Who is this?

His first recordings were made in 1956 at the height of popularity for real rock 'n' roll. The  A-side of his first single was Woman Love, a wild and breathless song.  Because of his breathy style of delivery, these lines ..

"I'm looking for a woman
With a one track mind
Just a kissin' and a smoochin'
And a huggin' all the time" ..

.. were misinterpreted as being obscene. His tough attitude, menacing looks and black leather outfits were just part of the attraction. He was the original anti-hero of rock 'n' roll.

The DJs flipped the single and found a song written about comic strip character Little Lulu. The song was Be Bop A Lula which became Gene Vincent & The Blue Caps' biggest hit.

Before you left the States, do you remember …. ?

Coonskin caps? ("Davey, Davey Crockett, king of the wild frontier".. December 15, 1954)
Pop-It necklaces?
"Cat"?
"Cool"? (we had it first, you little punks!)
"Dig"?
"Hip"?
"Gimme some skin"?
"Feeb"?
Sock hops?
White bucks (from Pat Boone)?
Saddle shoes?
Button-down shirts?
Poodle skirts?
Burma Shave signs on the highways?
Liz, Eddie and Debbie?
Donna, Margaret and Harriett?
Fabian, Frankie Avalon and Bobby Darin?
Kookie, Clarabelle and Hoss?
Silver, Trigger and Nellybelle?
 

What else?

Wiffle ball .. first marketed in 1955
Mr. Potato Head .. This game first appeared in 1952, but you had to supply your own potato, as the plastic one appeared later.
Gumby .. Creator Art Clokey introduced the green, rubber posable toy on the Howdy Doody Show in 1956.
Silly Putty .. developed in 1946, Silly Putty was first sold as a toy in 1949. Kids molded it and, also, used it to "pick up" images from color newsprint pictures and cartoons.
Lego .. a 1954 invention of Danish carpenter Ole Kirk Christiansen, the interlocking building bricks became an international favorite.
Barbie Doll .. introduced on March 1, 1959.
Frisbee .. began with tossing of empty pie tins by college students in the 1940s; the Wham-O company marketed them as "Flyin' Saucers" on the west coast in 1957 and, changing the name to Frisbee in 1959, started a nationwide craze
Hula Hoop .. marketed by Wham-O in 1957, became a craze during the summer of 1958.
Scrabble .. first marketed in 1948, became a hit in 1952 and is still a top board game.
Bunny Hop .. a conga line "dance" from a hit record by band leader Ray Anthony.
Novelty songs .. David Seville's Witch Doctor and The Chipmunk Song, The Purple People Eater by Sheb Wooley, and Willie and the Hand Jive which spurred an unusual "dance" in 1958.
Paint-by-Number ..  a craze begun in 1950 when Detroit's Craft Master company introduced kits that included paints and a drawing on a canvas with areas numbered for the proper color.

And what was on TV when we were kids?  Just the greatest shows ever made, that’s all ..

