Automobiles in the 1950s
Another element that was present in the 1950’s was automobiles. Automobiles were
something that everyone once dreamed of owning. Now after the war. they could finally own one. Automobiles of the 1940’s were dull and very plain. This was because designers were too busy designing tanks, planes, etc... for the ongoing war. The major event that took place that changed the way cars looked and how they performed happened on October 14, 1947. This was when Chuck Yeager broke the sound barrier. From this point on everyone wanted to go faster.
People wanted automobiles with larger displacement engines. They also wanted sleek and
aerodynamic cars. This prompted General Motors Corporation to hold Motorama in 1949.
This was a giant exposition of concept cars that had an emphasis on power, style, convenience, and features. These for features would be what many cars of the 1950’s would be based on.
One car that was a design evolution was the Chevrolet Corvette. The first Corvette was
built on June 30th, 1953 at the Flint, Michigan plant and continues to be produced today. In 1953 it featured an all fiberglass body with a chromed grill. The car had no side windows and no outside door handles. Each 1953 Corvette was virtually hand built and all 1953 models were white and had red interiors. This may have not been the most technologically advanced car but it would pave the way for the true performance and sports car.
Concept cars also played a part in the 1950’s. They were designed to attract the publics eye, introduce and gauge the publics reaction to new styling and engineering ideas, help attract the public to the auto dealerships where they were displayed at, and to drive car crazy kids nuts.
The 1955 Lincoln Futura featured a plexiglass bubble top and a 300 horsepower V-8. In the 1960’s this car was sold to a car customizer in California and was converted into the first ever Batmobile. The 1958 GM Firebird III was the most radical concept car of the 1950’s. It was powered not by the normal combustion engine but by a gas turbine engine. It also featured a dual cockpit design and was controlled by joystick controller instead of the normal steering wheel.
Another element that was seen in the 1950’s were the tail-fins present on most Cadillacs. The first Cadillac that had the tail fin was introdu...
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...1957. It was a very basic satellite and let out beeps every few seconds. This was very surprising to the US. They did not think that the Soviets had the knowledge of anything as complicated as a satellite. As a result of the launch of Sputnik the US began to put greater emphasis on science and engineering in education. They also began to try extra hard to develop space technology.
Thus the space race had begun.
The American Dream of the 1950’s involved achieving and expanding upon the success of
previous generations. This is shown in all of the things mentioned. Cars for example show how much of a success previous generations were at creating machines. In the 50’s however people made these cars better and equipped them with newly developed technology. This was the progressive spirit that the 1950’s had. People had the spirit to expand to new areas. The introduction of the interstate system allowed for easy expansion and growth. People began to move away from the norms that the 30’s and 40’s had set. They began to live the ways that they wanted and they would not let things such as technology restrict them. This is how the 1950’s played out the American Dream.
...est levels of sports car performance. As the first decade of the 21st century progressed, Chevrolet joined every other automaker in squeezing race track horsepower out of street-legal engines. The ZR1 Corvettes made during this generation were capable of speeds over 200 MPH, and cost over $100,000, so they were a bit of a change from the “cheap” car Corvettes were previously known for being. C7: The Return of the Stingray. Modern Corvettes are now achieving Ferrari racing status and power.Corvettes Are the Longest Running production Car Brand Ever. They are about $65,000 and usually look pretty nice. A really nice touch is that for an extra $800 you can drive your Corvette out of the Corvette museum with the staff clapping while you drive out.
The Showroom of Automotive History: 1948 Tucker. (n.d.). . Retrieved February 18, 2010, from http://www.hfmgv.org/exhibits/showroom/1948/tucker.html.
