Vintage 1950s Cars

Vintage 1950s Cars

Chrysler New Yorker, 1956

          The Chrysler New Yorker is an automobile model which was produced from 1940 to 1996, serving for several years as the brand's flagship model. The New York Special first appeared in 1938 and the New Yorker name debuted in 1939. Until its discontinuation in 1996, the New Yorker had made its mark as the longest-running American car nameplate.

          The New Yorker name helped define the Chrysler brand as a maker of upscale models, priced and equipped above mainstream brands like Ford, Chevrolet/Pontiac, and Dodge/Plymouth, but below full luxury brands like Cadillac, Lincoln, and Packard. During the New Yorker's tenure, it competed against upper-level models from Buick, Oldsmobile, and Mercury.

          In 1955, Chrysler did away with the out of fashion high roofline designs of K.T. Keller and came out with a new sedan that borrowed styling cues from Virgil Exner's custom 1952 Imperial Parade Phaeton. The Hemi engine produce 250 hp that year. The result became an ongoing trend for increasing engine output throughout the next two decades with Chrysler and its rival competitors. The Powerflite transmission was controlled by a lever on the instrument panel.

          Chrysler began the 1956 model year's design "PowerStyle," a product of prolific Chrysler designer Virgil Exner. The Chrysler New Yorker gained a new mesh grille, leather seats, pushbutton PowerFlite selector, and a 354 cubic inch Hemi V8 with 280 hp Also new for 1956, Chrysler introduced an under-dash mounted 16 2/3 rpm record player, dubbed the “Highway Hi-Fi”, manufactured by CBS electronics. A two-way switch in the dash changed the input for the speaker from the all-transistor radio to the 7-inch record player.

          The St. Regis two-door hardtop gave a unique three-tone paint job for a higher price and the Town and Country Wagon model was Chrysler's most expensive vehicle of 1956 at $4,523. Only 921 convertibles were made.

vintage 1950s Movies

Vintage 1950s Movies

East of Eden

          East of Eden is a 1955 film, directed by Elia Kazan, and loosely based on the second half of the 1952 novel of the same name by John Steinbeck. A willful young man contends against his brother for the attention of their religious father while reconnecting with his estranged mother and falling for his brother's girlfriend, thus retelling the story of Cain and Abel.

          The film stars Julie Harris, James Dean (in his first major screen role), and Raymond Massey. It also features Burl Ives, Richard Davalos, and Jo Van Fleet.

          Set in early 20th century Monterey, California, The film was actually shot on location in Mendocino, California. Some scenes were filmed in the Salinas Valley.

          Of the three films in which James Dean played the male lead, this is the only one to have been released during his lifetime and the only one Dean personally viewed in its entirety.

          The film won the following awards: Academy Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role: Jo Van Fleet, Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture – Drama: Elia Kazan, Golden Globe, Special Achievement Award: Given posthumously for Best Dramatic Actor: James Dean, and Cannes Film Festival, Best Dramatic Film: Elia Kazan

Tid bit:

           Before filming began, Kazan sent Dean off to Palm Springs to gain some weight and get some sun so that he looked like a "real" farm boy. Dean hated getting a tan, having his hair cut, and drinking a pint of cream a day to put on pounds.

Vintage 1950s Personalities

1950s Personalities

Abbott and Costello

          Abbott and Costello, an American comedy duo was comprised of Bud Abbott and Lou Costello. Their work on radio, film and television 

made them the most popular comedy team of the 1940s and early 1950s. Their routine "Who's on First?" is still one of the best-known comedy routines of all time in the US.

          The two comedians first worked together in 1935 at the Eltinge Burlesque Theater, New York. This duo came about when Costello's regular partner became ill and Abbott stepped in.  Other performers in the show, including Abbott's wife, encouraged a permanent pairing. They built an act by reworking burlesque sketches with Abbott as the devious straight man and Costello as the dimwitted comic.

          The team's first radio broadcast was on The Kate Smith Hour on February 3, 1938. Because of the similarities between their voices listeners couldn't tell them apart during their rapid-fire skits. Costello perfected a high-pitched, childish voice. "Who's on First?" was first performed for a national radio audience the following month.  They were regulars for two years, while also landing roles in a Broadway revue, The Streets of Paris, in 1939.

