• Music of 1955
• Radio in 1955
• TV in 1955
• Movies of 1955
• Books of 1955
• Postwar Cars
• Vietnam in 1955
• 1955 Memorabilia

Winston Churchill

James Dean

• Winston Churchill resigns (Anthony Eden becomes PM of England)
• Malenkov resigns (Kruschev & Bulganin joint leaders of USSR)
• Military coup in Argentina deposes president Juan Peron.
• Warsaw Pact established among European Communist nations.
• Communist insurgency in Malaysia
• Snowy Mountains Scheme produces electricity (commenced in 1949)
• Jonas Salk's vaccine against polio comes into widespread use
• First hovercraft
• Disneyland (California) opened
• Film star James Dean is killed in a car crash.
• Lego introduced
• First motel in Australia (in Canberra)
• Bans on X-ray machines for shoe fitting began.
• World's largest bauxite deposit discovered at Weipa, Queensland
• First Moomba Festival in Melbourne
• Bikinis permitted on Gold Coast beaches
• Davy Crockett craze
• "Paint Your Wagon" & "The Pyjama Game" play in Australia

X-ray Shoe-Fitting Machines
X-ray machines, called "fluoroscopes", designed to check the fit of shoes were patented in the 1920s and were common fixtures in shoe stores from the late 1920s through the 1950s - some remained in use as late as the 1970s.
Radiologists today only expose patients to the minimum radiation necessary and carefully avoid exposing themselves at all. In contrast, shoe-fitting fluoroscopes were badly designed, were used by barely-trained shoe salesmen and gave a considerable dose of radiation to the feet and salesman's hands as well as some to the head, eyes and thyroid.

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Polio Vaccination

The Music of 1955

• The Tender Trap (Frank Sinatra)
• That Old Black Magic (Ella Fitzgerald)
• Ballad of Davy Crockett (Billy Hayes/Tennessee Ernie Ford)
• Sixteen Tons (Tennessee Ernie Ford)
• Yellow Rose of Texas (Mitch Miller)
• Cherry Pink & Apple Blossom White (Perez Prado)
• I Walk the Line (Johnny Cash)
• Love is a Many Splendoured Thing (Nat 'King' Cole/Four Aces)
• Rock around the Clock (Bill Haley)
• Oklahoma! (Cast LP)

Australian Radio in 1955

• Australia's Amateur Hour (1940-60)
• The Children's Hour - Argonauts' Club (1941-69)
• Tarzan (1940s & 50s)
• The Quiz Kids (1942-early 60s)
• The Air Adventures of Biggles(1945-60s)
• When a Girl Marries (1946-65)
• Pick-a-Box (1948-71)
• Blue Hills (1948-76)
• Dr Paul (!949-71)
• Superman (late 1940s-late 50s)
• The Goons (1951-60)
• Portia Faces Life (1952-70)
• Life with Dexter (1953-64)
• Eric Baume's This I Believe (1953-67)
• Keith Smith's Pied Piper (1954-60s)
• The Air Adventures of Hop Harrigan (1955-60)

Television in 1955

Television was not introduced into Australia until 1956. However, shows that later became popular in Australia were already being broadcast elsewhere. These included:

The Lone Ranger	1949-61	cast
Dragnet	1951-58 & 1967-69	cast
I Love Lucy	1951-55	cast
The Cisco Kid (First TV series made in colour)	1951-55
Victory at Sea	1952
Our Miss Brooks	1952-57	cast
The Nelsons	1952-66	cast
The Adventures of Superman	1953-55	cast
The Loretta Young Show	1953-60
Father Knows Best	1954-63	cast
Lassie	1954-72
The Honeymooners	1955-56	cast
Sergeant Preston of the Yukon	1955-57
The Mickey Mouse Club	1955-59	cast
The Phil Silvers Show (Sgt Bilko)	1955-59	cast
The Adventures of Robin Hood	1955-59	cast
The Life & Legend of Wyatt Earp	1955-60	cast
Cheyenne	1955-62	cast
Gunsmoke	1955-75	cast

Movies in 1955

Title	Cast	Academy Awards	Buy
The Blackboard Jungle directed by Richard Brooks	Glenn Ford Anne Francis Sidney Portier Vic Morrow Louis Calhern Richard Kiley
Guys and Dolls directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz	Frank Sinatra Marlon Brando Jean Simmons
Jedda directed by Charles Chauval	Ngarla Kunoth Wason Byers Margaret Dingle Willie Farrar Tas Fitzer
Lady and the Tramp directed by Hamilton Luske	Peggy Lee Larry Roberts Barbara Luddy Stan Freeberg Alan Reed Bill Thompson
Love Me or Leave Me directed by Charles Vidor	James Cagney Doris Day Cameron Mitchell	Best Story
Oklahoma! directed by Fred Zinnemann	Gordon MacRae Shirley Jones Eddie Albert	Best Score Best Sound
Rebel without a Cause directed by Nicholas Ray	Lames Dean Natalie Wood Sal Mineo
The Tender Trap directed by Charles Walters	Frank Sinatra Debbie Reynolds Celeste Holm Karl Malden Lee J. Cobb Martin Balsam	Best Song ("The Tender Trap")

Watch a free movie from 1955 now:

• The Fast And The Furious A B-action film written by Roger Corman.
• Killer’s Kiss The second feature film directed by Stanley Kubrick stars Jamie Smith, Irene Kane and Frank Silvera.
• The Big Combo Directed by Joseph Lewis, this film is considered a noir classic. Critics like to focus on cinematography of John Alton, a noir icon.
• The Atomic Man a nuclear research scientist, has been contaminated with radioactive material and the police uncover a plot to destroy the scientist's work.

Books of 1955

Title	Author	Buy
The Quiet American	Graham Greene
The Trial	Franz Kafka
The Confession of Felix Krull	Thomas Mann
A Charmed Life	Mary McCarthy
Lolita	Vladimir Nabokov
The Tree of Man	Patrick White
The Ginger Man	JP Donleavy
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof	Tennessee Williams
Moonraker (a James Bond book)	Ian Fleming
The Phenomenon of Man	Pierre Tailhard de Chardin
The Practice of Management	Peter Drucker

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