Recollections of the 1950s (eBook)

Foreword

As the testimonies collected in this very fine personalised portrayal by Stephen Kelly show, the 1950s was a fulcrum decade. In those ten years, British society and economy and politics were levered from an era led by people and conventions that came from the nineteenth century, into a time in which the mass of the population was conscious of a fast changing present and focused, as never before, on the future.

Two world wars and the deep, scarring slumps between them threw shadows over the early years of the decade. But by the time the 1960s came, Britain had moved into the light. The predominant reason for that was that working-class people and communities had their first ever peacetime experience of full employment. That, coupled with the effects of the 1944 Education Act and the Welfare State, established by the post-war Labour government, ensured security, opportunity and care with a breadth and depth previously unknown. It all consequently gave tangible meaning to the liberty for which the British and their allies had fought but few had really hoped to see so quickly or so abundantly. It didn’t produce perfection – but it did mean progress on an unprecedented scale.

Such a seismic shift in fortunes and conditions produced radical changes in every facet of life. Dependable work brought continuous pay. For the first time, progressive Pay As You Earn taxation and National Insurance funded greatly expanded universally provided public services, reduced income disparities between classes, and financed pensions and sickness benefits. Monthly salaries replaced weekly wages for public and private sector supervisors and professionals. Trade unions recruited millions more members and framed national standards that were then improved by workplace negotiators.

The mass consumption generated by plentiful jobs fostered new appetites. ‘Style’ and ‘fashion’ came within reach of the majority. For many, ‘choice’ became a reality for the first time.

Advances in science and technology – some spurred by wartime necessity and investment – accelerated the shifts in treatment, taste, development and demand.

In the mid-1950s, the vaccines against polio and TB added hugely to the prevention and cure of major killer and disabling diseases. Penicillin derivatives also combated infections, the structure of DNA was discovered, cancer was scientifically linked to smoking, transplant surgery began, most children were born in hospital, contraception came into use, family sizes fell rapidly and made a further contribution to reducing poverty.

Wartime petrol rationing ended in 1950 and, throughout the decade, huge British plants poured out increasingly affordable family cars, bought through ‘Hire Purchase’ and polished proudly on Sunday morning streets. The first motorways speeded journeys, long distance ‘coaches’ traversed the land, jet airliners crossed the Atlantic and connected the UK with increasing numbers of capitals in other European countries. The Hovercraft, the transverse engine Mini, and roll-on roll-off vehicle ferries were invented. Britain got its first mainline electric trains. The first business computer, increasing calculation speeds a thousand fold, was introduced (on hire only) by IBM in 1954 and, five years later, Barclay’s Bank became the first in Britain to computerise accounts.

With full employment firmly established, something called ‘leisure’ became familiar, ‘pastimes’ became ‘hobbies’, do-it-yourself became less of a necessity and more of a diversion. Entertainment was revolutionised, especially with the wildfire spread of television. Over the 1950s, Music Hall comedians and novelty acts which had made the transition to radio in the 1940s gave way to slick and witty duos and spectacular variety shows on the black and white screen in the living room. Live sports coverage flooded into homes and began to turn the cigarette card heroes of football, cricket, horseracing, boxing, motorcar, cycle racing, lawn tennis and (still amateur) track athletics into superstars. Filmed news broadcasts, documentaries and current affairs programmes with mass audiences provided dramatic insights, analysis and opinion. Commercial television arrived halfway through the decade and quickly magnetised millions.

The 1950s, which started with syrupy crooning and bouncy pop songs, was being propelled by the driving beat of rock ’n’ roll by 1956. Teenagers emerged as an identifiable cohort with particular conventions in taste, consumption and clothes, all – perversely – adopted in defiance of convention. Saturday night queues for black and white pictures dwindled into smaller, more demanding audiences, for Technicolor ‘movies’. Ballrooms full of fox-trotters became ‘dance halls’ packed with boppers and jivers. Coward and Rattigan gave way to John Osborne, Shelagh Delaney and a group of new playwrights who were said to be ‘angry’. In reality they were simply radical, brilliantly perceptive commentators on changes that had already arrived without the acknowledgement of the Establishment, and further changes that needed to be made in everything from social class and behaviour codes, to the distribution of incomes, homes and opportunities, to sexuality and the relationships between women and men. Writers may have exercised influence from the stage and paperback books, but from the cinema and TV screens they reached huge audiences and resonated with the changing public attitudes that would help to reshape the character of Britain towards greater irreverence and tolerance.

Women featured frequently in the work of the new playwrights and authors. That was fitting – the 1950s was an age of female advance in Britain although, in retrospect, it seems to have been osmotic rather than categoric. There was certainly no organised movement carrying women forward. Only the most self-confident and articulate women – supported by parts of the Left in politics and the arts – made the case for changed roles, life chances, status and rights with public force. Apart from pushes from that direction, the major alterations in attitudes toward (and by), and opportunities for, women and girls were pulled by economics. Women in the Second World War – as in the First World War – had again proved their at least equal ability and adaptability in occupations that had previously been monopolised by men. With the return of peace, the demand for women workers greatly receded but – especially in factory and (greatly expanding) clerical and retail work – it was sustained, partly because of what was thought of as ‘aptitude’, partly – mainly – because their labour was cheaper. In any event, the increase in the female workforce provided independent wages as well as supplementing family incomes. That contribution to increased income brought torrential response from commerce. A massive new women’s market rapidly developed in clothing and accessories, and purchases of consumer goods grew exponentially. By the time wartime rationing ended convenience foods were beginning to appear in the shops with vacuum cleaners, electric washing machines, wringers and driers providing labour saving assistance in the home.

At the beginning of the decade, the 1951 Mass Observation Survey (which had started in the 1930s) reported that ‘housewives’ were working a fifteen-hour day on all or most days of the week. By 1958, the Chief Medical Officer was describing the life of most women as ‘dangerously sedate’ and voicing concern over ‘increasing dependency on tranquilisers’. I clearly remember the News Chronicle report of those comments being read out by my father in a semi-jocular tone. The response by my (usually very easy going) mother was anything but light hearted: ‘Those people,’ she said, with all the authority of a senior – some would say commanding – State Registered District Nurse, ‘don’t understand a damn thing. Very few women take pills. Those who do aren’t sitting down. They have to in order to stay on their feet for skivvying!’ ‘Tranquilisers?’ She spat. ‘Those women take them because they haven’t got the Chief Medical Officer’s housemaids to carry them around!’

There may have been more passion than science in her reaction. But my father and I got the message: you could poke fun at Chief Medical Officers but not at working-class women. It was enjoyable for my Dad, who laughed long and loud, and instructive for me – particularly when the 1960s wasn’t far away.

These and countless other evolutions in consumption and commerce brought a new vocabulary to daily life. The Atomic Age came to Britain with nuclear weapons and power stations. Self-service shops spread across the country, though the once universal Co-op adapted too late to prevent eradication from small towns and most cities. Hi-fi radiograms brought stereo sound listening and vinyl record albums provided collections from music performers of every kind. Young women clicked on stiletto heels. Filter tip cigarettes gave sophistication and security – both illusory. Women civil servants got equal pay. Price inflation became the dominant economic challenge and credit squeezes were repeatedly imposed in (vain) attempts to resist it. The new textiles, Terylene and Polyester, made from chemical synthetic fibres covered bodies, beds, windows, floors and furniture of every sort. Jeans became the leisurewear of choice for all young men – and, very gradually, young women – together with slip-on shoes. Drainpipes, drapes and...