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Images of the 20th Century
1950s: Images from the 20th Century
A world in the icy grip of the Cold War. The shadow of the Bomb, Little Rock and Notting Hill, the Hungarian Uprising, Suez and Cyprus. The conquest of space - all the triumph and tragedy of a tense and violent age.
400 pages, Paperback
First published September 1, 1998
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
December 2, 2023
‘I love reference books. I cherish old ones, I covet new ones, I can barely move at my desk for the tottering heaps of them on every side.' -from Philip Pullman’s foreword to the 18th Edition of Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable.
I sometimes curse Philip Pullman as I continue the Sisyphean task of reducing our book holdings to manageable proportions. The trouble is I keep finding new ones in my neighbourhood, festooned as it is with street libraries containing interesting books to bring home. I thought I would browse through this one and move it along. No such luck.
The photos are of a high standard, well organised by theme, including politics, conflict, the Cold War, race and ethnicity, as well as fashion, the arts, leisure and entertainment. There are informative captions including contextual references where appropriate.
As a child of the fifties (1953), the material is prior to my consciousness but familiar as I look back on the decade my parents established their family life. I was taken with evocative shots of jazz heroes Count Basie and Louis Armstrong and an amazing shot of Frankie Laine, walking in Leicester Square in 1954 among a group of women oblivious as to who he is. An action photo capturing something of the spirit of the book in its lighter moments has Laurence Olivier, John Mills and John Gielgud, in business suits, high-stepping at the London Palladium in June 1953.
The pictures covering everyday life in coffee bars, swimming pools and holiday camps, among other things are fascinating. The photos from countries where there is conflict are substantially more sobering, showing how widespread international tension was at the time: Korea, Malaya, Kenya, Israel, Egypt and especially, because of the shots in the streets, the revolution in Hungary in 1956. Nick Yapp has done splendidly selecting from the massive Hulton Getty Picture Collection, originally The Hulton Press Library. Established in 1947 and including press agencies and popular magazines of the day, these sources are predominantly British, reflected in much of the subject matter, but none the worse for that.
I have to keep this reference book, it’s too good, as Philip Pullman says: 'some I open with ease and pleasure, as if in expectation of an hour or two in the company of a lively and good humoured friend.’ (from the foreword to Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable).
I sometimes curse Philip Pullman as I continue the Sisyphean task of reducing our book holdings to manageable proportions. The trouble is I keep finding new ones in my neighbourhood, festooned as it is with street libraries containing interesting books to bring home. I thought I would browse through this one and move it along. No such luck.
The photos are of a high standard, well organised by theme, including politics, conflict, the Cold War, race and ethnicity, as well as fashion, the arts, leisure and entertainment. There are informative captions including contextual references where appropriate.
As a child of the fifties (1953), the material is prior to my consciousness but familiar as I look back on the decade my parents established their family life. I was taken with evocative shots of jazz heroes Count Basie and Louis Armstrong and an amazing shot of Frankie Laine, walking in Leicester Square in 1954 among a group of women oblivious as to who he is. An action photo capturing something of the spirit of the book in its lighter moments has Laurence Olivier, John Mills and John Gielgud, in business suits, high-stepping at the London Palladium in June 1953.
The pictures covering everyday life in coffee bars, swimming pools and holiday camps, among other things are fascinating. The photos from countries where there is conflict are substantially more sobering, showing how widespread international tension was at the time: Korea, Malaya, Kenya, Israel, Egypt and especially, because of the shots in the streets, the revolution in Hungary in 1956. Nick Yapp has done splendidly selecting from the massive Hulton Getty Picture Collection, originally The Hulton Press Library. Established in 1947 and including press agencies and popular magazines of the day, these sources are predominantly British, reflected in much of the subject matter, but none the worse for that.
I have to keep this reference book, it’s too good, as Philip Pullman says: 'some I open with ease and pleasure, as if in expectation of an hour or two in the company of a lively and good humoured friend.’ (from the foreword to Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable).
