Life in 1950s America, By the Numbers

1950s family home

Author Rachel Gresh

January 4, 2024

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Elvis was on the radio, The Ed Sullivan Show was on the TV, and scores of people were hightailing it to the suburbs — this was 1950s America. It was a young nation, with 31% of its 151 million residents under age 18, and it was on the brink of change. Birth rates continued to rise at unprecedented levels, giving way to a new generation of “baby boomers.” The “nuclear family” (describing married couples with kids at home) was ingrained in the culture; more than half of all people (68% of men and 66% of women) were married. By the time the ’60s rolled around, many of these cultural norms would be upended, but this generation left a lasting mark on American society. Here is a snapshot of family life in the 1950s, by the numbers.

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Around 4 Million Babies Were Born Every Year

Post-World War II America saw a rapid increase in birth rates lasting from 1946 through 1964. It became known as the “baby boom,” and the 1950s were smack dab in the middle of it. During the ’50s, around 4 million babies were born every year in America, a sharp increase from the previous average, around 2.7 million births annually between 1910 and 1945. By the end of the boom, around 77 million babies had been born. This influx of births was due to many positive aspects of the postwar era, including low unemployment rates, a burgeoning economy, low interest rates, and a strengthened middle class.

Only 29% of Women Participated in the Workforce

In alignment with the nuclear family mindset, most ’50s households consisted of a married couple, and typically only one spouse worked (generally the man). In 1950, only 29% of working-age women living in the U.S. held a job — but nearly half of single working-age women (46.4%) worked. The number decreased dramatically among married working-age women; less than a quarter of them (21.6%) held jobs.

By 1960, the number of working women in America increased from 16.5 million to nearly 22.5 million, a 35% increase (despite only a 14% increase in the population of working-age women). The five most popular jobs for women of this era were secretary (stenographer or typist), salesperson (retail), schoolteacher, bookkeeper, and apparel factory worker.

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Mortgage Rates Averaged Around 2.5%

The housing market of the 1950s was booming. An increasing number of Americans were leaving busy urban lifestyles behind in favor of the suburbs. Mortgage rates ranged between 2.1% in 1950 and 2.6% in 1959. For the 16 million World War II veterans living in 1950, the G.I. Bill lowered mortgage rates even more. For many, it was the perfect time to purchase a home.

One of the most recognizable examples of 1950s suburban neighborhoods must be the “Levittowns,” named after real estate developer William Levitt, who built thousands of houses in planned communities around the mid-Atlantic during the late 1940s and early ’50s. The most famous of these communities was in Long Island, New York, where during peak construction, one house was built every 16 minutes.

Over 4 Million Families Had TVs at Home

Around 4.4 million homes had television sets by 1950. This might sound like a lot for the era, but it was only 9% of households. By the end of the decade, the figure spiked to 90% of households, marking a transformational decade for entertainment. Television programming, especially the American sitcom, became a staple of family life. These shows epitomized the stereotypical American family unit, from the Cleavers of Leave It to Beaver to the Warrens of Father Knows Best.

A Movie Theater Ticket Cost Less Than 50 Cents

Although the golden age of Hollywood was nearing its end in the 1950s, cinemas were still as popular as ever, and fortunately for moviegoers, this pastime didn’t cost a fortune. In 1950, one theater ticket cost 46 cents, which was less than the price of a dozen eggs (60 cents). A family of four could go to the movies for the price of around two gallons of milk (one gallon cost 83 cents) — a feat that is not likely accomplished today.

Families flocked to theaters to see Disney’s Cinderella, the top-grossing film of 1950. Released on February 15, the film grossed more than $52 million that year and sold nearly 99 million tickets. Other top-grossing films of 1950 included King Solomon’s Mines, Father of the Bride, and All About Eve.

More Than Half of All Households Had Children at Home

Due to the ongoing baby boom, most American households had young children at home in the 1950s. Census records show that around 52% of households had children under 18 at home in 1950; in 2019, that number was down to 41%. Families were large during the decade: Around 58% of households had between three and five members, 21% had more than six members, 18% had two members, and only 3% had one member. The average family unit size has steadily declined since its peak during the late 1950s and early ’60s. In 2022, the average American family size was 3.13 people.

More Than 30 Million Households Owned a Car

With so many Americans moving to the suburbs in the ’50s, more and more families depended on a car to get around. In 1954, most U.S. households (64%) owned one car. Between 1954 and 1960, the number of one-car families rose from 30.1 million households to 32.4 million. Multicar ownership wasn’t popular — a little more than 8% of households owned two cars in 1954, and only 0.9% had three or more cars. (Owning two cars became slightly more common by the end of the decade.) Just how much did a car set you back during the 1950s? Two popular family cars, the Cadillac DeVille and the Oldsmobile 88 Fiesta, cost around $3,523 and $3,541, respectively, which would be around $37,000 today.

Where Did All the Egg Cream Sodas Go?

Egg cream soda

Author Nicole Villeneuve

January 3, 2024

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Egg cream sodas were once the effervescent star of New York’s soda fountain scene. Today, the drink is little more than a nostalgic novelty, served up occasionally at old school spots and retro-themed bars intent on keeping the classic alive. So what happened to this once-beloved treat?

At the beginning of the 20th century, soda fountains were a common sight and popular meeting place in New York City. The name described both the equipment — a tap that dispensed carbonated soda water — and the business, which often meant a place that served food along with the bubbly drinks. When they first gained popularity in the mid-1800s, soda fountain machines were primarily used in drug stores. Pharmacists mixed seltzer, seen then as a medicinal drink, with potent or bitter-tasting drugs to make them more palatable.

