Vintage Photos From The ’50s That Warmed Our Nostalgic Hearts
For the more self-aware among us, there’s an understanding that nostalgia doesn’t exactly give us an accurate view of the past. Any era that seemed idyllic had some serious societal problems going on, even if some decades (like the ’60s) were more obvious about it than others.
Even so, that doesn’t stop us from being nostalgic. Although the ’50s were far from as perfect as they seemed, that doesn’t make people’s warm memories of them any less real. Indeed, the exact kind of moments treasured in those memories are in these photos.
Pulse-Pounding Action In a Classic Race Car
As flashy and impressive as the supercars of today look, it’s nonetheless fascinating to look back at the speedsters of the past. Although their designs were simpler back in 1950, that wouldn’t have made the race any less exciting to witness.
And as is often the case now, Italian racers and their fancy sports cars were often the top dogs who offered the fiercest competition at the time. Not only was that evident in Giuseppe “Nino” Farina’s victory here but in the fact that all three winning racers drove Alfa Romeos.
TV Felt More Cozy And Wholesome
Although it’s true that a lot of ’50s television is hokey to look back on, it’s also true this programming could be very comforting in the the warm styles, pleasant demeanors of the actors, and often fairly low-stakes storytelling. Indeed, that was particularly true when it came to children’s programming.
While this concept would later be perfected by Jim Henson, it wasn’t uncommon for children’s entertainers of the past like this clown to foster warm, welcoming atmospheres for kids while teaching them lessons with the help of some adorable puppets. And when there was animation, it was hand-drawn.
Haute Couture Isn’t Such A New Phenomenon
Each year at fashion week, people can typically expect the world’s leading fashion houses to wow the world with the most ostentatious and impractical fashions their designers can think of. However, while the forms of those extreme fashions may have changed, the concept is older than any of us.
Indeed, the concept of haute couture had been around in Europe for close to a century before this photo was taken in 1955. This Balenciaga coat may not match the typical style of the time but it certainly sparked some interest when it appeared on the television show, Fashions From Paris.
Pizza Was Starting To Become Ubiquitous
Although pizza had been in the United States for decades by the ’50s, that was the beginning of the era in which ordering a pizza was an everyday way Americans could excite the kids and take a break from cooking that night. Before that, it didn’t even use that name.
Back in the ’30s when pizza was starting to grow in popularity, people ere more likely to call it “tomato pie.” Of course, staged photos like this made pizzas look delicious when it was time to market the dish the way we’re used to now.
Beach Fashions Were Starting To Modernize
Just a few decades before actress Shirley MacLaine took this photo in 1955, that bathing suit could have legitimately gotten her arrested. Yet, while the modesty standards of the ’50s can seem rigid and even hysterical in some ways by today’s standards, photos like this show they were nonetheless shifting.
That made beach trips younger and hipper, which meant that the surf rock and beach movies that characterized the early ’60s were right around the corner. The starlets of the day weren’t just glamorous in the eyes of the public: They were irresistible.
Those Wings Give These Cars Their Classic Charm
As much as modern cars have improved on the experience of driving to a large degree, it’s also hard not to notice how homogenous and boring the average car is nowadays. Their designs may be practical but unless they’re expensive, luxury models, they tend to lack much style in their design.
That’s probably why people have such a fondness for classic cars like this 1959 Buick Invicta. The winged design and circular taillights have a way to make them look attractive in a way you just don’t see much anymore.
Fundraisers Could Be a Little More Ambitious
It’s hardly unusual for gala events to try attracting the glitterati to throw money at a worthy cause nowadays, but it’s hard to think of the last one that chartered an entire ship for its distinguished guests. On February 7, 1951, opera singer Patrice Munsel was one of them and was pictured in this festive costume.
The event was intended to benefit the Met Opera Fund and it was likely successful because its spectacle and ambition were hard to match. That’s partially because it took place aboard the S.S. Independence, a luxury liner that had just been launched that year. In other words, this ship was probably a brand-new experience for all of them.
This Art Class Was Newly Possible In Some Areas
Although American universities and colleges started offering co-ed classes as early as the 19th century, that was truer in some parts of the country than others. By this photo, however, the concept was much more harmonized, as the lone holdout state of Florida started allowing them in 1947.
