VOA慢速英语2011--American History: Popular Culture in '50

THE MAKING OF A NATION - American History: Popular Culture in '50s

STEVE EMBER: Welcome to THE MAKING OF A NATION – American history in VOA Special English. I’m Steve Ember.
Imagine a time machine. You’ve just climbed into it for the purpose of visiting the United States – in the nineteen-fifties.
What would you expect to find?
In the nineteen fifties, America was a nation whose population was growing as never before. It was a nation where the popular culture of television was both reflecting and influencing its lifestyle.
(MUSIC)
But it was also a nation that believed it was on the edge of nuclear war.
Americans were happy to put World War Two behind them. The war ended in nineteen forty-five. People were hopeful. They thought the world would be peaceful for a while.
By nineteen fifty, however, political tensions were high again.
The United States and the Soviet¹ Union were allies in World War Two. But, after the war, they became enemies in what came to be known as the Cold War.
Communists took control of one eastern European nation after another. The Soviet Union led by Josef Stalin strengthened its armed forces. However, the United States thought America alone possessed² the most powerful weapon of all -- the atomic bomb.
(MUSIC)
But in nineteen forty-nine, a United States Air Force plane discovered strange conditions in the atmosphere. What was causing them?
The answer came quickly: the Soviet Union had tested its own atomic bomb.
The nuclear race was on. The two nations competed to build weapons of mass destruction.
A "doomsday clock" on the cover of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists warned of a growing danger of nuclear destruction. Members of that group were afraid of what science had produced, and even more afraid of what it could produce.
By nineteen forty-nine, the time on the doomsday clock was three minutes to midnight.
(SOUND)
In nineteen fifty, North Korea invaded South Korea. The Korean war increased efforts in the United States to develop a weapon even more deadly than the atomic bomb. That weapon was the hydrogen bomb.
The Soviets³ were also working to develop their own hydrogen bomb. 
Some Americans built bomb shelters in their backyards, hoping to have a safe place for their families in case of a nuclear attack.
Other Americans, however, were tired of being afraid. After years of sacrifice, they wanted to enjoy the good life in a growing economy.
Nineteen fifty-two was a presidential election year. Americans elected Dwight Eisenhower, a military hero of World War Two.
The years after the war produced the Baby Boom generation. In nineteen fifty there were twenty-four million young children in America. By nineteen sixty that number was thirty-five million.
More families meant the need for more houses. And bigger families needed bigger houses. In nineteen fifty alone, almost one and a half million new homes were built in America.
Most of these new houses were located in suburbs, the areas outside cities. People moved to the suburbs because they thought the schools there were better than city schools. They also liked having more space for their children to play in.
(SOUND)
More space meant children had room to lay out electric train sets. In a lot of American homes, playing with electric trains was an activity that brought the whole family together.
Television ads for Lionel trains even featured baseball great Joe DiMaggio.
TV ANNOUNCER: “Lionel Trains proudly present The Joe DiMaggio Show, starring the Yankee Clipper, Joe DiMaggio himself”
The late nineteen fifties brought the Barbie doll and a big circular tube of colorful plastic called the Hula Hoop⁴. People had to learn to move their hips⁵ in a circular motion, like a hula dancer in Hawaii, to spin it around their body.
Also popular was the poodle cut -- not for dogs, but for women who wanted to look stylish⁶. They fixed⁷ their hair into lots of small curls, like the hair on a poodle.
Actress Mary Martin had made the poodle cut famous in the musical "South Pacific." That play opened on Broadway in New York in nineteen forty-nine.
(MUSIC: “Diamonds Are a Girl’s Best Friend”)
In Hollywood, one of the biggest movie stars of the nineteen fifties was Marilyn Monroe. She starred in films like "Gentleman Prefer Blondes" in nineteen fifty-three. Her platinum-blonde hair style also became popular among American women.
JAMES DEAN in “Rebel Without A Cause”: “I woke up this morning, you know, and the sun was shining. And it was nice, and all that type of stuff. And the first thing, I saw you, and I said, now, boy this is gonna be one terrific day…”
Another famous actor was James Dean, best known for the nineteen fifty-five movie "Rebel Without a Cause." That same year he died in a car accident at the age of twenty-four.
