Remembering 1951

America is working in 1951! According to some sources, the unemployment rate in 1951 dips to 3.3%. There are many ways to calculate this important economic indicator, but it will rarely if ever, look as sunny as it does now, even in the boom years of the Johnson Administration. Even more important than a low jobless rate is the fact that Americans are spending and enjoying their incomes.

New roads and highways are being built across the nation, and Detroit is supplying more newer and bigger cars to fill them. The big automakers are also making it easier to buy a new car by offering extended finance options, allowing more people to actually buy a new vehicle but making the purchase of a fancier, better-equipped vehicle a reasonable option. Speaking of options, these bigger, more luxurious cars were not the safest place to put your family. Safety glass and hydraulic braking systems had been introduced years earlier and were in common use, disc brakes had only recently been introduced as an option in top-of-the-line vehicles, concepts like collision crumple zones and collapsible steering columns are years in the future. Turn signals are beginning to be offered in many vehicles, but if a driver does signal his intentions it is usually by waving his arm out the window. Seat belt installation will be optional until 1966, and even then, salesmen will point out how easy they are for drivers to tuck out of the way!

Loading the family in the car for a trip to Las Vegas is an option you probably will not consider in 1951. The first casinos and resorts have opened on what will become "the Strip", mostly as an outgrowth of the building of Hoover Dam and WWII-era Army Air Corp Flexible Gunnery Range which will become Nellis Airforce Base at the end of 1950. Serious development of the Strip will begin in 1952, but the biggest "boom" will begin on January 27 when the Atomic Energy Commission detonates the first of more than 100 atmospheric atomic test shots at the Nevada Test Range. Many of the tests will be conducted underground and cause casino floors to shake, but mushroom clouds from the Atmospheric tests are often visible from the Strip and become a tourist attraction.

Atomic testing is serious business, especially now that the Soviets have detonated their own atomic device less than two years ago. The Nevada Tests provide a very visible demonstration of American might but will lead to decades of health problems for "down-winders" in surrounding communities. Even more important testing is going on out of sight in the South Pacific as part of Operation Greenhouse. The explosions of April and May at Eniwetok Atoll will prove the concepts which lead to the first hydrogen bomb.

Perhaps a reaction to the growing menace of atomic weapons, several studios release science fiction films which contrast with the hopeful explorations of the usual "space-opera" fare. The Man From Planet X (United Artists), The Thing (from Another World) (RKO), The Day the Earth Stood Still (20th Century Fox), and Flight to Mars (Monogram) are closer to horror pictures, which will help to ensure their classic status as drive-in movies became popular.

The biggest explosion in the entertainment world would begin at the Sun Studios in Nashville in March when "Jackie Brenston and his Delta Cats" cut the song "Rocket 88", widely considered the first Rock and Roll record. Over the next few years, studio owner Sam Phillips will discover and record a number of Rock and Roll pioneers, including Carl Perkins, Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis, Elvis Presley, and Roy Orbison. The studio was founded so that "negro artists of the South" would have a recording facility when they were denied entry at other local studios. Phillips real genius was his quest for a white artist who could sing the rhythm and blues numbers which were popular in the African American market. In just a few years, Phillips will find the talent he is seeking in Elvis Presley and Carl Perkins, cementing Rock and Roll in the popular consciousness.

One byproduct of the rise of Rock and Roll will be the rising popularity of disc jockey and "Top 40" format radio stations. This new emphasis on recorded music for broadcast will be one of the nails in the coffin of network radio drama, but the most important factor will be the migration of sponsors to Television. The program is based on the popular CBS Radio situation comedy My Favorite Husband starring Richard Denning and Lucille Ball. The network was convinced that the show would be a good fit on the small screen, but there was a snag, Lucy refused to do the show unless she had her real-life husband, Cuban jazz musician Desi Arnaz, as co-star. They also refused to move to New York because Lucy was pregnant with their first child during the early production. In order to maintain the broadcast quality demanded by sponsor Philip Morris, the show would have to be shot on film, which Lucy and Desi would have to foot the bill for (however, it also allowed them to retain 80% ownership of the filmed episodes). To facilitate filming, they formed Desilu Studios and pioneered the "three camera format" which allowed the actors to do their business as though they were on stage and eliminating the cuts and reshoots which plagued single-camera productions.

While so many positive things are happening back home, the war on the Korean Peninsula drags through what will be its first full year. The fighting is mostly a back and forth scrum near the Thirty-Eighth Parallel and in the summer devolves into a protracted and bloody stalemate. Supreme Commander Douglas MacArthur is relieved by President Truman in April for making public statements which went against administration policy. Still, neither side could bring sufficient force to bear to bring the war to a satisfactory conclusion, miring both sides in constant losses.

