50's Lifestyle

[Sepiatone]

I was flipping through the channels the other night and came upon an episode of the Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour. Boy, was that a blast from the past. Simon & Garfunkel were on this episode as was Janet Leigh. What came to mind was how Mama would wheel the TV outside on the porch and cook dogs and burgers on the hibachi and later would put a pot of coffee on the coals while we watched the show. I remember this was during the wicked heat of the summer, hence why we were all camped out on the porch. I must remember to ask Mama about that, because it's a fond memory for me. I thought she was very clever to brew coffee on the hibachi.

 

That sounded like fun.

 

But in the '50's and probably many years before that and by the mid '60's end of it, on hot nights, some people and individuals would take to the island park just offshore of the city in the Detroit River called BELLE ISLE.  With blanket and pillows, to sleep in the relative cool.  One of my favorite scenes in the movie AVALON is where it's shown the family and people of Baltimore doing the same sort of thing somewhere out that way.

 

Sadly, by the later '60's, nobody WANTED to be outside of their cars at night time on Belle Isle.

 

 

Sepiatone

[Emily Dean]

That sounded like fun.

 

But in the '50's and probably many years before that and by the mid '60's end of it, on hot nights, some people and individuals would take to the island park just offshore of the city in the Detroit River called BELLE ISLE.  With blanket and pillows, to sleep in the relative cool.  One of my favorite scenes in the movie AVALON is where it's shown the family and people of Baltimore doing the same sort of thing somewhere out that way.

 

Sadly, by the later '60's, nobody WANTED to be outside of their cars at night time on Belle Isle.

 

 

Sepiatone

We too went to Belle Isle...were there not a ferris wheel and other rides.  Since we lived in Jackson I don't believe we went there at night but I do remember going in the daytime.  The other great Detroit area site was Greenfield Village.  We went there more than once and I loved visiting the different museums and what not.  I still have a great looking "Little Women" doll my parents bought me there.  Many a happy day. 

[DownGoesFrazier]

My father had one of those two -toned 57 Fords, I think they were called Fairlanes, with the T- Bird engine.

 

Considering what that car was like-- was it really a T-Bird engine?

..which reminds me of the "great" entertainer, Ford Fairlane.

[Sepiatone]

We too went to Belle Isle...were there not a ferris wheel and other rides.  Since we lived in Jackson I don't believe we went there at night but I do remember going in the daytime.  The other great Detroit area site was Greenfield Village.  We went there more than once and I loved visiting the different museums and what not.  I still have a great looking "Little Women" doll my parents bought me there.  Many a happy day. 

 I don't recall any ferris wheel or other amusement rides on Belle Isle.  But, you MAY be thinking of the old BOB-LO Island amusement park, located in the middle of the Detroit River down near AMHERSTBURGH Ont., Canada.  Arrived there only by one of the old turn of the 20th century "Bob-Lo boats" that took off from the foot of Woodward Ave, and Bishop Park in Wyandotte, MI.  Sadly closed down for the last 25 ot so years, and the Boats, which offered their famous "Moonlight Cruises" for a few years afterward, went to dry dock, and one was recently sold and towed to someplace in upstate New York.

 

The city I grew up in (and where I still live) is only a city apart from the river, and growing up could often hear the boat's familiar horn.  Local DJ ARTHUR PENHOLLOW used to use a recording of it every so many minutes on his summer broadcasts to signal sunbathers it was time to turn over.  Along with the current temerature---"It's 85 ROCK and ROLLOVER degrees, BAY-bee!"

 

Belle Isle did have a horse stable and horse riding paths, and also rented horse drawn carriages and canoes, too.

 

 

Sepiatone

[DownGoesFrazier]

 I don't recall any ferris wheel or other amusement rides on Belle Isle.  But, you MAY be thinking of the old BOB-LO Island amusement park, located in the middle of the Detroit River down near AMHERSTBURGH Ont., Canada.  Arrived there only by one of the old turn of the 20th century "Bob-Lo boats" that took off from the foot of Woodward Ave, and Bishop Park in Wyandotte, MI.  Sadly closed down for the last 25 ot so years, and the Boats, which offered their famous "Moonlight Cruises" for a few years afterward, went to dry dock, and one was recently sold and towed to someplace in upstate New York.

