1950s

Society & Culture

Individual Research PowerPoint
Instructions:
STEP 2 Select one of the
STEP 1 Select one of following 1950s STEP 3 Think of ways
the following topics to trends/themes your topic connects to
research this theme. Ask yourself,
❖ Conformity how does it illustrate the
❖ Fashion ❖ Consumerism
trend?
❖ Popular Art ❖ Cultural Conservatism
❖ Architecture
STEP 4 Create a
❖ Sports
PowerPoint about your
❖ Popular Music
❖ Television
topic and show its
❖ Family Life connection to the larger
❖ Movies culture of the 1950s (must
❖ Cars be at least 4 slides).
Project Ideas:
Use descriptive paragraphs and photographs to show you have researched your topic,
and understand it thoroughly. (list famous people or examples)

for example - if you selected 1950s architecture, you would need to identify and
explain the common features of 1950s architecture, and include several
photographs of typical architecture of the time

Explain what your chosen theme means, and show

how your topic connects to the theme.

for example - if you selected conformity, you

could connect this to architecture by showing
how suburban homes were often mass produced and
looked similar to one another
 1950s Consumerism
In the 1950s, the economy was
booming, and so was consumerism.
After two decades of not being able to
purchase what they wanted, demand for
goods skyrocketed. People just had
money to spend, and they wanted to
spend it, buying both needs and wants.
Advertisements also began to change to
fit new ideas of what consumer wanted.

Thanks to the now booming economy,

new areas of mass housing called
suburbs began to appear across
America. The growth of cities with
suburbs made it almost a requirement to
own what was once a luxury to most, a
car.
1950s Cars
Car advertisements in the 1950s appealed to
consumer by marketing cars with words like
“frisky” and “fresh” that captured their attention.
Cars were also shown with shiny/colorful parts to
make them even more attractive.

In the 1950s, cars became necessary in order to move

around in the ever enlarging cities since public
transportation wasn’t readily available and people’s
jobs were all the way in the city, as well as schools,
churches and doctor’s offices. This and the
inexpensive cost of gasoline and new interstate
highways made having a car a nifty thing to own.
The use of cars increased as more problems revealed
themselves. Pollution invaded the air, car accidents
increased in mortality rates, and the biggest problem of
all was the widening gap between middle class and poor.
This gap widened because people living in the suburbs
used cars to get to work, and they return to the suburbs,
taking city jobs and money. People who lived in the cities
got were left without jobs or money, while suburbs and
its dwellers got richer.
1950s: Cars and Consumerism
The economy in the 1950s was flourishing and
people had money to spend. Car companies saw
this as a good time to sell their cars to the public.
Almost everyone had a car, and it would’ve been
weird to see someone walking instead of driving.

In the 1950s, an individual’s success was

Owning a car was part of the American Dream, which measured in material goods, and owning a
also included a family and a house, which was also driven car was a good sign that you were better off.
by consumerism. Some more reasons people bought cars was
to go to work, travel around on highways
and interstates and leisure drives with family.
Teenagers used cars to get to school or to
other places where their buddies could hang
out.
1950s Cars, Consumerism, and Impact Today

Throughout the country,

car meets happen yearly to
see and show off cars from
different decades, like the
50s.

While it was filmed in the 80s,

Grease successfully captured the
1950s with the teenagers, cliches and Even today, 1950s cars are sold
many cars.
and collected by enthusiasts who
are interested in the decade or just
want to relive memories. Either
way, cars from the 1950s are still
relevant and used today.