Yesterday's Memories and Other Useless Thoughts: 1950

Showing posts with label 1950. Show all posts

Wednesday, July 22, 2015

We Didn't Start The Fire ~ 1950 ~ North Korea/South Korea

We Didn't Start The Fire

sung by: Billy Joel

Harry Truman, Doris Day, Red China, Johnnie Ray,
South Pacific, Walter Winchell, Joe DiMaggio,
Joe McCarthy, Richard Nixon, Studebaker, television
North Korea, South Korea, Marilyn Monroe.

Rosenbergs, H-bomb, Sugar Ray, Panmunjom
Brando, "The King and I" and "The Catcher in the Rye,"

Eisenhower, vaccine, England's got a new queen,

Marciano, Liberace, Santayana goodbye!

Chorus:

We didn't start the fire,
It was always burning
Since the world's been turning.
We didn't start the fire,
No we didn't light it
But we tried to fight it.

Joseph Stalin, Malenkov, Nasser and Prokofiev
Rockefeller, Campanella, Communist Bloc,
Roy Cohn, Juan Peron, Toscanini, Dacron,
Dien Bien Phu falls, "Rock Around the Clock"
Einstein, James Dean, Brooklyn's got a winning team,
Davy Crockett, Peter Pan, Elvis Presley, Disneyland,
Bardot, Budapest, Alabama, Krushchev,
Princess Grace, "Peyton Place", trouble in the Suez.

Chorus

Little Rock, Pasternak, Mickey Mantle, Kerouac,
Sputnik, Chou En-Lai, "Bridge on the River Kwai"
Lebanon, Charles de Gaulle, California baseball,
Starkweather homicide, children of thalidomide, Oh-oh-oh.

Buddy Holly, "Ben Hur", space monkey, Mafia,
Hula hoops, Castro, Edsel is a no-go,
U-2, Syngman Rhee, payola and Kennedy,
Chubby Checker, "Psycho", Belgians in the Congo.

Chorus

Hemingway, Eichmann, "Stranger in a Strange Land"
Dylan, Berlin, Bay of Pigs invasion,
"Lawrence of Arabia", British Beatlemania,
Ole Miss, John Glenn, Liston beats Patterson,
Pope Paul, Malcolm X, British politician sex,
JFK, blown away, what else do I have to say?

Chorus

Birth control, Ho Chi Minh, Richard Nixon back again,
Moonshot, Woodstock, Watergate, punk rock,
Begin, Reagan, Palestine, terror on the airline,
Ayatollah's in Iran, Russians in Afghanistan,
"Wheel of Fortune", Sally Ride, heavy metal suicide,
Foreign debts, homeless vets, AIDS, crack, Bernie Goetz, Hypodermics on the shore,

China's under martial law, Rock and roller cola wars, I can't take it anymore.

We didn't start the fire,
It was always burning
Since the world's been turning.
We didn't start the fire,
But when we are gone
Will it still burn on, and on, and on, and on.

We didn't start the fire,
It was always burning
Since the world's been turning.
We didn't start the fire,
No we didn't light it
But we tried to fight it.

We didn't start the fire,
It was always burning
Since the world's been turning.
We didn't start the fire...

1950

North Korea/South Korea

taken from http://news.superzoo.co.uk/south-korea-fires-shells-into-north-korean-waters/2450/

Before World War II, North Korea and South Korea were known as the Korean Peninsula. After the U.S. liberated it from Japan the peninsula was split up into 2 different countries divided by the 38th parallel line. The Soviet Union occupied the north while the U.S. occupied the south. In the agreement, after 5 years the country would reunite and be one country. Both sides wanted to be one country but North Korea wanted all of the country to be communist while South Korea wanted more of a democratic way of living throughout the country. As the end of the 5 years came closer, the squabbles became more intense. Finally, on June 25, 1950, North Korea pushed itself down to Pusan.

The United Nations was called in to help. President Truman sent General Douglas MacArthur to attack back and push North Korea back over the 38th parallel, which he succeeded. This was the first military action in the Cold War. Truman never did ask congress for a declaration of war so this remained nothing more than a police action even though it is referred to as The Korean War. Due to the lack of media attention it also became known as "The Forgotten War." Over 6.8 million American's served in this war.

