Lecture Overheads, 2/17/03:

Youth Culture in Black and White:
Television and Life Magazine in the 1950s

Video clip from American Visions, 7: The Empire of Signs:
1. relates high art to consumerism
2. Puts cars and consumerism in political context of the Cold War struggle between US and USSR world views

Advertising of the 1950s: defined by attention to the visual image. Life and television also emphasize visual.

Ambiguities in Life’s mid-1950s photo essays on segregation:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

% of households with TV:
1950 9%
1954 55.7%
1959 85.9%

Clip from Eyes on the Prize

1958: Gov. Faubus closes schools to halt integration
1961: James Meredith attempts to register at University of Mississippi