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Born in 1952? Here's the world you arrived into

In 1952, "Blue Tango" topped the charts, The Greatest Show on Earth packed theaters, a stamp cost 3¢, the average home went for about $8,300.

What things cost in 1952

A $0.45 movie ticket in 1952 has the buying power of roughly $5.30 in 2024 dollars, and gas at $0.27 a gallon works out to about $3.20 today.

The biggest moments of 1952

• Dwight D. Eisenhower won the presidential election in a landslide with the slogan "I Like Ike."
• Princess Elizabeth became Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom in February 1952.
• Jonas Salk began testing his polio vaccine, bringing hope to families across the country.

• The Today show premiered on NBC in January 1952 with host Dave Garroway — morning television was born.
• Richard Nixon saved his spot on the Republican ticket with his televised "Checkers" speech, named for the family's cocker spaniel.
• The United States tested "Ivy Mike," the first hydrogen bomb, at Enewetak Atoll in the Pacific on November 1, 1952.

Toys, TV & trends of 1952

• Mr. Potato Head debuted in 1952 and became the first toy ever advertised on television.
• The 3-D movie craze kicked off with Bwana Devil, and audiences donned cardboard glasses.
• Saturday mornings meant tuning in to Howdy Doody and westerns on the family television set.

• Schoolchildren met Bert the Turtle in the civil-defense film Duck and Cover, practicing drills beneath their desks.
• George Reeves first flew across TV screens in The Adventures of Superman, which premiered in September 1952.
• Tony the Tiger debuted on boxes of Kellogg's Sugar Frosted Flakes, declaring them grrreat from the very start.

The music scene

Alan Freed's Moondog Coronation Ball in Cleveland on March 21, 1952, is remembered as the first rock and roll concert — so many fans crashed the gates that the show was stopped almost as soon as it began. Lloyd Price's "Lawdy Miss Clawdy" became a million-seller that crossed over to teenage listeners of every background. In Philadelphia, a local afternoon TV show called Bandstand began playing records for dancing teens, and in Memphis, Sam Phillips launched his own label: Sun Records.

At the movies

This Is Cinerama wowed New York audiences in September 1952 with a curved, three-projector widescreen image — Hollywood's boldest answer yet to the living-room TV set. Gary Cooper's weary marshal in High Noon won him the Best Actor Oscar. And Singin' in the Rain, astonishingly, was received as just another pleasant musical in 1952 — its fame as perhaps the greatest movie musical ever came years later.

Cartoons kids loved

• Tom and Jerry (Oscar winner "The Two Mouseketeers")
• Bugs Bunny and the Looney Tunes shorts
• Popeye theatrical cartoons

The early 1950s were the twilight of the theatrical cartoon's golden age, with MGM, Warner Bros., and the other big studios still crafting lavish seven-minute shorts for movie houses. Television had almost no original animation yet, so kids saw their cartoons on the big screen — often the best-loved seven minutes of the whole matinee.

The world in 1952

• World population: about 2.6 billion
• U.S. President: Harry S. Truman
• Elizabeth II acceded to the British throne in February 1952 after the death of King George VI.

• The Great Smog blanketed London for five days in December 1952, eventually spurring Britain's landmark Clean Air Act.
• Egypt's Free Officers revolution in July 1952 toppled King Farouk and reshaped the Middle East.
• The De Havilland Comet entered service in May 1952 as the world's first commercial jet airliner.

1952 birthday questions

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