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Welcome to Retroville! It’s 1953!
IN THE NEWS:
- General Dwight D. Eisenhower becomes the 34th President
- Richard M. Nixon is sworn in as Vice President
- Health, Education & Welfare (HEW) is created
- Julius and Ethel Rosenberg are executed for espionage
- Stalin dies and Malenkov becomes Soviet Premier
- Malenkov appoints Molotov to position of Foreign Minister
- Dag Hammarskjold named Secretary General of the United Nations
- Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay of Nepal reach Mt. Everest summit
- Korean Armistice signed ending Korean War on July 27
- U.S.S.R. detonates a hydrogen bomb in a test program
- IBM introduces the first true computer – the 701
- DNA structure is revealed by James Watson and Francis Crick
- NY Yankees defeat Brooklyn Dodgers to win the World Series (again!)
ON THE RADIO:
- Bing Crosby Show
- Bob Hope Show
- Challenge of the Yukon
- Chase
- Cisco Kid
- Fibber McGee and Molly
- Les Brown Orchestra
- Proudly We Hail
- Shadow
- Space Patrol
- Tarzan of the Apes
ON TELEVISION:
- Colgate Comedy Hour (first broadcast in color)
- I Led Three Lives
- Person to Person with Edward R. Murrow
- Our Miss Brooks
- Kukla, Fran, and Olllie
- Make Room for Daddy
FADS & FASHION:
- Music synthesizers from RCA
- Radial tires
- Plastic army men
- Kukla and Ollie puppets
- TV Guide (first run is only 1.5 million copies)
- Playboy Magazine (first issue features Marilyn Monroe on the cover)
WHAT THINGS COST:
- Car: $1,850
- Gasoline: 29 cents per gallon
- House: $17,500
- Bread: 16 cents per loaf
- Milk: 94 cents per gallon
- Postage Stamp: 3 cents
- Average Annual Salary: $4,700
- Minimum Wage: 75 cents per hour
ACADEMY AWARD – BEST PICTURE:
- From Here to Eternity – war romance by Fred Zimmerman starring Burt Lancaster, Montgomery Clift, Deborah Kerr, Donna Reed, and Frank Sinatra
TONY AWARD – BEST MUSICAL:
- Wonderful Town – music by Leonard Bernstein, lyrics by Betty Comden and Adolph Green, starring Nathaniel Frey, Rosalind Russell, and Edith Adams
PULITZER PRIZES:
- The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway (fiction)
- Picnic by William Inge (drama)
- The Era of Good Feelings by George Dangerfield (history)
- Edmund Pendleton by David J. Mays (biography)
- Collected Poems by Archibald MacLeish (poetry)
NOBEL PEACE PRIZE:
- George Catlett Marshall, USA, 1880-1959, General US Army, President of the American Red Cross, former Secretary of State, former Secretary of Defense, delegate to the United Nations, originator of the Marshall Plan for reconstruction
TOP SONGS:
- You, You, You by Ames Brothers
- Don’t Let the Stars Get in Your Eyes by Perry Como
- That’s Amore by Dean Martin
- Vaya Con Dios by Les Paul and Mary Ford
- Your Cheatin’ Heart by Hank Williams
- I’ve Got the World on a String by Frank Sinatra
