In 1949, "Riders in the Sky" topped the charts, Samson and Delilah packed theaters, a stamp cost 3¢, the average home went for about $7,450.
🎵 Top songs of 1949
"Riders in the Sky" — Vaughn Monroe
"That Lucky Old Sun" — Frankie Laine
"You're Breaking My Heart" — Vic Damone
🎬 In theaters
Samson and Delilah
Battleground
She Wore a Yellow Ribbon
What things cost in 1949
$0.27
Gallon of gas
3¢
Postage stamp
$0.46
Movie ticket
$0.82
Gallon of milk
$7,450
Average home
$1,420
New car
$3,100
Household income
A $0.27 gallon of gas in 1949 has the buying power of roughly $3.65 today, and the 46-cent movie ticket equals about $6.20 in today's dollars — and 1949 prices actually dipped slightly, one of the rare deflationary years of the century.
The biggest moments of 1949
The United States joined eleven other nations to form NATO in April 1949.
The first Emmy Awards were handed out in January as television sets rapidly spread into American living rooms.
George Orwell's novel Nineteen Eighty-Four was published and became an instant sensation.
Harry Truman's January 1949 inauguration was the first ever shown on television, reaching an estimated ten million viewers — more people than had watched all previous inaugurations in person combined.
The first Pillsbury Bake-Off was held at New York's Waldorf-Astoria in 1949, with a then-astounding $50,000 grand prize.
The first Volkswagen Beetles arrived in America in 1949 — and exactly two were sold that year.
Toys, TV & trends of 1949
The board game Candy Land was invented in 1949, created to entertain children recovering from polio.
The mystery game Clue arrived in American stores, letting families play detective in the parlor.
The Lone Ranger galloped onto television in September 1949, one of the first big Western hits on the small screen.
Dragnet debuted on radio in June 1949, and Jack Webb's clipped "just the facts" delivery became a national catchphrase in the making.
The bug-building game Cootie went on sale in 1949, hand-launched by a Minnesota mailman turned toymaker.
Crayola introduced its big 48-crayon box in 1949, the largest assortment kids had ever seen.
The music scene
RCA Victor introduced the little 45 rpm single in 1949, complete with its own quick-drop record changer, kicking off a "war of the speeds" with Columbia's LP. In June, a lanky Alabama singer named Hank Williams made his Grand Ole Opry debut with "Lovesick Blues" and was called back for a string of encores. That Christmas, singing cowboy Gene Autry recorded "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer," which raced up the charts and became one of the best-selling records of all time.
At the movies
With television sets multiplying, weekly movie attendance kept sliding from its 1946 peak, and Hollywood scrambled for spectacle to win audiences back. On the Town broke new ground by shooting its musical numbers on location in New York City rather than on a soundstage. The year's hard-hitting political drama All the King's Men went on to win Best Picture.
Cartoons kids loved
Wile E. Coyote and the Road Runner debuted in the Chuck Jones short Fast and Furry-ous.
Mr. Magoo first appeared in the UPA cartoon The Ragtime Bear.
Pepé Le Pew starred in For Scent-imental Reasons, which won the Academy Award for best cartoon.
Television got its very first made-for-TV cartoon in 1949: Crusader Rabbit, a bargain-budget serial co-created by Jay Ward, who would later give the world Rocky and Bullwinkle. In the theaters, the modernist rebels at UPA — many of them veterans of the 1941 Disney strike — kept pushing stylized, limited animation that made the old rubber-hose realism look old-fashioned overnight.
The world in 1949
World population: about 2.5 billion
U.S. President: Harry S. Truman
NATO was founded in April 1949 by the United States, Canada, and ten Western European nations.
The Soviet Union lifted the Berlin Blockade on May 12, 1949, after the airlift's planes had flown for nearly eleven months.
Mao Zedong proclaimed the People's Republic of China on October 1, 1949.
Germany formally split in two in 1949, with the Federal Republic founded in the west in May and the Democratic Republic in the east in October.
1949 birthday questions
How old is someone born in 1949?
Someone born in 1949 turns 77 in 2026 (76 if their birthday has not come round yet).
What was the number one song in 1949?
"Riders in the Sky" by Vaughn Monroe was among the biggest hits of 1949.
What movie came out in 1949?
Samson and Delilah was one of the films packing theaters in 1949.
How much did gas cost in 1949?
A gallon of gas ran about $0.27 in 1949, and a postage stamp cost 3¢.
How much did a house cost in 1949?
The average home went for roughly $7,450 in 1949, against a typical household income of about $3,100.