Television: A New Frontier

Although the electronic television was first successful in 1927, it was not until 1947  that it became viable commercially. The prosperity of the 1950’s allowed many Americans to have TV sets in their home. In 1949, 3% of families had television sets, by 1951, the number had jumped to 24%. Owning a television, which had once been a privilege, shifted to being the norm. The dawn of the Cold War made many Americans believe that the purity of American pop culture was invaluable in protecting traditional American ideals. In 1952, the National Association of Radio and Television Broadcasters created their own censorship guidelines, so that the government would not step in and create their own restrictions. The goal of these guidelines was to encourage American values and support a healthy American culture, which included keeping violence, sex, and crime off the air waves.

Arguable the most popular show of its time, I Love Lucy, is an excellent example of how television was used to reinforce American ideals. With its premier airing on October 15, 1951, I Love Lucy, was the most popular TV show in America for 4 of its 6 seasons, with more people tuning in to watch the birth of the TV couple’s son than to the inauguration of Dwight D. Eisenhower. On October 15^th, 1951, CBS aired I Love Lucy for the first time. The show starred Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz, who were married in real life. The show featured Lucy, the bumbling and dependent housewife to Ricardo, the domineering the breadwinning man of the house. Every attempt Lucy made to break out of her mold as doting wife, fails with Ricardo having to come save her, sending the message that women should stay at home, not only for the benefit of their husband and children, but for themselves. At home, Lucy can be the pinnacle of familial stability and relish in the American Dream. This message was pertinent, for many women had had a taste of the workplace when their husbands were shipped off to war, but I Love Lucy, told them that it was alright to want to break free of the home, but not to actually attempt to do so. I Love Lucy also kept within the propriety standards set out by the National Association of Radio and Television Broadcasters, with Lucy and Ricardo sleeping in separate twin beds for the first two seasons of the show. Only when their son was born were the beds put together under one headboard, yet, the separate twin sheets stayed, dividing the couple. In general, Lucy and Ricardo were to mirror the hopes and values of the American public, and sent a strong message as to the gender roles of men and women in post-war society.

The television does not only deliver sitcoms however, it also provided a new means for advertising to a wealthier America. The commercials of the early 1950’s concentrated on repeated and simple slogans. Take this M&M commercial, which repeats the slogan, “M&M’s melt on your mouth, not in your hand”. Aside form the traditional commercial however, some companies sponsored full variety shows. One of the most famous, Texaco Star Theater, was hosted by Milton Berle on NBC. Throughout the show’s hour long time slot, Texaco employees were seen smiling an doing good deeds. The theme song for the show is an elongated advertising pitch for Texaco, with the closing song including, “Remember to be loyal, To our gasoline and oil, When they save you time and toil you'll be glad”.  As the full power of television advertising was realized airtime became more expensive and advertisements became shorter.

Fashion in the 50's: A Great Shift

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            With the dawn of WWII came new restrictions that fashion had not yet see. The rationing of raw materials as well as bans on clothing imports lead to the development of man-made materials, and the restrictions lead to a completely different style of clothing. The War Production Board (WPB) was ordered by the president to regulated the production and allocation of materials. The WPB also regulated how much fabric could be used for different pieces; a blouse could have pleats or ruffles but not both; the circumference of skirts was reduced and skirts could not be lined; civilians were limited to 3 pairs of leather footwear a year. A ration book was used to assure these orders were implemented. Adjustments such as these made fashion very utilitarian. This was compounded by the emergence of women in the work force. As more and more men were shipped overseas, women were needed to fill the gaps (hence the famous Rosie the Riveter poster). This pushed women towards pants as opposed to skirts and dresses.

           With this in mind we enter into the 1950’s, an era that ran towards old norms that had been overturned in the chaos of war. Women were encouraged, if not required, to look like a proper lady. There were two main styles for women, the swing skirt and the pencil skirt. The most famous example of the swing skirt was Christian Dior’s “New Look” in 1947. This look was overtly feminine with a below mid-calf length, full, skirt, a pointed bust, a tiny waist, and a round shoulder. The “New Look,” unlike the wartime styles, used bolts and bolts of fabric, especially in the voluminous skirt. This was typically paired with gloves and a pair of heels. The pencil skirt was used to create an hourglass figure that was considered very feminine. The very narrow skirt was sometimes paired with a cropped jacket to accentuate the figure eight figure. 

Christian Dior's "New Look". Notice how the peplum jacket help creates a tiny waist and larger hips.

The pencil style skirt was very streamlined to create the hourglass look.

