History UsefulNotes / The50s

* The networks generally only provided programming for certain times of day: quiz shows, newscasts, sitcoms and dramas [[UsefulNotes/PrimeTime at night]] and [[SoapOpera soaps]] during the afternoon. The rest of the time, stations either signed off (they all signed off at night, for a number of reasons), broadcast sporting events, or played old movies. Most had a local kids' show, whose host often doubled as the local evening news anchor. For more information, see the MediaNotes/ANSIStandardBroadcastTVSchedule.

* People in the Fifties wanted their homes to be modern to the point of {{Zeerust}}. They were living in the world of the A-Bomb, of {{UsefulNotes/television}}, of all these miracles of science, and they wanted to look the part. But media, even media of the time, sometimes shows the Fifties as being purely ''moderne'', of every piece of furniture and every knick-knack a perfect reflection of contemporary streamlined Deco design. Most of them in fact had family heirlooms and antiques, and because furniture was comparatively more expensive than it is now, most people had a lot of second-hand or old stuff that they couldn't afford to replace even if they did qualify to buy things on the installment plan. Even TV sets and stereo consoles, which in those days were not only electronic devices but pieces of furniture, were available in traditional styles to match the aesthetics of hand-me-down furniture.

Some useful notes regarding the RealLife American [[The50s 1950s]].

'''CAVEAT''': Many of the following are broad generalizations. Except where noted, they are applicable primarily to middle-class urban or suburban, WASP-y Americans living in the Northeast or Midwest--in other words, those Americans considered "typical" in the Fifties, and later to feature prominently in the nostalgia for same. In fact, the Fifties was the first time in American history that a (slight) majority of Americans belonged to what is roughly termed the middle class.

'''CAVEAT''': Many of the following are broad generalizations. Except where noted, they are applicable primarily to middle-class urban or suburban, WASP-y Americans living in the Northeast or Midwest - in other words, those Americans considered "typical" in the Fifties, and later to feature prominently in the nostalgia for same. In fact, the Fifties was the first time in American history that a (slight) majority of Americans belonged to what is roughly termed the middle class.

* {{Radio}}'s influence of course waned rapidly as television's rose, but the two overlapped programming formats for quite some while into the 1960's. Besides Godfrey's, popular radio-only programs included ''Backstage Wife'' [[note]](which you may be more familiar with via Radio/BobAndRay's parody "Mary Backstayge, Noble Wife")[[/note]], ''Ma Perkins'' and ''Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar.'' In 1955, NBC would introduce ''Monitor'', an eclectic all-weekend [[note]](initially 40 hours, quickly shortened to 32, then to 16 in 1961, then to 12 for the last season in 1974-75; a two hour edition also aired on Fridays from 1957-59, then on weekdays from 1959-61.)[[/note]] mix of news, talk, music and performance (notably short comedy bits) presented by some of the top journalists & celebrities of the day. In the UK, the Creator/{{BBC}} started the radio soap opera ''Radio/TheArchers'' which still airs new episodes today and is the world's longest running soap opera; its killing of a major character in 1955 coincided with the launch of [[Creator/{{ITV}} British commercial television]], which may or may not have been [[RatingsStunt deliberate]].

* The networks generally only provided programming for certain times of day: quiz shows, newscasts, sitcoms and dramas [[UsefulNotes/PrimeTime at night]] and [[SoapOpera soaps]] during the afternoon. The rest of the time, stations either signed off (they all signed off at night, for a number of reasons), broadcast sporting events, or played old movies. Most had a local kids' show, whose host often doubled as the local evening news anchor. For more information, see the UsefulNotes/ANSIStandardBroadcastTVSchedule.

* People went to movies all the time... there being no other way to see them. At least not in a way they could be fully appreciated: the small, monochrome TV screen could not show the full glamour of widescreen [[UsefulNotes/ThreeDMovie 3D]] color pictures with stereophonic sound (all gimmicks Hollywood used, of course, to lure people away from TV, [[UsefulNotes/FallOfTheStudioSystem not that it helped]]) and what passed for "home video" in that era were 8 or 16 mm "highlight" reels where color or even sound were not a given. A night out at the 'movie palace' would involve not only the feature but a short animated cartoon (this is where Creator/WaltDisney and the WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes got their start) and sometimes still a newsreel, although TV news broadcasts were quickly rendering them obsolete. Kids especially spent part of every Saturday at the local kiddie show theater watching [[BMovie B-movies]]. It was cheap, it was fun, and it was safe.