          They debuted their own TV program, The Abbott and Costello Show in 1940 to great reviews. The show mixed comedy with musical numbers by well known performers.

          In 1940, Universal Studios signed them for a musical, One Night in the Tropics. Cast in supporting roles, they stole the show with several of their classic routines, including "Who's on First?".  This began a barrage of films.  All were big hits, and Abbott and Costello were voted the third biggest box office attraction in the country in 1941.

          Costello was stricken with rheumatic fever upon his return from a winter tour of army bases in March 1943 and was bedridden for

six months. On November 4, 1943, the same day that Costello returned to radio, his infant son Lou Jr. died in an accidental drowning in the family's swimming pool. They later returned to MGM.

          In 1945 a rift developed, Costello refused to speak to his partner except when performing. Abbott resolved the rift when he suggested naming Costello's pet charity, a foundation for underprivileged children, the "Lou Costello Jr. Youth Foundation." The facility opened in 1947.

          The duo was thwarted again for several months when Costello suffered a relapse of rheumatic fever. After  Costello recovered they returned to the screen and more films followed.

          In January 1951, Abbott and Costello joined the roster of rotating hosts of The Colgate Comedy Hour on NBC.

          From the fall of 1952 to the spring of 1954, a filmed half-hour series, The Abbott and Costello Show, appeared in syndication on over forty local stations across the United States.

          Abbott and Costello each married performers they met while in burlesque. Abbott wed Betty Smith, a dancer, and comedienne, in 1918, and Costello married a chorus girl, Anne Battler, in 1934. The Costellos had four children; the Abbotts adopted two.

          At times Abbott and Costello faced personal demon. Both were habitual gamblers and had serious health problems. Abbott suffered from epilepsy and turned to alcohol for seizure management.

          In the 1950s, Abbott and Costello's popularity waned with the premiere of Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis. Universal dropped the comedy team in 1955 after they could not agree on contract terms.

          In the early 1950s, the Internal Revenue Service charged them both for back taxes, forcing them to sell their homes and most of their assets, including the rights to most of their films.

        In his last years, Costello made about ten solo appearances on The Steve Allen Show doing many of the old routines without Abbott. Costello performed stand-up in Las Vegas and appeared in episodes of GE Theater and Wagon Train. On March 3, 1959, not long after completing his one solo film, The 30 Foot Bride of Candy Rock, Costello died of a heart attack three days short of his 53rd birthday.

          Bud Abbott died of cancer on April 24, 1974.

"Who's on First?" For a waltz down memory lane (Try looking at the baseball field while watching the video) Go to: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kTcRRaXV-fg

Vintage 1950s Toys

Vintage 1950s Toys

Play-Doh

          Play-Doh began when Kutol Products, a Cincinnati based soap company, was about to go under in the late 1920s.  Cleo McVicker was tasked with selling off the company’s remaining assets, which at the time comprised mainly of powdered hand soap.

          In 1933 Cleo was at a meeting with Kroger grocery store representatives when they asked him if he made wallpaper cleaner. (This was before vinyl wallpaper.)

          In a bold stroke, Cleo told them he could make the wallpaper cleaner for them (even though no-one at Kutol Products knew how).  Kroger subsequently ordered 15,000 cases of wallpaper cleaner. Sales bloomed. After WWII, sales began to dwindle with sooty coal heaters slowly being replaced by oil and gas furnaces.

          The product was reworked and marketed to Cincinnati schools. In 1954 Kay Zufall, the unsung hero of Play-Doh history and the sister-in-law to Joe McVicker, had a nursery school and needed cheap materials to have her kids make Christmas decorations.  In the process of searching for said cheap decoration materials, she read in a magazine that you could use wallpaper cleaner for this task.  Knowing the trouble her brother-in-law’s company was in, she went out and bought a bunch of Kutol’s wallpaper cleaner, to see if it would work for this application.

          Joe McVicker managed to talk his way into an audience with Bob Keeshan, better known as Captain Kangaroo. McVicker explained to him that Kutol Products had no money for a national advertising campaign nor money to have the product put on the show.  However, if Keeshan would agree to use the product once a week on Captain Kangaroo, they’d give the Captain Kangaroo production company 2% of the sales generated, so long as he continued to show it.  The Captain agreed and Play-Doh quickly became a national hit, even appearing on other children’s shows such as Ding Dong School and Romper Room. In 1958 Play-Doh's sales reached nearly $3 million.