In the early 1900s, the fountains and the “soda jerks” who worked them moved on from serving just prescription drinks to a more tempting variety of sweets. As fountains proliferated in candy stores, ice cream parlors, luncheonettes, and department stores, carbonated water was mixed with fruit syrup, used to make ice cream floats, and featured as one of just three ingredients in an iconic New York City drink from the era: the egg cream soda.

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Contrary to its name, an egg cream contained neither eggs nor cream. (No one is exactly sure where the name came from, though there are certainly lots of theories.) The soda was a mixture of chilled whole milk, seltzer water, and chocolate syrup (preferably Fox’s U-Bet Chocolate Syrup), whipped together to create a creamy, frothy, fizzy drink. It was one of the best-known drinks in the city at the time, but exactly how and when it made its way to New York soda fountains is the subject of competing theories. One of the most popular stories suggests that Louis Auster first whipped it up at his Lower East Side candy store around 1890. Auster made his own chocolate syrup and never revealed his recipe. Another theory involves the Ukrainian-born Yiddish theater star Boris Tomashevsky. It’s said that, while in New York in the 1880s, he may have asked a soda jerk to make a drink he had enjoyed in Paris — a “chocolat et creme.” Yet another story, detailed in New York Magazine in 1971, claims the egg cream wasn’t actually invented until the 1920s, and was the property of the uncle of sociologist Daniel Bell — Uncle Hymie’s recipe, however, did involve an egg.

5 Essential Films About World War II

“The Best Years of Our Lives”

Author Michael Nordine

January 3, 2024

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Few events have been depicted on screen as many times and in as many ways as World War II, which is remarkable given how many stories are left to tell. Eighty years’ worth of movies have deepened our understanding of the 20th century’s defining conflict, and there’s little reason to suspect that filmmakers will stop anytime soon. If you’ve seen all the usual suspects — your Saving Private Ryans, your Casablancas — and want to explore beyond the frontlines, here are five essential movies about World War II.

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To Be or Not to Be (1942)

With good reason, we rarely associate war with comedy — World War II least of all. The ability to make a charming, lighthearted picture about such a world-altering event as it was happening is part of the “Lubitsch Touch” that made German-born director Ernst Lubitsch one of the most acclaimed filmmakers of his or any other era. (Billy Wilder, who directed such acclaimed movies as Double Indemnity, Some Like It Hot, and Sunset Boulevard, had a sign taped to his office wall asking, “How would Lubitsch do it?”)

To Be or Not to Be takes place in Nazi-occupied Warsaw, where a troupe of actors find themselves entangled in a scheme to track down a German spy. Whatever you think of their production of Hamlet, there’s no doubting their ability to trick the Nazis with their performances — or make you laugh at some truly dark jokes. The film was added to the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress in 1996 and remains one of Lubitsch’s most acclaimed works, no small feat considering he also directed Ninotchka, The Shop Around the Corner, and Heaven Can Wait.

The Best Years of Our Lives (1946)

You might not expect a movie named The Best Years of Our Lives to be about this or any other war, but then little about William Wyler’s classic was expected. The legendary filmmaker received 12 Academy Award nominations for Best Director throughout his one-of-a-kind career, winning the second of three for his epic story of three veterans readjusting to civilian life after returning home from World War II. Leading the ensemble are screen legends Fredric March and Myrna Loy, whose performances helped make the film as successful with audiences as it was with critics.

Indeed, few films have ever been as popular with the Academy. The Best Years of Our Lives won seven Oscars, including Best Picture, Director, Actor (March), and Supporting Actor for Harold Russell, a veteran who lost both of his hands in a demolition accident. As Russell wasn’t a professional actor and the Academy Board of Governors didn’t expect him to win, they gave him an honorary award “for bringing hope and courage to his fellow veterans through his appearance.” And yet he did win, of course, making this the only time someone has won two Oscars for a single performance.

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Au revoir les enfants (1987)

One of the most personal movies ever made about the war, Au revoir les enfants (Goodbye, Children) is based on writer/director Louis Malle’s childhood experiences at a Catholic boarding school for boys near Fontainebleau, France. That lived-in quality is present throughout the movie, which has the feeling of an intimate memory come to life. Among the other students at the boarding school seen in the film are three Jewish boys who’ve been secretly taken in by the headmaster, a priest based on the heroic Père Jacques. He’s done so at great personal risk, as Nazi-occupied France isn’t exactly known for rewarding such good deeds, and even the other students are unaware of their new classmates’ true identities — including our protagonist Julien, who slowly forms a close friendship with one of them. Alternately charming and heartbreaking, Au revoir les enfants won the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival and was nominated for Best Foreign-Language Film and Best Original Screenplay at the 60th Academy Awards.

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Grave of the Fireflies (1988)

History is written by the victors, which is to say that most World War II movies are by and about Americans. Not so Grave of the Fireflies, an animated adaptation of Akiyuki Nosaka’s short story of the same name released by Studio Ghibli in 1988. Following two Japanese war orphans (one 14, the other just 4) as the conflict nears its end, with a particular focus on the aftermath of the brutal bombing of Kobe, writer/director Isao Takahata’s devastating story of the struggle for survival is one of the most wrenching depictions of wartime you’ll ever see, animated or otherwise. It is, however, also considered one of the greatest animated films of all time, as well as one of the saddest.

