The Rondeliers Dance Club; A Blast From The Past

Do You Remember? - Affluent Society: The prosperous American economy of the 1950s. The term was coined by economist John Kenneth Galbraith in 1958, but he was in fact critical of what he called "private opulence and public squalor," which resulted from the accumulation of private wealth.

Do You Remember? - Edsel: An automobile released by Ford in 1957 that was noted for its gaudy design and fancy gadgets. It flopped, proving there were limits to customers' appetites for increasingly novel and fanciful cars.

Do You Remember? - Planned Obsolescence : The idea that businesses could prosper by making sure that products had a short life due to changing fashion or poor quality. Planned obsolescence was an important principle in the automobile industry of the 1950s.

Did You Know? - Whitey Haupt was born on October 7, 1940 in Los Angeles, California, USA as Wyatt Davidson Haupt. He is an actor, known for Skipalong Rosenbloom (1951), The Adventures of Ozzie & Harriet (1952) and It Came from Outer Space (1953).

Do You Remember? - Hula Hoop
A plastic hoop that could be spun around the waist. More than 100 million were sold in 1958.

Do You Remember? - Baby Boom: The increase in the U.S. birth rate that lasted from 1946 until 1964. The baby boom helped drive the prosperous economy, and prosperity encouraged couples to have more children, extending the post-war trend.

Do You Remember...

3D Movies  - Movie studio executives worried that the new medium, television, would steal away their audiences. What was required was a hook to bring people back into the movie theatre. As the strippers sang in "Gypsy," you gotta have a gimmick. Even though 3-D movies had been around as far back as 1922 and had lost favor, it was decided to try again.

Arch Oboler's "Bwana Devil" started the 3-D craze of the 1950's. It premiered on Nov. 26, 1952 and starred Robert Stack, Barbara Britton and Nigel Bruce. People were issued glasses, which facilitated the 3-D effect.

Previously, 3-D used the anaglyphic process and those glasses were the red and green ones. This distorted the whole film by discoloration. Enter Polaroid and a newer system called Natural Vision.

Polaroid glasses were nearly clear and so did not detract from the viewing experience. At first industry experts predicted that 3-D would do for movies what the "talkies" had done.

Some surprising titles were filmed in 3-D, such as Hondo, Kiss Me Kate and Dial M for Murder. But often their 2-D versions outsold the 3-D, and the industry got the big hint.

Ant Farm - Real ants were put in a glass framed case with dirt and paths for the ants to follow. It was fun to watch as your insects interacted on the farm.

Car Hops - Burger joints and diners. Waitresses would roller-skate to your car and take your order.

Coonskin Caps   - Hats made from racoon skin and fur. These hats became an iconic image of such 50's frontiersman as Davey Crockett and Daniel Boone.

DA Haircut - In the 1950's the DA (Ducks Ass), was the haircut of choice for the "cool" guys. Formed by combing the hair back on the sides of the head and holding it there with a dab of grease (hence the term "greaser"). Became popular by many rock and roll idols, making parents frown upon them and the effect it had upon their children. So legions of rebels without a cause delighted in slicking their hair back with a little brylcream and a plastic comb.

Frisbee - Everyone loved throwing the frisbee around. Childrens first reaction to seeing the high flying toy was, 'Wow! What's that?'. Even today people still throw frisbees around at parks, beaches, bbq's etc. Even dogs love chasing frisbees...but nothing compares to how people enjoyed them in the 1950's

Letter Sweaters  - Girls would wear their boyfriends letterman jackets and sweaters, to show everyone they were dating a jock.

Panty Raids - Legend states the tradition started on the night of March 21st 1952 at the university of Michigan. Approximately 600 male students stormed a women's dormitory and confiscated underwear. Word got out and soon college guys across the country started participating in the escapades.

Poodle Skirts - This is the look most associated with the Fifties. And when you saw the "skirt" link, it's what you most expected to find. Yes, young women wore them. And had we known they would be immortalized as the symbol of an era, more of us would have saved ours. A poodle skirt is a wide swing skirt with a poodle appliquéd or transferred onto the fabric. Poodles were not the only items used to adorn these skirts, they are just the best remembered.

Sideburns   - James Dean and Elvis Presley among others, got loads of mileage out of those strips of facial hair that grew down about an inch and a half below the ears. Sideburns became the crucial detail to go along with the leather jackets and the DA haircuts. Eventually sideburns could be seen everywhere and realization of the grooming seemed to be more trouble then it was worth. The sideburns soon faded out.

Telephone Booth Stuffing   - One of the most well known fads of all time was Telephone Booth stuffing. It was started by several college students who would squeeze themselves into a telephone booth until no one else could fit inside. Although the fad was popularized by colleges from the west coast in the U.S., it was actually started in South Africa where twenty-five students packed themselves into a booth and claimed they had set a world record. Soon, many colleges around the world were trying to beat each other's records. The fad died out in 1959, but was reincarnated in the form of Volkswagen stuffing a few years later.

Do You Remember - Fallout: Radioactive debris resulting from nuclear explosions. Fallout was one of the feared horrors of nuclear war; it was also a danger of atomic bomb tests, which spread low levels of fallout around the world.