Vintage 1950s Personalities

Vintage 1950s Personalities

Marilyn Monroe changed Ella Fitzgerald's Life

          Marilyn Monroe was working on her singing ability and studied the recordings of Ella Fitzgerald at the advice of her vocal coach.  Monroe was instructed to purchase Fitzgerald’s recordings of Gershwin's music and listen to it 100 times in a row. The continued study of Fitzgerald's work turned Monroe into a great admirer. Reportedly, Monroe respected Fitzgerald so much she scrutinized Ella’s early recordings to help develop her own voice.

          During the ‘50s, one of the most popular venues was the Mocambo Club in Hollywood. Frank Sinatra made his Los Angeles debut at The Mocambo Club in 1943, and it was frequented by the likes of Clark Gable, Charlie Chaplin, Humphrey Bogart, Lauren Bacall, and Lana Turner.

          At that time, Fitzgerald was not allowed to perform at Mocambo Club because of her race. Then, one of her biggest fans made a telephone call that changed the path of her career for good.

          Monroe heard the Macambo Club banned Fitzgerald and thought it ridiculous. Monroe called the manager of the club and said that she would sit front row every night if Fitzgerald got the job. She promised to pull in not only massive crowds but the press. The manager couldn't bypass such a deal. He agreed and booked Fitzgerald. As promised Marilyn Monroe was there, front table, every night. The press went overboard to cover the club and its celebrity clientele.

          "I owe Marilyn Monroe a real debt," Fitzgerald would say later. "After that, I never had to play a small jazz club again. She (Marylin) was an unusual woman — and ahead of her time, and she didn't know it."

To hear the music that Marilyn Monroe studied, go to: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7t3ZbT1Tavg

Vintage 1950s Music HIGH HOPES

High Hopes

          A popular song first popularized by Frank Sinatra,  music written by James Van Heusen and lyrics by Sammy Cahn.  It was introduced by Sinatra and child actor Eddie Hodges in the 1959 film A Hole in the Head, nominated for a Grammy, it won an Oscar for Best Original Song at the 32nd Academy Awards.

          High Hopes was recorded in 1959 in a hit version featuring a children's chorus, which was later included in Sinatra's 1961 album All the Way (this version is not the version that appeared in the film, as the film version paired Sinatra with Eddie Hodges rather than with a children's chorus). The tune reached #30 on the Billboard Hot 100. The track peaked at #6 in the UK Singles Chart. Sinatra also recorded a version of the tune with different lyrics which was used as the theme song for the 1960 Presidential Campaign of John Kennedy.

          The song was recorded by several artists. Doris Day recorded a  jazzy version of the song for her 1964 album, With a Smile and a Song. Her version was used in the 1998 animated film Antz.

Here is Doris Day's version of High Hopes: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xlti6Ydh1-k

Vintage 1950s Food Chicken a la King

Vintage 1950s

Chicken à la King

This is an oldie but goodie from Betty Crocker Cookbook!  I so remember eating this every Wednesday in the school cafeteria during lunch.

1/2 cup butter or margarine

1 small green bell pepper, chopped (1/2 cup)

3 ounces fresh mushrooms, sliced

1/2 cup Gold Medal® all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon pepper

1 1/2 cups milk (may be part cream if you want a richer sauce )

1 1/4 cups chicken broth 

2 cups cut-up cooked chicken or turkey (Rotisserie store-bought chicken may be used if in a hurry )

1 jar (2 ounces) diced pimientos, drained

3 cups hot noodles, hot rice, biscuits, or toast

Melt butter in 3-quart saucepan over medium-high heat. Cook bell pepper and mushrooms in butter, stirring occasionally until bell pepper is crisp-tender. Stir in flour, salt, and pepper.

Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until bubbly; remove from heat. Stir in milk and broth. Heat to boiling, stirring constantly. Boil and stir 1 minute. Stir in chicken and pimientos; cook until hot.

Serve over hot egg noodles, hot rice, biscuits, or toast

Serves 4