We now bid farewell to 1954, a very diverse year for sci-fi on film. We have now arrived at the midpoint in our journey through the golden decade of classic sci-fi movies. The door is about to open wide to let in the modern era and helping to usher it in we have…..
Beast With a Million Eyes: A film about an alien that feeds on fear.
Before we launch into this year’s sci-fi film feast, let’s pause and take a look at the significant people and events that helped to shape the world of 1955 and beyond even to the present day….
Military Developments
USS Nautilus (SSN-571), the world’s first nuclear-powered submarine, puts to sea for the first time, from Groton, Connecticut.
International Affairs & Relations
The Seventh Fleet of the United States Navy assists the Republic of China evacuate Chinese Nationalist army and residents from the Tachen Islands to Taiwan.
U.S. President Eisenhower sends the first U.S. advisors to South Vietnam.
Southeast Asia Treaty Organization (S.E.A.T.O) is established.
Winston Churchill resigns as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom due to ill-health at the age of 80. Anthony Eden becomes Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.
Warsaw Treaty on Friendship, Cooperation and Mutual Assistance is signed (Warsaw Treaty Organization)
Eight Communist Bloc countries, including the Soviet Union, sign a mutual defence treaty (Warsaw Pact) in Warsaw, Poland.
West Germany becomes a sovereign country recognized by important Western countries, such as France, the United Kingdom, Canada, and the United States. West Germany joins the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).
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US begins sending $216 million in aid to Vietnam.
US intervenes militarily in Iran
U.S. installs powerful radar system in Turkey to spy on the Soviet Union
Political & Human Rights Struggle & Protest
Claudette Colvin (a fifteen-year-old African-American girl) refuses to give up her seat on a bus in Montgomery, Alabama, to a white woman after the driver demands it. She is forcibly carried off the bus backwards and then kicked, handcuffed and harassed on the way to the police station.
A few months later In Montgomery, Alabama, Rosa Parks refuses to give up her seat to make room for a white passenger and is arrested, leading to the Montgomery bus boycott.
The Montgomery Improvement Association is formed in Montgomery, Alabama, by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and other Black ministers to coordinate a Black people's boycott of all city buses.
Racial segregation is outlawed on trains and buses in interstate commerce in the United States.
Entertainment & Popular Culture
Actor James Dean is killed at age 24 when his automobile, a Porsche 550 Spyder, nicknamed "Little Bastard," collides with another car at a highway junction near Cholame, California
The first footage of Elvis Presley is filmed as part of a film short about the Cleveland, Ohio, disc jockey Bill Randle.
Bo Diddley makes his television debut on Ed Sullivan's Toast Of The Town show for the CBS-TV network.
Movies
The Seven Year Itch Rebel Without A Cause
Blackboard Jungle
Evan Hunter's movie adaptation of the novel Blackboard Jungle premieres featuring the song, "Rock Around the Clock", by Bill Haley and His Comets. Teenagers dance to the song during the film’s showing.
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Books
Vladimir Nabokov’s controversial novel, Lolita
First edition of the Guinness Book of Records is published, in London
Music
Rock and Roll music continues to grow in popularity with such idols as, Elvis Presley, Bill Haley and the Comets, Chuck Berry and The Platters.
Number One Songs: Mr. Sandman - The Chordettes; Let Me Go, Lover - Joan Weber; Hearts of Stone - Fontane Sisters; Sincerely - McGuire Sisters; The Ballad Of Davy Crockett - Bill Hayes; Unchained Melody - Les Baxter; Rock Around The Clock - Bill Haley & His Comets; Yellow Rose Of Texas - Mitch Miller; Love Is a Many - Splendored Thing - The Four Aces; Autumn Leaves - Roger Williams; Sixteen Tons - Tennessee Ernie Ford
Television
The long-running program Gunsmoke debuts on the CBS-TV network in the United States.Alfred Hitchcock Presents debuts on the CBS-TV network in the United States.
The Mickey Mouse Club debuts on the ABC-TV network in the United States.
Most Popular TV shows:
1. The $64,000 Question (CBS)
2. I Love Lucy (CBS)
3. The Ed Sullivan Show (CBS)
4. Disneyland (ABC)
5. The Jack Benny Show (CBS)
6. December Bride (CBS)
7. You Bet Your Life (NBC)
8. Dragnet (NBC)
9. The Millionaire (CBS)
10. I've Got A Secret (CBS)
Fashion
For young men: pink shirts and charcoal grey suits.For ladies…..
Sport
"Sugar" Ray Robinson wins world boxing championship
Scientific & Technological Advances
The race is on for real…
First pocket transistor radios available
The Salk polio vaccine receives full approval by the Food and Drug Administration.
The first nuclear-generated electrical power is sold commercially, partially powering the town of Arco, Idaho.
American cytogeneticist Joe Hin Tjio discovers the correct number of human chromosomes, forty-six.
Narinder Kapany (England) develops fibre optics.
Owen Chamberlain and Emilio Segrè discover the antiproton, a form of antimatter.
Severo Ochoa at NYU synthesizes DNA- and RNA-like molecules.
TV remote control becomes public
Microwave oven invented
UHF television developed
Disasters & Tragedies
Hurricane Diane hits the northeastern United States, killing over 200 people, and causing over $1.0 billion in damage.
Hurricane Hilda kills about 200 people in Mexico.
Soviet battleship Novorossiysk explodes at moorings in Sevastopol Bay, killing 608, the Soviet Union's worst naval disaster.
A time bomb explodes in the cargo hold of United Airlines Flight 629, a Douglas DC-6B airliner flying above Longmont, Colorado, killing all 39 passengers and 5 crew members on board.
Soviet battleship Novorossiysk explodes at moorings in Sevastopol Bay, killing 608, the Soviet Union's worst naval disaster.
A time bomb explodes in the cargo hold of United Airlines Flight 629, a Douglas DC-6B airliner flying above Longmont, Colorado, killing all 39 passengers and 5 crew members on board.
Other
Ray Kroc opens his first McDonald's in Des Plaines, Illinois.
US President: Dwight D. Eisenhower
US Vice President: Richard M. Nixon
US Population: 165,931,202
US Life expectancy: 69.6 years
US Homicide Rate (per 100,000): 4.5
Albert Einstein dies
In the US, 7 out of 10 families own a motor car often with this result…
The average wage (US) $3,851 per year and the minimum wage raised to $1.00 per hour
Yearly Inflation Rate USA: 0.28%
Average cost of new house: $10.950.00
Average cost of a new car $1,900.00
Cost of a gallon of gas: 23 cents
Black and White TV would set you back $99.95
The first cans of Coca-Cola sold
Still, some things never change all that much!
Then again........
Oct 15, 2015 ...
Playboy magazine plans to eliminate nudity!
A lot can happen in 60 years....
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