For those who weren't around all those years ago, here are a few facets of mid-20th century Americana that you may -or may not- be aware of. These are discussed to help you better understand the baby boom era and to make your trip down shopping mall memory lane seem a bit more vivid.

TELEPHONE

Until the late 1970s, it was -in essence- illegal to physically own your phone. All hardware was provided, and possessed, by the respective phone company (there was but a single, major one back then). Everyone was charged a "rental fee" on their monthly bill for their standard, wall or "Princess" model.

The Princess Phone, marketed to the ladies, was introduced in 1959. On

the left is the standard, rotary-dialing model. A more modern version,

utilizing touch-tone telephony, is seen on the right.
Photo from Wikipedia / Mcheath"

The phone you would have rented at your local shopping mall "Ma Bell" store would have utilized analogue, "rotary-dialing". "Touch Tone" telephony did not appear until 1963, and did not become commonplace until the mid-1970s. Moreover, answering machines didn't come into prominence until the late 1970s.

Oh yes, no one had a cellular phone until the mid-1980s, and these were rather large, clunky things...nothing like the super-miniaturized models of today.

TELEVISION

First off, back in the vacuum tube-based days of electronics, tvs, radios and record players did not come on instantly after the "on" button was clicked. There would be a pause of a minute or two, while the set "warmed up".

The "instant on" feature was something to "ooo" and "ahh" over, when the first "solid-state" (transistorized) televisions became common in the early 1970s. By the mid-1970s, tube sets, and vacuum tube electronics in general, had become a thing of the past.

A common fixture in the olden days shopping

mall Safeway, Food Fair, or A & P supermarket,

the self-service "Tube Tester". Back in the days,

when the family set went on the blink, dad

might open up the back and check for any tubes

that looked too black. These would be removed

and taken to the local grocery for an analyzation...

and possible replacement.
Photo from www.tuberadios.com

TELEVISION, CONTINUED

It might be hard to fathom now, but -back in the days- a woman could not say the word "lover" on broadcast TV. Men or women, either one, could not utter the words "toilet paper" or "pregnant". Moreover, the typical, tv mom and pop usually slept in single beds.

In the pre-cable and satellite TV era, analogue -over the air- reception was all there was. After the mid-1950s, there were only three TV networks and -basically- just three programming choices at a time. Keep in mind, as well, that a station usually signed off the air at around midnight, to return to broadcasting at 5 am or so. So, there would have been nothing to watch, but a test pattern, during the wee hours of the morning.

BROUGHT TO YOU IN LIVING COLOR

The CBS network, in a consortium with the Crosley Company, had developed a mechanically-operated format for color television, with the first color broadcast taking place in June 1951. However, there were only twenty-five associated television sets in existence.

*

A circa-1951 set using the experimental CBS-Crosley Company "field

sequential" color television format. This was a mechanical method of

colorcasting using a series of rotating "color wheels". It was eventually

bested by a fully-electronic format color television system perfected by

NBC-RCA.
Photo from http://www.earlytelevision.org/

The drawback with the CBS-Crosley system was that it was completely incompatible with the existing black and white broadcast medium. At the same time, NBC and co-company RCA had been working on their own color television format, which was electronic in format and "backwards compatible" with black and white broadcasting.

The two systems duked it out until December 1953, when the NBC system was officially sanctioned as the National Television System Committee (NTSC) standard by the Federal Communications Commission. The first large network, coast-to-coast "colorcast" was done in January 1954, with NBC's coverage of the Pasadena Tournament of Roses Parade.

The NBC "Color Chimes" logo, in use between 1954 and 1957.
Graphic from http://www.ev1.pair.com/

In the late '50s and early '60s, a "living color" program was quite a big event, usually reserved for specials and "spectaculars". If you went to someone's home and saw that they had a color set...you were duly impressed!

For many years, the price of a new color television, at the shopping mall May Company, Gimbels or Joske's, was quite prohibitive. The first sets to roll off the assembly line in 1954 went for a whopping $1,000 each! The price tag of a "big screen" 21-inch color set in 1956 had come down to $795....and $695 by 1962. By 1966, a 25-inch color set could be acquired for only $450.

RCA's earliest mass-production color television receiver, the CT-100. It

was first marketed in April 1954 and carried a hefty price tag of $1,000!
Photo from http://bs.cyty.com/

IN LIVING COLOR, CONTINUED

It took a while to truly perfect the medium, however. I can still recall the urban legend that circulated in the early '60s which said that, after buying one of the new-fangled color sets, a family would need to reserve a bedroom in their home for the trusty tv repairman...hee hee.

Through all the high prices and pitfalls, color tv finally caught on. NBC's western-themed soap opera, "Bonanza", became the first major, regularly-scheduled, in-color TV series on September 12, 1959. In 1964, NBC became the first all-color network.

In the days before the famous NBC Peacock, color programming on

the network was preceded by this panel. Unfortunately, due to the

technological limitations of the 1950s, multi-hued recordings of the

early color shows could not be made. All that remain are black and

white ("kinescope") recordings on film.
Still photo from The Dinah Shore Chevy Show

In May 1956, the NBC Peacock made its debut. At first, it was simply

a still frame shot. This progressed to a fully-animated version in

September 1957.

