1958 Fun Facts, Trivia and History

Quick Facts from 1958:

• World Changing Event: President Dwight Eisenhower signed the National Aeronautics and Space Act, creating NASA.
• The Top Song was At The Hop by Danny & The Juniors
• Influential Songs include: Tequila by The Champs, Tom Dooley by The Kingston Trio and Rebel Rouser by Duane Eddy
• The Movies to Watch include South Pacific, High School Confidential, St. Louis Blues, Attack of the 50 Foot Woman, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, The Defiant Ones, The Fly, Auntie Mame, The Blob and Vertigo
• The Most Famous Person in America was probably Elizabeth Taylor
• Notable books include: Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe and Doctor Zhivago by Boris Pasternak
• Bank of America launched the first credit card with extended credit, in September 1958.
• Price of a postage stamp in 1958: 4 cents
  Price of a used ’57 Ford Fairlane: $1,995.00
• The Bald Guy was: Yul Brynner
• The Story Behind the Song: Bruce Springsteen’s Nebraska is the story of 20-year-old Charles Starkweather and his 13-year-old girlfriend Caril Ann Fugate, who murdered 11 people over an eight-day period in 1958.

“The Quotes:”
“What counts is not necessarily the size of the dog in the fight – it’s the size of the fight in the dog. ”
– President Dwight D Eisenhower

“Look, Ma, no cavities!”
– Crest toothpaste ad

“Life is a banquet, and most poor suckers are starving to death!”
– Rosalind Russell, in ‘Auntie Mame’

The Scandals:
DJ Alan Freed, the inventor of the term ‘Rock and Roll’, was accused of being paid to promote specific songs on his popular radio and live shows. His career ended, along with his street cred, in the PAYOLA scandal.

Jerry Lee Lewis married his 13-year-old 2nd cousin.

Disney murdered scores of Lemmings for the ‘suicide scene’ in the 1958 movie White Wilderness. Producers pushed and threw them off a cliff while shooting footage of the cruelty, then framed it as a natural occurrence for the audience.

Lana Turner’s daughter, Cheryl, saw her mother being beaten by her boyfriend Johnny Stompanato and killed him with a kitchen knife. Some people think that Lana actually did the self-defensive killing.

The Modern plastic Hula Hoop was invented in 1958 by Arthur K. Melin and Richard Knerr. In the 1930s, the first marketed Hula Hoops were made of bamboo, and sold as exercise equipment, but they have actually been used for at least a few hundred years, even in Europe, they used metal tubes. But When they started marketing them in the Summer of 1958, Wham-O sold 25 Million of them. By 1960, 200 Million of them were sold.

Two pilots, Robert Timm and John Cook took off from McCarran Airfield in Las Vegas, Nevada and flew a Cessna 172 for 64 days, 22 hours, 19 minutes and 5 seconds without landing (December 4, 1958- February 4, 1959), refueling by matching speed with a fuel truck driving down a road.

The Ford Motor Company had conceived a nuclear-powered car, called the “Nucleon”, with its own contained reactor.

The gesture of celebrating victory by lifting the trophy above the head came in 1958 when photographers asked Hilderaldo Bellini, captain of the Brazilian team at the time, to lift the World Cup trophy after beating Sweden, so that they could get a better view of it.

Bobby Fischer (14 years old) won the United States Chess Championship.

As a test, Bank of America mailed 60,000 residents of Fresno, California a small plastic card with a $500 credit line. The experiment was successful and the program became Visa.

Music producer Phil Spector’s high-school band (The Teddy Bears) made their first record, To Know Him is to Love Him. It became number one on the pop charts.

Led by the retired Boston candy manufacturer Robert H.W. Welch Jr., a group of anti-communist activists founded an organization called the John Birch Society that was dedicated to finding and destroying all traces of communism in the United States. The group got their name from John Birch, an intelligence officer killed in China during the Cold War.

The US 50 Star Flag was designed in 1958 by Robert Heft as a junior high history project an got a B- for it. The grade was later changed to an A after Heft’s design was accepted and adopted by the United States Congress in 1959. Robert and his teacher came to that agreement after the initial B minus grade was given, but before it was accepted by the US Congress.

Crayola’s Prussian Blue crayon was renamed Midnight Blue in 1958.

First Class Postage Stamps went up to 4 cents on August 1, 1958.

The only gas station ever designed by Frank Lloyd Wright was built in 1958 and is still in operation today, at 202 Cloquet Avenue, Cloquet, Minnesota.

The LEGO was patented (#3005282A) in 1958.

The world’s tallest ever recorded tsunami was in Alaska in 1958, caused by a landslide after an earthquake in the Fairweather Fault in the Alaska Panhandle the 100-foot wave reached 1720 feet above sea level.

