Get Retro With This Quiz on the 1950s

The mission was simple: Sell more paint. Commercial artist Dan Robbins drew inspiration from Leonardo da Vinci’s teaching system (numbering sections of a canvas) to develop the “paint by numbers” concept. Robbins segmented small sections of an image with specific paint colors to make the big picture a little easier to comprehend. The masterful idea helped paint by numbers take off like a rocket, selling 20 million kits by 1955.

Although the technology to make prepackaged meals was invented in the 1920s, it wasn’t until the Swanson food company had a massive overstock of post-Thanksgiving turkeys that the idea got put to use in earnest. The first-ever Swanson TV dinner featured a turkey slab with cornbread stuffing, mashed potatoes, and veggies — all for the bargain price of $0.69.

Mall culture got its start in 1956 when the Southdale Center opened its doors in Edina, Minnesota, a suburb of Minneapolis. Southdale’s real claim to fame is being the first fully enclosed shopping center — a must-have in a climate that is notoriously frigid in winter. The mall still stands in Edina to this day, and despite extensive renovations, retains much of its original infrastructure.

Prior to the development of the polio vaccine, as many as 16,000 polio cases occurred per year, causing debilitating effects in children. By the early 1950s, American virologist Jonas E. Salk and a team of researchers were hard at work to find a vaccine. They finally released one in 1955 that all but eliminated the disease among the vaccinated.

Arthur Godfrey is one of a few stars who made the leap from radio to TV, starting with the show “Arthur Godfrey’s Talent Scouts.” When it bowed in 1951, Godfrey’s variety show was the No. 1 rated TV show in the country. A year later, “Scouts” slipped to No. 2, but was joined by another Godfrey program, “Arthur Godfrey and His Friends,” which at the time was the No. 3 most-watched show in America.

Although wired remote controls like the “Lazy Bones” already existed at the time, manufacturer Zenith cut the cord in 1955 by using the power of light. Audiences would aim the Flashmatic, a device similar to a ray gun, at receptors in the corners of the screen to adjust their TV sets. Zenith soon pulled the plug on the Flashmatic because other lights in the home accidentally made the television change channels.

Failed attempts to get audiences excited about 3D movies date back to 1922’s “The Power of Love.” That all changed when the two man-eating lions in “Bwana Devil” leapt off the screen and into viewers’ hearts. Critics complained the film was dull and the glasses uncomfortable, but the movie made $2.5 million on a budget of $400,000, guaranteeing the gimmick would continue throughout the 1950s.

Inspired by the bamboo rings that Australian schoolchildren twirled around their waists in gym class, Wham-O created the Hula Hoop in 1958. The hula-hooping craze was so rampant, the company sold 25 million in just two months. The Frisbee was released a year earlier, in 1957, named after the Frisbie Pie Company because students used to toss the empty pie tins to each other.

In 1959, then-Vice President Richard Nixon visited Moscow for the American National Exhibition, part of a U.S.-Soviet trade show exchange, which demonstrated the range of consumer goods sold to U.S. families. Nixon toured the exhibition’s model kitchen with Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev, and there the two debated capitalism versus socialism in a jocular but heated exchange that became known as “the kitchen debate.”

Canasta (Spanish for “basket”) was invented in Montevideo, Uruguay, in 1939 by Segundo Santos and Alberto Serrato, two bridge partners who were looking for a less time-consuming card game. By 1948, the rummy-based game reached the United States, and in the 1950s it was one of the country’s biggest pastimes, with card sets and books selling widely. It also was given the alternate name “Argentine Rummy.”

In the late 1940s, future fashion designer Juli Lynne Charlot was short on money to buy herself a new Christmas skirt. Luckily, her mother owned a felt factory and Charlot was able to put together a skirt using motif appliques. The felt skirts were a hit, even selling out at Beverly Hills boutiques, where non-holiday designs were requested. Dachshunds were the first dogs to adorn the shirts before poodles became popular.

Mamie Doud Eisenhower loved the color pink throughout her entire life. The First Lady wore a pink gown to her husband Dwight D. Eisenhower’s 1953 presidential inauguration and used the color liberally in her White House decorations. The public noticed, nicknaming the Eisenhower White House “the Pink Palace,” and a hue known as “Mamie pink” became a national trend.

Lucille Ball and her husband, Desi Arnaz, starred in “I Love Lucy” and “The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour” from 1951 to 1960. Imogene Coca headlined with Sid Caesar in “Your Show of Shows” from 1950 to 1954. Husband and wife George Burns and Gracie Allen transferred their long radio and film success to a TV show that ran from 1950 to 1958. Comedy legend Carol Burnett, however, did not have her own series until 1964.

The “golden age of radio” began around 1929, when listening to the serialized dramedy “Amos ’n’ Andy” became a nationwide craze. Through the 1930s and ’40s, radio personalities such as Jack Benny and Groucho Marx attracted big advertisers and audiences. Yet by 1955, television was in a majority of American homes, and by the end of the decade, TV surpassed radio as the most popular entertainment medium.

