1955 Trivia, History, and Fun Facts
Quick Facts from 1955
- World-Changing Event: Dr. Jonas Salk began inoculating children against polio, one of the most feared diseases in American history. When journalist Edward R. Murrow asked Salk who owned the patent, he replied: “Well, the people, I would say. There is no patent. Could you patent the sun?”
- Other World-Changing Event: Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on a Montgomery, Alabama, bus on December 1, 1955, and the Montgomery Bus Boycott began. The civil rights movement had its catalyst.
- Top Song: Cherry Pink and Apple Blossom White by Perez Prado
- Must-See Movies: To Catch a Thief, Rebel Without a Cause, East of Eden, Marty, Lady and the Tramp, Blackboard Jungle, and Oklahoma!
- The Most Famous Person in America: James Dean
- Notable Books: Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov and The Ginger Man by J.P. Donleavy
- AKC-registered German Shepherd puppy: $50.00; 1 oz. gold: $35.15
- The Funny Comedy Duo: Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis; The Funny Late Show Host: Steve Allen; The Funny Guy: Milton Berle; The Funny TV Lady: Lucille Ball
- Chinese Zodiac: Year of the Goat, associated with creativity, gentleness, and a strong sense of justice
- The Conversation: Have you been to Disneyland yet? It just opened.
Top Ten Baby Names of 1955
Girls: Mary, Deborah, Linda, Debra, Susan Boys: Michael, David, James, Robert, John
Fashion Icons and Sex Symbols
Martine Carol, Dorothy Dandridge, Doris Day, Diana Dors, Anita Ekberg, Ava Gardner, Audrey Hepburn, Grace Kelly, Gina Lollobrigida, Sophia Loren, Jayne Mansfield, Marilyn Monroe, Julie Newmar, Kim Novak, Bettie Page, Elizabeth Taylor, Mamie Van Doren
Hollywood Hunks and Leading Men
James Dean, Montgomery Clift
The Quotes
“M-I-C… see you real soon. K-E-Y… why? Because we like you. M-O-U-S-E.” — The Mickey Mouse Club
“Well, the people, I would say. There is no patent. Could you patent the sun?” — Jonas Salk, when asked who owned the polio vaccine patent
Time Magazine’s Man of the Year
Harlow Curtice, president of General Motors, is recognized for leading the American auto industry’s postwar boom. GM sold more cars in 1955 than any company in history to that point.
Miss America and Miss USA
Miss America: Lee Meriwether, San Francisco, CA
Miss USA: Carlene King Johnson, Vermont
We Lost in 1955
James Dean, actor, cultural icon, and the original template for teenage rebellion, died September 30, 1955, in a two-car collision near Cholame, California. He was 24 years old and had completed only three films: East of Eden, Rebel Without a Cause, and Giant. Both of the latter two were released after his death. The legend arrived faster than the filmography.
Albert Einstein, physicist, Nobel laureate, and the most recognizable scientist in human history, died April 18, 1955, at Princeton Hospital. His last words were spoken in German to a nurse who did not speak the language. They were not recorded. He was 76.
Emmett Till, a 14-year-old Black teenager from Chicago, was kidnapped, beaten, and murdered on August 28, 1955, in Money, Mississippi, after being accused of flirting with a white woman. His killers were acquitted by an all-white jury after 67 minutes of deliberation. Till’s mother, Mamie Till, insisted on an open casket funeral so the world could see what had been done to her son. The images helped galvanize the civil rights movement.
Charlie Parker, jazz saxophonist and one of the architects of bebop, died March 12, 1955, at age 34. The attending physician estimated his age at 55. Years of drug and alcohol use had aged him far beyond his years.
America in 1955 — The Context
Dwight D. Eisenhower was in the third year of his presidency. The economy was humming — 7.9 million cars were sold in the U.S., unemployment was 4.2%, and the average household income was $4,130. The suburbs were filling up fast. Television was in roughly half of American homes, and its reach was growing. Rock and roll was beginning to make parents nervous, which meant it was doing exactly what it was supposed to do.
The Cold War was the constant background noise of American life. The Soviet Union and its Eastern Bloc allies signed the Warsaw Pact in May 1955, formalizing the military alliance that would define international tensions for the next 35 years.
