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Born in 1957? Here's the world you arrived into

In 1957, "All Shook Up" topped the charts, The Bridge on the River Kwai packed theaters, a stamp cost 3¢, the average home went for about $10,550.

What things cost in 1957

A $0.31 gallon of gas in 1957 has the buying power of roughly $3.45 in 2024 dollars, and the $1.00 gallon of milk equals about $11 today.

The biggest moments of 1957

• The Soviet Union launched Sputnik on October 4, 1957, kicking off the Space Age.
• American Bandstand with Dick Clark went national on ABC in August 1957.
• Leave It to Beaver premiered, capturing everyday suburban family life.

• Nine Black students integrated Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas, escorted by federal troops.
• Ford launched the Edsel in September 1957 with enormous fanfare — it became the auto industry's most famous flop.
• The Milwaukee Braves toppled the Yankees in the World Series behind Lew Burdette's three complete-game victories.

Toys, TV & trends of 1957

• Wham-O introduced the Pluto Platter, the flying disc soon renamed the Frisbee.
• Dr. Seuss published The Cat in the Hat, and beginning readers were never the same.
• Kids hummed along to "What's Opera, Doc?", one of the most famous Bugs Bunny cartoons ever made.

• Zorro premiered on ABC in October 1957, and kids everywhere slashed Z's in the air with imaginary swords.
• Westerns ruled the new 1957 TV schedule, with Maverick, Wagon Train, and Have Gun – Will Travel all debuting that fall.
• Perry Mason began winning every case in September 1957, with Raymond Burr as the unbeatable defense attorney.

The music scene

Buddy Holly and the Crickets hit number one with "That'll Be the Day," and the bespectacled Texan showed ordinary kids everywhere that they could be rock stars too. The Everly Brothers' close harmonies carried "Wake Up Little Susie" to the top, Jerry Lee Lewis pounded out "Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On," and a gospel-trained singer named Sam Cooke crossed over gorgeously with "You Send Me."

At the movies

The Bridge on the River Kwai marched off with seven Academy Awards, including Best Picture, and audiences whistled its theme for months. Elvis danced through the celebrated title number of Jailhouse Rock. And 12 Angry Men, though embraced by critics, actually struggled at the box office in 1957 — its stature as a classic grew steadily in the years that followed.

Cartoons kids loved

• Ruff and Reddy (the first Hanna-Barbera TV series)
• The Woody Woodpecker Show
• Bugs Bunny in What's Opera, Doc?

When MGM abruptly shuttered its legendary cartoon studio, directors William Hanna and Joseph Barbera struck out on their own in 1957 and founded Hanna-Barbera Productions. Their money-saving "limited animation" style — fewer drawings, reusable backgrounds, personality carried by voices — made original made-for-TV cartoons affordable for the first time, and children's television was never the same.

The world in 1957

• World population: about 2.9 billion
• U.S. President: Dwight D. Eisenhower
• The Soviet Union launched Sputnik, the world's first artificial satellite, in October 1957.

• The Treaty of Rome, signed in March 1957, created the European Economic Community — forerunner of the European Union.
• Ghana gained independence in March 1957, the first of Britain's sub-Saharan African colonies to do so.
• A month after the first satellite, the Soviets launched Sputnik 2 carrying Laika the dog, the first living creature to orbit Earth.

1957 birthday questions

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