As Seen on TV: The Visual Culture of Everyday Life in the 1950s

Historian Marling (Iwo Jima: Monuments and the American Hero) takes us back to those early days of television, when Ike was in the White House and everybody loved Lucy. The author explains TV's tremendous influence: it allowed Mrs. Eisenhower to give the nation the ``Mamie Look,'' and advertised both Disneyland and the big-business ``leisure society'' created by the 40-hour workweek. Marling also looks into America's love affair with the automobile (``Drive your Chev-ro-lay through the USA,'' sang Dinah Shore); the importance of Elvis and Betty Crocker; and Cold War politics, featuring Richard Nixon in the kitchen with Nikita Khrushchev. A nostalgic, informative and sometimes funny view of 1950's American culture. Photos. (Sept.)