* 1952 saw the landmark Supreme Court Case ''Joseph Burstyn, Inc. v. Wilson'' (also known as ''The Miracle Decision''). The case began when an Italian short film called the ''Miracle'' was banned in New York after being accused of religious bigotry. The Supreme Court though ruled that that Film was an artistic medium that was entitled to first amendment protection. This put a severe dent in the power of film censors such as UsefulNotes/TheHaysCode.
* The UsefulNotes/FrenchNewWave began in this decade. A number of French film critics (particularly those who wrote for the journal ''Cahiers du cinéma'') critiqued French films of that period which they felt were unimaginative. They promoted films that were based on current issues (rather than period pieces) and experimented with the form of film. Some of them took up filmmaking themselves (such as those of the "Left Bank" faction who weren't as movie-crazed but still felt Film was on the same level of art as Literature) and joined with other young French filmmakers late in the decade and made films like ''Le Beau Stage'' and ''Film/The400Blows''. It continued into the 60s and would have a lasting influence on filmmaking.

* With TV still early in development, the cutting-edge newsstand format was the photo-journal. ''Life'' magazine quickly developed into the Fifties household's all-purpose window onto the wider world, documenting anything and everything the editors thought would be interesting -- think ''People'' mashed up with ''Time'' and run through ''National Geographic'' with a sideswipe at ''Popular Mechanics''. Those last three also enjoyed a popularity surge in this decade, incidentally. So did 'women's magazines' like ''Good Housekeeping'' and ''Family Circle'', besides countless breathless forerunners of ''People'', all promising true-life backstage exclusives! and actually delivering carefully staged publicity stunts. [[UsefulNotes/FallOfTheStudioSystem The studio system was tottering]], but still powerful enough that journals had to play nice to get access.

* TV and movie content ratings were not invented yet; media creators instead had to follow a certain set of [[MoralGuardians moral guidelines]] before their creations could be released to the public. Movies had the Motion Picture Production Code (popularly known as UsefulNotes/TheHaysCode), comic books had UsefulNotes/TheComicsCode and television had the Code of Practices for Television Broadcasters (also known as the Television Code, a precursor to the networks' Standards and Practices departments; this is what the "Seal of Good Practice" you see in the closing credits of old TV shows is all about).

Some useful notes regarding the RealLife American [[TheFifties 1950s]].

** All that said, the [[SeeminglyWholesomeFiftiesGirl common subversion]] isn't really any more accurate, at least not for women (men weren't as thoroughly tracked). Though of course there were many people in RealLife who acted like that, they were nowhere near as common as many 1970s+ portrayals of 1950s-era teenage life would have you think. The 1950s era was not, as often portrayed, just [[EternalSexualFreedom modern behavior with more hypocrisy]], there really was significant differences between 1950s sexual behavior (especially for high-school aged people) and today's. Less than [[http://dragon.soc.qc.cuny.edu/Staff/turner/TechPDFs/13_SexSurveys.pdf 15% of women]] who came of age (18 years old) between 1948-1955 had had premarital sex by the time they were 18, less than 25% for those between 1956-61. The median age for for first premarital sex for men and women turning 15 in 1954-63 [[http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2006-12-19-premarital-sex_x.htm was 20.4 years old]] (it would be a bit older for women alone), by comparison for marriage for the 1950s, the average age [[http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0005061.html was only 20.3]]. The Sexual Revolution of the (late) 1960s to 1970s of course changed all of this, with people having more premarital sex and doing so younger.

* Many consider this decade to be a golden age for Japanese cinema. ''Film/{{Rashomon}}'', released in 1950, helped introduce Japanese cinema to a world audience. Some other films that reached worldwide icon status were ''Film/SevenSamurai'' (which was later remade as ''{{Film/The Magnificent Seven|1960}}'') and ''{{Film/Godzilla|1954}}''. These and other Japanese films from this decade received a number of international honors including the UsefulNotes/AcademyAward and awards from prestigious film festivals.

* The CyclicNationalFascination of the decade was the inner workings of {{advertising}} agencies, such as Madison Avenue. From the late [[TheFifties '50s]] to the early [[TheSixties '60s]], all things advertising became fodder for books, plays, TV shows, and movies (''The Man In the Grey Flannel Suit'', ''Theatre/HowToSucceedInBusinessWithoutReallyTrying'', ''Film/WillSuccessSpoilRockHunter'', ''Series/{{Bewitched}}'', ''Lover Come Back''). Its unique internal jargon, often focused on consensus building and CYA (Cover Your /-\$$), briefly flooded American speech. Some bits of it still remain (for instance, "run it up the flagpole and see who salutes", which was a well-worn cliche decades before it appeared in Music/HarveyDanger's 1997 song "Flagpole Sitta"). The TV series ''Series/MadMen'' primed to revive much of the old adman slang. As a nod to the old fad, ''Mad Men'' casts Robert Morse, the leading man in the original 1961 Broadway production of ''How to Succeed in Business...'', as the eccentric Bert Cooper.

