1950s The New Consumer

CONSUMERS RULED THE 1950s, and business was there to cater to them. But covers also caught some new trends still much in evidence. Two examples: the power of private pension-fund money and an already visible shortfall in Social Security.

An executive-suite woman made her appearance (Hazel Bishop: "The lipstick business can't be kissed off"). As U.S. industry started to move south and west, communism was building an industrial power in China, and Sputnik rocketed the world into the Space Age. In Detroit, the move to smaller cars began (preceded by the ill-fated Edsel). The decade also saw the birth of an entertainment icon (Disneyland) and of the European Common Market.

And a 1951 cover pointed out: "A lot of management theories are all wrong."