Giving nicknames to some decades was a 20th century development, but few actually stuck.
There were the “Gay 90s” (1890s, that is), the Roaring 20s, the Swinging 60s…

Events or trends that identify a time period are more noteworthy—the jazz age of the 1920s, economic depression in the 1930s, global war in the 1940s, drugs and civil disobedience in the 1960s—even though a suitable “name” for the decade is never really conferred.

Wildwood celebrates the Fabulous 50s this weekend, although we never called it that as we lived through that time. But maybe—at least subconsciously—we did think it was quite a good time to be alive.

Our fathers were all home from the war, middle class families were starting to get automobiles (which were starting to look like airplanes) and telephones, iceboxes were rapidly being replaced by refrigerators, and every year, thousands more living rooms added a television (which, at the time, we thought was a good thing).

And if you think people are afraid of AIDS today, it’s not as widespread a fear as was polio in the 50s, but Dr. Jonas Salk ended the worry in 1955 with his polio vaccine, effectively eliminating new polio cases by 90 percent as the 1960s dawned.

The space program also started in earnest in the 1950s, although popular belief today gives credit to John Kennedy in the 1960s.

And music changed drastically. Big bands were replaced by small “combos”—usually four or five performers (drum and guitars), which were more economical than an orchestra of 30 or 40 professionally trained musicians.

The “swing” style of the big band was rapidly being changed to a new breed of music, to become known as rock and roll.
Some artists of the 50s (Buddy Holly, for instance) preferred calling it “rock-a-billy,” since they heard it as an upbeat kind of hillbilly music, with a country/Gospel singer named Elvis Presley acting as the style’s vanguard.

Probably no decade was as recognizable by its music as the 1950s. There’s no mistaking original, classic rock ‘n roll harmony, beat, lyrics, and tempo for a later or earlier era.

The classic rock ‘n roll era lasted about 10 years—grabbing hold with what many consider its anthem: Rock Around The Clock in 1954, and fading into the “rock” era with the advent of the Beatles in 63.

When I returned home from the Air Force in 1966, I looked up my buddy, Jack, who was a musician, and in the course of discussing the transformation that was taking place in popular music at the time, he told me that, according to Variety, there were no million-selling records between “Quarter To Three” by Gary U.S. Bonds in 1961, and “I Want To Hold Your Hand” by the Beatles in 63.

This, he assured me, was the reason this new group from England had to be so heavily promoted by the industry, because the pop music scene had “grown stale.”

Did the Fab Four change the beat from the Fab 50s? Or was it just a brainstorm by the record promoters?

Whether economics as opposed to changing tastes prompted the demise of the music that helped define the decade, well…who can say.

This weekend in Wildwood, you can see and hear one of the principals in that legend, when he performs live Saturday Night at the Convention Center. The Fabulous ‘50s Concert will feature Gary U.S. Bonds, Ben E. King, Terry Johnson’s Flamingos, The Del Vikings, and The Mahoney Brothers.

This weekend there will also be a classic car show (hey, it is the fifties, man!), a street fair, plenty of vendors, and Jerry Blavat kicking things off Friday, Oct. 17 from 7 to 11 p.m. with his record hop at the Wildwoods Convention Center.