In literature, there were writers and poets who came to be known as the Beat generation. These included Jack⁸ Kerouac, Gregory Corso and Allen Ginsberg. To them, much of life in nineteen-fifties America was empty and meaningless.
The painter Jackson Pollock represented a spirit of rebellion in art. Pollock would drop paint onto a canvas. What did his works mean? People had to decide for themselves.
(MUSIC: “Don’t Be Cruel”)
In music, the rebel was Elvis Presley -- the king of rock and roll.
Elvis Presley was a twenty-one-year-old truck driver when he sang on television for the first time.
Some parents and religious leaders thought he was a bad influence. They thought the way he moved his body to the music was too suggestive. But young people screamed for more. They listened to Elvis' music on records, on the radio and on the television program "American Bandstand."
(MUSIC)
"American Bandstand" became the most popular dance party in America. Every week, young people danced to the latest songs in front of the TV cameras.
(MUSIC)
But it wasn’t all rock and roll. Whether on Bandstand-type television programs or at local “record hops,” or at home, young Americans – and their parents – danced cheek to cheek to romantic ballads⁹ as well.
Television in the nineteen-fifties included dramas acted live on TV.
And there were quiz shows, and game shows, and comedy programs.
(MUSIC)
If Elvis was the king of rock and roll, Lucille Ball was the queen of comedy. During the nineteen fifties, millions of Americans watched "I Love Lucy." Lucille Ball starred with her husband Desi Arnaz. They played Lucy and Ricky Ricardo. Ricky is a Cuban bandleader in New York. Lucy is a housewife who wishes she could be famous like her husband.
LUCY: "What will I have to do?"
RICKY: "You gonna have to get me back on the television show."
LUCY: "How?"
RICKY: "I don’t know how. But, if you don't, I'll ... "
LUCY: "I will, Ricky. I’ll get you back on the show. Don’t even think of what you’ll do if I don't [imitating Ricky's Cuban accent]."
Lucille Ball and "I Love Lucy" were both big influences on generations of entertainers and TV comedy producers.
Variety shows offered a mix of entertainment. Americans watched shows hosted by comics like Milton Berle, Jackie Gleason and Sid Caesar.
Ed Sullivan was not a comedian¹⁰, but for years his show brought new acts into American homes every Sunday night.
Television shows were all in black-and-white. But one night in nineteen fifty-three, Americans got their own time-machine glimpse into the future of TV. It happened with an announcement during Sid Caesar’s “Your Show of Shows."
NBC TV NEWSMAN: “This is Richard Harkness in Washington. This week will long be remembered in the annals of television, for on Thursday, December seventeenth, the Federal Communications Commission approved Compatible Color Television.”
That meant that owners of TV sets could still watch programs broadcast in color -- in black and white -- instead of having to buy a new set. Color TV's popularity grew quickly, and the prices of color TVs came down, meaning more color TVs in American homes, and more and more programs produced in color.
TV ANNOUNCER: “The following program is brought to you in living color on NBC.”
During the nineteen fifties, most of the people who appeared on television were white. If black actors appeared, they were usually in jobs working for white people.
But in real life, a civil rights movement was beginning to gather strength. Legal battles were fought to end racial separation, especially in public schools.
In nineteen fifty-four, the United States Supreme¹¹ Court made a historic ruling. The case was known as Brown v. Board of Education. The court ruled that the requirement in some states for racially separate schools was unconstitutional. The court rejected the idea that schools for black students could be "separate but equal" to those attended by white students.
By the nineteen sixties, the civil rights movement would shake American society.
Dwight Eisenhower was president for most of the nineteen fifties. He faced the problems of communism, nuclear threats and racial tensions. "Ike" had a calm way of speaking to the public. Many Americans saw him as a fatherly president. They thought that even in a dark and dangerous world, everything would be all right.
Were they correct? We'll try to answer that in future programs.
You can find our series online with transcripts¹², MP3s, podcasts and pictures at voanews.cn. And you can follow us on Facebook and Twitter at VOA Learning English. I’m Steve Ember, inviting¹³ you to join us again next week for THE MAKING OF A NATION -- American history in VOA Special English.
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Contributing: Jerilyn Watson
This was program #206. For earlier programs, type "Making of a Nation" in quotation¹⁴ marks in the search box at the top of the page.