 

The city I grew up in (and where I still live) is only a city apart from the river, and growing up could often hear the boat's familiar horn.  Local DJ ARTHUR PENHOLLOW used to use a recording of it every so many minutes on his summer broadcasts to signal sunbathers it was time to turn over.  Along with the current temerature---"It's 85 ROCK and ROLLOVER degrees, BAY-bee!"

 

Belle Isle did have a horse stable and horse riding paths, and also rented horse drawn carriages and canoes, too.

 

 

Sepiatone

I guess nobody else on these boards grew up in Philly, so I too can share reminiscences.

[Emily Dean]

 I don't recall any ferris wheel or other amusement rides on Belle Isle.  But, you MAY be thinking of the old BOB-LO Island amusement park, located in the middle of the Detroit River down near AMHERSTBURGH Ont., Canada.  Arrived there only by one of the old turn of the 20th century "Bob-Lo boats" that took off from the foot of Woodward Ave, and Bishop Park in Wyandotte, MI.  Sadly closed down for the last 25 ot so years, and the Boats, which offered their famous "Moonlight Cruises" for a few years afterward, went to dry dock, and one was recently sold and towed to someplace in upstate New York.

 

The city I grew up in (and where I still live) is only a city apart from the river, and growing up could often hear the boat's familiar horn.  Local DJ ARTHUR PENHOLLOW used to use a recording of it every so many minutes on his summer broadcasts to signal sunbathers it was time to turn over.  Along with the current temerature---"It's 85 ROCK and ROLLOVER degrees, BAY-bee!"

 

Belle Isle did have a horse stable and horse riding paths, and also rented horse drawn carriages and canoes, too.

 

 

Sepiatone

Sepiatone...You are absolutely correct...thank goodness for your memory.  I remember the name now that you mentioned it.  Did you ever have a chance to visit Jackson?....

[Tikisoo]

What came to mind was how Mama would wheel the TV outside on the porch and cook

 

Haha, the mental image of that is priceless!

Was there an electrical outlet on the porch or did you have the cord snaking out the door?

 

In my queue of restorations is a circa 1950 television stored in the attic by my grandmother. I'm very sad the stand or base cannot be found. The front is around 16" square and the cabinet about 28" deep - proportioned longer than wide. 

 

However, there IS a circa 1965 metal rolling TV stand up there too. It holds a TV that would only be approx 18" deep (and 28" square front) with big wheels on the back two legs. You'd tip the stand back like a dolly & roll the TV wherever you wanted it.

Guess those were the first days of "portable" TV.

[Sepiatone]

Not '50's, but this all brings back some warming "makes me smile" memories..

 

How many here ever back in the "day" had parents, thinking it was a "hot stuff" thing to do, kept an old B&W tv and moved it down the basement, which somehow they equated with being "just like the rich folks"?

 

FORGET that you could only change channels with a pair of PLIERS.  You had TWO TVs in the house.  How FAWNCY! 

 

 

Sepiatone

[Janet0312]

What came to mind was how Mama would wheel the TV outside on the porch and cook

 

Haha, the mental image of that is priceless!

Was there an electrical outlet on the porch or did you have the cord snaking out the door?

 

In my queue of restorations is a circa 1950 television stored in the attic by my grandmother. I'm very sad the stand or base cannot be found. The front is around 16" square and the cabinet about 28" deep - proportioned longer than wide. 

 

However, there IS a circa 1965 metal rolling TV stand up there too. It holds a TV that would only be approx 18" deep (and 28" square front) with big wheels on the back two legs. You'd tip the stand back like a dolly & roll the TV wherever you wanted it.

Guess those were the first days of "portable" TV.

 

We ran an extension cord through the kitchen window.

[Janet0312]

Not '50's, but this all brings back some warming "makes me smile" memories..

 

How many here ever back in the "day" had parents, thinking it was a "hot stuff" thing to do, kept an old B&W tv and moved it down the basement, which somehow they equated with being "just like the rich folks"?

 

FORGET that you could only change channels with a pair of PLIERS.  You had TWO TVs in the house.  How FAWNCY! 

 

 

Sepiatone

 

 

We had the big color console in the living room, Mom & Dad had a portable TV in their room, and my sister and I had one in our bedroom. Mind you, this was before we had cable and would have to play around with the rabbit ears to get a somewhat decent picture, not to mention having to get up to change channels. And somewhere around that time, I do remember having to use pliers to change the channel.