* While nowadays we associate makeup in the 1950s with the classic winged eyeliner and bold red lip look, it wasn't the only style, as experimentations were abound throughout the decade, such as pastel eyeshadows and lipsticks in various shades of red, pink, and coral. An observational pattern throughout the progression of the decade is that lipsticks got lighter while the eye makeup got thicker. The early parts of the decade had carryovers from the 1940s with red lips with a subtle winged eye while the end of the decade consists of cool red, pale pink, or bright coral lips and thick cat eye makeup.

* Small appliances weren't nearly as numerous as they are now; even what we consider "vintage" small appliances like slow-cookers, fondue pots, and chafing dishes have yet to be widely marketed. Most Fifties kitchens only had a toaster and a coffee percolator, if anything. Percolators were the way most American homes made their coffee (if they didn't just brew it instant); the unreliable nature of the brewing method meant that the coffee was frequently burnt and unpalatable, and thus cream and sugar were added in quantity.

* When it comes to politics, the Fifties is something of a conundrum to modern observers unacquainted with the politics of the time. Most American voters during the Fifties were Democrats: the Left/Right split between Democrats and Republicans had not fully resolved at the time. UsefulNotes/DwightEisenhower, the President during the better part of this decade, was a Republican, but he was a personally popular figure who transcended parties, and in fact had never belonged to a political party of any kind before he ran for the presidency and specifically chose the Republicans to give them a chance after 20 years of Democrat rule. Both major parties were split, with the Democrats including both a quasi-social democratic wing in the North and a Southern wing that, while it could be liberal on certain issues, opposed the civil rights agenda; the Republicans, meanwhile, were divided between a statist East and a libertarian West (although this wouldn't really be a source of controversy until the rise of Arizona's Barry Goldwater in the mid-Sixties). The unifying legacy of the 1930s New Deal was still alive and well, so much so that even the Republicans incorporated much of it into their agenda.

* The UsefulNotes/CivilRightsMovement kicked off in the latter half of this decade, but it would take awhile yet for it to trickle down into the mainstream. Most Northern whites were in favor of ending segregation, but they disagreed with the tactics of the civil rights activists, which they considered "radical"; their frustration would only deepen in TheSixties as black activism became even ''more'' militant. Segregation was pervasive in the South: there were the separate drinking fountains and bathrooms and lunch counters and schools. In the private sphere, it was not unknown in the North; for instance, the Levittown suburban developments were notorious for selling their homes only to white customers. Minorities trying to move in with resales often faced racist harassment, but at least the North state governments were more willing to move to stop it if it got really serious. Despite the economic problems caused by this, blacks were gaining education and moving into the middle class at rates never seen before -- or since.
** The 1954 Supreme Court ruling of ''Brown v. Board of Education'' officially overturned the doctrine of "separate but equal" instituted by ''Plessy v. Ferguson'' and ended segregation (at least officially). The ruling was met with massive backlash (and sometimes violence) from conservative whites in the DeepSouth. To prevent the integration of schools, Prince Edward County, Virginia, simply closed all of their public schools and paid the white students to go to private schools instead. In Little Rock, Arkansas, Governor Orval Farbus called in the National Guard to prevent black students (known in the media as The Little Rock Nine) from entering the newly integrated high school. Eisenhower had to send in the 101st Airborne Division to march the students into the school for a full year.
** In 1955, Rosa Parks decided to not give up her seat on an Montgomery bus for a white passenger, she was arrested and her case triggered the Montgomery Bus Boycott. Led by a young Martin Luther King, it lasted a full year and resulted in the integration of Montgomery's bus service.