1 Soviet   

adj.苏联的，苏维埃的；n.苏维埃

参考例句：

• Zhukov was a marshal of the former Soviet Union.朱可夫是前苏联的一位元帅。
• Germany began to attack the Soviet Union in 1941.德国在1941年开始进攻苏联。

2 possessed   

adj.疯狂的；拥有的，占有的

参考例句：

• He flew out of the room like a man possessed.他像着了魔似地猛然冲出房门。
• He behaved like someone possessed.他行为举止像是魔怔了。

3 soviets   

苏维埃（Soviet的复数形式）

参考例句：

• A public challenge could provoke the Soviets to dig in. 公开挑战会促使苏联人一意孤行。
• The Soviets proposed the withdrawal of American ballistic-missile submarines from forward bases. 苏联人建议把美国的弹道导弹潜艇从前沿基地撤走。

4 hoop   

n.（篮球）篮圈，篮

参考例句：

• The child was rolling a hoop.那个孩子在滚铁环。
• The wooden tub is fitted with the iron hoop.木盆都用铁箍箍紧。

5 hips   

abbr.high impact polystyrene 高冲击强度聚苯乙烯，耐冲性聚苯乙烯n.臀部( hip的名词复数 )；[建筑学]屋脊；臀围（尺寸）；臀部…的

参考例句：

• She stood with her hands on her hips. 她双手叉腰站着。
• They wiggled their hips to the sound of pop music. 他们随着流行音乐的声音摇晃着臀部。 来自《简明英汉词典》

6 stylish   

adj.流行的，时髦的；漂亮的，气派的

参考例句：

• He's a stylish dresser.他是个穿着很有格调的人。
• What stylish women are wearing in Paris will be worn by women all over the world.巴黎女性时装往往会引导世界时装潮流。

7 fixed   

adj.固定的，不变的，准备好的；(计算机)固定的

参考例句：

• Have you two fixed on a date for the wedding yet?你们俩选定婚期了吗？
• Once the aim is fixed,we should not change it arbitrarily.目标一旦确定，我们就不应该随意改变。

8 jack   

n.插座，千斤顶，男人；v.抬起，提醒，扛举；n.（Jake）杰克

参考例句：

• I am looking for the headphone jack.我正在找寻头戴式耳机插孔。
• He lifted the car with a jack to change the flat tyre.他用千斤顶把车顶起来换下瘪轮胎。

9 ballads   

民歌，民谣，特别指叙述故事的歌( ballad的名词复数 )； 讴

参考例句：

• She belted out ballads and hillbilly songs one after another all evening. 她整晚一个接一个地大唱民谣和乡村小调。
• She taught him to read and even to sing two or three little ballads,accompanying him on her old piano. 她教他读书，还教他唱两三首民谣，弹着她的旧钢琴为他伴奏。

10 comedian   

n.喜剧演员；滑稽演员

参考例句：

• The comedian tickled the crowd with his jokes.喜剧演员的笑话把人们逗乐了。
• The comedian enjoyed great popularity during the 30's.那位喜剧演员在三十年代非常走红。

11 supreme   

adj.极度的，最重要的；至高的，最高的

参考例句：

• It was the supreme moment in his life.那是他一生中最重要的时刻。
• He handed up the indictment to the supreme court.他把起诉书送交最高法院。

12 transcripts   

n.抄本（ transcript的名词复数 ）；转写本；文字本；副本

参考例句：

• Like mRNA, both tRNA and rRNA are transcripts of chromosomal DNA. tRNA及rRNA同mRNA一样，都是染色体DNA的转录产物。 来自辞典例句
• You can't take the transfer students'exam without your transcripts. 没有成绩证明书，你就不能参加转学考试。 来自辞典例句

13 inviting   

adj.诱人的，引人注目的

参考例句：

• An inviting smell of coffee wafted into the room.一股诱人的咖啡香味飘进了房间。
• The kitchen smelled warm and inviting and blessedly familiar.这间厨房的味道温暖诱人，使人感到亲切温馨。

14 quotation   

n.引文，引语，语录；报价，牌价，行情

参考例句：

• He finished his speech with a quotation from Shakespeare.他讲话结束时引用了莎士比亚的语录。
• The quotation is omitted here.此处引文从略。