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The Thin Red Line (1998)

Only Terrence Malick could make a war movie like The Thin Red Line, one in which battle sequences seem less important than long shots of multicolored birds in trees and lyrical narration reveals more about its characters than the orders they give and receive in the heat of battle. It was Malick’s first movie in 20 years — the media-shy director had seemingly disappeared after wowing audiences and critics alike with Badlands (1973) and Days of Heaven (1978) — and just about every actor in Hollywood was desperate for a role. The result is a sprawling ensemble cast that includes Sean Penn, Nick Nolte, George Clooney, John Cusack, Woody Harrelson, John Travolta, John C. Reilly, Elias Koteas, and Jared Leto, many of whom are only on screen for a minute or so.

When they aren’t advancing on their Japanese counterparts’ position, these soldiers ask questions such as, “What’s this war in the heart of nature?” and “Is this darkness in you, too?” Despite not offering any easy answers, the film reveals as much about the human spirit as it does about the nature of war. The Thin Red Line went on to be nominated for seven Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Director, but didn’t win any — it had the misfortune of being released the same year as Saving Private Ryan, 1998’s most popular World War II movie by far, though arguably not its best.

5 Little-Known Facts About the Berlin Wall

Peering over the Berlin Wall

Author Anne T. Donahue

December 21, 2023

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As tensions rose between the Soviet Union and the West after World War II, Soviet Prime Minister Nikita Khrushchev sought to end the wave of emigration out of the USSR-controlled East Germany. The number of fleeing East Germans was staggering: Between 1949 and 1961, roughly 2.5 million people fled the state, a loss that threatened to upend the East German economy. Finally, after upwards of 65,000 citizens migrated to West Berlin between June and August 1961, East German leaders pushed for Moscow to close the border, and construction of the Berlin Wall began the night of August 12, 1961.

The boundary started off as a barricaded barbed wire between East and West Berlin, and the effects were swift and merciless. Within two weeks, the border to the west was completely sealed — crossing was forbidden, and the wall was guarded by officers permitted to shoot attempted escapees on sight. For the next two decades, the now-infamous barrier served as a symbol of the political and ideological divide of the Cold War. Here are five interesting facts about this notorious structure.

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The Name “Checkpoint Charlie” Came From the NATO Phonetic Alphabet

Berlin was divided into four sectors following the Second World War. The Soviet Union controlled the eastern part of the city, while France, the United States, and Britain controlled three sectors in the west. There were three major checkpoints along the Berlin Wall, which monitored the border crossings of foreigners, diplomats, and military officials: Checkpoint Alpha, Checkpoint Bravo, and the most famous, Checkpoint Charlie. The names of all three checkpoints originated with the NATO phonetic alphabet, representing the letters “A,” “B,” and “C.” Checkpoint Charlie was located in the heart of Berlin, and marked the divide between the Soviet and American zones. It became a symbol of the Cold War divisions, and is now a historical site and memorial in Berlin.

The “Death Strip” Was the Most Dangerous Part of the Wall

Though it’s known as the Berlin Wall, the boundary was actually two structures. The original 96-mile wire barrier proved too easy to scale, so in 1962, construction began on another fence that ran parallel to the original about 100 yards behind it. Both were later reinforced with concrete topped with barbed wire. The corridor between them became known as the “death strip.” The area was covered in raked gravel so footprints could be easily seen, helping guards track down and shoot those fleeing to the west — that is, if escapees managed to evade the mines and booby traps set up along the way. Still, many risked their lives to cross, and succeeded: An estimated total of around 5,000 East Berliners managed to make it to the other side of the wall.

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The Final Version of the Wall Was Built in 1975

To deter defections, the Berlin Wall was reinforced multiple times over the years. The final phase began in 1975, when the previous wall was replaced with a sophisticated cement barrier with increased surveillance. Known as “Grenzmauer 75” (“Border Wall 75”), the structure was made up of 45,000 separate sections of reinforced concrete, measuring around 12 feet high and 5 feet wide. Completed in 1976, the final version of the Berlin Wall (and the one commonly seen in images from its fall) was outfitted with armored vehicles, canine units, 300 watchtowers, and a rounded concrete pipe at the top to deter climbing. Yet the escapes continued.

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Escapes Became Increasingly Creative

The sudden border closing of 1961 trapped thousands of people in East Germany, many of whom were desperate to flee. Buildings located on the border with windows facing west provided opportunities to clear the border for those willing to jump, but the Soviets soon bricked up all openings that could aid in escape. East Germans adapted: Some made it to West Berlin by tunneling under the wall, while others swam across the Teltow Canal to the south of the city, walked a tightrope, and used zip lines. Occasionally, East German border guards assisted by choosing not to accurately fire, or by defecting themselves and assisting future escapees.

An Administrative Error Led to the Fall of the Berlin Wall

On November 4, 1989, some 500,000 East Berliners gathered to protest the Soviet state’s strict border laws. The demonstration came roughly two months after Hungary lifted restrictions on travel to Austria, marking one of the first times the Iron Curtain was lifted. In an attempt to calm the crowds, East German leaders announced on November 9 that they too would loosen borders to make travel easier. However, East German spokesperson Günter Schabowski erred when asked when the borders would open. With no time to read through the rules before speaking, he answered, “As far as I know, effective immediately, without delay.” East and West Berliners were finally united as stunned border guards stood aside. That night, the Berlin Wall finally came down.

The History of Calendars, in 7 Facts

The Gregorian calendar

Author Anne T. Donahue

December 21, 2023

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The humble calendar of one of civilization’s oldest staples. The earliest means of measuring days and weeks dates back 10,000 years, and timekeeping techniques adopted by the ancient Babylonians, Egyptians, and Romans slowly evolved into the calendar we use today. Yet the emphasis here is on “slowly.” The evolution from charting moon phases to separating seasons to measuring fiscal years was one of controversy and chaos across centuries. Still, humans never stopped working to perfect how we mark the passage of time. Here’s a brief look at the fascinating history of calendars, just in time to start a new one.

