The Fifties

First segment in a six part series on the United States in the Fifties. In the postwar U.S., new affluence mingled with the fear of the new menace of communism. Film discusses the conditions encountered by WWII veterans, the building of the first housing tract, the development of the nuclear arms race and the hydrogen bomb, anti-Communist hysteria and McCarthyism, events leading to the Korean War and the development of popular literature in the 50's focusing on Mickey Spillane. 90 min.

Still haunted by the Great Depression, Americans needed to be coaxed into enjoying their new-found affluence. This episode shows how the invention of television and the perfection of the art of advertising were used in both commerce and politics. Highlights advertising gurus Norman Vincent Peale and Rosser Reeves, shows how Richard Nixon applied slick new media techniques to save his career and how Washington learned to manipulate the media, hiding undercover operations in places like Iran, Guatemala and ultimately, Vietnam. 50 min.

This segment describes the personal unrest sometimes felt in the outwardly tranquil fifties, including dissatisfaction with women's roles as housewives and men's roles in the corporate rat race. Feminist Betty Friedan, Sloan Wilson, author of The man in the gray flannel suit, and Grace Metalious, whose steamy novel Petyon Place exposed small-town hypocrisy, are discussed as representative of the gap between the idealized nuclear family of the 1950s and the way things really were. 50 min.