Other countries from the U.N stepped in to help combat against North Korea. They are Australia, Belgium, Canada, Columbia, Ethiopia, France, Great Britain, Greece, Holland, Luxembourg, New Zealand, Philippians, South Africa, Thailand, and Turkey. China intervened to help North Korea with the battle.

This "Forgotten War" does have it's moment of firsts for many things. The first jet to jet dog fight happened on September 8, 1950 when a F-80 shot down two North Korean MiG-15s. The United States "even dropped more bombs in Korea than the entire Pacific Theater during WWII." (62 Interesting Facts about the Korean War)

To help those who are injured on the front lines the M.A.S.H unit was put into place, which stands for Mobile Army Surgical Hospital. It was also during this war that intravenous use of amphetamines were first used. Even though medical technology was still advancing there were still many causalities in the Korean War.

The South Korean side suffered a loss of 778,000 whereas the North Korean side had a loss of 1.1 to 1.5 million causalities. The U.S lost 36,516 and 92,134 were wounded. At the end, the U.S. even had 8,176 MIA's and 7,245 POW's. As of 2011, there are still over 7,000 MIA's from the U.S. in the Korean War.

The Korean War became a stalemate war. In fact, a treaty for the war to be over with between North and South Korea never happened. Instead, negotiations at Panmunjon to set up an armistice when into effect. Both sides agreed to a demilitarize zone along the front. It is 250 miles long and 2.5 miles wide. It is the most heavily militarized boarder in the world. In 2013, North Korea declared the 1953 Armistice to be invalid.

Korean War Veteran's Memorial Washington D.C.

Sources:

http://militaryhistory.about.com/od/battleswars1900s/tp/The-Korean-War.htm

httphttp://koreanwarstuff.com/korean-war-death-toll://militaryhistory.about.com/od/battleswars1900s/tp/The-Korean-War.htm

http://facts.randomhistory.com/korean-war-facts.html

https://patriciahysell.wordpress.com/tag/jet-to-jet-dogfight/

http://news.superzoo.co.uk/south-korea-fires-shells-into-north-korean-waters/2450/

Saturday, January 3, 2015

We Didn't Start The Fire ~ 1950 ~ Television

We Didn't Start The Fire

sung by: Billy Joel

Harry Truman, Doris Day, Red China, Johnnie Ray,
South Pacific, Walter Winchell, Joe DiMaggio,
Joe McCarthy, Richard Nixon, Studebaker, television
North Korea, South Korea, Marilyn Monroe.

Rosenbergs, H-bomb, Sugar Ray, Panmunjom
Brando, "The King and I" and "The Catcher in the Rye,"

Eisenhower, vaccine, England's got a new queen,

Marciano, Liberace, Santayana goodbye!

Chorus:

We didn't start the fire,
It was always burning
Since the world's been turning.
We didn't start the fire,
No we didn't light it
But we tried to fight it.

Chorus

Buddy Holly, "Ben Hur", space monkey, Mafia,
Hula hoops, Castro, Edsel is a no-go,
U-2, Syngman Rhee, payola and Kennedy,
Chubby Checker, "Psycho", Belgians in the Congo.

Chorus

China's under martial law, Rock and roller cola wars, I can't take it anymore.

We didn't start the fire,
It was always burning
Since the world's been turning.
We didn't start the fire,
But when we are gone
Will it still burn on, and on, and on, and on.

We didn't start the fire,
It was always burning
Since the world's been turning.
We didn't start the fire,
No we didn't light it
But we tried to fight it.

We didn't start the fire,
It was always burning
Since the world's been turning.
We didn't start the fire...

1950

Television

Some time after WWII America started to prosper again economically. The Depression was over, the war was over and American's were starting to put some extra cash back into their pockets. It was also during this time that the television started to become standard in American households. Television was invented in the late 1920's but it really started to boom during the 1950's.

In the 1950's a GE 20 inch black and white console television cost about $299. A GE 17 inch black and white table top television cost about $289. A colored 21 inch table top cost on average $500 where the color console would cost $1295 for a 15 inch model. The closer a family lived to a larger city the more channels they could get on their television. Many rural areas would only get static on their television sets. The primary stations were ABC, CBS, and NBC.

A few of television firsts happened during the 1950's such as the first presidential ad was in 1952, the release of the TV guide was in 1953 and the first colored televised baseball game, which was between Brooklyn Dodgers and Boston Braves, was in 1951. Some shows that we are familiar with today got their start in the 1950's such as The Today Show (1952) and The Tonight Show (1954).