The Bossa Nova music genre was created in Rio de Janeiro, with João Gilberto’s recording of Chega de Saudade.

Bruce Lee was the 1958 Hong Kong Cha Cha Dance Championship winner.

Elvis Presley was inducted into the Us Army, Private #53310761.

Dick Dale invented Surf Guitar Music with Let’s Go Trippin’

Vanguard 1, launched in 1958, is the oldest man-made satellite still in orbit. Communication with it stopped working in 1964.

Sir Edmund Hillary reached the South Pole.

The 1958 National Football League Championship Game was the 26th NFL championship game, played on December 28th at Yankee Stadium in New York City. It was the first NFL playoff game to go into sudden-death overtime and the final score was Baltimore Colts 23, New York Giants 17. The game has since become widely known as “The Greatest Game Ever Played”.

Lawrence Welk was the first TV show to air in stereo before stereo TV had been invented. ABC simulcast one audio channel on its radio network, the other channel via TV so that listening to both would give you a stereo effect.

Nuclear Oops:
The US Air Force lost a 7,600-pound (3,400 kg) Mark 15 nuclear bomb in an F-86/B-47 collision, in the Atlantic Ocean off Tybee Island, near Savannah, Georgia, and it has still not been found.

A 26-kiloton Mark 6 mistakenly fell out of a B-47 jet, dropping 15,000 feet into the back yard of Walter Gregg in Mars Bluff, South Carolina. The non-nuclear part of the bomb blew up and left a crater. It’s on private property, so don’t visit without permission.

Civil Rights:
Garth Williams, the illustrator of Stuart Little, wrote a kids’ book in 1958 called The Rabbits’ Wedding. An Alabama State Senator claimed the book was “propaganda for integration and intermarriage,” as the book featured a bunny with white fur and another with black.

Clennon Washington King Jr. applied to the (then) all-white University of Mississippi and he was committed to Mississippi State Hospital in Whitfield, for trying to attend it. In 1960, King ran for President as the candidate of the Independent Afro-American Party with Reginald Carter as his running mate

More Firsts:
The American Express card was introduced in 1958.

The term “meritocracy” was coined by Michael Young in his 1958 dystopian essay The Rise of the Meritocracy.

The modern hula hoop was invented in 1958 by Arthur K. “Spud” Melin and Richard Knerr, and distributed for sale by their company, Wham-O!

An Evening with Fred Astaire, the first television show recorded on color videotape, was broadcast on NBC.

Chicken Ramen, the first instant noodles, went on sale in Japan.

CliffsNotes was started by Clifton Hillegass in Lincoln, Nebraska.

Dracula was released, starring Christopher Lee. It was the first horror movie from Hammer Films.

The Jim Henson Company (Muppets Inc.) was founded.

The internationally recognized peace symbol was designed in 1958 by Gerald Holtom as the logo for the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament.

Pizza Hut was founded in Wichita, Kansas by Dan and Frank Carney.

The first video game, “Tennis for Two,” invented by William Higinbotham, is introduced at the Brookhaven National Laboratory Visitors’ Day Exhibit in the United States.

Jack Kilby invented the first integrated circuit while working at Texas Instruments.

Kitchens were smelling a lot cleaner thanks to the introduction of Mr. Clean in 1958. In 1998 People Magazine called Mr. Clean “one of the sexiest men alive.”

Commercial domestic jet airline service opened between New York and Miami.

1958 Billboard Number One Songs
December 30, 1957 – January 10, 1958:
April Love – Pat Boone

January 11 – February 14:
At The Hop – Danny and the Juniors

February 15 – March 21:
Don’t (I Beg of You) – Elvis Presley

March 22 – April 25:
Tequila – The Champs

April 26 – May 2:
Twilight Time – The Platters

May 3 – May 16:
Witch Doctor – David Seville

May 17 – June 13:
All I Have To Do Is Dream – The Everly Brothers

June 14 – July 25:
Purple People Eater – Sheb Wooley

July 26 – August 8:
Hard Headed Woman – Elvis Presley

August 9 – August 22:
Poor Little Fool – Ricky Nelson

August 23 – August 29:
Volare – Domenico Modugno

August 30 – September 5:
Little Star – The Elegants

September 6 – October 3:
Volare – Domenico Modugno

October 4 – November 14:
It’s All In The Game – Tommy Edwards

November 15 – November 21:
It’s Only Make Believe – Conway Twitty

November 22 – November 28:
Tom Dooley – Kingston Trio

November 29 – December 5:
It’s Only Make Believe – Conway Twitty

December 6 – December 26:
To Know Him is To Love Him – Teddy Bears

December 27, 1958 – January 18, 1959:
Chipmunk Song – David Seville & The Chipmunks