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The First Known Calendar Is From Prehistoric Scotland

In 2013, British archaeologists discovered what they consider the world’s oldest calendar, dating back to around 8000 BCE. The prehistoric calendar, located at Warren Field in Scotland, consists of 12 pits believed to have contained wooden posts representing months of the year. Positioned to chart lunar phrases, the pits are aligned with the southeast horizon and were likely used by hunter-gatherer societies to track seasons. The site precedes Stonehenge by several thousand years.

Stonehenge Used Celestial Bodies to Track Time

Though the exact purpose of Stonehenge remains a mystery, archaeologists believe that in addition to a burial site, the prehistoric monument may have been a solar calendar. Keeping track of months and years in ancient societies relied on charting the stars, sun, and lunar patterns (and the subsequent weather they’d bring). Stonehenge, built around 3000 BCE, consists of stones and archways arranged in a circular pattern, and experts believe time was measured by the way the sun, moon, and stars lined up with these markers. Archaeological evidence suggests lunar and solar eclipses were also observed, as were the winter and summer solstices.

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The Babylonian Calendar Had a 12-Month Year and Seven-Day Week

The Babylonians, a civilization that began in the Fertile Crescent of ancient Mesopotamia (modern-day Iraq) around 4000 BCE, used lunar patterns to determine the length of the year. They divided the calendar into 12 months based on the cycle of the moon, starting with the first sighting of the crescent moon. This put the year at 354 days, slightly shorter than a solar year. (The moon cycle is actually 29.5 days long, so there are 13 lunar phases each year.) To sync the lunar and solar calendars, the Babylonians adopted a system known as intercalation, which allowed them to add an extra month when necessary. They also divided each month into seven-day weeks, based on (and named for) the seven celestial bodies they were able to observe: the sun, the moon, and the five nearest planets.

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The Ancient Egyptians Had Three Seasons

Like many ancient agricultural societies, the ancient Egyptians measured time according to the planting and harvest seasons. The Nile river flooded each year between the months of what is now May and August, and this annual flooding was crucial to Egyptian society, as it determined the success of that year’s crops. As a result, the Egyptians divided the year into three seasons, each related to the river’s status and the agricultural phases associated with it: Akhet (translated as Flood or Inundation), Peret (Emergence or Going Forth), and Shemu (Low Water, Deficiency, or Harvest).

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Our Modern Calendar Was (Partially) Created by Julius Caesar

In 46 BCE, Julius Caesar introduced the Julian calendar as a means of reforming the existing and flawed Roman timekeeping system. The Roman Republic’s calendar (which referred to the first day of each month as kalends, the origin of the word “calendar”) not only miscalculated the length of a solar year, but also could be manipulated to control political power, which created further inaccuracies. Caesar’s response was a new system based on calculations by the Greek astronomer Sosigenes of Alexandria, who determined each year consisted of 365.25 days. To account for that .25, the Julian calendar added an extra day every fourth February: leap year. Though the calendar was still imperfect, much of what Caesar put in place remains in use today — including, of course, the name of the seventh month, July.

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The Gregorian Calendar Fixed Caesar’s Math

For all its improvements, the Julian calendar still miscalculated the length of a solar year by 11 minutes. That may not seem like much, but the discrepancy added up over time, and by 1582 CE, the months of the calendar and the seasons were misaligned. This concerned Pope Gregory XIII, who noticed that Easter was becoming increasingly out of sync with the spring equinox — a problem for the Catholic Church. In response, the pope launched the Gregorian calendar on October 4, 1582, which set the following day as October 15, jumping the calendar ahead 10 days. Chaos ensued: Catholic countries adopted the reformed calendar, but many Protestant nations waited more than a century to get on board. The British Empire, including its colonies in America, waited until 1752 to switch to the Gregorian calendar, and Russia didn’t adopt the new calendar until as late as 1918, after the Russian Revolution.

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France Had a Calendar With 10-Day Weeks During the Revolution

In 1793, during the French Revolution, the revolutionary government attempted to create a new secular calendar for the French Republic, keen to do away with Christian associations as part of its break from the ruling elite. Known as the French Republican calendar, it set each month at 30 days, divided into three weeks consisting of 10 days each. The calendar never took off, however. It was abandoned for its Gregorian counterpart on January 1, 1806, after Napoleon Bonaparte became emperor.

A Tiny History of Dollhouses

Playing with a dollhouse

Author Nicole Villeneuve

December 20, 2023

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The concept of miniature dwellings traces back to ancient civilizations, when Egyptians placed small clay replicas of their houses and belongings in and around burials. These models were intended to provide the comforts of home to the deceased in the afterlife. Although the tiny dwellings we know as dollhouses today are quite different from these ancient versions, their history also includes purposes other than play. Over the last 500 years, dollhouses have evolved from elaborate displays for adults, to useful household teaching tools, to enduring objects of imagination and aspiration for children.

Early Origins

The earliest known dollhouses were made in the 16th century, primarily in Germany, and later in Holland and England. Known as a “dockenhaus” (miniature house), “cabinet house,” or “baby house” (because of the size, not the intended audience), these handcrafted items were not initially made for children to play with — they served as display cases for wealthy adults to fill with miniature furniture, fabrics, and artwork that reflected their own taste and lifestyle.