FCC instilled some guidelines for television similar to those of the radio in that they have to give equal political focus to all parties, and to censor obscene material. Also a certain percentage had to be used for public use. Issues related to sexual content was considered obscene. As an example when Lucy, form the show, I Love Lucy was pregnant the cameras could only show her above her pregnancy belly. Married couples could not be in the same bed either. Shows that could be deemed as indecent were to be shown late at night when children should be in bed.

Westerns, variety shows, and game shows were quite popular to watch. Bonanza, Have Gun Will Travel and Gun Smoke were enjoyed by the males both young and old. Family shows, such as Leave It To Beaver, Father Knows Best, and Ozzie and Harriet showed the values of the traditional American family. American Bandstand appealed to teenagers on social trends in music and fashions. Other shows that are popular were Ed Sullivan Show, The Bob Hope Show, This Is Your Life, and Truth or Consequence.

At the beginning of the decade about one million televisions were being used. At the end of the 1950's more than two-thirds of American households owned a television set. The onset of television brought the country together as a whole slowly did away with regional fads and stories.

Sources:

http://television50s.weebly.com/fun-facts.html

http://www.tv.com/shows/decade/1950s/page2/

http://www.ushistory.org/us/53c.asp

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1950_in_television

http://chnm.gmu.edu/exploring/20thcentury/regulatingtelevision/index.php

Thursday, January 1, 2015

We Didn't Start The Fire ~ 1950 ~ Studebaker

We Didn't Start The Fire

sung by: Billy Joel

Harry Truman, Doris Day, Red China, Johnnie Ray,
South Pacific, Walter Winchell, Joe DiMaggio,
Joe McCarthy, Richard Nixon, Studebaker, television
North Korea, South Korea, Marilyn Monroe.

Rosenbergs, H-bomb, Sugar Ray, Panmunjom
Brando, "The King and I" and "The Catcher in the Rye,"

Eisenhower, vaccine, England's got a new queen,

Marciano, Liberace, Santayana goodbye!

Chorus:

We didn't start the fire,
It was always burning
Since the world's been turning.
We didn't start the fire,
No we didn't light it
But we tried to fight it.

Chorus

Buddy Holly, "Ben Hur", space monkey, Mafia,
Hula hoops, Castro, Edsel is a no-go,
U-2, Syngman Rhee, payola and Kennedy,
Chubby Checker, "Psycho", Belgians in the Congo.

Chorus

China's under martial law, Rock and roller cola wars, I can't take it anymore.

We didn't start the fire,
It was always burning
Since the world's been turning.
We didn't start the fire,
But when we are gone
Will it still burn on, and on, and on, and on.

We didn't start the fire,
It was always burning
Since the world's been turning.
We didn't start the fire,
No we didn't light it
But we tried to fight it.

We didn't start the fire,
It was always burning
Since the world's been turning.
We didn't start the fire...

1950

Studebaker

The Studebaker Company had been around long before the 1950's. In fact, they got their start back in the mid 1700's when they came over to America from Holland and started a wagon making company. It wasn't until the mid 1800's when the family moved to South Bend, Indiana that the family business really began to take off. They helped make wagons for the Union Army during the Civil War and wagon sales increased as the west was opening up in America. The Studebaker company even assisted in the war effort in WWI and WWII. In 1874 they were known for being the "the largest vehicle house in the world" with 20 acres and it even expanded to around 100 acres near the beginning of the 1900's.

Their first automobile was produced around 1902 and it was an electric car. A few years later they produced a gas powered car. In fact, the second electric car produced was purchased by Thomas Edison himself. The automobile's were produced in Detroit while the wagons were still produced in South Bend until they stopped making wagons altogether in 1920.

The 1950's model had a bullet nose style to them. People joked saying the car looked like it was driving backwards.

The 1950's was the start of their financial decline and the beginning of the end to Studebakers. The South Bend plant closed it doors forever in 1963 and in 1966 the last Studebaker car was made in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. What was once part of America's prominent past, (even creating several presidential buggies) is now just a memory of a time that once was.

