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First Issue of Playboy Features Marilyn Monroe |
Korean armistice was signed.
Dwight D. Eisenhower assumed U.S. Presidency. He nominee
Earl Warren, became Chief Justice of
the U.S. Supreme Court. He formed a government contract oversight committee. He
condemned
Joseph McCarthy’s
book-banning proposal, while Georgia approved the country’s first literature
censorship board. East Berlin failed in their attempt at insurrection.
Julius and
Ethel Rosenberg were executed as spies.
Charlie Chaplin left the U.S. amidst claims he was a communist.
Fidel
Castro began his rebellion against Cuban leader
Juan Batista.
Winston
Churchill was knighted by recently crowned
Queen Elizabeth II. The hydrogen bomb was developed.
Lucille Ball gave birth to
Desi Arnaz Jr., for real while TV Lucy
gave birth to Little Ricky. Hollywood developed wide-screen cinemascope in an
attempt to separate Americans from their TVs.
TV Guide debuted.
Samuel
Beckett’s
En Attendant Godot
opened in Paris.
Arthur Miller’s
The Crucible opened in New York. First
successful open-heart surgery was performed.
Edmund Hillary and
Tenzing Norgay were the first climbers
to reach the crest of Mount Everest.
Bill Vukovich won the Indianapolis 500
.
Ernest Hemingway’s
Old Man and
The Sea received the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. The Mystery Writers of
America didn’t award an Edgar for “Best Novel” until 1954. However they did
give an award for a “Best First Novel” in ’53.
It went to
William Campbell Gault
for
Don’t Cry For Me. Other books of
note included
Junkie by
William Burroughs,
Plexus by
Henry Miller, Go Tell It On The Mountain by
James Baldwin and
The Adventures of Augie March by
Saul Bellow. Best sellers
that year included
The Robe by
Lloyd C. Douglas,
The Silver Chalice by
Thomas
B. Costain, and
From Here To Eternity
by
James Jones. On the big screen we
watched
Roman Holiday,
Peter Pan,
How To Marry A millionaire,
Pickup
on South Street,
Titanic,
From Here To Eternity,
Gentlemen Prefer Blondes,
Shane,
War of the Worlds, and
The
Wild Ones. We listened to “Song From Moulin Rouge” by
Percy Faith, “
Vaya Con Dios”
by
Les Paul and
Mary Ford,” I’m Waking Behind You” by
Eddie Fisher, “You, You, You” by the
Ames Brothers,
“I’ll Waltz Again
With You” by
Theresa Brewer, “April
in Portugal” by
Les Baxter, “No
Other Love” by
Perry Como, and “I
Believe” by
Frankie Laine. Among
those born in 1953 were
Tony Blair,
Kim Basinger,
Pierce Brosnan and
John
Malkovich. Taking their leave were
Joseph
Stalin,
Eugene O’Neil,
Queen Mary,
Dylan Thomas,
Sergei
Prokofiev, and
Hank Williams.
If you were around, what were you doing
during this year of the water snake?
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1953 Nash |
2 comments:
I was still a kid in 1953, but I remember a lot of that stuff very well. I think I saw just about very movie you mentioned, and I can still hum most of those songs. As I remember, The Old Man and the Sea first appeared in Life Magazine, to which my grandmother subscribed. Probably the year before it won the Pulitzer. I would've been 10 or 11, but I must already have had a literary bent because I remember reading it in the magazine. Probably didn't understand it, though.
I was eleven. I'm pretty sure I didn't see that see that first issue of Playboy. Like you though, I remember a lot of the rest, especially all the Lucy stuff. I also saw the Indy 500.
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