american culture in the 50s and 60s

FC.145A POSTWAR CONFORMITY & THE SEEDS OF DISSENT IN THE 1950SWorld War II (FC.135)

Roots of social, cultural & political dissent in 1960s

(FC.148)

New factors to encourage conformity, esp. spending to maintain the consumer econ:

Unprecedented prosperity, tech. growth, leisure & opportunities for

education & research

Go from milit. conformity to

corporate conformity

Men feel trapped in

meaningless jobs

Modern advertising

Mass media, esp. TV

Housewives feel isolated & trapped in their lives

Supermarkets New ways

to shop & consume (FC.145B)

Kinsey reports on sexual

behavior of humans

More open attitudes to sex (e.g., Playboy)

Women less fearful of getting

pregnant

Millions of new fam’s Need

homes Suburb. sprawl

Growing anger vs.

conformity

Looser sexual

standards

Birth control pill (1960) to

relieve women in poverty

Credit cards Easy buying Growing debt problem in US

Pressure to give baby

boomers lots of new stuff

Start of Civil Rts movement

(FC.146B)

Beats & Rock and Roll

(FC.145C)

A

Crabgrass Frontiers"We are not builders. We are manufacturers." --Bill Levitt

Reproduction poster or advertisement addressing needs of returning WWII vets.

As early as 1944, people foresaw the coming housing shortage when the war ended.

Reproduction poster or advertisement addressing needs of returning WWII vets.

As early as 1944, people foresaw the coming housing shortage when the war ended.

Into the breach stepped William Levitt.

Before the suburbs there were the “urbs”. By 1920, America had become an urban nation where more than half its people lived in communities of 2500 or more. Many of them lived in urban tenements such as the one nostalgically recalled in Norman Rockwell’s painting on the left.

Norman Rockwell, Homecoming GI, 1945

Norman Rockwell, Homecoming GI, 1945

Before the suburbs there were the “urbs”. By 1920, America had become an urban nation where more than half its people lived in communities of 2500 or more. Many of them lived in urban tenements such as the one nostalgically recalled in Norman Rockwell’s painting on the left.

This was before there was any stigma of poverty associated with living in the city. It was also before any urbanites had anywhere else they could live that was easily accessible to work. And it was before there were enough cars to take them between the two places.

During the 1930s, the Levitts’ firm custom built a few hundred houses a year, mostly on Long Island. In 1941 it won a government contract to build 2200 defense housing units in Norfolk, Virginia.

Abraham, William and Alfred Levitt pose for a Fortune Magazine feature story in 1952.

"Any fool can build homes—what counts is how many you can sell for how little.”--William J. Levitt


During the War, William Levitt served in the Pacific in the Seabees (Naval engineering corps) where he saw the possibilities of mass construction of houses given cheap materials and labor and proper organization.





Rather than hiring expensive skilled workers who built one house at a time, he broke the process of building a house into 27 stages, each done by a separate crew that focused on that one aspect of the project and then moving on to the next house. That way Levitt could create a virtual assembly line of house building modeled after Henry Ford’s assembly line.






He could also use cheap unskilled workers who only had to learn one narrow aspect of house building.






He could also use cheap unskilled workers who only had to learn one narrow aspect of house building.

Best of all, it kept prices down.



Architect’s rendering of two versions of the 1947 Cape Cod built in Island Trees. Having only two models made it easier and cheaper for Levitt’s crews to work quickly. Once the project was in full production, Levitt was finishing 36 houses a day.

Levitt sacrificed individuality and custom design for low-cost efficiency. Still, his Pennsylvania development featured six house models, each in several different styles and model years. Levitt boasted that he had created "the least monotonous mass housing group in the country."

Introduced in 1953, the Rancher sold for $1,000 less than the Levittowner and included a second floor that could be finished into an extra bedroom. It proved especially popular with couples planning large families

The Jubilee debuted in 1954 to mark Levitt and Sons’ 25th anniversary and proved an instant hit with consumers. The anniversary model included an enclosed garage and an expandable second floor. A later version, the Jubilee Jr., was identical to its predecessor except for the unfinished second floor.

Before and after shots of the potato fields on Long Island that became the Levitts’ first post-war community, called Island Trees because of the two trees left at the entrance. It was later renamed Levittown.

Using surrogate agents for his Pennsylvania Levittown, Levitt purchased a total of 5,750 acres, mostly farmland, from between 150-175 individual property owners over several months in 1951. By buying his property "in one fell swoop," Levitt hoped to avoid the piecemeal acquisitions that plagued the development of his Long Island community.

