A Look Back: 1958

Cost of Living

• Yearly inflation rate US 2.73%
• Yearly inflation rate UK 2.7%
• Average cost of new house $12,750.00
• Average monthly rent $92.00
• Average yearly wages $4600.00
• Cost of a gallon of gas is 25 cents

Popular Films

• The Bridge on the River Kwai
• South Pacific
• Gigi
• King Creole
• Vertigo

Popular Singers

• Elvis Presley
• Billie Holiday
• Ricky Nelson
• Frank Sinatra
• The Everly Brothers
• Ella Fitzgerald
• Jerry Lee Lewis

Popular TV Programs

• Candid Camera
• The Ed Sullivan Show
• Come Dancing
• The Jack Benny Show
• Panorama
• Alfred Hitchcock Presents
• By now, more than 45 million American households have television sets.

Miscellaneous

• The John Birch Society, a radical anti-Communist organization, is created in the US.
• Dr. Zhivago is published in the US. Banned in the USSR, Zhivago won author Boris Pasternak the Nobel Prize which he was forced to decline due to political forces at home.
• The price of 1st class US postage is raised to 4¢ from 3¢ where it had been for 26 years. Hard to believe—only a penny in 26 years.
• Charles de Gaulle becomes premier of France, a position he will hold until 1969.
• Dodger catcher Roy Campanella is paralyzed when the car he was driving skidded into a telephone pole. Campanella was the NL’s MVP in ’51, ’53 and ’55.
• The Jolly Green Giant appears on TV with less than stellar results. In his first incarnation he looks like a monster that scares kids. So they lightened him up and added “Ho, ho, ho” and the lilting “Good things from the garden” song.
• Modern consumer credit is born. The American Express Company introduces a charge card meant to compete with the successful Diners Club card. The Bank of American introduces the BankAmericard, which will become the Visa card.
• Crest toothpaste inaugurates the “Look, Ma! No cavities!” ad campaign.
• Eighteen-year-old Frank Carney sees a story in the Saturday Evening Post about the “pizza fad” among teenagers and college students. With $600 borrowed from his mother, he opens the first Pizza Hut in Wichita, KS.
• On the Air! You’d find 3156 AM radio, 537 FM radio and 492 TV Stations.
• 31.3% of all domestic passenger travel was by railroad; 27.7% by bus; and 38% by air.
• 30.6% of all advertising dollars are spent on newspapers—13.3% on TV. Complete allocation of ad dollars.
• It’s Here! The Hula Hoop.
• Sweet ’n Low is introduced as an artificial sweetener, using saccharin instead of sugar. Sweet ’n Low received US trademark patent no. 1,000,000.
• Nelson Mandela weds Winnie Madikizela.
• UP & International News Service merge into United Press International.
• Vice President Richard Nixon is shoved, stoned, booed and spat upon by protesters in Peru as he makes a goodwill tour of South and Latin America.
• NASA is created and Explorer is launched. A big year for the US in the Space Race.
• RIAA awards the very first Gold record to Perry Como.
• The first ever Grammy Awards!
• Stereophonic recordings, which use two separately recorded channels of sound to recreate a sense of space, come into commercial use.
• Friskees introduces the first dry cat food.
• Japan’s new Datsun (Model 211) cars begin shipping to the US but only 52 will sell. An especially meager number since in 1958 America will import 430,808 passenger cars.
• Pope Pius XII declares Saint Clare of Assisi patron saint of television. Her placement on the television set is said to guarantee good reception.
• Right after that, Pope Pius XII died. Angelo G Roncalli crowned Pope John XXIII.
• Harry Winston Inc. donates the 45.52 carat Hope Diamond to the Smithsonian Institution.
• This is the peak year for drive-in movies with 4063 outdoor screens nationwide.
• In the worst recession since World War II, nearly 5.5 million people are out of work.
• The first women are admitted to the British House of Lords.
• Bill and Mark Richards of Dana Point, CA, invented the first skateboard. They attached roller skate wheels to a square board and sold them at their Val Surf Shop for $8 each.
• The first domestic jet-airline passenger service is begun by National Airlines between New York City and Miami.
• Rice-a-Roni, The San Francisco Treat, is introduced.
• 9000 scientists of 43 nations petition UN for nuclear test ban.
• Prime commercial paper (4 to 6 mos) was at 2.46%. In New York City a commercial loan ran 4.12%
• Air Force Academy opens in Colorado Springs, CO. The all male facility won’t go co-ed unto 1976.
• Mao Tse Tung starts “Great Leap Forward” movement in China
• Charles Starkweather and Caril Fugate go on their killing spree.
• The National Association of Broadcasters bans subliminal ads.
• There is a 55.9% business failure rate.
• The Chevrolet Impala is introduced.
• Cocoa Krispies breakfast food is introduced by the Kellogg Company; it’s 45.9% sugar.
• Cocoa Puffs is introduced by General Mills; it contains 43% sugar.
• Dr. Ake Senning installs the first pacemaker.
• American will import 430,808 passenger cars.
• There are 36,981 motor vehicle related deaths. While in the air, there were 8 accidents resulting in 125 fatalities.
• Unemployment is 6.8%.
• US GNP (Gross National Product) is $468.3 billion.