9. Entertainment was less violent during the 1950s
Films, television, and other forms of entertainment during the 1950s were under considerable censorship, which though it cracked down on sexual innuendo and display, allowed extensive violence. Popular television programs included numerous westerns, among them Gunsmoke (which first appeared on radio), Have Gun, Will Travel, Wanted: Dead or Alive, and The Rifleman. Gun violence, fistfights, knife fights, and violent crimes are featured in all of them, and many others. Several crime dramas serialized on television also drew criticism for extensive and gratuitous violence, including Mickey Spillane’s Mike Hammer, and Peter Gunn, the latter remembered today largely for its innovations in music selection. Despite the censorship, 1950s television was fraught with violent imagery and reports of violent acts, on any given night of viewership.
Films of the 1950s also depicted violence, including mob violence, union scab busting (On the Waterfront), gang violence (The Wild Ones), premeditated murder (Strangers on a Train), murder for hire (Dial M for Murder) and many more. The 1950s was the heyday of the film technique known as film noir, with its shadowy photography and often violent crimes of passion. Depictions of violence often did not include the blood and gore prominently displayed in more recent films, and often the acts were implied, or the camera panned away from the scene, but the impression remained. Science fiction films boomed in the 1950s, driven by both the atomic bomb and the growing interest in the exploration of space. They too often contained excessive violence, for example in films such as The Creature from the Black Lagoon and the Godzilla series from Japan.
