Late 50s facts
While investigating facts about Late 50s, I found out little known, but curios details like:
'Death Discs' - or 'Splatter Platters'- a type of Pop music to emerge in the late '50s-mid '60s. Sung by teen artists, themes centred on tragic deaths and suicide. The sub-genre was seen as the first musical expression of teen - especially teen female - angst.
The "laugh tracks" heard in American sitcoms from the late 50s to the early 70s were mostly recorded and edited by one company: Northridge Electronics, owned by sound engineer Charley Douglass and his family.
In my opinion, it is useful to put together a list of the most interesting details from trusted sources that I've come across. Here are 9 of the best facts about Late 50s I managed to collect.
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More than two-thirds of all loss-of-limb claims in the late 50s and early 60s in the United States came from the panhandle of Florida.
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The "laugh tracks" in sitcoms between the late 50s and early 70s were all recorded and inserted by one guy, Charley Douglass. He was notoriously secretive about his work, and his one-of-a-kind device—the "laff box"—was only seen by his immediate family.
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In the late 50s, prior to writing the acclaimed Dune saga, Frank Herbert moved to the north end of the Oregon Dunes on assignment, and observed how moving dunes could "swallow whole cities, lakes, rivers, highways." This sparked an interest in ecology that found its way into his masterwork.
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NFL football players have life expectancies in the mid- to late-50s
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The US had a nuclear-armed UAV in the late 50s.
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In the late 50s, Bruce Sedley created the "Talking Storybook", which were installed in zoos across the US to help children learn about animals and were activated by an elephant-shaped key
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Bewitched, a show I always thought ran in the late 50s to early 50s, actually lasted from 1964 to as late as 1972!