* The [[UsefulNotes/YanksWithTanks military]], on the other hand, embraced nuclear weapons to a somewhat alarming extent. The nuclear bomb had ended the last great conflict, so it was only logical to them that the next one would ''start'' with them. Both the air force and the army structured themselves around the assumption that on Day 1 of a Soviet attack on Western Europe, the President would authorize and the airforce would execute [[NukeEm a massive nuclear attack]] against the entire communist bloc that was both strategic (ie: nuking cities) and tactical (nuking armies) in nature. Then the army would mop-up any remaining resistance. In fact, one famous military theorist, Herman Kahn, derided this plan in High Command's faces that it was more having a "wargasm" than fighting in a realistic way. Naturally, the adoption of this idea came at the detriment of US conventional forces, something which would come back to bite them in UsefulNotes/TheVietnamWar [[note]]In an incident refered to as the "Revolt of the Admirals", the government came close to almost completely dismantling the Navy and the Marine Corps on the assumption that they are not very useful in a nuclear slugfest (this was before the invention of ICBM-carrying "boomer" submarines) until a group of US Admirals publicly ripped congress a new one in the press[[/note]]. Interestingly this nuclear craze also characterised UsefulNotes/NikitaKhrushchev and his.... unique... approach to warfare. Soviet conventional forces suffered similar cuts and neglect under his rule and would only recover at about the same time as the USA's, under UsefulNotes/LeonidBrezhnev in the late '60s.
** The idea of 'Massive Retaliation' would continue to influence NATO military thinking right up until the end of the Cold War, even after it was nominally discarded towards in the late '50s in favour of 'Flexible Response' doctrine and actually in the late 1970s by 'Follow On Forces Attack' doctrine - under which tactical nukes would only be used if the USA started losing, and strategic nukes only in tit-for-tat/eye-for-an-eye responses to Soviet first-strikes. FOFA doctrine still had a fundamental flaw in that [[StrategyVersusTactics it did not define where 'tactical' use ended and 'strategic' use began]]. Worse, NATO commanders had strong incentives to take advantage of this ambiguity by glassing the major cities of East Germany and Poland. This would have been a useful expedient in the first three weeks of the war to prevent Soviet reinforcements from reaching the front lines. If allowed to transit through those countries, they could disperse their forces and 'hug' NATO forces upon reaching the front lines, whereupon the tactical nuclear bombardment of Soviet forces on West German soil would only have been marginally effective and so western Europe might have been lost.

* Most people weren't afraid of everyday disasters such as car accidents, however. This is in part because people were more fatalistic -- each year of the Fifties saw ten or more major air crashes in the US, with hundreds killed per year. Airports used to have machines that sold life insurance; you could plug in a few quarters and buy "accident insurance" that would pay out a small amount to your loved ones if you died in a crash. Seat belts existed, but were far from standard, and often not used even when the car had them. Someone sent Ford a letter asking them to please stop installing seatbelts, as they were too uncomfortable to sit on. There weren't car seats for babies and small children, either; it wasn't uncommon for a woman with a toddler to drive with the kid on her lap, something that can get you arrested today.

* The UsefulNotes/FrenchNewWave began in this decade. A number of french film critics (particularly those from the Cahier Du Cinema) critique french films at that period which they felt were unimaginative. They promoted films that were based on current issues (rather than period pieces) and experimented with the form of film. Some of them took up filmmaking themselves (such as those part of the "Left Bank" who weren't as movie crazed but still felt Film was on the same level of art as Literature) and joined with other young French filmmakers late in the decade and made films like ''Le Beau Stage'' and ''Film/The400Blows''. It continued into the 60s and would have a lasting influence on filmmaking.
** A similar movement in the UK began in 1959 and was known as the British New Wave. They were often black & white and focused on working class individuals in the northern part of England. They were shot in a manner similar to ''cinema verité'' and often cast real people that gave a very realistic appearance to these films. The movement was overall short lived, being said to end around 1963 when a new cycle of British Cinema would prove hugely successful domestically and internationally.

