Spirit of America Bookstore

Fifties  Culture  Nostalgia

Fifties-era transportation tiki culture books about The Fifties videos & DVDs music of The Fifties

companion subject pages on this website

homepage of Rick Walker, Private Investigator
Rick Walker's Fifties Research Page
Rick Walker's Route 66 Pages

at Maison d'Κtre Beatnik Coffeehouse & Bookstore
'The Beat Generation' Page
Beatnik Film Festival Page

at Magic Lantern Video & Book Store
Drive-In Movie Theaters Page
History of Radio & Television Pages
Best Picture Academy Awards 1951-1960
Hollywood Blacklist Pages
Cinema History By Decade Page - 1950s Section

at 'Readers of The Purple Sage' Western Bookstore
Hopalong Cassidy Page
The Cisco Kid & Pancho Page
The Lone Ranger Page

here at Spirit of America Bookstore
Roadside Diners & Coffee Shops Page
Surf Shack Page + Surf Woodies Page
Googie-style roadside architecture
Books on Route 66 Pages
Nostalgic Americana Page
Old Time Radio Page
Atomic USA Page + Atomic Film Festival Page

Outside Links

L.A. Radio People

Conelrad [atomic civil defense] Cold War Era Civil Defense Virtual Museum Atomic U.S.A. Page at Spirit of America