The Polio Vaccine
On April 12, 1955, the FDA declared Jonas Salk’s polio vaccine safe and effective following the largest medical field trial in history — 1.8 million children participating. Polio had paralyzed or killed tens of thousands of Americans every year, with children as the primary victims. The announcement produced spontaneous celebrations across the country. Church bells rang. Strangers embraced on sidewalks. Within two years, polio cases in the United States dropped by 85%.
Salk refused to patent the vaccine, forgoing an estimated $7 billion in royalties. His answer when asked why remains one of the more quietly remarkable quotes in American history.
Rosa Parks and the Montgomery Bus Boycott
On December 1, 1955, Rosa Parks, a 42-year-old seamstress and NAACP secretary, refused to give up her seat to a white passenger on a Montgomery, Alabama, city bus and was arrested. The Black community of Montgomery, organized largely by the 26-year-old Reverend Martin Luther King Jr., launched a 381-day boycott of the city bus system. The Supreme Court ultimately ruled Montgomery’s bus segregation laws unconstitutional in November 1956.
Parks was not the first person to be arrested for refusing to give up a bus seat in Montgomery. But she was the one the community organized around, and the boycott she catalyzed became the opening chapter of the modern civil rights movement.
Disneyland
Disneyland opened in Anaheim, California, on July 17, 1955. The opening day was a near-disaster: the park was overcrowded, rides broke down, counterfeit tickets flooded the gates, a gas leak closed Fantasyland, and the asphalt on Main Street was so fresh that women’s heels sank into it. Walt Disney called it “Black Sunday.” Within a year, it had welcomed its one-millionth guest and was the most-visited tourist destination in California.
When Tomorrowland originally opened, it represented a vision of life in 1986. It included a flying car exhibit and a monorail. The flying car has not arrived on schedule.
James Dean
James Dean appeared in exactly three films. East of Eden was released in March 1955. He died on September 30, 1955, before either Rebel Without a Cause (October 1955) or Giant (1956) reached theaters. He was nominated posthumously for the Academy Awards for both. No actor had ever received posthumous Oscar nominations for two consecutive years. No one has matched it since. His image has never stopped selling.
Pop Culture Facts and History
McDonald’s was founded as a franchise operation on April 15, 1955, when Ray Kroc opened the first franchised McDonald’s in Des Plaines, Illinois, using the system he licensed from brothers Dick and Mac McDonald. The original brothers had been running their San Bernardino location since 1948. Kroc eventually bought them out entirely. You have been to a McDonald’s. Everybody has.
Rock Around the Clock by Bill Haley and His Comets hit #1 on July 9, 1955, after being used under the opening credits of the film Blackboard Jungle. It was the first rock and roll song to reach #1 on the Billboard charts. Rock music was no longer a rumor.
RCA Records paid $35,000 to Sun Records in November 1955 for the contract of a young singer named Elvis Presley. The deal included all five singles Presley had recorded at Sun. It is widely considered the most lopsided record contract negotiation in music history.
Elvis Presley made his first television appearance on March 5, 1955, on the Louisiana Hayride. Parents across the South took note, largely with alarm.
The first edition of the Guinness Book of Records was published on August 27, 1955. It originated in a pub argument in Ireland over the fastest game bird in Europe. (It is the Golden Plover, though the wood pigeon was the original answer given.) The book became one of the best-selling Christmas gifts of 1955 and has never gone out of print.
The TV remote control became commercially available in 1955. Zenith’s “Flashmatic” used a light beam aimed at photocells in the corners of the screen. It also turned off the set if you pointed it at the sun, which was a design flaw nobody had anticipated.
Gunsmoke premiered on CBS on September 10, 1955. It ran for 20 seasons until 1975, making it the longest-running scripted primetime television series in American history.
The Mickey Mouse Club premiered on ABC on October 3, 1955. The closing song’s spelling sequence became one of the most recognized jingles in American television history.
The first moonwalk ever recorded on film was performed by tap dancer Bill Bailey in 1955, the same smooth backward glide that Michael Jackson later made the most famous dance move in the world.
Sears published a phone number in a 1955 holiday ad for children to call Santa. Due to a printing error, the number connected to CORAD, the predecessor to NORAD’s classified emergency command line. Rather than pull the ad, CORAD began tracking Santa’s progress. NORAD has continued the tradition every Christmas Eve since.
