Memory Lane

Take a stroll with us down Memory Lane–with everything from trivia from day's gone by to  favorite old-time family recipes, photos with hairstyle and fashion choices you'd like to forget. Anything nostalgic is fair game, so come and sit a spell.

SEPTEMBER - 1949

Irna Phillips, creator of the first TV soap opera,
These Are My Children
1949 After many years of misery through the depression and World War 11 postwar prosperity is starting to get underway with companies now able to supply the cars, Televisions and the other goods demanded in a consumer society. The cars got bigger, the TV's got bigger, with some 6.2 million new cars sold in the US and nearly 10 million Televisions in American homes, A new type of TV programme appeared we now call Soap Operas ( the name came from the fact many soap manufacturers sponsored the shows to catch the stay at home mum with advertising ) . China became a communist country and Russia had the Nuclear Bomb which increased the tension between East and West ( The Cold War ). 


Popular Culture

  • George Orwell's book Nineteen Eighty-Four is published
  • 45 rpm discs are introduced
  • First Polaroid sold for $89.95
  • "A" You're Adorable " by Perry Como
  • "Mule Train " by Frankie laine
  • FILM Twelve O'Clock High
  • First Polaroid Camera sold for $89.95
  • Frank Sinatra stars in "On The Town" with Gene Kelly
  • Rodgers and Hammerstein debut the musical "South Pacific" on Broadway


Top Songs
  1. Riders in the Sky - Vaughn Monroe
  2. That Lucky Old Sun - Frankie Lane
  3. You're Breaking My Heart - Vic Damone
  4. Some Enchanted Evening - Perry Como
  5. Slipping Around - Jimmy Wakely and Margaret Whiting
  6. I Can Dream, Can't I - The Andrews Sisters and Gordon Jenkins
  7. Cruising Down the River - Russ Morgan
  8. A Little Bird Told Me - Evelyn Knight
  9. Mule Train - Frankie Laine
  10. Jealous Heart - Al Morgan


Top Movies

  • Adam's Rib
  • All the King's Men
  • Battleground
  • Beyond the Forest
  • Champion
  • Gun Crazy
  • The Heiress
  • Kind Hearts and Coronets
  • On the Town
  • Orpheus
  • The Reckless Moment 
  • The Third Man
  • Twelve O'Clock High
  • Whisky Galore!
  • White Heat 

Top Books
1949 
1. The Egyptian Mika Waltari
2. The Big Fisherman Lloyd C. Douglas
3. Mary Sholem Asch
4. A Rage to Live John O'Hara
5. Point of No Return John P. Marquand
6. Dinner at Antoine's Frances Parkinson Keyes
7. High Towers Thomas B. Costain
8. Cutlass Empire Van Wyck Mason
9. Pride's Castle Frank Yerby
10. Father of the Bride Edward Streeter 



How Much things cost in 1949
  • Yearly Inflation Rate U.S.A. -0.95% UK 2.6% 
  • Average Cost of new house $7,450.00 
  • Average wages per year $2,950.00 
  • Cost of a gallon of Gas 17 cents 
  • Average Cost of a new car $1,420.00 
  • Minimum Hourly Wage Rate 70 cents per hour
  • Bacon per pound 50 cents 
  • Dobbs Hat $8.50 
  • Kitchen Table and Chairs $100.00 

Technology

Inventions Invented by Inventors and Country ( or attributed to First Use) 


  • The first automatic street lights are installed in New Milford,
  • 45 rpm Record - USA
  • The world's first commercially available computer The Ferranti Mark 1 Released

What Events Happened In 1949


  • Ecuador - 6.75 Richter scale earthquake in Ecuador kills 6000 and destroys 50 towns
  • Russia - Soviet Union tests its first atomic bomb.
  • NATO - North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) Established
  • Germany - Federal Republic of Germany officially founded
  • Indonesia - gains it's independence From Netherlands
  • Germany - Berlin Airlift officially comes to an end on
  • China - The Communist People’s Republic of China is proclaimed under Mao Tse Tung.
  • Taiwan - Republic of China / Taiwan on the island of Formosa comes into being following the defeat by Mao Tse Tung
  • Switzerland - The Geneva Convention is agreed providing an agreement on the treatment of prisoners
  • U.S. - RCA Perfects a system for broadcasting color television
  • U.S. - First Polaroid Camera sold for $89.95
  • U.S. - President Harry S. Truman authorizes $16 million in aid forPalestinian refugees
  • U.S. - The Emmy Awards for US Television first presented
  • U.S. - First Volkswagen Beetle The Peoples Car sold in US
  • Germany - The first car with a Porsche badge is shown
  • UK - De-Havilland Comet first commercial passenger jet airliner test flight
  • South Africa - Apartheid Made official Policy of National party in South Africa
  • Canada - Newfoundland Joins Canada Confederation
  • United States - NBA National Basketball Association NBA Comes Into Being 

Born This Year

  • Larry Holmes 
  • Jeff Bridges 
  • Lionel Richie 
  • Bruce Springsteen 
  • John Belushi 
  • Patrick Duffy 
  • Gloria Gaynor 
  • Maurice Gibb 
  • Andy Kaufman  
  • Jessica Lange 
  • Meryl Streep 
  • Vera Wang 
  • Sigourney Weaver 

Continue your trip down memory lane by visiting our Flashbacks Past page. Do you have any memories you'd like to share?  Feel free to leave them on our Facebook page for our fans to view and respond to.  You may very well make someone's day.