The 50's!!! (and Fences)

apparently we are about to do a play called fences... and apparently we have to do research on the setting
 -__- whatever, so here goes :

• When/Where does the play take place?
• What was going on in the US at this time point regarding politics, economics, sports, entertainment and technology?  

The play is set in 1957 and later in 1965 and it is set in the dirt-yard and porch of a family, the Maxson's in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania  

Now what was The U.S. doing during this funky period of time. I got some first hand accounts from real people!

Choo Choo says  "The fifties were the "BEST" the war was over, we had WON!! Girls all wore hoop skirts and pony tails. Guys all wore black leather jackets. there was no guessing about gender. Girls wouldn't be caught dead in slacks. There was dancing and drive in's (not drive bys). Those were the greatest years of my life. In 1957 I got my first car. Didn't need insurance in those days. Gasoline was 33 cents a gallon. We would scrape together a buck and drive around town checking out all the girls.Hamburgers were six for a dollar at White Castle and there was always Pizza Pie. I wish the 50's had never ended." Wow he had a happy perspective 

Now  BeKindToAnimals22 has to say that: "They were silent problems like severe racism, severe sexism, fear of nuclear attack, the Korean war, the cold war. There were just great ways to forget your problems. TV was relatively new and extremely entertaining. The content was much more moral than now. It was always family entertainment. It gave people a false sense that all was well while not really being a media that concerned itself with the issues of the country other than the nightly news. Actually, socially, the same things were going on then as now, it was just hush, hush. There were still WW II movies being made that gave everyone a great sense of national pride. Many people were not well off economically and lived very frugally. Gradually, the women had to enter the job market for families to send their children to college, etc."

Now lets take a look at certain categories 

Sports 

World Series Milwaukee Braves vs. NY Yankees (4-3) (oh no the yankees lost)

NBA Championship

Boston vs. St. Louis Hawks (4-3) 9YOu go Boston)

Stanley Cup

Montreal vs. Boston (4-1) (oh well next time America )

NCAA Basketball Championship

North Carolina vs. Kansas (54-53 3OT) (wow what a close score)

NCAA Football Champions

Auburn (AP) (10-0-0) & Ohio St. (UP, FW, INS) (9-1-0) (what do those zeroes mean???)

Timeline of the 50's... oh yes i did

1950

• First Modern Credit Card Introduced
• First Organ Transplant
• First "Peanuts" Cartoon Strip
• Korean War Begins
• Senator Joseph McCarthy Begins Communist Witch Hunt
• U.S. President Truman Orders Construction of Hydrogen Bomb

1951

• Color TV Introduced
• South Africans Forced to Carry ID Cards Identifying Race
• Truman Signs Peace Treaty With Japan, Officially Ending WWII
• Winston Churchill Again Prime Minister of Great Britain

1952

• Car Seat Belts Introduced
• The Great Smog of 1952
• Jacques Cousteau Discovers Ancient Greek Ship
• Polio Vaccine Created
• Princess Elizabeth Becomes Queen at Age 25

1953

• DNA Discovered
• First Playboy Magazine
• Hillary and Norgay Climb Mt. Everest
• Joseph Stalin Dies
• Julius and Ethel Rosenberg Executed for Espionage

1954

• Britain Sponsors an Expedition to Search for the Abominable Snowman
• First Atomic Submarine Launched
• Report Says Cigarettes Cause Cancer
• Roger Bannister Breaks the Four-Minute Mile
• Segregation Ruled Illegal in U.S.

1955

• Disneyland Opens
• Emmett Till Murdered
• James Dean Dies in Car Accident
• McDonald's Corporation Founded
• Rosa Parks Refuses to Give Up Her Seat on a Bus
• Warsaw Pact Signed

1956

• Elvis Gyrates on Ed Sullivan's Show
• Grace Kelly Marries Prince Rainier III of Monaco
• Hungarian Revolution
• Khrushchev Denounces Stalin
• Suez Crisis
• T.V. Remote Control Invented
• Velcro Introduced

1957

• Dr. Seuss Publishes The Cat in the Hat
• European Economic Community Established
• Soviet Satellite Sputnik Launches Space Age
• Laika Becomes the First Living Animal to Enter Orbit

1958

• Boris Pasternak Refuses Nobel Prize
• Chinese Leader Mao Zedong Launches the "Great Leap Forward"
• Hope Diamond is Donated to the Smithsonian
• Hula Hoops Become Popular
• LEGO Toy Bricks First Introduced
• NASA Founded
• Peace Symbol Created

1959

• Castro Becomes Dictator of Cuba
• International Treaty Makes Antarctica Scientific Preserve
• Kitchen Debate Between Nixon and Khrushchev
• The Sound of Music Opens on Broadway
• U.S. Quiz Shows Found to be Fixed