• A 100 kiloton atomic device is dropped and detonated at Frenchman Flats, Nevada, on January 27, marking the opening of the Nevada Test Site. The majority of the bomb tests at the Site will be underground, seismic disturbances are felt in downtown Las Vegas, just 65 miles away, and mushroom clouds from atmospheric tests are often seen from hotel windows on the Strip. Ethel and Julius Rosenberg are convicted of conspiracy to commit espionage on March 29, information provided to the Soviet Union by the couple from the Manhattan Project accelerated development of a Soviet atomic bomb by several years. The principles which will lead to the development of the hydrogen bomb are tested during Operation Greenhouse at Enewetak Atoll in the Marshall Islands beginning in May. Back in Nevada, infantry troops preparing for atomic warfare become involved in testing for the first time in November.
• The 22nd Amendment to the US Constitution is ratified on February 27, limiting Presidents to two full terms in office. Hank Ketcham's
• During the Third Battle of Seoul on January 4, North Korean forces capture the Southern Capital for the second time. In UN Resolution 498, the General Assembly declares that China is an aggressor in the war on February 1. During "Operation Ripper", UN forces retake Seoul on March 14. On April 11, President Harry Truman relieves General Douglas MacArthur from command of UN forces for making public statements which were contrary to Administration policy. Cease-fire negotiations began at Kaesong on July 10, but the talks will move to Panmunjom on October 25. The  Battle of Heartbreak Ridge takes place from September 13 to October 15.
• United Artists release The Man From Planet X on March 9. RKO's The Thing (From Another World) comes out on April 29. On September 28, 20th Century Fox's The Day the Earth Stood Still opens. Flight to Mars from Monogram Pictures opens November 11, and When Worlds Collide from Paramount hits theaters on November 22. These Science Fiction films vary greatly in the quality of their production and stories, but tend towards the horror genre than displaying a hopeful future. This shows a growing distrust of science in reaction to the terror resulting from the proliferation of atomic weapons.
• Clement Atlee's Labour Government, which had held power and instituted reforms in England since the end of the War, is defeated in a snap election on October 26, and Winston Churchill as leader of the Conservatives is reelected as Prime Minister.
• In early March, producer Sam Phillips of Sun Records in cuts "Rocket 88" by Jackie Brenston and His Delta Cats (the band is actually Ike Turner's "Kings of Rhythm" and Brenston is Turner's sa player), which is widely considered the first Rock and Roll record. The first UNIVAC I computer is delivered to the US Census Bureau on March 31. The Catcher in the Rye is published in on August 12. Baseball's "Shot Heard 'Round the World" occurs on October 3 when the NY Giants take the National League Pennant with a 9th inning 3-run line-drive homer by Bobby Thomson off Dodger's pitcher Ralph Branca. I Love Lucy debuts on October 15. Four 200 watt light bulbs illuminate in Arco, Idaho, on December 20 as Experimental Breeder Reactor 1 (EBR1) becomes the first nuclear power plant to produce electricity. The African Queen starring Humphrey Bogart and Katharine Hepburn opens in Hollywood two days before Christmas.
• Drake University Quarterback and preseason Heisman Trophy Candidate Bobby  Bright is violently assaulted on the field at Oklahoma A&M on October 20, resulting in a broken jaw. African-American Bright was a "marked man" before the game according to reports, but even after the assault he was able to throw a 61 yard touchdown pass a few plays later. The Civil Rights Congress, a group of American activists, submit a paper to the United Nations titled "We Charge Genocide", highlighting lynchings and other atrocities in the American South. The accusations have merit, but the CRC's association with radical elements, including the Communist Party of the USA, may have done as much damage to the Civil Rights movement as the paper did good.
• Volkswagen Beetles begin rolling off the line at a plant in South Africa on August 31. The wood trim on Ford's new Country Squire Station Wagon is replaced by an all-steel body with simulated wood grain. The low-slung Hudson Hornet is introduced and will soon dominate stock-car racing. Mercedes-Benz launches the W-187 with a single overhead cam six-cylinder engine, their first luxury model since before the War. Packard launches the Mayfair to compete with Cadillac, Buick, and the Chrysler Imperial.

The Adventures of Sam Spade, Candy Matson, The Adventures of Philip Marlowe, and The Fat Man all conclude their network radio runs. Meet Frank Sinatra, Death Valley Days, Screen Directors Playhouse, and The Carnation Contented Hour also go off the air. Paul Harvey begins broadcasting his News and Commentary over ABC on April 1, while disk jockey Alan Freed begins the night-time broadcast of "The Moondog House" over the summer, introducing his huge white teenaged audience to Rock and Roll. NBC begins broadcasting Barrie Craig, Confidential Investigator.