1962 America

JFK's Camelot, the Cold War, Civil Rights Movement, Women in the workforce, Space

A year in pictures from The Guardian, including John Glenn's orbit around the earth, the death of Marilyn Monroe, Nelson Mandela's arrest, and the rise of Folk music.

https://www.theguardian.com/culture/gallery/2012/sep/29/1962-year-pictures

Another year in pictures, assembled in 2012 by Alan Taylor for Atlantic Magazine.

Header: "... the space race was heating up and the Cold War was freezing over. Soviet missile bases discovered in Cuba triggered a crisis that brought the U.S. to the brink of war with the U.S.S.R. Civil rights activists won hard-earned victories against segregationists in the American South, and John Glenn became the first American to orbit the Earth. Algeria gained independence from France and the U.S. slowly escalated its involvement in Vietnam. Meanwhile, Seattle held a World's Fair called the the Century 21 Exposition, celebrating the themes of space, science, and the future."

https://www.theatlantic.com/photo/2012/05/50-years-ago-the-world-in-1962/100296/

From the Saturday Evening Post in 1962

“For example, the American people, to judge from their talk, are in an essentially conservative frame of mind. The word ‘socialism’ to most of them is almost as bad a word as ‘communism.’ They are worried about Government spending, and instinctively resistant to what they call ‘too much government.’ A surprising number of them are firmly opposed to any tax cut unless it is accompanied by a balanced budget.

“In view of all this, one might suppose that there was a great tide of public sentiment in favor of the … more conservative Republican party. [Yet] most voters prefer the Democratic Party, and they prefer President Kennedy to any now-visible Republican rival by a big majority. And except in the Middle West, most voters like the President’s Medicare program, which is anathema to conservatives.

“There are other odd ambivalences. For example, most of the people we talked to fear nuclear war more than anything else, but only one in five thinks there is much danger of such a war.

“Finally, the American people are by and large a strongly moral, even moralistic people, who are deeply worried about … the morality of the American people.”

Stewart Alsop, “The Mood of America.”

https://www.saturdayeveningpost.com/2012/08/1962-life/

The views of women in 1962

https://ropercenter.cornell.edu/attitudes-american-women-1962

Cost of Living 1962

Yearly Inflation Rate USA: 1.20%

Year End Close Dow Jones Industrial Average: 652

Average Cost of new house: $12,500.00

Average Income per year: $5,556.00

Average monthly rent: $110.00 per month

Tuition to Harvard University: $1,520.00

Average Cost of a new car: $3,125.00

Eggs per dozen: 32 cents

Gas per Gallon: 28 cents

Source: http://www.thepeoplehistory.com/1962.html

"$100 in 1962 is equivalent in purchasing power to about $848.16 in 2019, a difference of $748.16 over 57 years." -- Source: http://www.in2013dollars.com/us/inflation/1962?amount=100

Popular Culture 1962

• Release of first Beatles recording: the single "Love Me Do"
• Andy Warhol's famous painting of a can of soup
• Beverly Hill Billies is on TV
• The Dick Van Dyke show on TV
• Johnny Carson begins as presenter for The Tonight Show

Popular Films

• West Side Story
• Spartacus
• El Cid
• Lawrence of Arabia
• To Kill a Mockingbird

Popular Singers

• The Beatles
• Bob Dylan
• Chubby Checker
• Frankie Valli & The Four Seasons
• Neil Sedaka
• Roy Orbison
• Shirley Basse

Source: http://www.thepeoplehistory.com/1962.html