FROM CITIES TO SUBURBIA AND BACK (PART 1) RICK TOBIN
“Diners Club”, and the expansion of consumer credit took off from there.
The introduction of credit cards helped restaurants and small businesses increase their sales tremendously in
the 1950s. With the ready supply of new credit, Americans began visiting more restaurants, traveling, and
spending money at shopping malls (first opened in 1956). Nineteen fifty-six was the same year that President
Dwight D. Eisenhower helped push through the approval of the Interstate Highway Act. The new bill funded
the construction of over 46,000 miles of new roads with more than $130 billion of federal money. The new
roads helped car, truck, and suburban home sales increase dramatically throughout the nation.
The 1950s was also the decade that gave us
the introduction of the national franchised
business. Ray Kroc, a successful milk shake
mixer salesman, was impressed with his
customers’ The McDonald Brothers’ Self
Service
Restaurant
in
San
Bernardino,
California. Ray Kroc was amazed by the
efficiency of their automated food serving
system as well as with the high number of
food sales at their restaurant. Mr. Kroc made
an agreement with McDonald’s to franchise
their restaurant business nationwide.
Hollywood began to get in on the act of promoting the perfect American lifestyles with hit television shows like
Father Knows Best, Leave It To Beaver, and Ozzie and Harriet. As more and more television viewers
watched these television shows, more Americans tried to emulate these shows by moving out to suburbia to
find their own version of the “white picket fence” home.
Walt Disney purchased 160
acres of orange groves in
Anaheim in the early 1950s,
and began the construction of
the
ideal place to visit –
Disneyland. Television, movies,
and theme parks began to
focus on entertaining people as
a way to distract them from the
daily pressures of life.