November 19, 2020
Growing up in the 1950s I did not realise what a mess the world was in; I was too concerned with playing out, having fun and so on. But looking at Nick Yapp's '1950s', one realises that there were so many trouble spots such as Suez, Korea, Indochina, Cyprus, Malaya, Kenya and Egypt to name but a few. And all these trouble spots spawned photographic images, most of which are horrible.
Of course, in this country Harold Macmillan told the nation we'd 'never had it so good' but I am not sure who he was trying to convince! I suppose we did have more vacuum cleaners, more fridges, more houses, more cars, more toasters and toys and trinkets than ever before. And supermarkets were just rearing their head at the expense of the corner shops; consumer spending was about to change forever.
West Indian immigrants arrived in England, rock and roll began to emerge - and we loved it -, the wireless was gradually being superseded by the television and fashions took on a new look and even when Christian Dior, a leader in the fashion stakes of the day, died in 1957, his modish shoes were very quickly filled by a precociously talented young student named Yves St Laurent.
And even though the great liners still ploughed their way across the Atlantic, the Boeing 707 came on the scene, cruising with 189 passengers at 600 miles per hour. The era of the package holiday was about to burst upon us. New York's La Guardia airport at the time announced proudly that it would handle 6.5 million passengers in a single year.
Britain's first motorways were built by 'a motor-mad Conservative government' and there was a greater choice of vehicles from a gull-winged Mercedes to a Heinkel bubble car while Volkswagens beetled off the production line in Germany like there was no tomorrow. Incidentally the bubble car did not take off at all, lasting a very short time.
In the arts, Dr Zhivago was published but in 1958 Boris Pasternak, its author, turned down the Nobel Prize for Literature; the Moscow Young Communist League had already denounced him as 'a pig'! Many of the old guard in various arts died, Prokofiev, Sibelius, Nijinsky, Shaw, O'Neill, Charlie Parker, Matisse and Dufy among them - although Grandma Moses kept painting till her death, aged 101, in 1961. The new boys on the block were such as John Osbourne, Jack Kerouac, Jackson Pollock Kingsley Amis, Jasper Johns and others.
Meanwhile the spirit of July 1951 was captured by a cameraman on Blackpool promenade (see cover photograph) and Pat Stewart's life was changed almost from that moment on; she would forever be known as 'the girl in the spotted dress'. She returned to Blackpool in 2016 to recreate the photograph [I was lucky enough to meet her at a function], one of the few, if not the only photograph, that has been recreated from the over 350 in this book!
The coffee bar was coming into its own - we used to adjourn to 'La Fantasque' across from our church where the strictures of Rev Allcock's sermon were soon forgotten -, where we drank the frothy coffee and the juke box got plenty of plays even though all this was allegedly going to 'threaten the morals of the young and the wellbeing of society'.
Despite all the downs in the decade I enjoyed it - probably because I was young - but this book made me realise that there was much more going on than I was aware of. For that reason, if for no other, it was an engrossing read and look at the images of the times.
Of course, in this country Harold Macmillan told the nation we'd 'never had it so good' but I am not sure who he was trying to convince! I suppose we did have more vacuum cleaners, more fridges, more houses, more cars, more toasters and toys and trinkets than ever before. And supermarkets were just rearing their head at the expense of the corner shops; consumer spending was about to change forever.
West Indian immigrants arrived in England, rock and roll began to emerge - and we loved it -, the wireless was gradually being superseded by the television and fashions took on a new look and even when Christian Dior, a leader in the fashion stakes of the day, died in 1957, his modish shoes were very quickly filled by a precociously talented young student named Yves St Laurent.
And even though the great liners still ploughed their way across the Atlantic, the Boeing 707 came on the scene, cruising with 189 passengers at 600 miles per hour. The era of the package holiday was about to burst upon us. New York's La Guardia airport at the time announced proudly that it would handle 6.5 million passengers in a single year.
