Popular Culture Magazine

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Popular Culture Premier Issue

1950s Oil Boom Causes Uproar

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

2

5

Table of Contents Credits

Oil Production Breaks New

6

Inflation

9

Rhythm and Blues of 1957

11

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America’s Hip Surfboard Brand

Artists | Trends | Fashion

Popular Culture EDITOR AND CHIEF Paul Jones PUBLICATION MANAGING EDITOR Ronald Wilkerson PUBLICATION EDITOR kester stephens DESIGNER amir sessoms CONTRIBUTING EDITORS melvina engleson stephanie washington barbra-ann shaver nancy hancock donald hargrove tamir houston EDITORIAL ASSISTANTS sadie georgia kama shastra EDITORIAL INTERNS gabriel nunn jean priyan COPY EDITOR claudia khan CONTRIBUTORS beanheadshop.com jake fitzpatrick ron goldmyer herny oliver frances jones ADVERTISING waterTech Group Spinnle Designs SPECIAL THANKS Reggie Yale Brenda Glydell CONTACT 11145 Pennsylvania Ave Suite 606 info@popularculture.com

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Oil Production Breaks New Record G

lobal oil production went from about 0.1 billion barrels in 1900 to about 4.2 billion barrels in 1950 (CounterCurrents, 2009) and since the mid to late 1950’s, oil has become the most important resource available to mankind. In this decade, oil production had just ‘exceeded 500 million tons for the first time’ (Odell, 1963) giving the annual increase in oil production at around about 7%. In 1943, the British controlled 81% of Middle Eastern oil production as compared with 14% under American control. However after World War 2, the United States was dominating oil production by having a significantly greater advance in oil production than anyone else in the world. Combined together the ‘Seven Sisters’ controlled almost 99% of world oil production.

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Between 1950 and 1960, oil ‘production doubled and proven reserves increased threefold’ (Odell, 1963) showing that even though technological advances were not that significant, different types of drilling were discovered helping exploration and consumption which was rapidly expanding around the world. This was helped by the discovery of the Ghawar Oil Field just before the 1950s in Saudi Arabia which is the world’s largest oil field to date. This led to oil companies branching out across the world and discovering new oil reserves, especially in middle eastern countries including Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and more importantly Iran, in which many companies including BP and Shell managed to ‘negotiate an agreement with Iranian government and for oil production in

Iran’ (APAG, 2005) which opened the pathway for many companies to start mass production of oil and taking the domination of power away from the US. However, with the US in a dominant position after World War 2, they were controlling the western world in the terms of oil production and even controlling such vast countries such as Russia, as they were the only ones with the military and economic presence to influence the Middle Eastern countries. The major crisis that hit in the 1950’s was the Suez oil crisis of 1956, which involved the Suez canal in Egypt which provides a waterway for oil tankers from the Gulf to Europe. Egypt intended to nationalize the canal so it would have control however it ended in military conflict involving the UK,

Oil Derricks in the Prahova Valley in Romania in 1950s.

CREDIT Sovfoto / Universal Images Group

France and Israel. The US intervened at the fears of Soviet involvement and therefore the US’ superior force overcame the Egyptians and became the dominant force in that region.

The story of the discovery well of Michigan’s only “giant” oil field, using the worldwide definition of having produced more than 100 million barrels of oil from a single contiguous reservoir is the stuff of dreams, and of oilfield legends.

One version of the legend says that

a fortune teller told young Ferne Housekecht that a “black river of oil” lay beneath her property in Hillsdale County. Inspired by this revelation, Houseknecht enlisted Clifford Perry, a contract driller and sometimes farmer, to secure a drilling permit and drill a hole on her property. Another version of the story says that the Houseknects were taking a cow to be bred and on the way drove past a drilling rig where Perry was working and from their conversation a deal was

struck. Whatever the truth the Houseknect’s paid Perry to drill the Houseknecht 1 in Section 10 of Scipio Township, Hillsdale County.

The well was begun in May of 1954. It took Perry more than two and a half years to drill the hole, often with months between work.