One of the earliest recorded examples of a dollhouse is the Munich Baby House. Commissioned by Albert V, the Duke of Bavaria, in the 1550s, the piece was made by skilled artisans in the shape of a royal residence (instead of a wooden cabinet like the dominant style that soon followed). Though the Munich Baby House was lost in a fire in the 1600s, Albert V had the object detailed in an inventory of his household goods. Historians believe that the Munich Baby House was likely made for the duke’s entertainment, but some suggest it may have been built as a gift for his daughter, which would make it an early example of a dollhouse for children.

An Educational Purpose

Throughout the 17th century, dollhouses remained as elaborate and whimsical showcases of a family's wealth; they were most often constructed in cabinets with doors that opened and closed like a china cabinet. In the early 1600s, however, baby houses also took on a more practical purpose. Nuremberg houses and Nuremberg kitchens, named for their primary place of manufacture in Germany, emerged as inspirational and educational tools to motivate and teach young women how to decorate and care for a household.

These types of baby houses were less ornamental than their predecessors, typically made entirely out of metal and sometimes consisting of just a kitchen. But they were no less meticulous, featuring tiny handcrafted brooms, kettles, copper cooking pots, and mini masonry hearths at the heart of the kitchen. Though they’re thought of as being instructional in nature, Nuremberg houses were also used for play, primarily by girls, and often during the Christmas holidays. This trend played another important role in the evolution of dollhouses: A well-preserved Nuremberg house from 1673 is another early example of a dollhouse built to look like a family home.

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The Victorian Dollhouse

By the 18th century, baby houses had become popular in England. These structures commonly had detailed and realistic facades, including doors and windows, informing what we commonly think of as the classic Victorian dollhouse. They were often modeled after the owner’s home, and although they still functioned as displays of opulence, caring for them and decorating them also became a beloved hobby for women.

Until the mid-18th century, dollhouses were unique, one-of-a-kind creations. But with the innovations of the Industrial Revolution, the once custom-made dollhouses became much easier to produce en masse. This dovetailed with changing ideas of childhood in the early 19th century, when kids were no longer expected to weather the hardships of adulthood. Around this time, dollhouses started to be used more frequently as toys.

Dollhouses Come to America

One of the first mass-produced dollhouses available in the United States came courtesy of the Bliss Manufacturing Company. Bliss began producing dollhouses in the 1890s, even as the U.S. also imported the tiny dwellings and miniature furnishings from Germany. Despite becoming more mainstream in the early 1900s, dollhouses didn’t become affordable for most families until after World War II. The postwar economic boom, along with increased manufacturing materials and abilities, made the toys fixtures in playrooms throughout America. Mattel released Barbie’s first Dreamhouse in 1962, just three years after the Barbie doll’s debut, and by the 1970s, other major toy companies including Fisher Price, Playmobil, and Tomy were producing popular miniature toy houses as well.

Contemporary Dollhouses

In recent decades, dollhouses have evolved into collector's items and continue to be a passionate hobbyist pursuit. Over the past few years, social media communities have developed around a renewed love of miniature dwellings. Today, the toy also reflects a cultural shift — many people consider the meticulous structures a form of escapism and a source of solace and joy in a world with issues that often feel beyond individual control. Dollhouses continue to be cherished toys that exist at the intersection of craftsmanship, culture, and creativity.

7 Things You Would Find on a City Street 100 Years Ago

Model T Fords at beach

Author Tony Dunnell

December 20, 2023

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If we could travel back 100 years and land on a typical city street, we’d probably be mightily discombobulated. Some things would seem familiar: the buzz of the urban environment, people walking this way and that, and buildings with facades that could well still exist today. But looking around, we’d soon realize that we weren’t in Kansas anymore — or if we were, it would be Kansas City in the 1920s.

A century ago, America was going through a monumental change. For the first time in U.S. history, more people were living in urban areas than in rural areas. The cities were booming, and for many middle-class Americans, the 1920s were a decade of unprecedented prosperity. People were earning more and spending more, advertising had reached new levels of sophistication, and the automobile was changing the way we live.

So, before you step into that time machine, you’d better brace yourself. Here are seven things you’d find in a city street a century ago, back in the dizzying days of the Roaring ’20s.

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Incandescent Street Lights

Before the development of practical light bulbs, street lights typically used piped coal gas, oil, or kerosene as fuel. The first electric streetlights were installed in Paris in 1878, but these used unwieldy and harsh arc lamps. Then came inventors such as Joseph Swan in the U.K. and Thomas Edison in the U.S., both of whom patented revolutionary incandescent light bulbs in 1880. Incandescent street lamps became the norm in many cities throughout the world, and the 1920s saw a wave of patents filed for innovative new street lighting. These electric lights, however, were often placed where they were needed rather than lining a whole street. So, 100 years ago, a city street at night would not have been as brightly lit as it is today, and pedestrians would often find themselves walking from one pool of yellowish light to the next.

Public Phones

Public phones and phone booths began appearing in the U.S. not long after Alexander Graham Bell patented the first telephone in 1876. By the 1920s, wooden phone booths were a fairly common sight on many city streets, but the wooden construction meant they were hard to maintain, limiting their popularity. In some cities, you’d be more likely to come across a public telephone room, which contained multiple booths. Individual outdoor phone booths became truly commonplace in the 1950s, when glass and aluminum became the booth-building materials of choice. Today, of course, public phones are heading rapidly toward extinction, now that most everyone can carry a phone in their pocket.

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Art Deco Design

The art deco style flourished in the United States during the 1920s, in both the visual arts and architecture, as well as product design. Walking down a city street 100 years ago, art deco would have been everywhere, from the facades of grand buildings such as the Empire State Building and the Chrysler Building, to the window displays of newly emerging department stores such as Macy’s and Saks. The style, characterized by bold geometric patterns, vibrant colors, and glamorous details, became synonymous with the opulence and extravagance that defined the Roaring ’20s.