Britain's first motorways were built by 'a motor-mad Conservative government' and there was a greater choice of vehicles from a gull-winged Mercedes to a Heinkel bubble car while Volkswagens beetled off the production line in Germany like there was no tomorrow. Incidentally the bubble car did not take off at all, lasting a very short time.
In the arts, Dr Zhivago was published but in 1958 Boris Pasternak, its author, turned down the Nobel Prize for Literature; the Moscow Young Communist League had already denounced him as 'a pig'! Many of the old guard in various arts died, Prokofiev, Sibelius, Nijinsky, Shaw, O'Neill, Charlie Parker, Matisse and Dufy among them - although Grandma Moses kept painting till her death, aged 101, in 1961. The new boys on the block were such as John Osbourne, Jack Kerouac, Jackson Pollock Kingsley Amis, Jasper Johns and others.
Meanwhile the spirit of July 1951 was captured by a cameraman on Blackpool promenade (see cover photograph) and Pat Stewart's life was changed almost from that moment on; she would forever be known as 'the girl in the spotted dress'. She returned to Blackpool in 2016 to recreate the photograph [I was lucky enough to meet her at a function], one of the few, if not the only photograph, that has been recreated from the over 350 in this book!
The coffee bar was coming into its own - we used to adjourn to 'La Fantasque' across from our church where the strictures of Rev Allcock's sermon were soon forgotten -, where we drank the frothy coffee and the juke box got plenty of plays even though all this was allegedly going to 'threaten the morals of the young and the wellbeing of society'.
Despite all the downs in the decade I enjoyed it - probably because I was young - but this book made me realise that there was much more going on than I was aware of. For that reason, if for no other, it was an engrossing read and look at the images of the times.
September 6, 2020
The 1950s
Alcune foto carine:
Bert Hardy, july 1951 - two young women sitting on railings at Blackpool
Young members of the Liberace fan club, august 1956
Alcune foto carine:
Bert Hardy, july 1951 - two young women sitting on railings at Blackpool
Young members of the Liberace fan club, august 1956
March 4, 2018
A bit too heavy on the British content. Wish it was twice as long. Some captions are lame. Otherwise, Thumbs Up!
4.5 Stars
August 21, 2020
Fantastic chronological photos of the 1950s.
May 13, 2022
This is such a brilliant resource.
I'm using it to help inspire the revue I am currently writing, but in the past it has been a great stimulus for actors in workshops I have led.
I'm using it to help inspire the revue I am currently writing, but in the past it has been a great stimulus for actors in workshops I have led.
January 24, 2025
I enjoyed this one so much more than the 40s because not everything was focused on wars or depressing photographs and you got much more of a variety in photographs!
August 16, 2009
One period in history where still photography may note have changed the world, but perhaps the last for memories that will have been best captured in this format.
History, culture, stars, and popular pastimes are strikingly on display for this great decade in human history leading from remnants of World War II to the bright new promise of the modern world.
Several striking images worth burning into the collective conscious to remind us all of where we've been and to not repeat those scenes. Moments of lost innocence, great tragedy and mankind starting along other paths leading to hopefully its greatest peaceful triumphs.
A visual survey that would have been only made better in larger format.
History, culture, stars, and popular pastimes are strikingly on display for this great decade in human history leading from remnants of World War II to the bright new promise of the modern world.
Several striking images worth burning into the collective conscious to remind us all of where we've been and to not repeat those scenes. Moments of lost innocence, great tragedy and mankind starting along other paths leading to hopefully its greatest peaceful triumphs.
A visual survey that would have been only made better in larger format.
April 10, 2008
What an awesome format, what an awesome collection. I see these at half price books and used bookstores all the time. Fantastic!
May 6, 2015
This series of small, thick bricks of books is entirely photographic. You get the flavour of the times without the waffle!
September 15, 2010
the 50s in pictures interesting.
June 8, 2014
Günümüzde çok üstünde durulmayan bir onyıl hakkında görsel açıdan fikir edinmek için güzel bir kaynak.
January 14, 2016
Great photographic record of the decade.
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews