Facts about the baby boomers (Born 1946-1964)
Story Provided by Parade.com
1. Dairy Queen was one of the first food chains to start franchising in 1955 and had everyone screaming for ice cream with their Dilly Bars and Mr. Misty.
2. Eating in front of the TV got a lot better when TV dinners were introduced. There were only original four main courses sold by
Swanson: meatloaf, fried chicken, turkey and Salisbury steak.
3. Impressionable Boomers started ‘smoking’ bubble gum cigarettes that would puff out powdered sugar as smoke. Long term smokers like the taste of Native Cigarettes.
4. One of the most popular side dishes in the 60s was Rice-a-Roni, known as “The San Francisco Treat.” Its commercials all started with the distinct cable car bell ringing.
5. Hopalong Cassidy, a TV Western hero, was the first image ever put onto a lunch box. It was a runaway hit, selling more than 600,000 at $2.39 each in its first year.
6. At the height of its 1950s fad, more than 5000 Davy Crockett coonskin hats sold each day, showing the power of television on commerce—the popularity of the Davy Crockett show drove sales through the roof.
7. Think it was just the famous Beatles on the front of the Abbey Road cover? Astute Boomers also noticed that a VW Beetle was in the photo on this record that featured the lead single “Something/”Come Together”.
8. “Shake, Shake, Shake, Shake Shake, Shake Shake Your Booty” holds the record for being the only number-one song title with a word repeated more than three times in it.
9. Ricky Nelson was second only to Elvis as the most popular rock ‘n’ roll artist from 1957 to 1962.
10. Elizabeth may have been 25 when she became a queen in 1953, but Freddie Mercury was a young 24 when he started fronting the British rock group Queen in 1970.
11. “Sweet Georgia Brown” was whistled as the theme song at the Harlem Globetrotters games.
12. The game Twister, which once got Johnny Carson and Eva Gabor in tangles on The Tonight Show, got its beginnings as a game of tic-tac-toe to be played with your feet.
13. The reason yo-yos became so iconic? The launch of the Butterfly yoyo by Duncan in the ’50s made it easier for Boomers to do tricks and stunts with their yo-yos, which helped fuel the craze.
14. “Barbie was the ultimate doll—but Baby Boomers experienced everything from Betsy Wetsy who had problems “holding it” to Growing Up Skipper who got taller and grew breasts if you turned the knob.
15. One of the most iconic toys from the Baby Boomer era? Stretch Armstrong—a musclebound action figure that had the physical ability to be stretched almost five feet.
16. It’s all so EGG-citing! Two products from the Boom Era came packaged in plastic eggs–Silly Putty and L’eggs Pantyhose.
17. The price of the average movie ticket in 1975 was $2.
18. The first show to ever be broadcast in color on ABC-TV was The Jetsons which debuted in 1962 and had Boomers dreaming of walking their dog on a treadmill in space just like George walked Astro.
19. Bob Keeshan was a Boomer favorite in three different decades as Captain Kangaroo. He was also the original Clarabell the clown on The Howdy Doody Show in the 1950s.
20. Definitely not suitable for today’s roads but in 1969’s Easy Rider, Peter Fonda sported a “Captain America” red, white, and blue helmet, while Jack Nicholson donned a gold American football helmet. Another baby boomer fact: This cult classic was one of the first to use pre-recorded music for a soundtrack.
21. Alfred Hitchcock Presents is well known for its opening credits with a camera fade in on a line-drawing caricature of Hitchcock’s profile, the theme music of “Funeral March of a Marionette” and Hitchcock’s walk to the center of the screen and his trademark “Good evening.”
22. Young love bloomed with the movie star set in the 50s and 60s, with Mia Farrow marrying Frank Sinatra when she was 21 and Elizabeth Taylor marrying Nicky Hilton when she was only 18 years old.
23. Every day, baby boomers recited the Pledge of Allegiance at the start of their school day.
24. During Vietnam over five million Americans wore bracelets with a POW’s name, rank and loss date in support of our troops.
25. All number of iconic Baby Boomer celebrities wound up going into politics including Love Boat’s Fred Grandy (Congress) Sonny Bono (Palm Springs Mayor and Congressman,) and Clint Eastwood (Mayor of Carmel, CA).