            Men generally dressed for business, wearing suits that were more relaxed than they had been in previous decades. However, they were still made of heavy fabrics, no matter the season. Men did not have much freedom in outfit choice, and were expected to be wearing a suit jacket at all times, except when at home. A man’s outfit was also incomplete with a matching fedora. The suits were single-breasted with unpadded shoulders. Both jackets and pants were shorter, but still used a lot of fabric. Early in the 50’s colors were muted, but patterns came into fashion alter on in the decade. However, because of the wealth of the period, men in the 1950’s had more leisure time and therefore needed different clothing. Polos, short sleeved button downs, and jeans shirts all came into trend.

Men generally dressed the same

            Another phenomenon of the 1950’s was teenage fashion. The war had created a prosperous era where middle class families suddenly had an expendable income. Prior to this time there hadn’t really been teenage years, young children turned into adults and were expected to tact that way. The dawn of the 50’s lead to more freedom for teenagers, and a sort of category of their own. Parents who had lived during the depression wanted to make sure their kids had more than they had, creating this new market. Teen girls wore jumpers, dresses with shirts under them, and tailored dresses with sleeves. The iconic poodle skirt also became very famous, and was paired with a cardigan or a boat neck shirt. Rolled up jeans were considered very casual, and were generally only worn around the house. Boys fell into two categories: preppy and greasers. Preppy teens wore button up shirts paired with sweater vests or, on occasion, t-shirts. Jeans and slacks were both worn, but they generally looked neat. Greasers wore t-shirts, jeans or twill work pants, leather jackets, and heavy work boots. Despite these two categories, many places did not allow jeans in school, and boys wore chinos and khakis. Jeans were worn to hang out with friends. The same goes for t-shirts, which were worn for recreation.

Truman's First Term

            Others shared Truman’s trepidation of filling the shoes of so formidable a person as FDR. Additionally, while Lincoln and Garfield had also died in office, the country was not at war at the time. In his diary, David E. Lilienthal, Chair of the TVA, wrote, “Complete unbelief. That at first. Then a sick hapless feeling. Then consternation at the thought of that Throttlebottom, Truman. ‘ The country and the world doesn’t deserve to be left this way, with Truman at the head of the country at such a time.’”[i] Yet those who had worked with him, and his grandmother, were sure that Truman would be a solid, dependable President. Within his presidency Truman was faced with some of the most important decisions in history, including the infamous dropping of the atomic bomb, and his decisions set in place the dynamics of the cold war.

            Truman’s second action as President (The first was to decide that the United Nations conference would go on as planned on April 25, 1945) was to ask all of the members of Roosevelt’s cabinet to stay on with the understanding that he was the boss, “I made it clear [to the first Cabinet session] that I would be President in my own right," Truman said, "and that I would assume full responsibility for such decisions as had to be made".[ii] Three weeks into his Presidency Germany surrendered but a new threat stepped forward to garner Truman’s attentions.  It had become clear to the President that the Soviet’s intended to create communist regimes in Soviet occupied areas. Simultaneously, the war with Japan was still raging and the sense of honor and allegiance to the Emperor evidenced a commitment that would choose death over surrender.  Faced with a potentially drawn out and grueling war, Truman struggled with a resolution that would spare lives and shorten the conflict.  Little did the new President know but a new weapon in the United States’ arsenal would offer a solution.

            Less than three months after coming into office, Truman was in Potsdam, Germany with Winston Churchill and Joseph Stalin. The conference held from July 17 to August 2, 1945 was scheduled to cover the division of the post-war world between the three victors and the two radically different governmental structures. Also on the agenda was the war in the Pacific. During the Tehran Conference in November of 1943, Stalin agreed to aid the United States in their war against Japan and in return Britain and the United States would supply additional troops to Europe to aid the Soviets against Germany.  Two years later, Truman now saw this brokered arrangement as another opening for the Soviet Government to seize more land and install another communist regime.[iii] A Japanese defeat could lead to additional territory seceded to the Soviets.  A few days into his Presidency, Truman decided to scold Soviet Russia for violating the Yalta Accords by inserting communist governments in newly acquired territories. He had very little leverage.  Earlier in the war, the United States held the upper hand, able to offer much needed military aid to the Soviets in return for their cooperation.  By mid-1945, however, the Russian forces were taking the offensive and gaining ground. In this theater, Truman’s attempt to take the upper hand with the Soviet Foreign Minister Molotov proved politically inert. With war still raging in the Pacific, Truman was in no position to embark on another conflict in Europe, ultimately conceding Poland, and recognizing the Warsaw government. At Potsdam Truman accepted the readjustment of the Polish-German border. More importantly, however, he did not allow the Russians to claim any reparations from the zones of Germany that had been given to the U.S., France, or Britain, guaranteeing a divided Germany. During the tense negotiations, Truman was interrupted by an aide who informed the President that the first test of the atomic bomb was a success.  It was the first Truman had heard of the project. Before returning to Washington, DC Truman made the most controversial and historic decision of his Presidency: to drop the atomic bomb on Japan. The primary target on August 6^th was the Japanese city of Hiroshima. The “little boy” code name for the atomic bomb, was dropped at 8:15 Hiroshima time by Paul W. Tibbets piloting the Boeing B29 Superfortress, the Enola Gay (named for his mother). The second bomb was dropped two days later on the city of Nagasaki, Japan.  Emperor Hirohito announced Japan’s surrender on August 15^th.