“The well was drilled with no encouragement from the DNR or the petroleum industry.” The late Ferne Houseknecht Bradford wrote me, “The finances came from my fami-

First Modern Credit Card Introduced

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Truman Signs Peace Treaty With Japan, Officially Ending World War II

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Color TV Introduced

U.S. President Truman Orders Construction of Hydrogen Bomb

Car Seat Belts Introduced Polio Vaccine Created

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ly and friends.” Persistence paid off when on January 7, 1957 at 4:00 p.m., oil was struck at 3,576 feet in the Trenton zone.

The field would come to be known as the “Golden Gulch” and would foster a “boom” on a discovery-hungry petroleum industry to end a fifteen year major discovery drought. The well triggered a drilling frenzy that would result in 734 wells producing more than 150 million barrels of oil and almost a quarter-trillion (225 billion) cubic feet of natural gas from a twenty-nine mile long by as much as a mile and a half wide underground “trench of porosity and permeabily” angling southeast to northwest, spanning parts of Hillsdale, Jack-

son, Calhoun and nominally into Eaton counties. Although Ferne Houseknect and her family paid for and benefited from the discovery well some oilfolk shared her suspicions about what lay underground in the area.

Harold McClure, Jr. and Detroit industrialist Max Fisher (Aroura Gasoline Company) had taken an enormous block of leases on acreage in the general area and drilled several test wells. Although they failed to make the discovery, McClure and Aurora were the first to offset the discovery well with a successful development well drilled in the 3,500 to 4,100 foot Trenton and Black River dolomite and were well positioned to benefit from the

find. A little to the north, Mt. Pleasant’s Tom Mask and K. P. Wood, along with attorney Ray Markel, put together a deal with McClure for a wildcat well near the City of Albion in Calhoun County. The test well, twelve miles northwest of the Perry-Houseknect well, started to make oil from the Trenton in November of 1958, adding the “ Albion” portion of the Trend’s field name. Up in Pulaski Township Mt. Pleasant’s Turner Petroleum put the maraschino cherry on the Albion-Scipio sundae with a strong new well in Pulaski Township, Jackson County ( about midway between the Scipio and Albion wells), putting the Pulaski “pearl” in the Albion-Pulaski-Scipio Field name necklace.

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INFLATION

1950

2016

House: $14,500

House: $300,000

Average income: $3,216

Average income: $55,775

Ford car: $1339 - $2262

Ford car: $ 13,660

Philco model 1403 TV: $199

ProScan PLDED3280A 32” 720p : $150

Admiral “home entertainment” TV system: $549.50

Sauder Beginnings Entertainment Wall System 42”: $125

12” records: $4.85

Beyonce CD $12.04

10” records: $2.85

Rihanna CD $10.63

Milk: $.82

Milk: $2.58

Gas: $.20 / Gal

Gas: $2.25 / Gal

Bread $.14

Bread $2.68

Postage stamp: $.03

Postage stamp: $.47

Pumpkins : $.02 / lb

Pumpkins : $.02 / lb

Campbell’s Pork & Beans – (2) 1 lb. cans: $.25

Campbell’s Pork & Beans – 1 cans: $2.38

Sirloin steak: $.77 / lb

Sirloin steak: $5.98 lb

Kraft Mayonnaise – quart jar : $.62

Kraft Mayonnaise – quart jar: $3.59

DNA Discovered

First Atomic Submarine Launched

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Segregation Ruled Illegal In U.S.

