Looking Back to 1956

By Barry Krause
 Elvis Presley’s “Don’t Be Cruel” has amazed everyone by staying the number one hit music single for eleven straight weeks. Other favorite songs today are “Hot Diggity, Dog Ziggity Boom” by Perry Como, and “The Great Pretender” by the Platters, but rumors have it that Presley is the one to watch.
 “Around the World in Eighty Days” and “The Ten Commandments” are packing them into the movie the- aters even after they raised adult prices to 75 cents a head, but you can get to the theater for ten cents on your city bus route if you can’t afford gasoline at 22 cents a gallon for fully leaded regular with trading stamps as a bonus to lure more customers into the service station.
 Your neighbors just bought a new Ford for $2,000 which is half their yearly income so you expect them to take a while to pay it off. They give their ten-year-old son a 25 cent a week allowance which he promptly wastes on Topps baseball cards that he throws away to get to the stick of bubble gum.
 It costs 3 cents to mail a sealed letter at the Post Office, but only 2 cents if you leave it unsealed and en- close only a greeting card costing a dime at your drug store where the soda jerk whips up some great Green Rivers at 20 cents a glass.
 Dwight Eisenhower gets re-elected President and signs a curious act establishing an Interstate Highway System which doesn’t stand a chance of replacing such venerable cross-country roads as Route 66. A funny but ambitious man named Fidel Castro lands on the coast of Cuba to start a revolution against the entrenched Batista regime which has even less chance of success.
 It’s enough to make us want to curl up on our living room couch and watch the latest hit shows on our little black-and-white television. Thank heavens for CBS, Channel 2 in our town, which broadcasts our two favorite programs, “I’ve Got a Secret” and “Gunsmoke.” At least the westerns will never die on prime time TV.
 The Yankees won the World Series again, so what else is new? Next thing you know, somebody will dream up the outlandish theory that some sports player is using hormones to play better!
 The October, 1956 issue of “Coronet” magazine, a popular family publication at that time with a format and contents similar to the “Reader’s Digest.”
 At least in the business of antiques and collectibles, sanity reigns supreme. There’s something for every budget, although we hear a lot of complaints about price gouging on Tiffany lamps and Currier and Ives prints at $50 apiece for common varieties.
 If you’re a coin collector, you can get all the 19th century silver dollars that you want at face value at your local bank. Rare Lincoln cents and Buffalo nick- els are still in circulation if you know which dates to look for.
 In 1956, this ad (upper right) for Camels cigarettes appeared, featuring a celebrity testimonial by Phil Silvers who played “Sergeant Bilko” on his CBS television show then, a time when there were no restrictions on tobacco ads or health warnings on the packages.
 We’re tempted to stash away a big supply of the 45 RPM record single of Presley’s “Don’t Be Cruel” with “Hound Dog” on the flip side, but they will never have any premium value because anyone can get all they can carry at any department store that sells modern records.
 Furniture is bargain priced for those who know. Victorian examples are continually being stripped down and refinished with nice new stains and varnish. An 1880 oak bookcase recently sold for $10 but achieved that lofty price only because it was once owned by Albert Einstein whose genuine autographs must be worth at least that much on letters with important contents.
 The 100th anniversary of our Civil War is fast approaching us, and experts estimate that nice Confederate weapons will skyrocket in value after 1961 cen- tennial celebrations start. Look for rust-free swords and daggers if paying $75 or higher, but union examples are more common and cheaper.
 All those common “Made in Japan” toys and salt shakers that are the laughing stock of stand-up comedians are a big waste of money because they will never be worth more than their dime store prices today. Comedian Jerry Lewis makes a joke that Japan will soon be selling us cars and cameras as well, which should give union boss Jimmy Hoffa something to worry about!
 As far as glassware goes, look for true antique items, that is, anything made before 1856, and pass up all the 20th century glass that dealers don’t know what to do with, except certain Tiffany pieces from before the First World War.
 Atomic bomb collectibles may someday be all the rage. In May, the United states exploded the nation’s first aerial hydrogen bomb over the Bikini Atoll, and atom bomb blasts are soon to become tourist attractions in the deserts outside of Las Vegas if Russia doesn’t stop us from doing them with some sort of treaty.
 For dinner tonight, let’s buy some lean hamburger at 49¢ a pound, a loaf of fresh white bread for 17¢, two pounds of coffee for $1.50 and salad fixings for a half a dollar.
 Then we can plan our purchases of antique jewelry at the jewelry mart tomorrow. They say they have a big sale on pure gold earrings and bracelets, and, with gold going for $35 an ounce, we can’t go wrong if we seek good value.
 But we’ll pass up the gaudy Victorian jewelry as silly creations, and spend our money on early 19th century pieces of established worth, such as the ruby and diamond bracelet they recently had priced at $235, circa 1810, assuming the gemstones are real and not those modern fakes that can fool beginners.

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