While many supplies were shipped in, some materials were made on site. A cement hopper and gravel pit set up in the Lakeside section produced concrete for house slabs. After construction was completed, Levitt flooded the pit to create a community lake.

To reduce his dependence on middlemen, Levitt bought his own lumber stands in California and Oregon, invested in a lumber mill, and established a centrally located warehouse in Levittown. To increase efficiency, pre-cut lumber was bundled "combat loaded," with pieces needed first at top, before being trucked off to the site.

SLAB CONSTRUTION

Levitt was the first large-scale builder to construct houses on radiantly heated cement slabs. By foregoing a dug-out basement, Levitt estimated he saved consumers $1,000 per dwelling. The practice caught on. By 1952, 25% of all new houses were constructed on slab

Levitt-slabs just waiting for someone make them a home

Building materials, from siding to nails, were delivered in perfectly calibrated house-sized amounts to each house site. Workers needed to do no measuring or cutting. Interchangeable, standardized parts also cut costs.

A newly constructed housing section. During Levittown, Pa.’s first year, the company sold an average of 1600 houses a month. During a typical closing, it was not uncommon to see 40 to 50 buyers settling simultaneously on their new homes.

Levittown, Pa., 1959

Levittowner Model #1

As with everything else, landscaping was standardized so that each lot received the same allotment of shade trees, fruit trees, evergreens and perennials and flowering shrubs. The final plan called for more than 400,000 plantings at a cost of $8,000,000.

Page from the home owners manual distributed by Levitt and Sons, outlining the "how-tos" of lawn care.

George Ryan cartoon published in the Levittown Outlook, spoofing Levittowners' approach to lawncare.


Levitt supplied homeowners with detailed instructions on the care of lawn, plants and shrubbery. The assumption was that most new homeowners—as lifelong city dwellers—would have been unfamiliar with even the most basic aspects of horticulture. lots any larger than that.




Levitt supplied homeowners with detailed instructions on the care of lawn, plants and shrubbery. The assumption was that most new homeowners—as lifelong city dwellers—would have been unfamiliar with even the most basic aspects of horticulture.

While small by rural standards, Levittown's 7000 square foot lots seemed spacious to city dwellers. Levitt believed that most homeowners would be unwilling to maintain lots any larger than that.



Picture Windows

Consistent with mid-century architectural design, Levitt incorporated windows and natural light wherever possible. The Levittowner featured full-length or floor-to-ceiling picture windows, in front and back, segmented into standard multiples.

A Levitt-room (left) and and artist’s sketch of what living in Levittown would look like from the inside.

Expandable Attics

Carports and, in most later models, expandable attics, were promoted as ideal "rumpus rooms" for children that could be finished at the leisure—and expense—of individual homeowners

Kitchens

All Levitt houses featured modern kitchens complete with electric range, refrigerator and other built-in accessories designed to take the labor out of housekeeping

Indoor/Outdoor Living

Most models featured large, sliding glass doors that opened on to an outdoor terrace which could be finished into a livable patio space

To cut costs and add flexibility, Levitt replaced conventional, solid-wood closet doors with Japanese manufactured bamboo screens. Like all of his materials, Levitt ordered the bamboo screens in bulk—1,750,000 square feet of it in his initial order. "The Japanese will learn what it means to be touched by Levitt," Fortune Magazine quipped.

While most of Levitt's cost cutting measures held up, some did not. His tarpaper composition sewer pipe saved money in the short run but proved unstable. Homeowners often were forced to pay thousands of dollars to install new, copper lines—generally after Levitt's five-year warranty had expired

Planning for CommunityThe basic planning unit for Levittown was the master block, a roughly mile-square area that encompassed three to five variously sized neighborhoods, also known as "sections." Each section contained on average between 300 and 500 houses.

Although the goal of Levittown was to house people, and lots of them, by arranging his houses around neighborhoods drawn to human scale, Levitt hoped to create a small-town feel.

In addition to houses, Levittown's master plan called for swimming pools, baseball fields, churches, schools, and shopping centers. Levitt believed new homeowners preferred a full-service community with "built-in" features—just like its houses.

Elementary schools were to be nestled inside each master block so that, in Levitt's words, "no child will have to walk more than one half mile to school or cross any major road.”

Levitt created the illusion of variety by alternating house angles, as revealed in this aerial photo of Levittowner house slabs in the Stonybrook section. Levitt also varied exterior house colors.

