The 1950s' Most Wanted

The Top 10 Book of Rock & Roll Rebels, Cold War Crises, and All American Oddities

Robert Rodriguez

• Publisher: Potomac Books
• Year: 2011
• Print ISBN: 9781574887150
• eBook ISBN: 9781612340302
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: North American History
• Index: History

Journey back fifty years to explore the decade of baby boomers, the Red scare, and the birth of rock and roll with Robert Rodriguez's The 1950s' Most Wanted: The Top 10 Book of Rock & Roll Rebels, Cold War Crises, and All-American Oddities. America was revving its engines when the fifties came along, and its citizens more than ready for everything the historic decade had to offer. Rodriguez takes you on a spin down memory lane with dozens of top-ten lists filled with amazing, amusing, and even astonishing trivia from the 1950s. Television exploded into the mainstream in the 1950s, and in this book you'll find kids' television, shows that were immensely popular then but forgotten now, and potential series that never got off the ground. Film and music history are also well represented, with lists highlighting the fathers of rock and roll and some unlikely recording artists, plus catchphrases from contemporary films and first roles of future stars. Relive the most notorious crimes of the decade, such as the one that inspired the TV show and film The Fugitive, and its big scandals, such as the quiz show debacle and the deportation of Charlie Chaplin. You'll read about politicians, celebrities, fashion, toys, fads, and disasters. Relearn the hip slang of the time while finding out which tales from the fifties were really tall tales or urban legends that are now debunked. Rodriguez gives you a whole decade's worth of fun, facts, and all-important memories. It may have been half a century ago, but with The 1950s' Most Wanted™, it'll seem like just yesterday.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Contents
• Illustrations
• Acknowledgments
• Preface
• This Could Be the Start of Something Big: Everyday things that started in the fifties
• Take Me to Your Leader: The powers that were
• Done Got Hip to Your Jive: Some fifties’ vernacular
• Put Your Glad Rags On: 10 fifties fashions
• Better Led than Red: 10 fifties fads
• Oh, Baby, That’s What I Like!: 10 things we ate
• Who Wrote the Book?: 10 publishing milestones
• Let’s Go for a Ride: 10 cars that made the fifties roll
• Elvis Has Entered the Building: 10 milestones in the life of Tupelo’s finest
• Music! Music! Music!: Stories behind the fifties hits
• Serendipity Doo-Wop: The rules of the game
• B-sides, This: Some notable flip sides
• Rock & Roll Is Here to Stay—Not!: 10 indicators of the first wave’s demise
• Somewhere There’s Music: 10 unlikely recording artists
• I’m Ready for My Close-Up: 10 fifties film debuts
• The Next Film You See: 10 cinematic oddities
• YOU!!! Are a Blabbermouth!!!!: 10 Hollywood rats
• Hello, Norma Jeane: A decade in the life of Marilyn Monroe
• You Can Say That Again: Fifties movie quotes for our time
• And Now, a Word from Our Sponsors: 10 celebrity shills
• I Don’t Remember Mama: 10 once popular, now forgotten hit TV shows
• I Coulda Been a Contender: 10 proposed fifties television shows
• Because We Like You: Kids’ television in the fifties
• Fun for a Girl and a Boy: A fifties toy box
• Now Here’s Something We Hope You Really Like: 10 fifties cartoons
• Ain’t That a Shame: Discredited urban legends of the fifties
• You Can’t Catch Me: 10 crimes and criminals of the decade
• Fasten Your Seatbelts—It’s Going to Be a Bumpy Night: 10 fifties disasters
• The Whole Town’s Talking: Scandalous behavior in the fifties
• Once I Had a Secret Love: 10 bi- or gay fifties celebrities
• Vaya con Dios: Some final words from the dear departed
• See You Later, Alligator: Celebrity deaths
• The Signpost up Ahead: What 10 future celebrities were up to in the fifties
• It Doesn’t Matter Anymore: 10 familiar things that came to an end
• Selected Bibliography
• Index
• About the Author