            Japan’s surrender marked the end of World War II but international tensions were hardly over.  The Cold War, a product of the politics of the allies, was beginning to surface as a significant tension between the countries. In 1947 the President issued The Truman Doctrine outlining the containment policy that was to be applied to the Soviets. Truman highlighted the need to aid Turkey and Greece concerned that Russian aid would create communist governments in both countries.[iv]  On the heels of The Truman Doctrine came The Marshall Plan. In 1947 Truman appointed George Marshall as his Secretary of State. On June 5^th of the same year, Marshall introduced the European Recovery Plan, commonly known as The Marshall Plan, in a speech delivered at Harvard University. Marshall, in agreement with The Truman Doctrine, understood the critical need to revitalize national economies because a stable and capitalist-based Europe would not be drawn to the aid offered by the communists. Sixteen nations would receive almost thirteen billion dollars total in aid from the United States until funding was stopped in 1951.[v] The positive relations brought about by the plan lead to the North Atlantic Alliance or North Atlantic Treaty Organization (“NATO”) an alliance that remains in place to this day. Truman’s final significant act before the 1948 election was the National Security Act of 1947, which reorganized the military structure of the government, merging the Department of the Navy and the Department of the War into National Military Establishment, creating the U.S. Air Force as well as the Central Intelligence Agency (“CIA”) and National Security Council, the primary security council to the President.[vi]

            With the defeat of Japan came the inevitable shift from a wartime economy to a peacetime economy. Prior to WWII the United States had experienced the Great Depression, and only the production brought on by the Great War pulled America out of its decline. In September of 1945 Truman set before Congress a 21-point plan to move America into a post-war state. It included new public works programs, guaranteed “full employment”, a higher minimum wage, an extension of the Fair Employment Practices Committee, a larger system of social security, and a national healthcare system, essentially building on the New Deal.  He also insisted on Reconversion, a quick demobilization of the military in an attempt to return soldiers to civilian life as soon as possible. The only policy that went through was the guaranteed full employment, but it had no enforcement mechanism, and reconversion was hindered and Truman received the blame.[vii] However, one of the largest domestic challenges Truman had to face was the unions. During the war there was an agreement that unions would not go on strike for the good of the country, but with the war over unions came back with a vengeance. Waves of strikes especially in the coal mining and railroad businesses.  Although Truman, a man with a blue-collar base, supported workers but during the threatened train strike, the President sided against them.  May 10, 1948, Truman issued a government seizure of a number of large railroads, and the strike eventually settled.[viii]

In 1947 the Taft-Hartley Act, formally the Labor-Management Relations Act, was passed, despite Truman’s veto of the bill on grounds of inhibiting freedom of speech. The Act was a series of amendments to the Labor relations act of 1935 that was obviously anti-labor and in direct response to the growing power of labor following the end of the war. Evolving from a movement that intended to curb certain unfair practices by employers, the Taft-Hartley Act went after unions as well.  It severely reduced the ability and motivation to strike and gave the federal government the right to break a strike if it could prove a national interest was at stake.   In addition, heavy penalties were placed on unions that supported strikes; unions could no longer force workers to become members, and could not require members to be hired.  Unions could no longer make political contributions to federal candidates.  The bill was highly controversial, and Truman’s veto, although circumvented, galvanized the labor movement, making them a potent ally for Truman in the 1948 election.

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[i] Robert J. Donovan, Conflict and Crisis: The Presidency of Harry S. Truman, 1945-1948 (n.p.: W. W. Norton and Company, 1996), 14.

[ii] Alden Whitman, "Harry S. Truman: Decisive President," On This Day, last modified 2012, accessed December 13, 2012, http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/bday/0508.html.

[iii] Harry Truman and the Potsdam Conference, accessed December 13, 2012, http://www.trumanlibrary.org/teacher/potsdam.htm.

[iv] Truman, Harry S. "Transcript of Truman Doctrine (1947)." Our Documents.
     http://www.ourdocuments.gov/doc.php?flash=true&doc=81&page=transcript.

[v] The Marshall Plan, http://www.marshallfoundation.org/TheMarshallPlan.htm.

[vi] Milestones: 1945-1952, http://history.state.gov/milestones/1945-1952/NationalSecurityAct.

[vii] American President: A Reference Resource, http://millercenter.org/president/truman/essays/biography/4.

[viii] “Word Has Just "Been Received”: Truman Speaks on the Railroad Strike.
     http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/5137/.