Books  About  Fifties-Era  Culture

Spirit of America Bookstore's 'Books on Route 66' Pages

	"Revolutionary Road" [rediscovered 1961 novel] by Richard Yates Mired in creeping boredom in the suburbs, with unfulfilled lives and careers, a prosperous Connecticut couple decides to move with their two children to France to escape the consumer- ist demands of capitalist America. The book is compared to Updike, and described as 'well written, witty & intriguing'; listed on Time Magazine's All-TIME 100 Novels (10/2005) Vintage 8x5¼ pb [4/2000] for $10.17 Greenwood Press 8½x5¾ hardcover [10/71] for $89.95
	feature film [DreamWorks Dec 2008] Co-produced & directed by Sam Mendes; starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Kate Winslet, Kathy Bates & Michael Shannon; cast won Ensemble Performance Award at the Palm Springs International Film Festival Paramount widescreen color Blu-ray [6/2009] for $13.99 Paramount widescreen color DVD [6/2009] for $16.99 Nonesuch soundtrack CD [12/2008] 15 tracks for $14.99 full credits at IMDb • official movie site
	"The Films of The Fifties: Sunset Boulevard To On The Beach" [1976] by Douglas Brode Citadel Press 10¼x8 pb [4/90] out of print/used Citadel Press 11x8½ hardcover [8/76] out of print/used
	"The Fifties: The Way We Really Were" [1977] by Douglas T. Miller & Marion Novak Doubleday hardcover [5/77] out of print/used
	"Populuxe" [1987] by Thomas Hine Fine Commns 10.4x8¾ hardcover [10/99] for $16.97 Knopf pb [11/87] out of print/used
	"Lost Films of The Fifties"[1988] by Douglas Brode Citadel Press 11x8¼ pb [10/88] out of print/used
	"When We Were Young: A Baby-Boomer Yearbook 1947-1975" [1993] by Rita Lang Kleinfelder Hungry Minds 9x6½ pb [4/93] out of print/used Smithmark hardcover [12/96] out of print/used
	"As Seen On TV: The Visual Culture of Everyday Life in the 1950s" [1994] by Karal Ann Marling Harvard Univ Press 9¼x6 pb [3/96] for $20.50 Harvard Univ Press 9½x6.4 hardcover [9/94] for $27.50
	"1955: What A Year It Was!" [1997] by Beverly Cohn M.M.S. Publng 11x8½ hardcover [4/97] out of print/many used
	"A Cultural History of The United States Through The Decades - The 1950s" [grades 6-10; 1998] by Stuart A. Kallen Covers the stark contrasts between the black and white populations of the U.S., between the affluence of the postwar period (and innovations in science & technology) and the tensions of nuclear proliferation, and between the straitlaced, anti-Communist 'establishment' and radical new expressions in music, literature, and film Greenhaven Press 8½x5½ pb [1/2000] out of print/used Lucent Books 9x7¾ hardcover [9/98] out of print/used
	"1959: What A Year It Was!" [1998] by Beverly Cohn M.M.S. Publng 11x8½ hardcover [10/98] out of print/many used
	"Going Home To The Fifties" [1999] by William Yenne The ideal of suburban (Middle Class) living as presented to America by magazine advertising illustrations. Last Gasp 9½x9 pb [11/2005] for $17.79
	"Remembering Muscle Beach: Where Hard Bodies Began - Photographs & Memories" [1999] by Harold Zinkin, with Bonnie Hearn (Hill) Angel City Press 9½x9½ hardcover [6/99] out of print/used see also the Muscle-Head Film Festival at Magic Lantern
	"Fabulous Las Vegas In The 50s: Glitz, Glamour & Games" [1999] by Fred E. Basten & Charles Phoenix Angel City Press 9½x9½ hardcover [10/99] for $18.86
	"Leis, Luaus & Aloha: The Lure of Hawaii In The Fifties" [1999] by Fred E. Basten Island Heritage 12½x10 hardcover [11/99] for $13.57
	"Historical Dictionary of The 1950s" [2000] by James S. Olson intended for use by scholars, universities & libraries Greenwood Press 9½x6½ hardcover [7/2000] for $107.95
	"Diners, Bowling Alleys and Trailer Parks: Chasing The American Dream In Postwar Consumer Culture" [2001] by Andrew Hurley Basic Books 8x5 pb [2/2002] for $17.95 Basic Books 8½x6 hardcover [2/2001] out of print
	"Southern California In The '50s: Sun, Fun & Fantasy" [2001] by Charles Phoenix Angel City Press 9¼x9½ hardcover [9/2001] for $24.50
	"All-American Ads of The 50s" [2002] Edited by Jim Heimann Taschen 10½x8 pb [3/2002] for $29.19
	"All-American Ads of The 40s" [2002] Edited by Jim Heimann Taschen 11x8¾ pb [3/2002] for $29.59
	"Bowled Over: A Roll Down Memory Lane" [2002] by Gideon Bosker & Bianca Lencek-Bosker Diane Publng Co. 7x7 hardcover [4/2004] for $16.00 Chronicle Books 7½x7¼ hardcover [8/2002] out of print/many used
	"Everyday Fashions of The Fifties As Pictured In Sears Catalogs" [2002] Edited by JoAnne Olian Dover Publns 11¾x9 pb [9/2002] for $10.17
	"Lost America: The Abandoned Roadside West" [2003] by Troy Paiva Motorbooks Intl 9x9 pb [6/2003] for $13.97
	"The 1950s: American Popular Culture Through History" [2004] by William H. & Nancy K. Young Greenwood Press 9¼x6¼ hardcover [4/2004] for $49.35
	"Scene of The Crime: Photographs From The L.A.P.D. Archive" [2004] Foreword by Chief William J. Bratton, Introduction by James Ellroy, Essay by Tim B. Wride Harry N. Abrams 13½x8½ hardcover [10/2004] for $23.80
	"Let's Go Bowling!" [2005] by Eric Dregni Motorbooks Intl. 9½x9 hardcover [10/2005] for $15.56
	"The Great Black Way: L.A. In The 1940s & The Lost Negro Renaissance" [2006] by R.J. Smith PublicAffairs pb [8/2007] for $11.53 PublicAffairs 9¼x6½ hardcover [6/2006] for $26.95
	"American Culture In The 1950s" [2007] by Martin Halliwell Edinburgh Univ Press 9x6½ pb [8/2007] for $29.50 Edinburgh Univ Press 9¼x6½ hardcover [8/2007] for $100.00
	"1959: The Year Everything Changed" [2009] by Fred Kaplan Kindle Edition from Wiley & Sons [6/2009] for $8.44 Wiley & Sons 8½x5½ pb [4/2010] for $8.88 Wiley & Sons 9½x6½ hardcover [6/2009] for $18.63

Tiki  Culture
Tiki Culture entry at Wikipedia

Les Baxter [1922-96]: browse music • official website • Wikipedia
Martin Denny [1911-2005]: browse music • Vik's fansite • Wikipedia
vibist Arthur Lyman [1932-2002]: browse music • Wikipedia
Don Tiki band: browse music • official website