Levitt's plan included Olympic-sized swimming pools, Little League baseball fields, neighborhood parks, and a multi-purpose community building. An avid baseball fan, Levitt even built a regulation, major-league field in the hopes of luring a minor league team to Levittown.

Many churches, like the one pictured, were centrally located along the Levittown Parkway. Levitt donated the land for both churches and schools.

By building a few large, centralized shopping centers, Levitt hoped to avoid the problems associated with haphazardly placed and often unsightly commercial strips. Levittown's main shopping center was not only large—at the time, the biggest shopping center east of the Mississippi—but also meticulously landscaped.

"Suburbia is becoming the most important single market in the country. It is the suburbanite who starts the mass fashions—for children, … dungarees, vodka martinis, outdoor barbecues, functional furniture, [and] picture windows … All suburbs are not alike, but they are more alike than they are different." --William H. Whyte, author of the 1956 best seller, The Organization Man

Levittown, Pa.

"It is a one-class community on a great scale, too congested for effective variety and too spread out for social relationships…Mechanically, it is admirably done. Socially, the design is backward."

Lewis Mumford, 1952

MR. LEVITT'S RESPONSE:

"What would you call the places our homeowners left to move out here? We give them something better and something they can pay for."

Between 1950 and 1960, 20 million people were drawn to mass housing developments on the outskirts of America's cities. In terms of sheer numbers, the move to the suburbs outstripped the fabled Westward migration of the 1800s many times over.

Suburbia cartoon. [Reprinted from Electrical Merchandising, July 1957]


A

AFC.145A POSTWAR CONFORMITY & THE SEEDS OF DISSENT IN THE 1950SWorld War II (FC.135)




Modern advertising

Mass media, esp. TV






Electron Frontiers:The Birth of TV

If one thing came to increasingly define American culture in the 1950s, it was television. In 1949, there were only 3,602,872 sets in the US. In 1950 that number had nearly tripled to 9,734,872. By 1959, it had reached 67,145,000.

What Things Cost in 1954:Car: $1,950

Gasoline: 29 cents/galHouse: $17,500

Bread: 17 cents/loafMilk: 92 cents/gal

Postage Stamp: 3 centsStock Market: 404

Average Annual Salary: $4,700Minimum Wage: 75 cents per hour

The first color TV broadcast was the Tournament of Roses Parade on January 1, 1954 to 21 stations. At the time, there were only 200 experimental color sets able to view it. By March there were 370 stations broadcasting in color, with 202 ready to start.

In April, RCA started selling color sets at $1,000 each (half the price of a car). One year later, it had sold only 5,000 sets. But color was clearly the wave of the future.

1942 Philco AdPage 1

1943 Ad

One of the most popular TV shows of the time was The Wonderful world of Disney, featuring such shows as Peter Pan and Davy Crockett. Starting out in the 1930s making Mickey Mouse cartoons, Walt Disney cashed in on TV, which helped sell tickets to Disneyland, the first theme park, and vice versa.

Other mainstays of TV programming in the 50s were game shows, Superman, and for all those new baby-boomers, kiddie shows like Howdy Doody and Popeye, the foremost spokesman for the spinach industry who, like Mickey Mouse, made the successful transition from the movie theaters to TV.

Those Fad-ulous 50s





Modern advertising

Mass media, esp. TV






Poodle Mania!While the French poodle has always been popular, in the Fifties it was everywhere. There were ceramic poodles, plastic poodles, pink poodles, white poodles, black poodles. You could wear poodles, decorate with poodles, store things in poodles, even throw your trash in poodle wastecans.Some of these items bore the label "Made in Occupied Japan." After World War II we were fussy about what we'd let Japan manufacture. In short, nothing that could possibly be used for making war. The consequence? Japan made lots of French poodles.As if that wasn't enough, a poodle haircut was prevalent. The best example of the poodle style is none other than Lucille Ball, pictured below.

Coonskin CapsDavy Crockett was our hero. And to prove it, we all went out and bought 100 million dollars worth of raccoon caps in one year along with capguns, wrist watches, books, moccasins, lunch boxes and all manner of merchandise.

Fess Parker portrayed both Davy Crockett and later Daniel Boone on TV. Many historians feel that this caused a permanent blurring of the two real life men into one entity (Davy Boone, Daniel Crockett?) forever making each less distinct.

What's curious about this is that Davy Crockett was only a five episode adventure which aired as part of Disneyland in 1954 and 1955 and never got a series of his own. Like most fads that come in with a vengeance, they tend to go out with the proverbial whimper. Thus it was with Davy Crockett and the coonskin cap.