Howdy Doody (’47-'60)
Hopalong Cassidy ('49) 
The Lone Ranger ('49)
Gene Autry ('50)
The Cisco Kid ('50)
Your Show of Shows ('50)
Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scouts ('50)
The Perry Como Show ('50)
The Red Skelton Show ('51)
The Jack Benny Show ('51)
Texaco Star Theatre ('51) (Uncle Miltie in drag .. again??)
Roy Rogers ('51)
Kit Carson ('51)
The Range Rider ('51)
Wild Bill Hickok ('51)
I Love Lucy ('51)
Superman ('51-'57)
Dragnet ('52)
Your Hit Parade ('52)
I've Got A Secret ('52)
Abbott and Costello ('52)
Death Valley Days ('52)
The Jackie Gleason Show ('52)
Ozzie and Harriett ('52)
Our Miss Brooks('52)
I Led Three Lives ('53)
Annie Oakley ('53)
This Is Your Life ('53) 
The Ed Sullivan Show ('54)
Rin Tin Tin ('54)
Lassie (’54)
What's My Line ('54)
Sky King ('54)
Make Room for Daddy ('54)
Father Knows Best ('54)
The Tonight Show ('54: Steve Allen, '56: Jack Paar, '62: Johnny Carson)
Queen For A Day ('55)
Gunsmoke ('55)
Love That Bob ('55)
Wyatt Earp ('55)
The Millionaire ('55)
Cheyenne ('55)
The Honeymooners ('55)
Highway Patrol ('55)
Mickey Mouse Club ('55)
The $64,000 Question ('55)
Twenty-One ('56)
Burns and Allen ('56)
Alfred Hitchcock Presents ('56)
The Price is Right ('56)
American Bandstand ('56)
Maverick ('57)
Have Gun Will Travel ('57)
The Real McCoys ('57)
Zorro ('57)
The Thin Man ('57)
The Dinah Shore Chevy Show ('57)
Leave It To Beaver ('57)
Wells Fargo ('57)
Perry Mason ('57)
Wagon Train ('58)
The Rifleman ('58)
The Donna Reed Show ('58)
Wanted Dead or Alive ('58)
77 Sunset Strip ('58)
Bonanza ('59)
Hawaiian Eye ('59)
Sea Hunt ('58)
Peter Gunn ('58)
Bat Masterson ('59)
Rawhide ('59)
The Untouchables ('59)
Dennis the Menace ('59)
The Rebel ('59) 
The Twilight Zone ('59)
The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis ('59)
Surfside Six ('60)

Do you remember all the words to this .. ?

"Mickey Mouse Club! Mickey Mouse Club!
Who's the leader of the club
That's made for you and me?
M-I-C-K-E-Y M-O-U-S-E!
Hey, there! Hi, there! Ho, there!
You're as welcome as can be!
M--I-C-K-E-Y M-O-U-S-E
Mickey Mouse! Donald Duck!
Mickey Mouse! Donald Duck!
Forever let us hold our banners high!
High! High! High!
Come along and sing a song
And join the jamboree
M-I-C-K-E-Y M-O-U-S-E
(now individual Mousketeers and Jimmy Dodd would step up ..)
M-I-C - See ya real soon!
K-E-Y - Why? Because we like you!
M-O-U-S-E!!"

	The '57 Chevy Bel Air
	The '58 Impala
	The '59 Biscayne
	The '59 Impala
	'50 Mercury Custom
	... and another
	... and another
	... and another
	The '50 Ford .. *sigh*

 
I can't possibly catalogue all the great '50s cars.. these were just some of my favorites at a time when I didn't have a driver's license.  We never saw these in Japan, because we were told to buy cars over there.  Most families drove smaller Japanese cars, instead of the big iron Detroit was putting out.  Japanese roads were/are not conducive to these behemoths.  Car magazines at the BX were our only contact with the new cars, and we would sit for hours discussing how, when we got back to the States, we would take a '50 Ford or '50 Mercury and customize it to the hilt.  We never bought the magazines.  We just read them in the BX and looked at the pictures and bragged about how much ours was gonna look like this one or that one.  The talk was about colors, too .. intense conversations about how "cool" one color was or wasn't .. I remember one clothing color fad that was so pervasive  one year (1957? 58?), it seemed that everyone had something wearable that was .. charcoal and pink.  So, two-toned cars appeared in car magazines with those colors.  The other memorable car color, of course, is the turquoise of the '55 Ford Thunderbird, when it was still a two-seater.  Hey!! Ford Motor Company!! Hey!! Think that maybe you guys could've held onto a great American sports car when you had it in your hands??? How hard was that? But, nooooooo!  Just let Corvette have it all to themselves, huh?  Anyway, I was just kidding myself about converting cars.  I never did.  I really can't say if my friends did either, since our lives separated soon after.  Life usually gets in the way of a 16 year-old boy's summertime dreams.

There were important world events going on, as a counterpoint to our shallow pursuits.  If you're interested, here's a quick rundown of the World News 1956-62.