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Child Vendors

Thankfully, modern child labor laws ensure that we don’t see children working in the streets anymore. But 100 years ago, it was a common sight. In 1920, about a million children aged 10 to 15 were working in America, out of a total population of about 12 million children in that age range. The most visible were those working in city streets, in jobs such as flower seller, shoe shine, and courier. Children carried messages — and sometimes money and sales slips — throughout the city, facilitating daily commerce for banks, factories, and offices. Even more notable were the “newsies,” young children (some as young as 5) who sold newspapers in the street. But by the end of the decade, a growing preference for home delivery and tougher child labor laws led to the decline of the “newsie” in urban America.

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Flappers and Fedoras

If we traveled back 100 years, one of the first things we might notice is the fashion of the day. Men would be walking the streets wearing three-piece suits, thin bow ties, wingtip shoes, and the then-ubiquitous fedora hat. Sportswear was also becoming acceptable menswear, thanks in large part to the growing popularity of golf, which brought longer “plus four” trousers and wide-legged oxford bag pants to the urban milieu. Women’s fashion, meanwhile, reflected the newfound freedoms of the day. The dresses of the 1920s were loose, straight, and slender, with shorter hemlines. This was typified by the flapper style of the Jazz Age, with dropped waistlines and calf-revealing dresses — clothing that was stylish but also allowed women to move. New hairstyles completed the look, with bobs and waves becoming the defining cuts of the ’20s.

Horses

Today, we don’t encounter many horses on our city streets, but go back 100 years and you’d still occasionally see peddlers, milk trucks, coal wagons, and fire wagons using horse-drawn carriages. The heyday of horses, however, was coming to an end. In 1916, for instance, there were 46,662 horse-drawn vehicles in Chicago. By the end of the 1920s, this number had plummeted, and by 1940 there were fewer than 2,000 horse-drawn vehicles in the city. In New York City, meanwhile, the last horse-drawn fire engine was retired in 1922. The rise of the automobile had begun in earnest, bringing about a permanent change in the very nature of city streets.

Model T Fords

Arguably no invention changed the everyday lives of Americans in the 20th century more than the automobile. Between 1900 and 1920, the number of cars increased dramatically, from 8,000 to 8 million. By 1929, there were more than 23 million automobiles on American roads. These early vehicles, of course, looked very different from the cars we drive today. A hundred years ago, the car of choice was the Model T Ford, which brought driving to the masses. By the early 1920s, more than half of the registered automobiles in the world were Model Ts. They were so popular that Henry Ford himself once quipped, “There’s no use trying to pass a Ford, because there’s always another one just ahead.” Pedestrians, however, found it hard to adapt to the new laws of the street. With the introduction of jaywalking laws — facilitated by automobile manufacturers themselves — the streets became a place for cars, rather than for pedestrians, horse-drawn carts, and children at play, as they once had been.

6 Surprising Etiquette Rules From the Past

Formally dressed couple

Author Kristina Wright

December 20, 2023

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The concept of etiquette dates back to Europe during the medieval era, when rules and social conventions first gained prominence. During the Renaissance, expectations of behavior at royal and noble courts were outlined in courtesy books, or books of manners. In the 19th century, etiquette manuals continued to flourish in Europe and the United States, guiding behavior for ladies and gentlemen in both social and professional settings. By the early 20th century, these guidebooks were increasingly popular with both wealthy and middle-class women in the U.S., and author Emily Post became the definitive expert with the publication of her first book of etiquette in 1922.

Today, the rules of behavior observed by previous generations might seem old-fashioned and strange, and certainly there are some social conventions better left in the past, as they reflect the inequality and biases of bygone eras. But etiquette itself isn’t inherently outdated. While specific customs may evolve, the underlying principles of courtesy, respect, and consideration for others remain as relevant today as they were a century or two ago. With that in mind, here are some of the most unusual and surprising etiquette rules from decades past.

A Respectful Wife Deferred to Her Husband

According to Vogue’s Book of Etiquette, published in 1948, wives should defer to one’s husband as “head of the house.” By not paying proper respect to their husbands, the thinking went, bad-mannered American wives were placing their husbands in a subordinate position, which was “most unbecoming to a man.” Among the suggestions for being a better wife were to say “we” or “our” instead of “I” or “me,” and to let one’s husband take the lead on deciding when to leave a party. Reflecting the often oppressive gender norms of the era, the guide reminds wives that “a woman can gracefully play second fiddle, but a man who is obviously subordinated to a dominating woman is a pathetic and foolish figure.”

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There Should Be One Servant for Every Two Dinner Guests

The anonymous countess who authored the 1870 etiquette book Mixing in Society: A Complete Manual of Manners declares, “It is impossible to over-estimate the importance of dinners.” She goes on to detail the many aspects of planning and hosting a dinner party. In addition to having an equal number of ladies and gentlemen at a dinner (and never 13, out of respect for superstitious guests), the hostess should make sure to have “one servant to every two guests, or, at least, one to every three.”

A Man Was Expected to Choose His Riding Companion’s Horse

Published in 1883, American Etiquette and Rules of Politeness outlines the rules for men going horseback riding with a woman, noting that the gentleman should “be very careful in selecting her horse, and should procure one that she can easily manage.” He is also admonished to “trust nothing to the stable men, without personal examination,” and to “be constantly on the lookout for anything that might frighten the lady’s horse.”

