{"id":566,"date":"2017-12-04T15:11:52","date_gmt":"2017-12-04T15:11:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wsu.tonahangen.com\/fysfifties\/?p=566"},"modified":"2017-12-13T21:25:14","modified_gmt":"2017-12-13T21:25:14","slug":"advances-in-1950s-toys","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wsu.tonahangen.com\/fysfifties\/advances-in-1950s-toys\/","title":{"rendered":"Advances in 1950s Toys"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Victoria Lemire<\/p>\n

When most people think of the 1950s in America, they think of politics, the movie stars of the era, and fashion. Many times they do not think of what the common person did in their homes. What did they have for entertainment? What did the children do for fun? Children in the 1950s were ones of a baby boom generation. Considering that there was a rise of babies born in this era, there was also a rise in the production of children\u2019s products that were produced during this time period.<\/p>\n

With all of the soldiers coming home from the war, an explosion of babies occurred in the 1950s as these men traveled back to America to try to start their families. With the huge number of babies being born each year, there was a new market of children\u2019s products being created each year. There was an economic boom that occurred and many more consumer goods were released that involved child care. Dunar stated that \u201c…clothing, toys, baby furniture\u2026, larger automobiles to transport growing families, and books on how to care for babies\u2026 [are] all reflected from the boom\u201d (2006). Dunar credits the baby boom as the reason why there were so many new products created as well as the change from the rationing world that occurred during World War II. <\/p>\n

<\/a>

Children Hula-Hooping in their Yard<\/em><\/p><\/div>\n

With the rise in children came the invention of many new products. Some of these included toy guns, holsters, and spurs, as well as propellor hats, slinkies, silly putty, and Hula Hoops (\u201cFads of the 1950s\u201d, 2001). Of all of these toys, Hula Hoops were the most popular. The concept of the Hula Hoop was introduced in 1957 by Arthur Melin and Richard Knerr. Over one hundred million hoops were sold around the world. Toy guns, holsters, and spurs were also very popular because of the recent end of the war and the popularity of western radio, television shows, and movies. With this line of advertisement came the rise of action figures that were derived from these shows. An example of this would be Roy Rogers as well as the Barbie doll (\u201cToys and Games\u201d, 1999). Mattel, Inc. produced Barbie in 1959, and she was the figurehead of the company. Barbie herself has become an important part of the fashion doll market, and has been changed many times to represent the beliefs of the company. <\/p>\n

The idea of a violent toy<\/a> is thought to have originated in the 1950s with the rise of militarized toys. Many boys started buying toy weapons and different army action figures because the end of the war brought home many heroes that were made to be idolized in the eyes of young boys. These toys were the origin of the what parents are still fighting today with violent toys. The video games and toys that we have access to today are an advancement of what was being created in the 1950s. Many people credit violence among children with these toys today (\u201cToys and Games\u201d, 1999).<\/p>\n

The 1950s gave rise to a new wave of toys and enjoyment for children as the attitude of the Great Depression left the country. The United States was filled with nationalism and a love of country that resulted in the attitude of people become consumers, and the advertisement and sale of toys definitely was not excluded from this era. <\/p>\n

Works Cited <\/strong><\/p>\n

Dunar, Andrew J. America in the Fifties<\/em>. Syracuse University Press, 2006.<\/p>\n

“Fads of the 1950s.” American Decades<\/em>, edited by Judith S. Baughman, et al., vol. 6: 1950-1959, Gale, 2001, pp. 271-272. U.S. History iContext, libraries.state.ma.us\/login?gwurl
\n=http:\/\/link.galegroup.com\/apps\/doc\/CX3468301963\/UHIC?u=mlin_c_worstate&xid=419cc029<\/p>\n

“Toys and Games.” Violence in America<\/em>, edited by Ronald Gottesman and Richard Maxwell
\nBrown, Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1999. U.S. History in Context,
\nlibraries.state.ma.us\/login?gwurl=http:\/\/link.galegroup.com\/apps\/doc\/BT2350011436\/UH
\nIC?u=mlin_c_worstate&xid=548531ae. Accessed 29 Nov. 2017. Accessed 29 Nov. 2017.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Victoria Lemire When most people think of the 1950s in America, they think of politics, the movie stars of the era, and fashion. Many times they do not think of what the common person did in their homes. What did they have for entertainment? What did the children do for fun? Children in the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[8],"class_list":["post-566","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-student-blogposts","tag-fall17"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wsu.tonahangen.com\/fysfifties\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/566","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wsu.tonahangen.com\/fysfifties\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wsu.tonahangen.com\/fysfifties\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wsu.tonahangen.com\/fysfifties\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wsu.tonahangen.com\/fysfifties\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=566"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wsu.tonahangen.com\/fysfifties\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/566\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":567,"href":"https:\/\/wsu.tonahangen.com\/fysfifties\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/566\/revisions\/567"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wsu.tonahangen.com\/fysfifties\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=566"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wsu.tonahangen.com\/fysfifties\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=566"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wsu.tonahangen.com\/fysfifties\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=566"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}