While the model for this art class isn’t nude like what tends to be depicted in media, there was still a chance that ten years prior, this class couldn’t have taken place. Again, that depends on where this photo from 1952 was taken.
The Start Of The Magic For Millions Of Childhoods
Although its opening day was famously disappointing, if not disastrous, it didn’t take long for Disneyland to be a defining cultural icon for America and especially the nation’s children after it first opened its doors in 1955.
While the California theme park wasn’t and likely never will be as large as the Florida-based Walt Disney World complex that opened in 1971, some of the attractions that would make the park special (as well as the sections like Adventureland, Frontierland, Fantasyland, and Tomorrowland) were there from the very beginning.
It Wasn’t Just A Prosperous Time For America
Given the United States’s victory in both theaters of World War II and the civilian production that the nation’s industry was able to achieve in the immediate post-war years, it’s hardly a surprise that the 1950s were considered a prosperous time in American history. Naturally, anyone living in Germany or Japan at the time were likely to feel much differently about the decade.
However, the prosperity wasn’t just showing in the United States. In this photo from 1951, this little girl eating a steak in Argentina is supposed to be indicative of some major strides in ensuring the population doesn’t go hungry. As the photo’s original caption said, “Plentiful meat situation.”
This Was Either Platonic Or As Courtly As It Got
There’s a good chance that this photo was completely staged and if it wasn’t, it’s interesting how chastely these two teens celebrated New Year’s Eve. According to Reader’s Digest, the ancient pagan tradition of marking the new year with kisses started finding its way in the United States as early as 1893, but it’s not a tradition this pair is participating in.
Instead, we can see that they’re marking the occasion with a friendly handshake. Whether that’s because they don’t want to cross the lines of their platonic friendship or they’re simply taking physical intimacy that seriously as they get together, it’s their business.
If He Was Real, He Would Have Been Exhausted
It’s often said that Santa Claus was all but invented by Coca-Cola in the 1950s but the truth is that the American perception of him as a large man with a red suit and a bounty of gifts goes back as far as an 1863 illustration in Harper’s Weekly by Thomas Nast.
What did happen in the ’50s, however, was that this image of Santa was codified and spread faster than ever before by the nation’s rising mass media platforms. This image of a weary Santa going down all of the world’s chimneys may not have been invented in the ’50s, but it was the most likely time for the nation’s children to start being exposed to it.
Davy Crockett Was As Popular As Santa Claus
Throughout the 1950s, there was a renewed national interest in the legend of expert frontiersman and Alamo defender Davy Crockett. Although Crockett had long been figure to be revered in both his native Tennessee and Texas, that was the decade where you’d be most likely to see children dress as him for Halloween no matter how far north you were.
Indeed, that exactly the effect the Walt Disney Company was hoping to achieve with the famous song “The Ballad Of Davy Crockett,” which first aired on the premiere episode of the TV show Disneyland on October 27, 1954. The song may not have been historically accurate (Crockett did not kill a bear when he was three, for one thing), but it was catchy enough to echo through generations.
This Used To Be A Much More Common Practice
Although dance competitions are a feature of any generation, the midcentury years saw an unusual trend that treated dancing as an endurance trial rather than a fun and romantic activity. Marathon dance competitions like the one shown here saw events go on for hours until only one couple remained standing.
Incredibly, this competition in Rome kept going after 23 straight days of dance. If that seems impossible, the rules appear to be different because this competition involves the presence of “relief partners,” which didn’t appear to be a feature of stateside competitions. Nonetheless, 23 days is still an impressive period for even two couples to still be in the competition.
1950 Was A Big Year For Professional Basketball
While the NBA had yet to match the prominence it has in modern times, 1950 nonetheless proved a significant year for the league because it shrunk from 17 teams to just 11. This would not only make the league more streamlined in the decades to come but also create an all new league, if an incredibly short-lived one.
While Earl Lloyd was making the difficult shot seen here for the soon to be defunct Washington Capitols in 1950, the National Professional Basketball League — which was mostly comprised of the teams cut from the league — played its only season that didn’t even feature any championship games.