	"Adventures in Paradise" [2009] by The Waitiki 7 Granson Music Co. MP3 album [8/2009] download 13 tracks for $8.99
	"Tiki Modern and The Wild World of Witco" [2007] by Sven A. Kirsten Taschen 10¾x9½ hardcover [9/2007] for $26.39
	"Tiki Road Trip: A Guide To Tiki Culture In North America" [2003] by James Teitelbaum Santa Monica Press 9x6 pb [5/2003] for $11.87
	"The Book of Tiki: A Guide For The Urban Archeologist" [2000] by Sven A. Kirsten Taschen 10x8½ pb [6/2003] for $19.99 Taschen hardcover [9/2000] out of print/used
	"Leis, Luaus & Aloha: The Lure of Hawaii In The Fifties" [1999] by Fred E. Basten Island Heritage 12½x10 hardcover [11/99] for $13.57

Videos  &  DVDs  About  Fifties-Era  Culture

"David Halberstam's The Fifties" [A&E/History airdate Nov 1997] TV miniseries narrated by Edward Herrmann; featuring Gene Autry, Lauren Bacall, Humphrey Bogart, Fidel Castro, Fats Domino, Duke Ellington, John Kenneth Galbraith, Dizzy Gillespie, Rita Hayworth, Hugh M. Hefner, Danny Kaye [1913-87], Grace Kelly, Jack Kerouac, Alfred Kinsey, Elaine May, Prince Rainier of Monaco, Thelonious Monk, Marilyn Monroe, Mike Nichols, Richard Nixon, Charlie Parker, Jackson Pollock, Elvis Presley, Sam Rayburn, Carl Reiner, Dinah Shore, Elizabeth Taylor, Fred M. Vinson, Guy Williams & Hank Williams DVD/Blu-ray not available • A&E VHS [2/98] 6 tapes out of prodn/used full credits from IMDb "The Fifties" [1993] by David Halberstam Fawcett pb [6/94] for $12.21 Random House hardcover [4/96] out of print/used Villard 9½x6½ hardcover [6/93] out of print/used Random House Audio [6/93] out of prodn/many used

"New York In The Fifties" [indep Feb 2001] 72-minute documentary film co-produced & directed by Betsy Blankenbaker; based on the book by Dan Wakefield; featuring William F. Buckley, Joan Didion, John Gregory Dunne, Bruce Jay Friedman, Nat Hentoff, Norman Mailer, C. Wright Mills, Norman Podhoretz, Robert Redford, Gay Talese, Nan Talese, Calvin Trillin, Mark Van Doren & Dan Wakefield, with archive footage of James Baldwin, Allen Ginsberg & Jack Kerouac First Run Features color/b&w DVD [11/2001] for $22.49 First Run Features color/b&w VHS [11/2001] out of prodn/used full credits at IMDb "New York In The Fifties" [1992] by Dan Wakefield Greenpoint Press 8½x5½ pb [3/2011] for $15.60 Houghton Mifflin hardcover [5/92] out of print/dozens used

Fifties-Era  Transportation

	"Cars: American Retro" [2000] Edited by Alison Moss Sourcebooks 6½x6¾ hardcover [10/2000] for $12.95
	"Ed 'Big Daddy' Roth: His Life, Times, Cars & Art" [2003] by Pat Ganahl CarTech 10.3x10.3 hardcover [3/2003] for $27.97
	"Rat Fink: The Art of Ed Big Daddy Roth" [2003] by Ed Roth & C. R. Stecyk Last Gasp of SF pb & CD [6/2003] for $20.97 Last Gasp of SF hardcover & CD [4/2003] out of print/used
	"Cruisin': Car Culture In America" [1997] by Michael Karl Witzel & Kent Bash Motorbooks Intl 9¾x10¼ hardcover [9/97] for $24.47

Music  of  The  Fifties

Spirit of America Bookstore's Jazz Music Page
'Your Hit Parade' 1935-55
'Your Hit Parade' 1955-59

browse Les Baxter [1922-96] music catalog at Amazon
browse Martin Denny [1911-2005] music catalog at Amazon
browse vibist Arthur Lyman [1932-2002] music catalog at Amazon

	"The Black Music History of Los Angeles, It Roots: A Classical Pictorial History of Black Music In L.A. From 1920-1970" [1992] by Tom Reed, with photos by Howard Morehead & others Black Accent on L.A. hardcover [10/92] out of print/used
	"Central Avenue Sounds: Jazz In Los Angeles" [1998] Edited by Clora Bryant Univ CA Press 9x6 pb [12/99] for $13.97 Univ CA Press 9½x6½ hardcover [3/98] out of print/used

Spirit of America Bookstore's Fifties Culture Nostalgia Page
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