Hello, and
welcome to this edition of Beyond the Book, Elaine’s attempt to let you know
what her characters are doing after the conclusion of the book. My name is Liesel Wolf. I was Elaine’s
heroine in Never Trust a Pretty Wolf. Since I live in a midcentury modern home,
I’ve gotten interested in the 1950’s. I’ve share some recipes with you and
showed you my house, and today I’d like to talk about
movies.
Just like
people in previous decades, people in the fifties loved the movies. Hollywood
had a lot of competition from TV, though. Shows like I Love Lucy were taking
viewers away from the movies, so Holly came up with idea for the first 3D movies.
To watch the movies you needed special glasses. They were made of polarized
cardboard with one red colored lens and one green one. The images seemed to
jump off the screen at you. Audiences loved it, but some of the movies were so
silly that the fad didn’t last long.
Before it died
away, though, in October of 1953, you could buy a 3D comic for only 250% more
than regular price. How much was that? A quarter.
Besides 3D,
the 1950’s saw the introduction of drive-in movies. Americans did love their
cars after all! Most of the drive-ins are gone, but there are a few left. The
picture shows the Capri Drive-In in Coldwater, Michigan. (The picture is from
Wikimedia Commons, and the author is Andrew from White Pigeon)
There were a
lot of good movies in the fifties, but two stand out. The first is Singing in
the Rain starring Gene Kelley and Debbie Reynolds. It remains one of the most
popular movies ever made. When Gene Kelley did a dance number in the rain, they
mixed milk with the water so the rain would show up better.
The other
film that I think stands out is On the Waterfront. This movie starred Marlon
Brando. It was shocking because the actors used bad language, and the movie
showed violence. Sounds like a modern movie, doesn’t it?
Check back
next Tuesday for the next installment of my series on the 1950’s.
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