Graphic from the National Broadcasting Company (See Media Fair

Use Rationale at end of article)

By 1968, the three networks had converted virtually all programming to color. However, some commercials would still be in black and white. Below are links to You Tube, where circa-1960s, "In Living Color" animated announcements, used by the three television networks, may be seen...

NBC [The National Broadcasting Company]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=juSq8exPbGk

CBS [The Columbia Broadcasting System]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oNDIgxk4FTc&feature=related

ABC [The American Broadcasting Company]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_p1Gg42Sw9g&NR=1

REMOTELY SPEAKING

The first successful television remote control, the Zenith "Space Command", was introduced in 1956. Primitive by today's standards, it used ultrasonic sound -a tuning fork, so to say- to automatically turn the set on or off, change the channel or adjust the volume.

These remote controls did not require one to point directly at a particular spot on the television set in order to work. In fact, one could click a button on the trusty Space Command device as far away as another room in the house and it would still work.



The first practical (sans cable) television remote control, similar to the
one on the left, came on the market in 1956. A later color tv version is
seen on the right.
Photo 1 from http://www.cedmagic.com/
Photo 2 from Wikipedia / Jim Rees

By 1965, Zenith had perfected a "Space Commander" for color sets that would also adjust the picture's hue. These analogue-type controllers were made obsolete by the introduction of infared remotes, in the early 1980s.

MOVIES

Until 1966, a stringent "Production Code" dictated what could (and could not) be shown in a Hollywood motion picture. Kisses on film were timed and a commode, for example, could not be shown.

A film, such as Warner Brothers' "Baby Doll", rather tame by today's standards, was considered "dirty" in December 1956 and was banned to such a degree that it was shown in very few cinematic venues...let alone at the local shopping center movie house.

The code began to crack in the late 1950s. In 1968, as films became more explicit, a rating system was assembled by the Motion Picture Association of America; G - All ages admitted, M - Parental discretion advised, R - Those under 17 not admitted without parent or adult guardian and X - Those under 17 not admitted.

This system was revised in 1970, when the M rating was altered to GP. Unfortunately, GP was widely regarded to indicate "general public". It was revised again, in 1972, to read PG (parental guidance suggested).

MUSIC

In the "early period" mid-century years, the standard "Top 40" AM station (FM was still a novelty) would play a variety of music. Things were not like today, when every song and artist is categorized, homegenized and pigeon-holed into a specific genre...with radio stations also being highly genre-specific.

Back then, you would have the standard pop vocal tunes by Al Martino or Kay Starr. Instrumentals were quite in vogue. Tunes such as "The Poor People of Paris" (Les Baxter-1956), "Wonderland By Night" (Bert Kaempfert-1961) or "Love Is Blue" (Paul Mauriat ["mary-aht"]-1968) hit the Billboard number one spot.

DJ's would also throw in a cross-over Country and Western song now and then, such as "Ring of Fire" (Johnny Cash-1963) or "Harper Valley PTA" (Jeannie C. Riley-1968)...and even a jazz tune or two, such as "Take 5" (Dave Brubek Quartet-1961) or "Desafinado" ["day-zaf-uh-nah-dow"] (Stan Getz and Charlie Byrd-1962).

Before the advent of "Rock and Roll" in 1955, there were the various girl and guy groups; i.e., The Andrews Sisters, Four Lads, McGuire Sisters and Ames Brothers, to name a few. Rock and roll changed things a lot in the late '50s and early '60s.

Things changed more when the "Fab Four" came along, from Liverpool, in January 1964...and changed even more when the recording industry experienced its largest growth period ever, in the late 1960s. This was due to the record buying habits of the emerging "baby boom" generation.



Those too young to remember would probably not believe the media
hooplah that surrounded the American introduction of Great Britain's
Beatles, in early 1964. Nicknamed "The Fab Four" they would go on
to help revolutionize rock music in a way that no single artist or group
has done before or since.
Photo from Library of Congress

RECORDS AND TAPES

In the late 1960s, the entire recording industry was reoriented away from its former emphasis on mature, martini-set music (of the older generation) toward the "together", "with it" sounds of those on the younger side of the "Generation Gap".



A now-forgotton remnant of the past, the 45 RPM record. Its analogue
counterpart, the 12-inch, 33 and 1/3 RPM LP, was developed by
Columbia Records and first marketed in June 1948. RCA countered with
its 7-inch "45" in February 1949. Any Record Bar or Camelot Music
worth its salt would have carried an assortment of the latest hits in the
45 format.

STEREO AND QUADRAPHONIC

The 2-channel, "stereophonic" LP record was first mass-marketed in 1958. In 1962, the stereo 4-track cartridge tape format was introduced. It made the first car audio possible. This was proceeded by the stereo 8-track format, introduced in 1965, which had become the pre recorded tape standard by 1968.