HULA HOOPSRichard Knerr and Arthur "Spud" Melin, founders of Wham-O, were the architects of the biggest fad of all time - the hula hoop! In 1957, an Australian visiting California told them, quite casually, that in his home country, children twirled bamboo hoops around their waists in gym class. Knerr and Melin understood how popular such an item could be and made one of Marlex, a lightweight but durable plastic then recently invented by Phillips Petroleum. The name "hula hoop" came from the Hawaiian dance its users seemed to imitate. Wham-O sold 25 million hula hoops in two months with another 100 million international orders following. They were manufacturing 20,000 hoops a day at the peak of popularity. Not all nations followed this fad. Japan banned the hoops thinking they might promote improprieties. The Soviet Union called the hula hoop an example of the "emptiness of American culture”. The fad was short-lived. But Knerr and Melin were already onto another hot idea: the frisbee.

ChlorophyllIn the 1950s it was widely believed that chlorophyll, the stuff that makes plants green, eliminated bad smells. So they added it to every kind of product imaginable. The picture at left just suggests the variety and number of items to which chlorophyll became a promotable ingredient.Today many people still tout the benefits of it for health. While not engaging in the debate of chlorophyll's therapeutic properties, suffice it to say that it sold well. Until "The Journal of the American Medical Association" pointed out grazing goats virtually live on chlorophyll and they smell bad just the same.

Telephone CrammingOddly enough, this fad began in South Africa, spread to England and then in 1959 went straight to - California!The idea was to cram as many people as possible into a telephone booth. A competition sport, cramming soon spread across college campuses as each one tried to set a new record.Sometimes called Telephone Box Squash, there were very few rules except that it was widely accepted that the booth must still contain a phone. Under British rules, you had to be able to be able to either place or receive a call, but that did not apply anywhere else. The door was left open and only half of a person must be inside the booth to be counted. And the booth had to upright. The South African record of 25 people withstood all challengers. The English only made it to19 and hey, they had wider booths. A Canadian group made it to 40 but the booth was on its side and so that figure was discounted.

As for the spirit that built the West - the most efficient bunch we had was a group at St. Mary's College in Moraga, California.In an effort to beat the South African record, they managed to cram 22 people in a booth. Well, you can't win them all.Cramming expanded into other venues and VW Beetle cramming enjoyed a brief popularity. But like all good fads, this one ended rather quickly





Modern advertising

Mass media, esp. TV












Men feel trapped in

meaningless jobs

Modern advertising

Mass media, esp. TV






AAFC.145A POSTWAR CONFORMITY & THE SEEDS OF DISSENT IN THE 1950SWorld War II (FC.135)






Men feel trapped in

meaningless jobs

Modern advertising

Mass media, esp. TV






Growing anger vs.

conformity




AAFC.145A POSTWAR CONFORMITY & THE SEEDS OF DISSENT IN THE 1950SWorld War II (FC.135)






Men feel trapped in

meaningless jobs

Modern advertising

Mass media, esp. TV





behavior of humans



Growing anger vs.

conformity










Men feel trapped in

meaningless jobs

Modern advertising

Mass media, esp. TV





behavior of humans




Growing anger vs.

conformity










Men feel trapped in

meaningless jobs

Modern advertising

Mass media, esp. TV





behavior of humans



pregnant



Growing anger vs.

conformity












Men feel trapped in

meaningless jobs

Modern advertising

Mass media, esp. TV





behavior of humans



pregnant



Growing anger vs.

conformity

Looser sexual

standards












Men feel trapped in

meaningless jobs

Modern advertising

Mass media, esp. TV





behavior of humans



pregnant



Growing anger vs.

conformity

Looser sexual

standards







(FC.145C)







Men feel trapped in

meaningless jobs

Modern advertising

Mass media, esp. TV





behavior of humans



pregnant



Growing anger vs.

conformity

Looser sexual

standards







(FC.146B)


(FC.145C)


Roots of social, cultural & political dissent in 1960s

(FC.148)






Men feel trapped in

meaningless jobs

Modern advertising

Mass media, esp. TV





behavior of humans



pregnant



Growing anger vs.

conformity

Looser sexual

standards







(FC.146B)


(FC.145C)

american culture in the 50s and 60s

Documents

levitt fewhundredhousesayear

alfred levitt

roll fc

bill levitt asearlyas1944

homeswhat counts

civil rts movement fc

growing debt boomers

us of new stuff