The Most Important Rule for Children Was Obedience

In 1922, Emily Post published her first book of good manners, Etiquette in Society, in Business, in Politics and at Home. It offered more than 600 pages of rules and standards, from how to make introductions to proper behavior when traveling abroad. No one was exempt from learning and practicing proper etiquette, including children. “No young human being, any more than a young dog, has the least claim to attractiveness unless it is trained to manners and obedience,” Post states in the chapter “The Kindergarten of Etiquette.” In addition to learning how to properly use a fork and knife and remaining quiet while adults are speaking, a child should be taken away “the instant it becomes disobedient,” directs Post. By teaching a child that it can’t “‘stay with mother’ unless it is well-behaved,” she writes, “it learns self-control in babyhood.”

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Flirting Was a Sign of Ill Breeding

Published in 1892, the guidebook Etiquette: Good Manners for All People; Especially for Those “Who Dwell Within the Broad Zone of the Average,” focused on advice for middle-class Americans, and not just wealthy society. The book describes itself as offering “some of the fundamental laws of good behavior in every-day life” for “people of moderate means and quiet habits of living.” In the chapter on “Gallantry and Coquetry,” readers are reminded that there is nothing wrong with a man enjoying the company of a charming woman, or a woman delighting in the conversation of a brilliant man. However, these acts of mutual appreciation have “nothing in common with the shallow travesty of sentiment that characterizes a pointless flirtation.” Not only is flirting a sign of poor breeding, the guide suggests, but “a married flirt is worse than vulgar.”

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A Man Couldn’t Speak to a Woman Unless She Spoke to Him First

During England’s Victorian era in the 19th century, women had “the privilege of recognizing a gentleman” first by acknowledging him with a bow, according to the 1859 British handbook The Habits of Good Society: A Handbook of Etiquette for Ladies and Gentlemen. Men were expected to wait for that acknowledgment before speaking. “No man may stop to speak to a lady until she stops to speak to him,” the book advises. The guidelines go on to say, “The lady, in short, has the right in all cases to be friendly or distant. Women have not many rights; let us gracefully concede the few that they possess.”

5 of the Best History Documentaries Ever

Camera recording

Author Mark DeJoy

December 14, 2023

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A good documentary can make for one of the more edifying experiences available to moviegoers. A great documentary makes for one of the more edifying experiences available, period — it shows us something we didn’t already know, or gives us a better understanding of something we thought we knew. But what makes a documentary qualify as one of the best of all time? “Best” is admittedly a subjective word, but for our purposes here, we’ll define it not just as a film that illuminates a particularly substantial topic to enduring effect, but a film that has consensus regard. The following documentaries are works that show up on a multitude of best-of lists, from industry polls to culture magazines, and more.

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Shoah (1985)

When Shoah was released in 1985, Roger Ebert called it “one of the noblest films ever made,” and its regard hasn’t slipped since. Director Claude Lanzmann spent 12 years interviewing survivors of concentration camps at Auschwitz, Treblinka, Chelmno, Sobibor, and Belzec, as well as former German SS officers and the Polish townspeople who lived in the surrounding areas. Lanzmann famously eschewed archival footage, comprising the entirety of the nine-hour film with interviews intercut with location footage. It’s a powerful, ponderous approach that grounds Shoah in the humanity of the aftermath of the Holocaust, versus dusty newsreels, which risk feeling detached. It is not an easy topic to take in, but as Ebert concluded, “Claude Lanzmann celebrates the priceless gift that sets man apart from animals and makes us human, and gives us hope: the ability for one generation to tell the next what it has learned.”

Apollo 11 (2019)

Todd Douglas Miller’s documentary about the moon landing mission takes the complete opposite approach from Shoah. Constructed from hundreds of reels of previously unseen footage and 11,000 hours of audio that NASA gave Miller access to, Apollo 11 is, in the director’s own words, “an all-archival experience.” The subject of space is, by nature, visually mysterious, and Apollo 11 shows the viewer exactly what we want to see, via footage of space exploration as it happened. Apollo 11 is a visual masterpiece, frequently stunning in its beauty, and those never-before-seen images make for a more revealing picture than any previous documentary about the moon landing.

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13th (2016)

Named after the constitutional amendment that outlawed slavery, Ava DuVernay’s film contextualizes the evolution of race relations in the U.S. along with the history of the American criminal justice system. It was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary; it won a BAFTA Award, a Peabody Award, an NAACP Image Award, and many other film critic awards. 13th weaves together interviews with scholars, activists, journalists, and politicians that decisively illuminate inequity in criminal justice. The result is a potent document that invites the viewer to, as DuVernay puts it herself, “get to a place where we just do better as Americans.”

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I Am Not Your Negro (2016)

Raoul Peck’s Oscar-nominated documentary uses a rich amount of archival material to piece together a vision of James Baldwin’s unfinished book on race in America, Remember This House. Samuel L. Jackson narrates the 30 pages of notes on the unfinished manuscript along with letters written by Baldwin, giving an intimate look at Baldwin’s friendships with Martin Luther King Jr., Medgar Evers, and Malcolm X — as well as the lives and deaths of those leaders. As Baldwin wrote, “I want these three lives to bang against and reveal each other as in truth they did,” and the power of that intention, along with found footage and present-day contextualization from Peck, is what makes this documentary exceptional.

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Won’t You Be My Neighbor? (2018)

Morgan Neville delves into the life of children’s television icon Fred Rogers, and the result is 93 minutes imbued with the gentle and moving warmth that Rogers brought to his eponymous show Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood. Through archival footage of the show, interview clips from various points in Rogers’ career and from those closest to him, and even inventive animated interludes, Won’t You Be My Neighbor? paints a full picture of Rogers’ life; and in it, his integrity, tolerance, and humanism. Here is an unassuming man whose calmly resolute testimony in front of a Senate subcommittee was instrumental in saving public television. His reassuring advice to children to look for the helpers during upsetting times is still quoted to this day. It would be easy for a film like Won’t You Be My Neighbor? to end up cloying or mawkish — that it never does is what lands it on so many best-of lists. As critic A.O. Scott put it in his New York Times review, it’s an intellectually rigorous portrayal of an unwavering commitment to the value of kindness.