In 1969, things advanced to four channels, or "quadraphonic" sound, with the first 4-channel, pre recorded reel-to-reel tapes. These were followed by RCA's introduction of the quadraphonic 8-track tape, in late 1970.



An obsolete vestige of America's mid-century, RCA's
Quad-8 cartridge. These made their first appearance
in 1970. Unlike Stereo-8 format tapes, that had arrived
on the scene 5 years earlier, Quad 8's only switched
tracks once..instead of three times. Oh yes, the two
formats were not compatible. If you played a Quad-8
on a Stereo-8 system, you would hear only half of the
song at one time.
Photo from http://www.8-track-shack.com/

In 1971, the first "matrix quadraphonic" LPs appeared, utilizing the ABC-Sansui "QS" system. Columbia-Sony countered with their "SQ" matrix LPs in 1972, followed by RCA-JVC's "discrete" quad format, known as "CD-4" or "Quadradisc".



The "Quad Revolution" progressed with the release of the first 4-channel
LP's, in 1971. These were produced by ABC Records, under the auspices
of their Command Quadraphonic label. To hear the "matrix-format" disc
reproduced properly, one would have to own a Sansui system, with the
appropriate "QS Decoder".
Photo and logo from http://www.quadraphonicquad.com/



Next came Columbia-Sony's "SQ" LPs, in 1972. Similar to the ABC-
Sansui system, "SQ Full Logic" created the illusion of four seperate
sound tracks by "encoding" each of the two rear channels into the two
in front. It worked out pretty well, in fact. Quad recordings of albums
-such as Santana's "Abraxas", Pink Floyd's "Atom Heart Mother" and
(especially) Edgar Winter's "Frankenstein" song- demonstrated some
neat, moving around the room effects.

Images from Columbia Records / Sony Electronics (see media fair use

rational at end of article)



"CD-4" or "Discrete Quadraphonic" also came out in 1972. It used an
ultrasonic "carrier wave", which instructed a "CD-4 Demodulator" on how
to divide the audio into four channels.

Images from WEA -Warner-Electra-Atlantic Records- and JVC Electronics

(see media fair use rationale at end of article)

To convert from stereo to quad, one would need to either scrap everything and buy an entirely new sound system or else acquire an additional stereo amp, two more speakers and the appropriate decoder(s). For CD-4, one would also have to have the CD-4 demodulator, a new turntable and a phono cartridge that could accomodate the additional frequency range of the carrier wave.

The sonic seperation of CD-4 LPs was superior to that of the two matrix systems...however, there was also a great deal of distortion with the CD-4 system that was not present with QS or SQ reproduction.

The three competing -and totally non-compatible- systems vied for prominence through the remainder of the 1970s, with none emerging victorious. Quad sound was gone and forgotten by the advent of the digital, compact disc, in 1983.

HOME APPLIANCES

An electric or gas range was essentially the same in 1947 and 1997. The first microwave oven appeared in 1947, but this appliance did not become a standard fixture in the home until the 1980s.

The typical electric refrigerator was quite a bit different in the mid-century than it is today. Although "frost-free" models became available in 1950, they were something of a novelty for years thereafter.

Back in the days, your mom would have to spend hours "defrosting" the conventional, non-frost-free 'fridge. All food in the freezer compartment would have to be removed. The task of getting rid of several inches of ice that had accumulated on the inside walls of the freezer was a tedious, messy chore.

This was done (carefully) with an ice pick or (haphazardly) with several splashes of warm water onto the affected parts. Of course, the thawing, dripping mess would need to be mopped up several times during the defrosting ordeal...which had to be done every couple of months.



A 1957 refrigerator. Its tiny freezer compartment might accomodate
a box of ice cream, a few "tv dinners" and a couple ice cube trays...
if it was not frozen over due to not having been "defrosted" in the
recent past. Refrigerators of this era define the term "clunky". Walls,
using substandard insulating materials of the time, were terribly thick,
taking up much of the interior space. Doors opened and shut tight with
latches. Sometimes, a child would get trapped inside an old, abandoned
model...providing a tv program or two subject matter for -yet- another
harrowing episode.




By 1963, more modern refrigerators were on the market. Technology
had provided greatly efficient insulating materials, making slimmer walls
-and additional interior space- possible. The latch-operated doors of
yesteryear had been replaced with better -and potentially safer- closings.

Until the 1950s, the only color offered for a new home appliance was a standard white finish. Around the year 1955, three pastel shades were introduced; yellow, turquoise and pink. Custom colors, such as brushed chrome or Maytag's Sherwood Green, were also available by 1959. All of this meant that one could have a color co-ordinated kitchen...for an extra fee. Of course, you could still get a white washer, dryer, dishwasher, stove or refrigerator and not have to pay extra.

By the early 1970s, the original pastel home appliance colors had been phased out. The latest home appliances -on sale at the local shopping mall Sears, Penney's or Ward's- would be available in the colors seen above. The Coppertone finish, in stores by 1963, was the first of the new 1960s colors. Avocado Green and Harvest Gold followed, in 1965. These three shades remained in vogue until the early 1980s.