1954 Fun Facts, Trivia and History

Quick Facts from 1954:

• World Changing Event: RCA produced the first color televisions for public use
• Biggest Songs include: Three Coins In The Fountain by Four Aces featuring Al Alberts, Secret Love by Doris Day and Goodnight, Sweetheart, Goodnight by The Spaniels
• Influential Songs include: Mr. Sandman by The Chordettes, Gee by The Crows, Shake, Rattle and Roll by Joe Turner and His Blues Kings, Earth Angel by The Penguins
• The Movies to Watch include Godzilla, Rear Window, Animal Farm, Creature From the Black Lagoon, Sabrina, Demetrius, and the Gladiators, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, On the Waterfront and Dial M for Murder
• The Most Famous Person in America was probably John Wayne
• Notable books include: The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien and Lord of the Flies by William Golding
• Price of Redwood Picnic table set in 1954: $22.00
  RCA Victor Color TV: $1000.00
• US Life Expectancy: Males: 66.7 years, Females: 72.8 years
• The Funny Comedy Duo were: Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis
  The Funniest TV Duo: Sid Caesar and Imogene Coca
  The Funny Late Show Host: Steve Allen
  The Funny Guy was: Milton Berle
  The Funny Girl was: Jean Carroll
  The Funny TV Lady: Lucille Ball
• The Look: Maurice Tillet, a wrestler (The French Angel) suffering from acromegaly, who died in 1954, was the physical inspiration for the character Shrek.

“The Quotes:”
“Hey Kids, What time is it?”
– It’s Howdy Doody time!

“Melts in your mouth, not in your hands”
– M&Ms

“You don’t understand! I coulda had class. I coulda been a contender. I could’ve been somebody, instead of a bum, which is what I am.”
– Marlon Brando, in On The Waterfront

“Winston tastes good like a cigarette should”
– Winston Cigarettes

The Scandals:
Rock and Roll Death: Rhythm-and-blues singer Johnny Ace died after jokingly pointing a gun toward himself and accidentally shooting himself with it. His last words were “It’s okay! Gun’s not loaded… see?”

Fringe psychologist Fredric Wertham’s book Seduction of the Innocent claimed that most juvenile delinquents read comic books. It also asserted that Batman and Robin were gay lovers and that Wonder Woman was a lesbian, caused an outcry that led to the establishment of the Comics Code Authority. The new rules by the Comics Code Authority included: In every instance, good shall triumph over evil, no comics magazine shall use the word horror or terror in its title, and all characters shall be depicted in dress reasonably acceptable to society.

The CIA was involved with financing and re-writing the animated film version of Animal Farm.

The city of Bombay, India had such a bad rat problem that they began accepting dead rats in place of taxes. This led to the mass breeding and killing of rats to use them for payment.

Actor Paul Newman took an ad out in Variety Magazine apologizing for his performance in The Silver Chalice.

Pop Culture Facts:
Roger Bannister was the first human to run a mile in less than four minutes (3:59) on May 6th. Mr. Bannister stopped running shortly after that and became a neurologist. He was knighted (for his neurologist work) in 1975.

Godzilla is the world’s longest continuously running movie franchise, having been in on-going production since 1954.

The Fast and the Furious movie series is “loosely” based on an original film from 1954 – “The Fast and the Furious”

Philly-born pool player Willie Mosconi sunk 526 pool balls, without missing, in Springfield, Ohio. No one has come close to breaking that record.

Late 1954, and early 1955 is when Edgar Hetteen and David Johnson started making and selling their Polaris snowmobiles.

A trained crow named Jimmy the Raven appeared in over 1,000 feature films between 1934 and 1954.

The term “mondegreen” which is the term for misunderstood lyrics, was coined by writer Sylvia Green in 1954 while writing about how as a girl she had misheard the lyric “…and laid him on the green” in a Scottish ballad as “…and Lady Mondegreen”.

April 11, 1954, was the most boring day in history, according to a computer program tracking news. The most noteworthy events of that day included a general election in Belgium and the birth of a Turkish academic.

NBC-TV (the network) the studios of New York affiliate WPIX with a young Marjorie Hellen as its ‘human test pattern’ in regard to color tones. She sat for hours on a stool in front of color cameras, while engineers adjusted the tints and the lighting, and worked with costumes in different tints. Marjorie changed her name to Leslie Parrish in 1959.

Although started as a fruit-packing business in 1947, Tropicana owner Anthony Rossi developed a ‘flash pasteurization’ process that made OJ more easily transported fresh across the country.

Until the introduction of The Marlboro Man in 1954, Marlboro cigarettes were considered feminine and marketed to women with the slogan “Mild as May”.

Prior to 1954, Thanksgiving turkeys were supplied by the local farmer or butcher, but Frank Swift’s well-bred, larger-than-typical Butterball turkeys changed all that.

Ann Hodges is the only verified person in history that was hit by a meteorite and survived. The Sylacauga meteorite fell on November 30, 1954.

The words ‘under God’ were added to the Pledge of Allegiance in response to the Communist threat of the times.

The call sign “Air Force One” was created to avoid confusion, after an incident where a commercial flight and President Dwight D. Eisenhower’s plane carried the same number in the same airspace.

The US Senate used the same gavel for 165 years until (then vice-president) Richard Nixon cracked it on November 17, 1954. India gifted them with a new one. #oops

American surgeon Joseph Murray completed the first successful organ transplant when he moved a living kidney from one identical twin to the other. The operation took about 4 hours.

1954 Billboard Number One Songs:
November 21, 1953 – January 1, 1954:
Rags To Riches – Tony Bennett

January 2 – February 26:
Oh My Papa – Eddie Fisher

February 27 – March 12:
Secret Love – Doris Day

March 13 – March 19:
Make Love To Me – Jo Stafford

March 20 – March 26:
Secret Love – Doris Day

March 27 – April 9:
Make Love To Me – Jo Stafford

April 10 – May 28:
Wanted – Perry Como

May 29 – August 6:
Little Things Mean A Lot – Kitty Kallen

August 7 – September 24:
Sh-Boom – Crew – Cuts

September 25 – November 5:
Hey There – Rosemary Clooney

November 6 – November 12:
This Ole House – Rosemary Clooney

November 13 – December 3:
I Need You Now – Eddie Fisher

December 4, 1954 – January 21, 1955:
Mr. Sandman – The Chordettes