Hillary and Norgay Climb Mt. Everest

Montgomery Bus Boycott Begins

Rosa Parks Refuses To Give Up Seat On Page 9 /Bus POPULAR CULTURE

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Rhythm & Blues of 1957 1. JAILHOUSE ROCK/TREAT ME NICE - Elvis Presley (RCA Victor) 2. SEARCHIN’/YOUNG BLOOD - Coasters (Atco) 3. YOU SEND ME - Sam Cooke (Keen) 4. WAKE UP LITTLE SUSIE - Everly Brothers (Cadence) 5. ALL SHOOK UP - Elvis Presley (RCA Victor) 6. BLUE MONDAY - Fats Domino (Imperial) 7. HONEYCOMB - Jimmie Rodgers (Roulette) 8. DIANA - Paul Anka (ABC-Paramount) 9. SILHOUETTES - Rays (Cameo) 10. COME GO WITH ME - Del Vikings (Dot) 11. I’M WALKIN’ - Fats Domino (Imperial) 12. LOVE IS STRANGE - Mickey & Sylvia (Vik) 13. SEND FOR ME - Nat King Cole (Capitol) 14. SHORT FAT FANNIE - Larry Williams (Specialty) 15. SCHOOL DAY - Chuck Berry (Chess) 16. LITTLE DARLIN’ - Diamonds (Mercury) 17. THAT’LL BE THE DAY - Crickets (Brunswick) 18. LUCILLE - Little Richard (Specialty) 19. WHOLE LOTTA SHAKIN’ GOIN’ ON - Jerry Lee Lewis (Sun) 20. BLUEBERRY HILL - Fats Domino (Imperial) 21. HAPPY, HAPPY BIRTHDAY, BABY - Tune Weavers (Checker) 22. C. C. RIDER - Chuck Willis (Atlantic) 23. MR. LEE - Bobbettes (Atlantic) 24. TEDDY BEAR/LOVING YOU - Elvis Presley (RCA Victor) 25. SINCE I MET YOU BABY - Ivory Joe Hunter (Atlantic) 26. SO RARE - Jimmy Dorsey (Fraternity) 27. JIM DANDY - LaVern Baker (Atlantic) 28. HONKY TONK (Parts 1 & 2) - Bill Doggett (King) 29. LITTLE BITTY PRETTY ONE - Thurston Harris (Aladdin) 30. BE-BOP BABY - Ricky Nelson (Imperial)

T.V. Remote Control Invented Velcro Introduced

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Soviet Satellite Sputnik Launches Space Age

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Laika Becomes the First Living Animal to enter orbit (This sparked animals rights protest around the world)

Boris Paternak Refuses Nobel Prize for Literature NASA founded.

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All She Deserves and More

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SEWING

IS AN ART OF LOVE

CREATING THE NEW

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Resources

https://sites.google.com/site/globaloilproduction12/1950-s-oil-production

http://fiftiesweb.com/pop/prices-1950/

http://history1900s.about.com/od/timelines/tp/1950timeline.htm

http://www.deptofnumbers.com/income/us/ https://www.walmart.com/ip/ProScan

https://www.timetoast.com/timelines/major-events-of-the-1950s--2

http://www.fashion-era.com/1950s/1950s_9_timeline_chart.htm

https://www.usps.com/business/prices.htm www.eatlikenoone.com/price-guide-to-buying-beef-at-sams-club.htm http://www.angelfire.com/mn/coasters/tophits.html

https://www.cmich.edu/library/clarke/ResearchResources/ http://fiftiesweb.com/cars/pontiac/

CREDIT

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British Railway Ad “Portsmouth and Southsea”

Surf-boarding, early 1950s.

Science and Society Museum/ Universal Images Group

Lebrecht Authors / Universal Images Group

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Pontiac Ad “Dollar For Dollar”

Los Angeles County Oil Fields,Photo 1950

Vintage Drive In Sign

Bridgeman Art Library / Universal Images Group

akg Images / Universal Images Group

Panoramic Images / Universal Images Group

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Oil derricks in the Prahova Valley in Romania 1950s.

Oil well, early 1950s.

Sovfoto / Universal Images Group

Lebrecht Authors / Universal Images Group

CREDIT Woman taking a pint of milk from a fridge, 1950.

Science and Society Museum/ Universal Images

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Newspaper Printing press, early 1950s.

Steel mill, early 1950s.

Lebrecht Authors / Universal Images Group

Lebrecht Authors / Universal Images Group

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Love & Beauty Perfume

Love & Beauty Perfume

January

Febuary

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March

April

May