New+Inventions

Wes Crawford Kris Cody Liam Thompson Kyle Thomas



During the Cold War time period there were many things invented. Their purposes varied from making American life easier to simply making it more enjoyable. However, all of these inventions have stayed with us to this time. Below are a few of the inventions that helped to shape the way Americans live today.

• **T.V:** In the 50’s not only were cars, suburbs, and fast food restaurants booming, but T.V. was to. T.V. was not totally new, but it was not being used as much as it was being used during the 50’s. In 1946 only 7,000 small, black-and-white T.V.’s were sold to people in the United States. In the 50’s more than 5 million T.V. sets were being sold each year in the United Sates alone. Video tape, for the T.V was not invented until 1956, and before that all T.V. was live, so if the reporter messed up, then they would consider themselves fired. In 1960 more than 90% of the population had a T.V., or a magic box. People started to like it so much that it slowly stated to become part of our culture. Plus it was a way to get products that were being sold out and it made a hole new way for politicians to campaign.
 * New things:**

• **Movies:** In the 1950s the movie industry was hurting because of the new invention of the television. This was making the movie industry lose audience. More and more theaters were going out of business but with all of the cars that were being made the amount of drive-in theaters increased. This happened because it was something different than television. Some important people to know are James Dean a teen idol playing a rebel in many films and Marilyn Monroe who became the sex symbol of American movies.

• **Cars: Cars were one of the biggest inventions in the nifty fifties. Of course, cars had already been invented before, but many new types of cars were being invented. All these different colors, and styles were being bought. As some people said, cars expressed peoples attitudes when they were on the road. For instance, if someone had a bright green sports car with a lot of stripes, then you could most-likely think of that person as someone who is out of the ordinary, and attracted to bright things, as well as being kind of hip to the jive. Also, cars brought people to work and around town. Large highways were created, and people could now travel around the country as tourists with their families. Overall, cars were a huge hit in the fifties. **

• **Suburbs:** People in the 50’s after the war were in the “baby boom.” People with their new families dreamed of a place they could call their home, but there during this time their was a shortages of houses, before **Bill Levitt ** showed up. Bill Levitt was an average builder, but then he used Henry Fords mass-production idea and put it to work. He split building a house into 27 different steps and had certain people do each job and instead of only building five or six house a year, he was able to make 36 houses a week. Then when he company grew, he started to make his own nails and he bought a timberland. He also kept his prices very low for each house so they would be affordable. People were know able to buy a house and call it their own. Without Bill Levitt introducing the mass-production idea to making houses, it would of taken him a long time make enough houses for each family.

• **Portable Radios and Music:** During the 50s music became a huge part of American teenagers’ lives. The creation of the portable radio made it so that they always had music around them. The popular Rock and roll became a part of the American lifestyle. Teenagers would go out and dance and the music would be played in the soundtracks of the movies in the time period. Another thing that music did was break down the racial barriers. As with TV, all races listened to the same music, unifying America.

• **Hotels:** When the 1950’s came around there was cheap gas and large cars. Air travel was expensive so people went to the road for hopes of cheaper vacations. Kemmons Wilson was a successful real estate agent and homebuilder. He started the Holiday inn and he planted more that 1,000 Inns in all 50 states. He gave people air conditioning in every room, free parking, free ice and in-room phones. The people soon seemed to take these things for granted. Other hotels like this started popping up everywhere. Also they provided families with a place to stay when they were on the road. These people could get a room for cheap and they would take more car trips this would create more need for cars.

• **McDonald's and fast food:** For a long time, eating out was expensive and it often took long periods of time to get your food. **Dick and Maurice McDonald ** took Henry Ford's idea of production lines and applied it to hamburgers to make McDonald's in 1940, a fast food restaurant where you could go to get food fast and cheap. The restaurant was soon a huge success. The brothers soon became rich. Despite their success, they wouldn't bother to create a McDonald's franchise, but instead kept the restaurant in San Bernardino, California. During the 50s Ray Kroc bought the restaurant name and soon had the restaurants all around America. Taking the already efficient restaurant, he further improved it, making more regulations for his employees to keep the food sanitary. Fast food soon became part of the American life.

http://www.loti.com/fifties_cars.htm http://www.businessweek.com/bwdaily/dnflash/oct2004/nf2004111_3044_db078.htm

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