* With TV still early in development, the cutting-edge newstand format was the photo-journal. ''Life'' magazine quickly developed into the Fifties household's all-purpose window onto the wider world, documenting anything and everything the editors thought would be interesting -- think ''People'' mashed up with ''Time'' and run through ''National Geographic'' with a sideswipe at ''Popular Mechanics''. Those last three also enjoyed a popularity surge in this decade, incidentally. So did 'women's magazines' like ''Good Housekeeping'' and ''Family Circle'', besides countless breathless forerunners of ''People'', all promising true-life backstage exclusives! and actually delivering carefully staged publicity stunts. [[UsefulNotes/FallOfTheStudioSystem The studio system was tottering]], but still powerful enough that journals had to play nice to get access.
* It's not a universally acknowledged fact, but ProfessionalWrestling was one of the very first forms of entertainment to be shown regularly on television. It was arguably in this decade that wrestling first became a source of true mass entertainment, as millions enjoyed watching regional matches on local stations. Following the example of Boston-based promoter Jack Pfeffer (who was, by the way, the man responsible for exposing the trade secret that [[{{Kayfabe}} pro wrestling was fake]]), the promotions began to emphasize entertainment value more than athletic ability, and the wrestlers themselves began to wear more elaborate costumes (feathers, rhinestones, and the like) and to behave [[LargeHam in a more hysterical, caricaturized manner]]. The two most famous wrestlers of this era, Wrestling/BuddyRogers and [[Wrestling/GeorgeWagner Gorgeous George]], arguably inspired almost every sports-entertainer who came after them, particularly Wrestling/RicFlair and Wrestling/HulkHogan. Other popular performers in the world of pro wrestling in the early television era included Wrestling/AntoninoRocca, Chief Jay Strongbow, and Lillian Ellison (whom Vincent J. [=McMahon=] renamed "The Fabulous Moolah"). Some of the early TV commentators included Creator/SteveAllen (his first TV gig was as a wrestling commentator where he created names for the holds, some of which are still in use) and Dennis James (a veteran of TV's experimental years going back to 1938 who later became known as the host of game shows such as ''Series/TheNamesTheSame'' and the 1970s nighttime version of ''Series/ThePriceIsRight'').
* TV and movie content ratings were not invented yet; media creators instead had to follow a certain set of [[MoralGuardians moral guidelines]] before their creations could be released to the public. Movies had the Motion Picture Production Code (popularly known as UsefulNotes/TheHaysCode), comic books had UsefulNotes/TheComicsCode and television had the Code of Practices for Televison Broadcasters (also known as the Television Code, a precursor to the networks' Standards and Practices departments; this is what the "Seal of Good Practice" you see in the closing credits of old TV shows is all about).

* Another game show format which debuted on radio and became popular on television in this decade was the PanelGame. The most popular in the U.S. was the CBS trifecta of ''Series/WhatsMyLine'', ''Series/IveGotASecret'' and ''Series/ToTellTheTruth'', which all ran for over a decade and survived the quiz scandals only to get abruptly cancelled in 1967. In the U.K., where the genre has since become a mainstay, some of the panel shows that debuted in this era included adaptations of ''What's My Line?'' and ''I've Got a Secret'' alongside originals like ''The Brains Trust''.

* Although women could and did participate in all kinds of athletic activity -- there had even been a national women's baseball league not too long ago -- it was still basically a manly pastime. So manly, in fact, that any woman who was serious about sports (other than perhaps tennis, or golf) was considered in turn to be damaging her femininity. Fitness instruction was available via record albums, but the advertising pitch for these records stressed the woman's duty to keep trim for her husband's sake, or to attract one in the first place -- her own health, or even a desire to look attractive for her own sake, was rarely mentioned.
* As music executives where compiling lists of people who should get a star on the Hollywood walk of fame, they noted there were a number of talented people who likely wouldn't qualify. In response, they established the Recording Academy in 1957 and they held the first Grammy Awards (the recording industry equivalent to the Oscars and the Emmys) in 1959.

* Most people owned much less clothing than we do. A young woman would likely own two blouses, one skirt, one jacket, one pair of shoes, seven changes of underwear, one nightie, a slip (look it up), and two or three pairs of hose that she'd have to make last for months. She would also have at least one hat, since it was actually a requirement at the time that women wear hats in church. She might also have a casual shirt and a pair of jeans, and likely a winter coat, gloves, and boots in a cold climate. This means that she'd have to wear her clothing at least three or four times between washings. Stockings were held up by a garter belt, and for adult women a girdle (basically a less restrictive, boning-free corset that covered the hips and lower abdomen) and a supportive bra were ''de rigueur''. Those who could afford it had a "good" dress, worn to church and on dates, and rarely for any other purpose. As fashions tended to change from year to year, sometimes quite drastically, girls and women also had to be good at altering their clothing to fit the current style. Younger children usually had their older siblings' hand-me-downs, and rarely got new clothing (save for, perhaps, what would be worn to church). Likewise, there was a large divide between "school clothes" and "play clothes", the latter of which were usually what the former would become, once they were worn out and and no longer fit right. ("School clothes" for children usually consisted of one, ''maybe'' two outfits.)
* Women had begun wearing slacks as a practical matter during the war -- bolstered by such celebrity pioneers as Marlene Dietrich and Katharine Hepburn -- and the trend continued to gain acceptance throughout the next decade. But appearing decorous in public usually entailed a dress or full skirt, on more formal occasions accessorised with a hat and white gloves -- though by the end of the decade this was more associated with older, rather fussy upper-class ladies. The cutting-edge designers of the decade (Chanel, Dior, Givenchy) focused almost exclusively on these demure, ''uber''-feminine silhouettes.
* As for men, blue-collar labourers wore what was known as "work clothes" -- usually cotton shirts and trousers. Many never owned a suit, and very few men generally spent their leisure hours in a tie as per ''Series/FatherKnowsBest''. It was actually very common for off-duty dads in the Fifties to hang around the house wearing a stained undershirt with holes in it and a pair of worn-out work pants, since the only casual wear they could afford was their cast-off work clothes.