Jayne Mansfield was “discovered” at a press junket for the 1955 film Underwater, starring Jane Russell. Mansfield dove into the pool for the assembled journalists and, as accounts put it, permitted her bathing suit to come apart at a strategic moment. Hollywood contracts followed promptly.
The Marlboro Man arrived in 1955. Marlboro had spent decades marketing itself as a premium cigarette for women, with the slogan “Mild as May.” In 1955, the campaign switched to cowboys and rugged outdoor imagery. Sales increased by more than 3,000% within a year. The cigarette did not change. The marketing did everything.
Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov was published in 1955 by Olympia Press in Paris after being rejected by four American publishers. U.S. publication did not happen until 1958. The controversy it generated ensured it would never be ignored.
Play-Doh was introduced in 1955 in its original off-white color. It was developed as a wallpaper-cleaning compound. A nursery school teacher repurposed it as modeling clay for children. The wallpaper industry did not notice the loss.
The Guinness Brewing Company originally conceived the records book as a way to settle pub arguments — specifically a dispute over whether the golden plover or the grouse was the fastest game bird in Europe. Sir Hugh Beaver, managing director of Guinness, commissioned the research. The book has sold over 100 million copies.
Chrysler introduced the Dodge La Femme in 1955, a car marketed exclusively to women. It came with a matching purse containing a lipstick case, compact, and comb, a rosebud-patterned interior, and a coordinating umbrella. Sales were modest. The car was discontinued after two years.
The phrase “In God We Trust” was placed on all U.S. paper currency in 1955, having previously appeared only on coins.
The USS Nautilus, the world’s first nuclear-powered submarine, made its first voyage on January 17, 1955. Commander Eugene Wilkinson transmitted the message: “Underway on nuclear power.”
The B-52 Stratofortress entered active service with the U.S. Air Force in 1955. The aircraft was designed in the late 1940s. The last operational B-52s are not scheduled for retirement until 2045 — meaning a single aircraft design will have served for roughly a century.
The onion futures market was cornered in 1955 by two traders who accumulated 30 million pounds of onions, flooding the market and collapsing prices to the point that a 50-pound bag of onions sold for less than the bag itself. Congress responded with the Onion Futures Act of 1958, permanently banning futures trading in onions. Onions are the only commodity specifically banned from futures trading in the United States.
Quaker Oats ran a promotion in 1955, giving away one square inch of land in the Yukon, Canada, in each box sold. Over the course of the promotion, they distributed the title to roughly 19 acres. The deeds were legal. Most landowners have never visited their property.
John Wayne, Susan Hayward, Lee Van Cleef, Agnes Moorehead, and director Dick Powell all later died of cancer, almost certainly related to their work filming The Conqueror near a Nevada nuclear testing site in 1955. Of the 220 cast and crew members, 91 developed cancer. The film is widely considered one of the most inadvertently dangerous movie productions in Hollywood history.
The Horrible
The 1955 Le Mans disaster occurred on June 11, when a racing car became airborne and disintegrated into the crowd, killing 84 spectators and injuring 180, the deadliest accident in motorsports history. Switzerland banned nearly all forms of motor racing immediately afterward. The ban remains in place to this day.
Emmett Till’s murderers, Roy Bryant and J.W. Milam, were acquitted by an all-white jury after 67 minutes of deliberation. Protected from double jeopardy, both men later admitted their guilt to a journalist in a 1956 Look magazine interview. Neither was ever prosecuted again.
The Habits
Playing Scrabble, collecting Tonka Trucks, watching I Love Lucy and The $64,000 Question, listening to rock and roll on the radio while parents expressed concern, playing with the first off-white Play-Doh, going to see Rebel Without a Cause, and deciding James Dean understood you specifically.
27th Academy Awards
On the Waterfront won eight Oscars at the ceremony on March 30, 1955, including Best Picture, Best Director (Elia Kazan), and Best Actor for Marlon Brando. Grace Kelly won Best Actress for The Country Girl. Bob Hope hosted.
