1950s Trivia: Pop Culture Edition
1950s Trivia: Pop Culture Edition
How Well Do You Know Your 1950s Trivia? Let’s Find Out!
Ah, the 1950s. A time of be-bop, sock hops and rocking around the clock. In Boom Again, we include more than 2,200 trivia questions about the movies, music and fun of the Baby Boom era—the 1950s, ‘60s and ‘70s. So here, let’s test your 1950s trivia talents with a few of the questions culled from our game.
Q: Name the horror movie star who was buried in his Dracula cape in 1956.
A: The answer is…Bela Lugosi, a Hungarian-born motion picture actor who, with his thickly accented voice, made famous lines such as, “I never drink…wine.”
Though he starred in many horror movies, he’s best-known as the blood-sucking vampire Dracula.
Q: Which liquor company started publishing a book of odd stuff in 1955, convinced that it would settle barroom bets?
A: The company is Guinness and its “Book of World Records.”
The idea came about when the managing director of the brewery was at a shooting party, and a debate ensued about the fastest game bird in Europe. When they couldn’t find the answer in any reference book (and the Internet was still a long, long ways away), the idea for a book of facts and figures was born.
“The Guinness Book of World Records” lists achievements—from the longest kiss, to the biggest dog, to the tallest hat and, yes, the fastest game bird. (It’s the golden plover.)
Q: The musical My Fair Lady made its Broadway debut in 1956. Name the early George Bernard Shaw play that it was based on.
A: It’s based on “Pygmalion.” In the musical, linguist Henry Higgins takes on the task of improving flower girl Eliza Doolittle’s Cockney accent—and in the end, as is the way of rom com musicals—he winds up changing as much as she does.
Julie Andrews played Eliza in the Broadway version—but when it went to the movies, she was replaced by the better-known Audrey Hepburn (who did not sing her own songs).
On to our next 1950s trivia question…
Q: Warhol and Lichtenstein showed that soup cans and comic strips were real art. Starting in the late 1950s, what was their movement called?
A: It’s Pop Art, which—in the spirit of the counter-culture movement that was just getting underway—began as a revolt against traditional views on what art should be.
Young artists felt that what they were taught at art school and what they saw in museums did not have anything to do with their lives. Instead, they turned to sources such as movies, advertising, product packaging, pop music, and comic books for their inspiration.
Q: At the height of this 1950s fad, what kind of hat sold as many as 5,000 per day?
A: It was the coonskin cap—a fashion fad that swept the nation thanks to one being worn by actor Fess Parker as Davy Crockett in the TV series.
Parker’s coonskin cap costume was made from the skin and fur of raccoon—including its head and tail. The cap that was marketed to young boys was a simplified version and was usually made of faux fur with that signature raccoon tail attached.
Let’s take our 1950s trivia to the classroom for this next question…
Q: Name the 1951 book that was so popular it was reprinted eight times in its first two months, but so controversial, it was banned by many high schools.
A: The book: J.D. Salinger’s “The Catcher in the Rye.”
The novel is narrated by the 16-year-old protagonist, Holden Caulfield, from the bed of a mental hospital. He’s been expelled from yet another elite private school, and he’s struggling to find his place in 1950s New York.
While the book is a classroom staple because of its relevance to high school students, controversies ranged from its appreciation for teen rebellion, to profane language, to sexual references and even that the book was “part of an overall communist plot.”
Q: In 1955, this company was one of the first to franchise across the U.S. and Canada. What company’s initial product offering included the Dilly Bar and Mr. Misty?
A: It’s the Dairy Queen, home of the soft serve (which opened its first store in 1940 in Joliet, Illinois).
It is said that the Dilly Bar—a round, chocolate-coated soft serve treat on a stick—gets its name from one of the employees seeing it and saying, “Now, isn’t it a dilly!”
Q: Marilyn Monroe and Jane Russell co-starred in 1953’s Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. Which Marilyn Monroe song became the film’s signature?
A: The answer is…“Diamonds Are a Girl’s Best Friend.” Although Marilyn Monroe is arguably one of the biggest stars of all time, she actually got second billing, earning less than one-tenth of what Jane Russell earned.
How well did you know your 1950s trivia?
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