Thread: Born in the 50's, 60, 70's...stuff we grew up with!

One of the cool things in the fifties was what they called variety shows. Ed Sullivan, Milton Berle, Jimmy Durante and the like. All of these had entertainers who had played vaudeville and took those acts to television. Even in the movies stars like Abbot & Costello and the Marx Brothers were often duplicating what they had done on the stage in vaudeville.

Shows I recall watching when I was really young were Sergeant Preston of the Yukon, Rin Tin Tin and when I was allowed to stay up Gunsmoke when it was a half hour. All the shows except for some of the variety type were a half hour to begin with. Alfred Hitchcock, Twilight Zone. Great stuff those.

I can remember when movies were a quarter and that was for first run features. There was a theater downtown that ran grade B flicks and the admission was fifteen cents for three features. Movies had the previews (coming attraction) and then a newsreel followed by the feature and then a cartoon. My grandpa took me to one and it showed ironworkers building a skyscraper, walking the iron away up high. I told my grandpa that I wanted to do that and he told me they were "lunatics."

Let us not forget Sky king and national velvet

Originally Posted by JimmyHAD

One of the cool things in the fifties was what they called variety shows. Ed Sullivan, Milton Berle, Jimmy Durante and the like. All of these had entertainers who had played vaudeville and took those acts to television. Even in the movies stars like Abbot & Costello and the Marx Brothers were often duplicating what they had done on the stage in vaudeville.

Shows I recall watching when I was really young were Sergeant Preston of the Yukon, Rin Tin Tin and when I was allowed to stay up Gunsmoke when it was a half hour. All the shows except for some of the variety type were a half hour to begin with. Alfred Hitchcock, Twilight Zone. Great stuff those.

I can remember when movies were a quarter and that was for first run features. There was a theater downtown that ran grade B flicks and the admission was fifteen cents for three features. Movies had the previews (coming attraction) and then a newsreel followed by the feature and then a cartoon. My grandpa took me to one and it showed ironworkers building a skyscraper, walking the iron away up high. I told my grandpa that I wanted to do that and he told me they were "lunatics."

Thanks JimmyHAD, for some reason, your post brought back some memories as well. I remember Gunsmoke, the Rifle Man, Carol Burnett, Abott and Costello, and my old favorite, Laurel and Hardy!

Then when you mentioned your Grandfather, like a flash I remembered he and I always watching this show together:

anyone remember Victory at sea? used to watch that with my dad, a lifetime navy guy.

Originally Posted by thebigspendur

My dad will be 99 this year and he has seen the world change from common usage of horses to the first cars and two major world wars and the early days of electricity and the beginning of radio and none of the labor saving devices we have now like washing machines and electric refrigerators and fans and A/C and I can go on and on. So you guys born in the 50s on think you have seen change?

I grew up with a neighbor that made it to 105 years young, she passed almost 25 years ago now. I used to love spending time with her when I was younger, she would tell stories and share photos.
Things like the Crows nest at the four corners in town with the officer directing traffic.
We had a black and white TV and a party line phone when I was young. I remember when Atari came out, when premium TV was one channel IT, when cable became available, computers well I was in 8th grade when they made it to us and Apple was it. I garbage picked a Tandy 32 and fixed it, that was our first computer, and I was accused of stealing it because nobody would throw out a home computer.

And for the record I miss Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In....

Loved Wild Kingdom. But don't forget all the great shows from the legendary Jack Webb .... Dragnet (radio and tv version), Adam 12, Emergency! ... Roy and Johnny are one of the reasons I'm a paramedic today.

Originally Posted by pixelfixed

anyone remember Victory at sea? used to watch that with my dad, a lifetime navy guy.

I love that show, I actually have the DVD of Victory at Sea, World War I and World War II in Color. Plus, for the last several years, I have been fascinated with studying the American Civil War, so I purchased Ken Burns Documentary, "The Civil War".

In the DVD's for the First World War, there's a scene showing the Victory Parade in the States, and if you watch the parade, toward the end, you can see soldiers marching wearing the Blue and the Grey uniforms...

But Victory at Sea, never tire of seeing that...