Nobel Prize Winners
Physics — Willis Eugene Lamb and Polykarp Kusch — for discoveries in atomic structure, including the measurement of the magnetic moment of the electron
Chemistry — Vincent du Vigneaud — for work on biochemically important sulfur compounds, particularly the first synthesis of a polypeptide hormone
Medicine — Axel Hugo Theodor Theorell — for discoveries concerning the nature and mode of action of oxidation enzymes
Literature — Halldor Kiljan Laxness — Icelandic novelist, for his vivid epic power, which has renewed the great narrative art of Iceland
Peace — not awarded in 1955
1955 Christmas Gifts and First Appearances
Tonka Trucks, Play-Doh (original off-white), Bild Lilli dolls (the direct predecessor to Barbie), Pluto Platter Flying Saucer (a forerunner to the Frisbee), and Scrabble (which had been around since 1938 but exploded in popularity in 1955)
Broadway in 1955
The Pajama Game was the dominant Broadway show of the 1954-55 season, having opened in 1954 and running through 1956. It won the Tony Award for Best Musical and launched the careers of director-choreographers George Abbott and Jerome Robbins.
Inherit the Wind opened on April 21, 1955, dramatizing the 1925 Scopes Trial. It ran for 806 performances and became one of the defining American plays of the decade.
Best Film Oscar Winner
On the Waterfront, directed by Elia Kazan and starring Marlon Brando, won Best Picture at the 27th Academy Awards in March 1955, presented for the 1954 film year. Brando’s “I coulda been a contender” monologue became one of the most quoted scenes in American cinema.
Top Movies of 1955
- Lady and the Tramp
- Cinerama Holiday
- Mister Roberts
- To Catch a Thief
- Guys and Dolls
- Rebel Without a Cause
- East of Eden
- Strategic Air Command
- The Seven Year Itch
- Marty
Most Popular TV Shows of 1955
- The $64,000 Question (CBS)
- I Love Lucy (CBS)
- The Ed Sullivan Show (CBS)
- Disneyland (ABC)
- The Jack Benny Show (CBS)
- December Bride (CBS)
- You Bet Your Life (NBC)
- Dragnet (NBC)
- The Millionaire (CBS)
- I’ve Got a Secret (CBS)
The $64,000 Question was the year’s biggest new hit. The producers disliked contestant Dr. Joyce Brothers and deliberately fed her opponent boxing questions, betting that a woman wouldn’t know the answers. She knew everyone. She won the top prize.
1955 Billboard Number One Songs
December 4, 1954 – January 21, 1955: Mr. Sandman — The Chordettes
January 22 – February 4: Let Me Go, Lover — Joan Weber
February 5 – February 11: Hearts of Stone — Fontane Sisters
February 12 – March 25: Sincerely — McGuire Sisters
March 26 – April 29: The Ballad of Davy Crockett — Bill Hayes
April 30 – July 8: Unchained Melody — Les Baxter
July 9 – September 2: Rock Around the Clock — Bill Haley and His Comets
September 3 – October 7: Yellow Rose of Texas — Mitch Miller
October 8 – October 14: Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing — The Four Aces
October 15 – October 21: Yellow Rose of Texas — Mitch Miller
October 22 – October 28: Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing — The Four Aces
October 29 – November 4: Autumn Leaves — Roger Williams
November 5 – November 25: Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing — The Four Aces
November 26, 1955 – January 13, 1956: Sixteen Tons — Tennessee Ernie Ford
Autumn Leaves had one of the most crowded chart moments in 1955, with six different versions charting simultaneously: Roger Williams at #1, Steve Allen at #35, Mitch Miller at #41, Jackie Gleason at #50, Victor Young at #52, and the Ray Charles Singers at #55.
