1956 Facts, History and Fun Trivia |
Quick Facts from 1956 |
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Top Ten Baby Names of 1956Mary, Debra, Linda, Deborah, Susan, Michael, James, Robert, David, John |
Fashion Icons and Sex SymbolsCarroll Baker, Doris Day, Diana Dors, Anita Ekberg, Annette Funicello, Ava Gardner, Audrey Hepburn, Gina Lollobrigida, Sophia Loren, Jayne Mansfield, Marilyn Monroe, Julie Newmar, Kim Novak, Bettie Page, Elizabeth Taylor, Mamie Van Doren |
Sex Symbols and Hollywood HunksJames Dean, Harry Belafonte, Elvis Presley, Gregory Peck |
Oscars: 28th Academy AwardsThe 28th Academy Awards took place on March 21, 1956, at the RKO Pantages Theatre in Hollywood. Comedy legend Jerry Lewis hosted the ceremony. This year, Marty was the standout film, claiming Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Actor for Ernest Borgnine. Anna Magnani won Best Actress for her role in The Rose Tattoo. Emmy Awards: 8th Primetime Emmy AwardsThe Emmy Awards for this year were held on March 17, 1956, at the Pan Pacific Auditorium in Los Angeles. Art Linkletter served as the host. The Phil Silvers Show grabbed the Best Comedy Series award, while Producers’ Showcase bagged Best Dramatic Series. The Best Actor and Actress honors went to Phil Silvers for The Phil Silvers Show and Loretta Young for Letter to Loretta, respectively. For the Oscars, the eligibility spanned the entire calendar year of 1955. The Emmy Awards also adhered to a 1955 production year for eligibility but had less formal rules than the Oscars. |
“The Quotes of 1956”“That’ll be the day.” “You’re in good hands with Allstate.” “We will bury you.” “Live fast, die young, leave a good-looking corpse.” “Takes a licking and keeps on ticking.” “Away go troubles down the drain.” |
Time Magazine’s Men of the YearHungarian Freedom Fighter |
Miss AmericaSharon Ritchie (Denver, CO) |
Miss USACarol Morris (Iowa) |
The ScandalsCharles Van Doren and Herb Stempel, the leading competitors on TV’s quiz show Twenty-One, admitted to being coached by the show’s producers. At the 1956 Olympics, Barry Larkin, a veterinary science student at Sydney University’s St. Johns College, successfully impersonated an Olympic torchbearer, handing the mayor of Sydney a painted chair leg topped with a pair of burning underwear in front of a crowd of thousands. Dick Clark took over hosting duties on Bob Horn’s Bandstand after Bob allegedly twiddled with female teenage dancers who appeared on his show. They changed the name to American Bandstand. |
FalloutNearly half the cast and crew (91 of ~220 people) of the 1956 film The Conqueror developed cancer after filming the movie downwind of a nuclear weapons testing site and later shipping dirt from the filming location to the studio for reshoots. |
1956 FirstsDodge produced the first car marketed explicitly to women. The La Femme had a pink exterior with a pink umbrella and a lipstick holder. On July 9, 1956, Dick Clark began hosting American Bandstand. The first backup camera in a car was in the 1956 Buick Centurion concept car. The first shipping container was invented and patented (Patent #2853968A) in 1956 by Malcolm Mc Lean, which reduced his shipping cost from $5.86 to .16 cents, paving the way for globalization and mass intercontinental shipping. As the World Turns was first broadcast on CBS. NBC introduced its multicolored peacock logo in 1956 to entice people to buy color TVs manufactured by RCA, which owned the network. Neutrinos were discovered. #science Abigail Van Buren’s (aka Pauline Phillips) “Dear Abby” advice column first appeared in newspapers. Jimmy Woo, Federal Agent in Antman and The Wasp and S.H.I.E.L.D. Agent in comics books first appeared in 1956’s Yellow Claw #1 from Atlas Comics (later Marvel Comics). Batwoman (aka Kathy Kane) first appeared in Detective Comics #233 (July 1956). “In God We Trust” wasn’t the official U.S. motto until 1956. Tater Tots went on sale. |