Drive-in theaters may never have taken off in the 1950s if it weren’t for all the teens flocking to them. Of course, the younger set wasn’t just there to catch a new release on the big screen. Drive-ins quickly earned the nickname “passion pits,” as the parked cars were home to many a youthful romance.

Earning $85 million globally, director Cecil B. DeMille’s spectacular 1956 film starring Charlton Heston was not only the highest-grossing film of the decade, but also, believe it or not, a remake. This epic movie was DeMille’s last film, and a chance at a do-over — it was a remake of a silent film of the same name that he’d made in 1923.

After initially refusing to host Elvis at all, Ed Sullivan changed his tune once the “Hound Dog” singer scored massive ratings on Steve Allen’s competing show. Elvis was given a then-astounding $50,000 for his three performances. His first two showings were presented in full hip-swiveling glory, but after outcries for moral decency, censors decided to shield the audience from Elvis’ pelvis.

“Googie” is the name given to the then-futuristic look found in gas stations, restaurants, and motels across America in the 1950s (not to mention Disney’s Tomorrowland). The name came from a distinctive coffee shop called Googie in West Hollywood, Los Angeles.

Despite being one of the biggest box-office draws of the 1950s, Marilyn Monroe won only one major acting award — a Golden Globe for Billy Wilder’s classic comedy "Some Like It Hot" in 1959. Even though the actress struggled with both stuttering and dyslexia, she managed to become one of cinema's all-time icons.

Sock hops were informal dances that often took place in school cafeterias or gymnasia starting in the 1950s. Kids at the time were still primarily wearing hard-soled shoes that could damage the varnish on floors, so the solution was to go shoeless. The need for sock hops declined as sneakers gained popularity.

If you were lucky enough to drive a Corvette or a Bel Air, your neighbor might have commented on what an attractive “ragtop” you had parked in the driveway. The nickname comes from the soft, removable convertible top that these sleek roadsters were famous for having.

MLB slugger Hank Aaron earned a few nicknames over his illustrious career, including “Hammerin’ Hank” and the “Home Run King.” It didn’t take long for the right fielder to establish his home run prowess; he earned his first batting title in 1956, and the following year was named the National League MVP and clinched the World Series championship. In 1974, Aaron broke Babe Ruth’s record for career home runs.

After the USSR developed atomic weapons, nerves were high that nuclear war could break out between the Soviet Union and the U.S. In 1951, the U.S. government introduced a cartoon mascot, Bert the Turtle, who sang a cheery tune urging kids to “duck and cover” under their desks in the event of a nuclear bomb, to protect against falling debris.

Alan Freed’s radio show introduced R&B music to white audiences, calling the sound “rock ‘n’ roll.” He’s believed to have hosted the first major rock concert, the Moondog Coronation Ball. His impact on the music scene was so massive, in fact, that his ashes were on display at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame until 2014.

Senator Joseph McCarthy of Wisconsin took the “Red Scare” paranoia over the communist threat to new levels. In 1950, he claimed to possess a list of 57 communists who had infiltrated the U.S. State Department. Over the next two years, many public figures were investigated by McCarthy’s Senate committees and the House Committee on Un-American Activities, often losing their jobs as a result. McCarthy eventually lost influence and was censured by the Senate in 1954.

The Beat Generation of the 1950s was a literary movement that grew into a counterculture. Its followers were called “Beatniks,” using the Russian suffix “-nik.” Beat writing such as Jack Kerouac’s 1957 novel “On the Road” and Allen Ginsberg’s 1956 poem “Howl” inspired a creative youth dissatisfied with consumerism and interested in mysticism, who stereotypically wore turtlenecks, berets, and goatees.

There’s a little debate around Elvis Presley’s middle name: not that it’s Aaron, but how the King preferred to spell the name. While his family often spelled it “Aron” to match the middle name of his stillborn twin, Jesse Garon, Elvis was actually named for his father’s friend Aaron Kennedy, and Aaron” is the spelling on his gravesite.

“The Twist” — both the song and the dance move that went with it — originated with R&B musician Hank Ballard, who released the tune with his band the Moonlighters in 1959. Ballard claimed the dance was inspired by the fact that his band moved on stage as if they were "trying to put a cigarette out." Singer Chubby Checker recorded the song in 1960 as the dance swept the nation, reaching No. 1 twice on the pop charts.

At the young age of 24, actor James Dean made his film debut in 1955’s “East of Eden” and was cast in “Rebel Without a Cause” that same year. He played the title role of Jim, a sensitive teenager who nonetheless winds up in a violent gang. Sadly, Dean only completed one more film (1956’s “Giant”) before he died in a car crash ahead of the film’s release. But the icon’s cool, leather-jacketed image remained a symbol of young rebellion.

The ducktail, sometimes known as a D.A. (short for “duck’s”... behind), was the swept-back coiffure choice for disaffected young men of the 1950s. The hairstyle was the brainchild of Philadelphian barber Joseph Cirello, who would eventually move to Hollywood to give the “D.A.” to everyone from Elvis to James Dean.