Biggest Pop Artists of 1955
Perez Prado, Tennessee Ernie Ford, The Four Aces, Bill Haley and His Comets, Mitch Miller, The Chordettes, McGuire Sisters, Les Baxter, Roger Williams, Bill Hayes, The Fontane Sisters, Joan Weber, Elvis Presley (emerging), Chuck Berry (emerging), Little Richard (emerging)
Popular and Best-Selling Books of 1955
Andersonville — MacKinlay Kantor
Auntie Mame — Patrick Dennis
Bonjour Tristesse — Francoise Sagan
The Chronicles of Narnia: The Magician’s Nephew — C.S. Lewis
Eloise — Kay Thompson and Hilary Knight
The Ginger Man — J.P. Donleavy
Harold and the Purple Crayon — Crockett Johnson
Howl — Allen Ginsberg The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King — J.R.R. Tolkien
The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit — Sloan Wilson
Marjorie Morningstar — Herman Wouk
Moonraker — Ian Fleming
No Time for Sergeants — Mac Hyman
Not as a Stranger — Morton Thompson
Ten North Frederick — John O’Hara
Scuffy the Tugboat — Gertrude Crampton
Sports Champions of 1955
World Series: Brooklyn Dodgers — defeated the New York Yankees 4-3, the only World Series title in Brooklyn Dodgers history; “Next year” had finally arrived after five previous Series losses to the Yankees
NFL Champions: Cleveland Browns — defeated the Los Angeles Rams 38-14
NBA Champions: Syracuse Nationals — defeated the Fort Wayne Pistons 4-3
Stanley Cup: Detroit Red Wings — defeated the Montreal Canadiens 4-3
U.S. Open Golf: Jack Fleck — in one of the biggest upsets in major championship history, the unknown club professional defeated Ben Hogan in an 18-hole playoff
U.S. Open Tennis — Men/Women: Tony Trabert / Doris Hart
Wimbledon — Men/Women: Tony Trabert / Louise Brough
NCAA Football Champions: Oklahoma
NCAA Basketball Champions: San Francisco
Kentucky Derby: Swaps
Sports Highlight: The Brooklyn Dodgers finally beat the Yankees in the 1955 World Series, ending years of heartbreak. It was the only championship in the Brooklyn franchise’s history — the team moved to Los Angeles after the 1957 season. Jack Fleck’s U.S. Open upset of Ben Hogan is still ranked among the most improbable victories in golf history. Hogan had won the Open four times; Fleck was virtually unknown.
FAQs — 1955 Trivia, Fun Facts, and Pop Culture History
Q: What were the two World-Changing Events of 1955?
A: The Salk polio vaccine began mass inoculation, eliminating one of the most feared diseases in American history. And on December 1, 1955, Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on a Montgomery bus, sparking the Montgomery Bus Boycott and the modern civil rights movement.
Q: Who was the most famous person in America in 1955?
A: James Dean, who appeared in East of Eden in 1955 and died in a car crash on September 30, 1955, at 24. Both Rebel Without a Cause and Giant were released after his death. His image has been in continuous circulation ever since.
Q: What was the #1 song of 1955?
A: Cherry Pink and Apple Blossom White by Perez Prado was the top song of the year overall. Rock Around the Clock by Bill Haley and His Comets was arguably the more consequential chart-topper, as the first rock and roll song to reach #1.
Q: When did Disneyland open?
A: July 17, 1955, in Anaheim, California. Opening day was plagued by overcrowding, broken rides, counterfeit tickets, and fresh asphalt that swallowed women’s heels. Walt Disney called it “Black Sunday.” It became the most-visited tourist attraction in California within a year.
Q: Who was the first person to perform the moonwalk?
A: Tap dancer Bill Bailey performed the first recorded moonwalk on film in 1955 — the same smooth backward-gliding move Michael Jackson later made world-famous.
Q: What happened when Sears printed the wrong phone number for Santa in 1955?
A: The number connected to CORAD, the classified predecessor to NORAD’s emergency command line. Rather than pull the advertisement, CORAD began tracking Santa’s route. NORAD has continued the tradition every Christmas Eve since.
Q: What was unusual about the Brooklyn Dodgers’ 1955 World Series win?
A: It was the only World Series title in Brooklyn Dodgers history. The team had lost five previous Series to the Yankees. Two years later, they moved to Los Angeles.
Q: Why did Congress ban onion futures trading after 1955?
A: Two traders cornered the onion market in 1955, accumulating 30 million pounds and collapsing prices so completely that a 50-pound bag of onions sold for less than the empty bag. Congress passed the Onion Futures Act of 1958, making onions the only commodity permanently banned from futures trading in the U.S.
More 1955 Facts & History Resources:
BabyBoomers.com (1955)
Most Popular Baby Names (BabyCenter.com)
Popular and Notable Books (popculture.us)
Broadway Shows that Opened in 1955X
1955 Calendar, courtesy of Time and Date.com
Fact Monster
Fifties Web (1955)
1950s, Infoplease.com World History
1955 in Movies (according to IMDB)
Retrowaste Vintage Culture
1955 Television
1950s Slang
Wikipedia 1955