The Best History Movies of 2023

“Napoleon” film, 2023

Author Kristina Wright

December 14, 2023

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Since the beginning of cinema, historical movies have been popular for their ability to transport audiences to bygone eras. These films serve as a cinematic journey into the past, reflecting our enduring fascination with history and its influence on modern culture. The most popular historical films of 2023 offer a new look at events that shaped our world, from the Manhattan Project to the Battle of Waterloo. Here, then, is a glimpse at some of the most memorable and powerful historical movies of the year.

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Oppenheimer

Written and directed by Christopher Nolan, Oppenheimer traces the life of J. Robert Oppenheimer, the American theoretical physicist called the “father of the atomic bomb” for his role in the development of nuclear weapons for the U.S. government’s Manhattan Project. With a three-hour running time, the historical drama features an all-star cast that includes Cillian Murphy as Oppenheimer; Matt Damon as Leslie Groves, the head of the Manhattan Project; Robert Downey Jr. as Lewis Strauss, a U.S. Atomic Energy Commission member; Emily Blunt as Kitty, Oppenheimer’s wife; and Florence Pugh as psychiatrist and communist Jean Tatlock, Oppenheimer’s lover.

Inspired by the 2005 biography American Prometheus, and a collection of Oppenheimer’s speeches, Nolan wanted to explore how Oppenheimer grappled with the implications of his work. Nolan, best known for a string of moody, cerebral blockbusters including the Dark Knight trilogy, Interstellar, Tenet, and the World War II epic Dunkirk, has crafted another hit with Oppenheimer. With an 8.4/10 rating on IMDb, Oppenheimer has almost hit the $1 billion mark in global box-office sales, and Variety hailed the film as an “across-the-board contender” for Oscar wins.

Killers of the Flower Moon

Based on the 2017 book by the same name, Killers of the Flower Moon is the latest project by legendary director Martin Scorsese, who also co-produced and co-wrote the script. The film centers on a series of killings of Osage Nation members that occurred in 1920s Oklahoma after oil was discovered on the tribal land. The ensemble cast includes Leonardo DiCaprio as Ernest Burkhart, a member of the crime ring responsible for the murders; Robert De Niro as William King Hale, Ernest’s uncle and crime boss; Lily Gladstone as Ernest’s wife, Mollie Kyle; and Jesse Plemons as Thomas Bruce White Sr., the Bureau of Investigation (which became the FBI) agent who solves the crimes.

Killers of the Flower Moon was one of the most anticipated films to debut at the Cannes Film Festival and is predicted to be an Oscar favorite in several categories. Its success was driven by the filmmakers’ collaboration with the Osage. The film has a 7.9/10 rating on IMDb and has been praised as “authentic” by Osage Nation Chief Standing Bear.

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Asteroid City

Set in a retro-futuristic version of the 1950s, Asteroid City was written, directed, and produced by Wes Anderson, whose unique storytelling style has been described as “subversive” and “highly stylized.” Best known for films such as The Royal Tenenbaums, Moonrise Kingdom, and The Grand Budapest Hotel, Anderson weaves a story within a story in Asteroid City about a Junior Stargazer/Space Cadet convention and a TV documentary production about the fictional play Asteroid City.

With an ensemble cast that includes Jason Schwartzman, Scarlett Johansson, Tom Hanks, Tilda Swinton, Bryan Cranston, and Margot Robbie, the film was nominated for the Palme d’Or prize at the Cannes Film Festival and has a “Certified Fresh” rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Film critic Glenn Kenny called this homage to 1950s pop culture, “ingeniously conceived and seamlessly executed.”

Golda

With a script by Nicholas Martin and directed by Guy Nattiv, Golda stars Helen Mirren as Golda Meir, the “Iron Lady of Israel,” and Liev Schreiber as U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, in a biopic about the life of Israel’s first and only female prime minister during the Yom Kippur War of 1973. Centered on three weeks in Meir’s life, the film explores the impact of the decisions she made after receiving intelligence about Egypt and Syria’s plan to launch a military campaign against Israel during its holiest day of the year. The film addresses the intense criticism Meir received about the government’s seeming lack of preparedness, and her subsequent resignation.

While film critics have offered mixed opinions on the film, Golda has an audience score of 91% on Rotten Tomatoes, with reviewers calling it an “outstanding character study” and “refreshingly thoughtful.” The Hollywood Reporter called it “one of those key-moment-in-world-events films,” comparing it to Gary Oldman’s portrayal of Winston Churchill in Darkest Hour or Daniel Day-Lewis in Lincoln.

Napoleon

In Napoleon, which Collider called director and producer Ridley Scott’s “slyly funny epic historical drama,” Joaquin Phoenix portrays the rise to power of French Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte, and his tumultuous relationship with Empress Joséphine, played by Vanessa Kirby. Phoenix, who previously worked with Scott on Gladiator, delivers a “character-first experience for fans,” according to Collider. Scott has also garnered praise for Napoleon’s battle scenes and the way he “treats battlefields as open canvases upon which to paint monumental scenes of heroism and spinelessness, glory and disgrace, sacrifice and selfishness.” Despite receiving mixed reviews from critics, Napoleon made a “strong start” at the box office after opening in the U.S. on November 22.

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An Educational Purpose