Thus did TV and the boomers grow up together. This couple’s fact-and-fiction child took his place as “the crown prince of the television generation and baby boomers,” says Robert Thompson, director of Syracuse University’s Bleier Center for Television and Popular Culture, with infant Desi, Jr., soon “anointed on the cover of the first TV Guide.” 19, 1953, Lucy and Ricky Ricardo celebrated the birth of a son on “I Love Lucy” - the same day the sitcom’s star, Lucille Ball, gave birth to a son with her real-life husband and leading man, Desi Arnaz. Captured on vintage ’50s kinescopes, those youngsters represent a TV face (albeit made up, regrettably, of only white faces) of the surging boomer generation. Set in fictional Doodyville, where stringed puppets cavorted with its flesh-and-blood host, “Buffalo Bob” Smith, “Howdy Doody” during its 13-year run would prove to be a huge hit, and much more: a formative influence on nearly every baby boomer’s childhood.įor a glimpse of early boomers, check YouTube for archived clips of “Howdy Doody,” which welcomed kids to the Peanut Gallery, the name it coined for its studio audience. Granted, there wasn’t much prime-time network programming in the fall of 1946, and what there was seemed targeted to adults (including Gillette-sponsored sports every Friday on NBC and, on the DuMont network every Wednesday, TV’s first soap opera).īut kids were squarely in the sights of TV programmers by December 1947, when “Howdy Doody” premiered on NBC as a weekday children’s show. No wonder TV eagerly returned the favor, singling them out as an irresistible demographic. TV chronicled this bracing wave of wonder and potential, and built upon it as an essential part of what set boomers apart: They were pampered and privileged and groomed for a sure-to-be-glorious tomorrow. It could even help volunteers find love and marriage, as TV host Art Linkletter demonstrated on his 1950s game show, “People Are Funny.” The UNIVAC computer, introduced in 1951, would count the U.S. Polio would be cured! Man would go into space! Electricity, thanks to atomic energy, would soon be “too cheap to meter.” Even African-Americans, oppressed for so long, had new reason for hope. TV was key to the world baby boomers were born into: a newly modernized world where every problem (with the possible exception of the Cold War) seemed to point to a solution that was just around the corner. would expand from radio into TV, and, to spread the word, telecast the ceremony to the scattering of 2,000 TV sets throughout all of New York City.īut the handiest year for TV’s genesis is 1946 - when technology, optimism and renewed consumer buying power joined forces at World War II’s conclusion and gave broadcast television a belated kick-start.īy chance (or is it?), the same year that ushered in the TV age is also seen as the kickoff for the baby-boom generation - the population boom of kids born between 19. Or maybe 1939, when the RCA Television Pavilion opened at the New York World’s Fair with the exciting news that RCA’s National Broadcasting Co. Maybe 1927, when 21-year-old Philo Farnsworth transmitted the image of a horizontal line to a receiver in the next room of his San Francisco lab. TV’s arrival, depending on how you see it, can be marked at any of a number of moments in the last century. The "baby boom" changed and affected many aspects of the 1950s society.NEW YORK - Unlike baby boomers, television has no birth certificate. As the "baby boomers" grew up, many began to leave the suburban lifestyle after being surrounded by it for years, and they began fighting with disadvantaged groups for equal rights. The "baby boomers" had a big impact on merchandise and manufacturers because babies and children became the main target for customers during this time the Barbie, hula hoops, and frisbee became popular toys, as well as children wearing Mickey Mouse ears. The "baby boom" had a large effect on women, causing more women to leave their jobs to become stay-at-home moms this placed the "baby boomers" in the center of life during the 1950s. Many people also waited until after the Depression and World War II to have children because they wanted safety and security for their family, so when the war ended, even older Americans were eager to finally have a family. The "baby boom" probably occurred because after the war, people were confident that the United States would experience prosperity and growth and they believed they would be able to support their family. The "Baby Boom" started in 1947 and lasted until 1964, placing the 1950s in the middle of this large growth of the population. By the time the "baby boom" ended, there were over 76.4 million babies that had been born, making up more than 40% of the United States's population.
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