Kefauver Hearings (1950-51)
The United States Senate conducted hearings in 1951 by Senator Estes Kefauver’s Crime Investigating Committee. The Kefauver Committee held hearings in 14 major cities, such as Miami, New Orleans, Kansas City, Las Vegas, and Chicago over a 15-month period. More than 600 witnesses testified. The hearings delved into the suspected problem of organized crime. The […]
Nixon’s “Checkers” Speech
Richard Nixon was a Republican member of the House of Representatives since the mid-1940s. General Eisenhower, the 1952 Republican nominee for the presidency, picked Nixon to be his running mate. Nixon was publicly accused of having a secret slush fund for his campaign. These allegations suggested that Nixon improperly accepted gifts from interest groups and […]
Edward R. Murrow-See It Now-McCarthy-Army Hearings
(For a more detailed discussion of Senator Joe McCarthy, McCarthyism and Red Hunting see relevant section of the main Songbook.) The late Forties to mid-Fifties was a period known as “The Red Scare,” a time of intense public concern about communist expansion in Europe and communist infiltration of U.S. domestic government. Sen. Joseph R. McCarthy, […]
McCarthy-Army Hearings
In 1953, McCarthy began inquiries into the United States Army for suspected Communist infiltration of the Army Signal Corps laboratory at Fort Monmouth, New Jersey. The Army in turn charged McCarthy with using improper influence to win preferential treatment for one of his former staff members, Pvt. G. David Schine, who had been drafted. On […]
MacArthur’s Triumphant Return
President Truman and General MacArthur got into a dispute regarding how to conduct the Korean War. Truman was the Commander-in-Chief over the armed forces and MacArthur had a duty to obey his superior. MacArthur wanted to use American air power to attack the People’s Republic of China. Truman refused, fearing that an American attack on […]
Presidential Nominating Conventions
In 1948, the major television networks televised both the Democratic and Republican presidential conventions on the few television stations on the air. Both political parties had chosen Philadelphia as their convention site out of consideration for network television’s technical requirements, and the conventions were broadcast to fourteen Eastern television stations in thirteen states. The convention […]
Presidential Press Conferences
As indicated, television seemed in the 1950s to have taken over the press conference, a venerable institution whose very name reflected the extent to which it had long been dominated by newspaper reporters. Broadcasting first intruded on the press conference in the national political conventions in 1952. “The press conference is an instrument vital to […]
Kennedy-Nixon debates
John F. Kennedy and Richard M. Nixon, the Democratic and Republican nominees for President in 1960, respectively, engaged in a series of four nationally televised debates. The first debate on September 26, 1960, was held in Chicago. The second debate on October 7, 1960, was held in Washington, DC. The third debate on October 13, […]
Criticism of 1950s Television
During the 1940s, there were only a few television receivers in American homes. Some called television an invention for stupid people to watch. By the end of the 1950s, however, television was here to stay. The average family watched six hours a day. Although many critics dubbed the 1950s as the Golden Age of Television, […]
Polio and The Salk Vaccine
Pop singers Judy Collins, Neil Young (age 5), Donovan, and Joni Mitchell (age 9) had polio in the early 1950s. (McKay, p. 344.) As a Canadian singer-songwriter and polio survivor Joni Mitchell has put it: “Polio is the disease that eats muscles. If it eats the muscle of your heart, it kills you; if it […]