[Princess of Tap]

We had the big color console in the living room, Mom & Dad had a portable TV in their room, and my sister and I had one in our bedroom. Mind you, this was before we had cable and would have to play around with the rabbit ears to get a somewhat decent picture, not to mention having to get up to change channels. And somewhere around that time, I do remember having to use pliers to change the channel.

When I Love Lucy and Milton Berle first came on TV my parents bought a big combo Magnavox mahogany thing with a record player and a radio.

My parents were very conservative, so we had to keep the thing, because it was a good piece of furniture throughout the mid-sixties, after everyone else had a color TV.

 

The memories I have of this TV set now is primarily the first time I saw Elvis Presley with his legs blocked off on The Ed Sullivan Show, the funeral of President Kennedy and the first time I saw the Beatles a few months later on The Ed Sullivan Show.

 

Needless to say, it was broken a lot so we had a portable TV in the kitchen and my father had a business TV that he brought home to the basement-- that's because that served as his den.

 

That big portable TV is where he and I would watch the old movies - - that's where I first saw classic movies from The Late Show starring Bette Davis, Katharine Hepburn and Jeanette MacDonald & Nelson Eddy.

 

To this day when I see Judy Garland in Meet Me in St. Louis, I can't believe it's in color because I watched it for so many years on that portable TV set in black and white, the same goes for Easter Parade.

 

When I see the color MGM musicals on TCM today, they almost look to me like they have been colorized.LOL

[DownGoesFrazier]

What came to mind was how Mama would wheel the TV outside on the porch and cook

 

Haha, the mental image of that is priceless!

Was there an electrical outlet on the porch or did you have the cord snaking out the door?

 

In my queue of restorations is a circa 1950 television stored in the attic by my grandmother. I'm very sad the stand or base cannot be found. The front is around 16" square and the cabinet about 28" deep - proportioned longer than wide. 

 

However, there IS a circa 1965 metal rolling TV stand up there too. It holds a TV that would only be approx 18" deep (and 28" square front) with big wheels on the back two legs. You'd tip the stand back like a dolly & roll the TV wherever you wanted it.

Guess those were the first days of "portable" TV.

In the '50s, few families in my neighborhood had clothes dryers, so they used to hang wash on clotheslines in the back yard. One of our neighbors was out there for hours every day.

[ElCid]

We got our first TV about 1955, more or less.  We were last people in our neighborhood to get one.  It was a used one and later replaced with a newer used one.  My father bought them from a TV repair shop.  Something else that no longer exists.

 

[Vautrin]

I remember that when my parents were out and, for whatever

reason, I had been prohibited from watching TV, when they

came home they would go over to the TV set and see if it

was still hot. There was an old TV in the basement, along

with an old easy to tip over easy chair. I had hours of fun

watching TV and tipping over in that chair. 

[Sepiatone]

We had the big color console in the living room, Mom & Dad had a portable TV in their room, and my sister and I had one in our bedroom. Mind you, this was before we had cable and would have to play around with the rabbit ears to get a somewhat decent picture, not to mention having to get up to change channels. And somewhere around that time, I do remember having to use pliers to change the channel.

 

Did you try crumpling  foil  on the ends of those rabit ears? 

 

Incidentally, I never saw THE WIZARD OF OZ change to color for YEARS until I bought my own color set in '73, when I turned 22.

 

You and your sister had a TV in your room?  Jeez....

 

My brother and I were lucky to have an old CLOCK RADIO in ours.

 

 

Sepiatone

[Tikisoo]

Princess of Tap said: To this day when I see Judy Garland in Meet Me in St. Louis, I can't believe it's in color because I watched it for so many years on that portable TV set in black and white

 

LOL great reminiscences of TV from the first generation to grow up with them.

 

I'm amazed almost all of you had multiple sets! In your ROOMS too! That was for "rich" kids, or at least what my parents told us.

 

The first TV I remember was a huge console cabinet color TV my Mother won in a raffle! I'm going to guess it came into our lives around 1965-6, before that it was a small b&w set. My parents would never buy anything so expensive-what luck!

 

The TV was kept in the "family" room which was casual, kids were allowed. The "living" room upstairs was more formal, my Mom had antiques & glass chotchke and we were NOT allowed to hang around there. (why would we want to?) Although we used the dining room daily to eat in and that was pretty formal. NOT ALLOWED to eat in front of the TV!!

 

I'll never forget staying overnight at my best friend's house next door and her Mom wheeled the "kids" TV into the bedroom for us to watch. We watched an old Godzilla movie and giggled all night long over it. I thought she was privileged because they had a second TV, an old b&w. They had a newer bigger color set in the living room.

 

By time I was in high school, ALL my friends had multiple TV sets in their households. To this day I only own one TV and although it's in the living room, I do not own a couch.

[Sepiatone]

It wasn't until I was in high school that I started watching TV from some other location than lying on the floor in the living room! 

 

 

I'd sit in a chair when watching the LATE SHOW down the basement when the old "plier remote" TV was down there, but when viewing with the rest of the family, the floor was MY spot!

 

 

Sepiatone

[ElCid]

Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus is closing down after May.  Their two tours will end then.

The Greatest Show on Earth (1952) won the Best Picture oscar in 1953.

[sagebrush]

Princess of Tap said: To this day when I see Judy Garland in Meet Me in St. Louis, I can't believe it's in color because I watched it for so many years on that portable TV set in black and white

 

 

My family had a black and white set until nearly 1973. A few Saturdays a month, my mom and dad would take my sisters and myself to a movie theater which was only open on Sat's and played golden age films. This, coupled with the b&w TV set, kind of gave me a false sense of era. I had no clue those films were old because no one ever told me they were. Then, one day I told my mom after she took us to see a Robert Donat film ( I think it was 39 Steps) that I had a crush on him and would like to meet him. I'll never forget the perplexed look on her face. Then she explained to me the films we saw were old and Mr Donat had been dead for about 15 yrs . I was  horrified, traumatized and confused, but it also laid the groundwork for a lifelong love of classic film!

[ElCid]

This talk of TV's reminded me of window shopping.  After going to a movie downtown, we would walk along the main street and look in the windows of all the stores.  The Radio & TV shop would have at least one TV on even though the store was closed.

The jewelry store had some type of animated display that changed every 2-3 months.  Other stores had displays.

Only the drug stores and theaters would be open after 6 PM.  After about 9 PM, only the theater was open and it closed at 11.  There were only two drug stores on the street and two theaters in town.

This was also the time when stores closed at noon on Wednesdays and were closed on Sundays.  Only the movie theaters and drug stores were open on Sundays.  There were no convience stores and grocery stores were closed.  Most, but not all, filling stations might be open.  Same with most drive-in and dine in restaurants.

[Janet0312]

Did you try crumpling  foil  on the ends of those rabit ears? 

 

Incidentally, I never saw THE WIZARD OF OZ change to color for YEARS until I bought my own color set in '73, when I turned 22.

 

You and your sister had a TV in your room?  Jeez....

 

My brother and I were lucky to have an old CLOCK RADIO in ours.

 

 

Sepiatone

Well, we had to share it with my brother.

[GGGGerald]

 

Princess of Tap   Needless to say, it was broken a lot so we had a portable TV in the kitchen and my father had a business TV that he brought home to the basement-- that's because that served as his den.

 

Of course, now that would be a "man cave"   Did he have an old fridge stocked with adult beverages down there too ? 

[Princess of Tap]

Of course, now that would be a "man cave" Did he have an old fridge stocked with adult beverages down there too ?

Gerald--

 

By day the den was my music room because we had a home jukebox down there.

 

Yes, he did have an old refrigerator stocked with beer and cordials. But since he owned a liquor store and that was his profession, he rarely drank.

 

What he did do though was smoke these big smelly, stinky, nasty cigars.

 

If I wanted to watch the old movies with him, I had to put up with the thick cigar smoke. LOL

[GGGGerald]

Gerald--

 

By day the den was my music room because we had a home jukebox down there.

 

Yes, he did have an old refrigerator stocked with beer and cordials. But since he owned a liquor store and that was his profession, he rarely drank.

 

What he did do though was smoke these big smelly, stinky, nasty cigars.

 

If I wanted to watch the old movies with him, I had to put up with the thick cigar smoke. LOL

 

Those are the kinds of memories that, at the time you hold your nose. But, you look back fondly on.

[Sepiatone]

Those are the kinds of memories that, at the time you hold your nose. But, you look back fondly on.

 

Comedian GEORGE LOPEZ once brought back one of those memories when he talked a bit about how when HE was a kid, HE was the "remote".    I related to that...

 

 

"Hey, Kenny!  See what's on channel 7."  Or..."Go put it on channel 2 and see what they got on."

 

Dad cracked me up one time when he said once, "It's time to get a NEW TV.  I already seen everything on THIS one." 

 

 

Sepiatone