Sources:

http://www.studebakermuseum.org/p/about/history/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Studebaker

Saturday, December 20, 2014

We Didn't Start The Fire ~ 1950 ~ Richard Nixon

We Didn't Start The Fire

sung by: Billy Joel

Harry Truman, Doris Day, Red China, Johnnie Ray,
South Pacific, Walter Winchell, Joe DiMaggio,
Joe McCarthy, Richard Nixon, Studebaker, television
North Korea, South Korea, Marilyn Monroe.

Rosenbergs, H-bomb, Sugar Ray, Panmunjom
Brando, "The King and I" and "The Catcher in the Rye,"

Eisenhower, vaccine, England's got a new queen,

Marciano, Liberace, Santayana goodbye!

Chorus:

We didn't start the fire,
It was always burning
Since the world's been turning.
We didn't start the fire,
No we didn't light it
But we tried to fight it.

Chorus

Buddy Holly, "Ben Hur", space monkey, Mafia,
Hula hoops, Castro, Edsel is a no-go,
U-2, Syngman Rhee, payola and Kennedy,
Chubby Checker, "Psycho", Belgians in the Congo.

Chorus

China's under martial law, Rock and roller cola wars, I can't take it anymore.

We didn't start the fire,
It was always burning
Since the world's been turning.
We didn't start the fire,
But when we are gone
Will it still burn on, and on, and on, and on.

We didn't start the fire,
It was always burning
Since the world's been turning.
We didn't start the fire,
No we didn't light it
But we tried to fight it.

We didn't start the fire,
It was always burning
Since the world's been turning.
We didn't start the fire...

1950

Richard Nixon

Before the presidency and before the scandals of Watergate, Nixon in the 1950's was just starting to get his political career started. This is where Nixon enters the stage of American history.

Richard Milhous Nixon was born on a farm on January 9, 1913 in Yorba Linda, California and was the second of five boys born into the family. Each of his brothers, including himself, was named after a king in England. He was named after Richard the Lionheart. They had Quaker faith upbringing. In high school he discovered he was a great debater. His teacher once told him, "Remember, speaking is conversation ... don't shout at people. Talk to them. Converse with them" and that helped boost his debate skills. After the Pearl Harbor attack he left his law practice to help out in the war and was commissioned as a lieutenant in the navy. By the time the war was over he was ranked lieutenant commander.

After the war a friend of his suggested he enter politics and that the committee of California Republicans needed a congressional candidate. The committee ended up backing him against Jerry Voorhis who was the Democratic representative from California's Twelfth District for the past ten years. He won that campaign. He became one of the youngest members of he Republican controlled Eightieth Congress.

In 1950 Nixon ran for the United States Senate against Democratic Congresswomen

Helen Douglas. At this time American's were on a communist scare and Nixon pointed out that Douglas supported communist policy. He ended up carrying 53 out of the 58 counties in California and won with over 700,000 votes. The campaign became known as Pink Lady vs. Tricky Dick. Nixon, being 37 years old at this time, became the youngest Republican U.S. Senator at this time.

Greg Mitchell wrote a book about this election called Tricky Dick and the Pink Lady : Richard Nixon vs Helen Gahagan Douglas-Sexual Politics and the Red Scare, 1950.

In 1952 Eisenhower took notice of Nixon and asked him to be his vice-president running mate. They won that election in 1952 and Richard Nixon became vice-president for 2 terms for the 34th president serving from 1953 to 1961. He later on went and became the 37th president from 1969 to 1974 when he resigned from office.

Saturday, December 13, 2014

We Didn't Start The Fire ~ 1950 ~ Joe McCarthy

We Didn't Start The Fire

sung by: Billy Joel

Harry Truman, Doris Day, Red China, Johnnie Ray,
South Pacific, Walter Winchell, Joe DiMaggio,
Joe McCarthy, Richard Nixon, Studebaker, television
North Korea, South Korea, Marilyn Monroe.

Rosenbergs, H-bomb, Sugar Ray, Panmunjom
Brando, "The King and I" and "The Catcher in the Rye,"

Eisenhower, vaccine, England's got a new queen,

Marciano, Liberace, Santayana goodbye!

Chorus:

We didn't start the fire,
It was always burning
Since the world's been turning.
We didn't start the fire,
No we didn't light it
But we tried to fight it.

Chorus

Buddy Holly, "Ben Hur", space monkey, Mafia,
Hula hoops, Castro, Edsel is a no-go,
U-2, Syngman Rhee, payola and Kennedy,
Chubby Checker, "Psycho", Belgians in the Congo.