When the Mustang sold 100,000 units in the first six months, and almost half a million the first year, GM took an interest. The responsibility for GM's Mustang fighter was given to the GM Design Center's Chevrolet Studio under the direction of Henry C. Haga. Interior design was directed by George Angersbach, who had been heavily involved in the design of the Corvette, Corvair, and the Chevy II, which became the Nova in 1969. It has long been a misconception that the '67 Camaro was designed from Chevy II components when actually it was the other way around. The Chevy II was to be all new for '68, and it shared many parts with the '67 Camaro, but this did lead to compromises in the design, most notably the cowl height and hood length.
In this year Henry Ford created the first affordable, combustion engine car called the Model-T. The creation of the Model-T changed the lives of every American. Vehicles were looked at as a way of freedom and excitement. Soon after, every household in America had a car. The demand for vehicles sparked a whole new industry, creating jobs, more revenues and improving the American economy in every way. With so many vehicles on the roads, roads needed to become bigger and better which spawned a nation wide road construction. This also created more jobs and strengthened the economy even further. (Inventions: Car)
Some say that automotive racing began when the second car was built. For over a hundred years, competition has driven innovation in the car industry, thus the industry maxim “Win on Sunday, sell on Monday.” NASCAR and drag racing contributed greatly to muscle cars’ success. Muscle cars were born from these competitions as factory made race cars. Because of this, the muscle car quickly moved from a low quantity specialty item to the image of the American automotive scene. Each brand had to have one and each one needed better performance and personality than the next. The Golden Age began in the 1960s with the introduction of more performance models such as the Chevy SS Impala and the Ford Galaxy Starliner (Auto Editors).
The expansion of the television in the 1950s brought civil rights to the attention of americans. From the media coverage of the Rosa Parks incident to the first ever TV show hosted by an African American in 1950 were the first sparks of a movement that would catch fire in the 1960s (“1950s”). Another prominent technological invention of the 1950s was the hydrogen bomb invented on November 1st 1952. After the United States invented the hydrogen bomb in less than a year, on August 12th 1953 the Soviet Union detonated their first hydrogen bomb. Throughout the 1950s the Cold War was going on between the United States and the Soviet Union and the invention of the hydrogen bomb started an arms race to see who could make the most bombs in the shortest amount of time. This technology further escalated the Cold War and brought it to a tipping point in the next decade (Shmoop Editorial Team). Another technology that intensified the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union was the launch of the first satellites Sputnik 1 and Sputnik 2 by the Soviet Union which started the space race. The launch of Sputnik 1 and Sputnik 2 caused a massive uproar in the american public which lead to the launch of America’s first satellite Explorer 1 on February 1st 1958 and the creation of NASA on July 29th 1958 a year after Sputnik 1 and 2 in 1957 (Virginia and Hugh pg. 19-20). All these technological
The corvette was first introduced in January 1953. To experiment with the car, they only made 300 cars, which were all made by hand and powered by a 235-cubic-inch 6-cylinder engine. The corvette was designed to show the world that General Motors could make a sports car that was a stylish two seater. All 1953 corvettes were polo white with red interiors. The engine of the car generated 150 horsepower and had a 2-speed power glide automatic transmission. Researchers have found that the first corvette has been known to go over 150 miles per hour.
...Even despite my feelings about my own racial development, I, without fail, count it an incredible joy to interact with others about their race and lifestyles. Beverly Tatum’s stages may do a decent job to explain my past experiences, but I find the opportunity to see others’ self-identification to be a much more meaningful thing to me. Maybe their life lines up more with another theory. Perhaps they have even come up with a theory of their own to define and tell their story. No matter what, the narratives that are told within the theories and stages are entirely different for every single person. It it simply impossible to find the perfect theory for all, and one should not feel obligated to conform to a theory. This variance and individuality is unpredictable and cannot always be categorized, but that’s one of the things that makes humanity such a beautiful thing.
In Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema, Mulvey states that, “Traditionally, the woman displayed has functioned on two levels: as erotic object for the characters within the screen story, and as erotic object for the spectator within the auditorium, with a shifting tension between the looks on either side of the screen.” (Mulvey 40). A woman’s role in the narrative is bound to her sexuality or the way she
The events leading up to the Rwandan genocide began decades earlier. There has been a long history of “ethnic” tensions, though it is really a matter of social class. The classification began with the German and Belgian colonizers in the early 1900’s. These colonizers created the social classes of “Hutu” and “Tutsi”, and distributed identification cards with such information (Johnson). The genocide was set off when the president’s plane was shot down (Genocide in Rwanda). Though it was never determined who shot the plane down, the Rwandan Patriotic Front, who were Tutsi rebels, have been blamed (The Rwandan Genocide). Immediately following the assassination, violence erupted in the capital city, Kigali. (Genocide in Rwanda)
In the twentieth century, the introduction of the motor vehicle in the United States became not only noteworthy, but also vital in the development of modern American civilization. This technologically complex machine led citizens to vast future dependence on the invention. While mobility was suddenly not limited to alternative, more convoluted options such as railroad stations or bicycles, yet copiously amplified to aid convenience and expanded leisure opportunities. From auto-racing to redesigning infrastructure, motor vehicles allowed progression, digression, and essentially uttermost change to the lifestyles of the American people. This radical idea of the automobile permeated throughout America with most, if not all, credit renowned to Henry Ford.
...eedom to explore America's new interstate highways. While the car offered many benefits, there were plenty of downsides as far as the city was concerned. As suburbanization took hold of the middle class, the city tried to accommodate to the millions of new cars on the road. Streets were widened, sidewalks narrowed, and the city center became crowded, congested, and perceived as unclean. The downsides of car culture did nothing to dwindle the massive influence it had on the popular culture of the time. Rock and roll became closely linked to the emerging car culture of the 50s due to their shared attitudes of freedom, easy going fun, and life in the fast lane. The car culture of the 1950s has impacted every aspect of the lives of the American people including the media they consume, the places they live, the music they listen to, and of course, the cars they drive.
Furthermore, in 1954, they established the school, restaurant, parks, and church. Suburb became popular and they were helped with mortgage and college. They build highway and railroad and their life change socially and economically. Conclusion, in the 1950s millions of American dream come true, the all achieved their aim, to have house, car, land, school and
This fearless and tenacious spirit is overwhelming in the concept cars of the space race. They allowed the creators to feel a sense of freedom and positivity about a future that was almost expected once man had set foot on the moon. The automobile was an excellent platform for this experimentation and the artistic results have generated a sense of nostalgia that is accessible to everyone and will continue to do so for many years to come.
In her essay, “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema”, British film maker Laura Mulvey attempts to demystify how pleasure can be fulfilled in film. Contending that a pleasure in looking (scopohilia) and a pleasure in possessing the female as what to be looked at (voyeurism) fufills the audience’s desires, Mulvey suggests how filmmakers use this knowledge to create film that panders to our innate desires. In “Meshes of the Afternoon” by Maya Deren and “Vertigo” by Alfred Hitchcock, it is seen that Mulvey’s argument—the desire to look, the hunting, seeking, and watching, and harnessing of the female form is natural human desire. Deren and Hitchcock will use entirely different techniques to achieve that sense of fulfillment for the audience. But how does this watching and looking translate in to the written word? In “The Winter’s Tale” by William Shakespeare, we will see the ideas approached by Mulvey and the themes used by Hitchcock and Deren utilized to create a sense of looking and objectifying the woman in the absence of the screen. Through this paper, the concepts of pleasure for Mulvey will be shown to have applicability not only in cinema but in art in far more universal terms. First, a discussion of pleasure and Mulvey’s definition of it will allow for clearer understanding as to what this fulfillment actually is. Secondly, Vertigo will be examined—as an example of “mainstream film” utilizing the ideas of scopophila and voyeurism in a perfect balance. Scottie and his search will then be contrasted with Leontes of Shakespeare’s Winter’s Tale, where again desires will be balanced in harmony with Mulvey’s principles. It is to become clear through...