1st Appearances & 1956’s Most Popular Christmas Gifts, Toys and PresentsYahtzee, Ticklebee Game, Play-Doh (color, actual white came out in 1958), Ant Farm |
1956 Pop Culture Facts & HistoryMonkee Mike Nesmith’s mother, Bette Nesmith Graham invented “Mistake Out,” later renamed Liquid Paper. On October 8, Game 5 of the World Series, NY Yankee right-hander Don Larson pitched a ‘perfect game.’ Soviet gymnast Larissa Latynina holds the record for the most Olympic medals ever won by a female. Competing in three Olympics between 1956 and 1964, she won 18 medals. Christopher Cockerell invented the hovercraft. Completed in 1954, the Capitol Records Building in Los Angeles has a light on top that spells out the word ‘Hollywood’ in Morse code. It started blinking Hollywood in 1956 and has only stopped to celebrate Capitol Records’ 50th Anniversary, where it flashed “Capitol 50”. On CBS, The Wizard of Oz became the first major Hollywood film running over ninety minutes to be televised uncut in one evening. In 1956, the US passed the Refrigerator Safety Act, which required all fridges to be magnetically sealed. The world record for “Greatest One-Minute Rainfall” is 31.2 mm (1.23 inches) in Unionville, Maryland on July 4, 1956 Twenty-five people were hospitalized after a melee at a Bill Haley concert in Asbury Park, New Jersey. Killer bees (Africanized bees) were created in Brazil in 1956 by crossbreeding African and Brazilian honeybees to increase honey production. In 1956, the IBM 350 hard disk drive had 3.75 MB of storage and weighed over 2000 lbs. The phrase “I cried all the way to the bank” reputedly came from Liberace in 1956 after a newspaper crudely accused him of homosexuality, and he sued and won. Alfred Hitchcock remade his movie 1934’s The Man Who Knew Too Much as The Man Who Knew Too Much in 1956. Thomas W. Attridge Jr, a test pilot, shot the Grumman F-11 Tiger plane he was flying by catching up to the fired 20 mm bullets that caused his crash landing. |
RIPAlcohol-Related Artist Death: Jackson Pollock died in a car accident. His 1948 work, No. 5, was sold to David Geffen for $140,000,000. Albert Woolson (February 11, 1850 – August 2, 1956), the last Civil War veteran and Union Soldier, died in 1956. The DuMont Television Network was a fourth network on American broadcast television in the 1940s and 1950s. The network folded in 1956, and today it has been all but forgotten because most of its archives were destroyed. |
Not RIP: Indian illusionist P.C. Sorcar, a magician, was performing the “cut a person in half” trick using his assistant for a performance on BBC’s Panorama. Immediately after she was divided, the show ended. There is some controversy as to whether it was a coincidence or Sorcar planned it for publicity. The assistant was fine. |
Nobel Prize WinnersPhysics – William Shockley, John Bardeen, Walter Houser Brattain |
The HabitReading Profiles in Courage by John F. Kennedy |
Best Film Oscar WinnerMarty (presented in 1956) |
Popular and Best-selling Books From 1956A Certain Smile by Francoise Sagan |
Broadway ShowMy Fair Lady (Musical) Opened on March 15, 1956, and closed on September 29, 1962 |
1956 Most Popular TV Shows1. I Love Lucy (CBS) |
1956 Billboard Number One SongsNovember 26, 1955 – January 13, 1956: January 14 – February 17: February 18 – March 2: March 3 – March 23: March 24 – May 2: May 3 – June 15: June 16 – August 3: August 4 – August 17: August 18 – September 14: September 15 – November 2: November 3 – November 16: November 17 – December 7: December 8 – December 21: December 22 – December 28: December 29, 1956 – February 8, 1957: |
SportsWorld Series Champions: New York Yankees |
More 1956 Facts & History Resources:BabyBoomers.com (1956) |