* Bread was almost unifomly white. "Brown bread" was usually white bread with brown coloring -- often caramel -- added. Whole grain bread was a specialty item not carried by most supermarkets. And unless you're shopping in an ethnic neighborhood, you can forget tortillas, pitas, etc. (Forget anything for people with dietary restrictions, either).

* [[UsefulNotes/HMTheQueen Queen Elizabeth II's]] coronation was the first to be broadcast on television. Over 20 million people across Europe tuned in to see it and it helped boost TV set sales. As this was before satellite transmissions, kinescopes of the broadcast were flown in to Canada (in the first non-stop flights between the UK and Canada), the United States (NBC and CBS had their own arrangements to fly in the footage, but ABC simply simulcasted the CBC feed, beating the other two by 90 minutes at much lower cost) and Australia (aboard a Qantas airliner which arrived to Sydney in a record 53 hours 28 minutes).

* There were very few credit cards (called "charge cards" at the time, where the balance had to be paid in full each month--bank-issued cards with revolving credit would only start to appear toward the end of the decade) and most people didn't qualify for the ones that existed. Day-to-day payments were still cash or check. A man successful enough to give his wife a charge card was admired: a man successful enough to give his wife ''and'' his mistress charge cards was almost worshipped. Generally, though, purchasers paid either in cash or by check, or by special-purpose cards with department stores, gas stations, or airlines, and perhaps an "account" with the neighborhood pharmacy or grocery store. Larger items could be purchased on the "installment plan" -- basically rent to own or "buy now, pay later", except at a slightly lower interest rate, or via personal loans. Many consumers, eager to experience "the good life" in the wake of the austerity of the Depression and World War II years, availed themselves of the installment plan as the Depression-era stigma against consumer credit faded away. Several enterprising companies realized that juggling all these different loans and accounts was cumbersome, as bank customers had to apply for every loan and payment plan individually. Diners Club and American Express had introduced the first charge cards that could be used in more than one place, and Bank of America would quietly debut [=BankAmericard=], the first modern general-purpose credit card with revolving credit, which would eventually evolve into Visa. One of the big fret-fits in the Fifties, particularly among people who remembered the Depression, was the fear that [[DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything the economy would crash because people would buy too much stuff on installment plans, default, and leave behind goods that were worth less than what was owed on them]].

* There were very few credit cards (called "charge cards" at the time, where the balance had to be paid in full each month--bank-issued cards with revolving credit would only start to appear toward the end of the decade) and most people didn't qualify for the ones that existed. Day-to-day payments were still cash or check. A man successful enough to give his wife a charge card was admired: a man successful enough to give his wife ''and'' his mistress charge cards was almost worshipped. Generally, though, purchasers paid either in cash or by check, or by special-purpose cards with department stores, gas stations, or airlines, and perhaps an "account" with the neighborhood pharmacy or grocery store. Larger items could be purchased on the "installment plan" -- basically rent to own or "buy now, pay later", except at a slightly lower interest rate, or via personal loans. Many consumers, eager to experience "the good life" in the wake of the Depression and World War II, availed themselves of the installment plan as the Depression-era stigma against consumer credit faded away. Several enterprising companies realized that juggling all these different loans and accounts was cumbersome, as bank customers had to apply for every loan and payment plan individually. Diners Club and American Express had introduced the first charge cards that could be used in more than one place, and Bank of America would quietly debut [=BankAmericard=], the first modern general-purpose credit card with revolving credit, which would eventually evolve into Visa. One of the big fret-fits in the Fifties, particularly among people who remembered the Depression, was the fear that [[DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything the economy would crash because people would buy too much stuff on installment plans, default, and leave behind goods that were worth less than what was owed on them]].