its paw in her hand is particularly sweet.
New Advancements In Helicopter Technology
Although helicopters were used in World War II, it was in a much more limited capacity than in the Vietnam War due to their short ranges of use and the inability to make armored variants. They’re not so useful if their pilots are sitting ducks while under enemy fire, after all.
By the 1950s, however, some major improvements in American helicopter capabilities were already well underway. For instance, this photo captures a demonstration of the Hiller UH-12 Raven, which occurred in 1954.
There Was Nothing Like A Classic Race Car
Regardless of their fuel efficiency or performance, there’s something about the aesthetics and roar of a classic car that’s lost in the more practical designs we tend to see today. And the faster a car was meant to go, the more beautiful it tended to be.
That was certainly the case for this attractive sports car barreling through the Alps during a 1954 event known as Rallye Des Neiges Et Glace. The Monte Carlo rally was the setting for the 1969 movie Those Daring Young Men in Their Jaunty Jalopies but this rally was considered a “revenge event” for losers of the main rally.
A Wholesome Scene At A Valued Institution
Although libraries remain a valuable public resource, the sad truth is that they’re a lot more underutilized today. That’s what makes scenes like this woman reading with her child on the steps of the Palisades Free Library in upstate New York so bittersweet.
While it’s important to cultivate an appreciation for reading, it’s also true that it was much harder to live without the library in the ’50s, as it’s not like there was much in the way of alternative spaces like the internet would turn out to be.
Any Audiophile With Kids Knows This Struggle
Unless these are records the parents don’t care about anymore, they’re being very understanding by letting this little girl play around with something so breakable. Of course, someone so adorable would be pretty hard to say no to.
It’s hard to make out what classic acts made these records but they’ve clearly captured her interest more than her doll has in this moment. It’s definitely dangling by its little sweater for dear life in this shot and she clearly hasn’t noticed.
Construction Workers Were Utterly Fearless Back Then
Not everything about the past was better, as most people can agree that improved safety standards to prevent workplace fatalities make the world better. In other words, these men shouldn’t have had to be so high up without any harnesses.
That said, the fact that they could come into work each day and do this dangerous job anyway is a testament to their diligent professionalism and especially their ironclad mettle. It seems people can really get used to anything if they do it for long enough.
A Traditional Dance That People Still Do To This Day
If this looks a little strange as a gymnasium, that’s because it’s actually the exercise area of a social housing development in Lower Manhattan. As for what they’re doing, the answer is that it’s a good old-fashioned square dance.
As the dancers turn their partners to and fro, we can see the caller in the back by the basketball hoop giving them their instructions. This may not be the first setting one would imagine for a square dance but it was less niche as an activity back then.
The Era Of Modern Art Was Still In Full Swing
Although the ’50s aren’t regarded as the most liberated time for artistic expression, modern artists like Jackson Pollock and Joao Cutileiro here were nonetheless doing their imaginative parts for a movement that started all the way back in the 1860s and continue into the 1970s.
Here, we can see Cutileiro at one of his exhibits, where presented a sculpture he had completed by 1957. Even through the lens of an old camera, the expression on the sculpture’s face is visible.
TVs Didn’t Have Big Screens By Any Means
Although television would end up causing a legitimate crisis for the movie industry, that wouldn’t really start happening until the 1960s. When one takes a look at the TVs of the ’50s, it’s not exactly hard to see why.
Growing up, so many children were scolded by their parents about sitting too close to the TV and during the ’50s, that was valid advice due to the radiation televisions at the time emitted. At the same time, the size of the screens in the ’50s made the behavior of those children understandable.