Chorus

China's under martial law, Rock and roller cola wars, I can't take it anymore.

We didn't start the fire,
It was always burning
Since the world's been turning.
We didn't start the fire,
But when we are gone
Will it still burn on, and on, and on, and on.

We didn't start the fire,
It was always burning
Since the world's been turning.
We didn't start the fire,
No we didn't light it
But we tried to fight it.

We didn't start the fire,
It was always burning
Since the world's been turning.
We didn't start the fire...

1950

Joe McCarthy

At this time in history America was fearful of communism and its politics to take control of the world. The Soviet Union successfully tested the Atomic Bomb in 1949 leaving American's to wonder if the Russian's will use it against them. The collapse of the Kuomintang regime in China set up the new Mao's Communist government which put America on alert of all things Communist. Joe Mccarthy was there to help fan the flames of that fear for his political gain. This moment became known as "McCarthyism."

Joseph Raymond McCarthy was born November 14, 1908 in Appleton, Wisconsin. He was the fifth child out of nine. Growing up in a catholic home he attended a one room school house until the eighth grade. He ended up furthering his education and graduated from the University of Wisconsin.

In 1939 he ran for the Republicans to be judge of the 10th Judicial Circuit of Wisconsin and won the seat party by slandering his opponent openly through the media. He quickly learned that running someone's name through the mud gave him the advantage over things.

Right before this election he ran for the Democrats to be District Attorney. He lost that one. He would flip flop between Republicans and Democrats to whichever would suit his needs. He truly wasn't loyal to one party or another. Another example of this would be in 1944, while in the Marines (he served 1942 to 1945 resigning at Lieutenant) he ran for the Democratic nomination of the U.S. Senate and lost. In 1946 he ran for the U.S. Senate under the Republican nomination in Wisconsin and won the seat.

McCarthy was challenging Robert LaFollete for the seat and like usual McCarthy turned to his slanderous ways. He claimed while he was fighting in the war to defend America LaFollete was home profiting from it. The fact was that LaFollete was too old at the time to serve in the military for the war. LaFollete became so distraught over the slandering that he dropped out of politics altogether and committed suicide.

The first thing McCarthy did in the Senate was proposed a solution to the coal strike that was going on at the time. He said to draft the coal workers, including John Lewis who was head of their union, into the military and force them to work the mines. If they refused they would be court martialed for insubordination and shot. That forward speaking caught the attention of the press. The coal strike ended in May of 1950 when Lewis signed an agreement that increased the wages of the workers with new medical benefits.

Soon there were allegations that McCarthy took bribes from the Pepsi-Cola Company which could cost him his job. A Roman Catholic priest advised him to begin a campaign to rid the country of communists to the allegations would be forgotten about. So on February 9, 1950 in Wheeling, West Virginia McCarthy made an announcement as he held up a piece of paper saying it contained the names of known communist working for the government. This started a witch hunt on communists in the country. Over 30,000 books that had a communist way about them, either by author or subject, were banned. People were calling out entertainers, athletes, as well as politicians as communists. Twenty-five states even outlawed communists organizations. In 1951 Julius and Ethel Rosenberg passed atomic secrets to the Russians added fuel to McCarthyism.

Many wanted McCarthy to go away but many did not want to go up against him due to his slanderous methods. McCarthy knew that by using slander and innuendo would keep his name in the headlines and give him political gain. It all came to a head in 1953 when he started to attack the US Army for its communist leaders within it. The Army-McCarthy Hearings in 1954 became the first televised hearings in American history. They exposed his tactics publically and led to his decline. The Senate voted an official censure against McCarthy on December 2, 1954 for his "conduct that tends to bring the Senate into dishonor and disrepute."

McCarthy was a man who liked his drinks, but it finally caught up with him. He had acute hepatitis that was caused by his alcoholism. He died May 2, 1957 at the age of 49 in Bethesda, Maryland. He is buried in St. Mary's cemetery in Appleton, Wisconsin.

His name lives on with being known as intense anti-communism in America. It became known to mean as the "practice of making accusations, subversion, or treason without proper regard for evidence." (McCarthyism Wiki)

Sources:

http://www.u-s-history.com/pages/h1774.html

http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/february/9/newsid_3703000/3703305.stm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_M._La_Follette,_Jr.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_L._Lewis

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McCarthyism