Welcome to Retro Rewind. Sometimes a great movie, song, or fashion idea is just around the corner; a corner in the past that is. With our culture’s love of recycling, this column goes back to a random year end highlights key movies, music, and styles of that year. Rather than just randomly make a list though, we’ll make it relevant to today.

On the surface, the 50s seem like an easy reference to a time of intolerance and strict restrictions on women. But a lot was going on behind the scenes in 1956 and its well worth remembering.

Modern Twist on Fashion: Hoodies today wouldn’t be around without the invention of the coat hood in 1956. Mauves, pinks, and ivories were also popular colors then and now.

Fashion
1956 was a very important year for fashion. It was here that fashion went from being about “a look” to being about your look and encouraging individual self-expression. The release of “My Fair Lady” influenced fashion into adding more feminine touches to clothing, particularly in little details. Cropped coats grew in popularity and over time would develop into the cropped cardigans that were so popular just a few years ago. But perhaps most influential was the introduction of a hood on coats. Most people these days wouldn’t know what to do on a cold day without a hoodie and we wouldn’t have them without the fashion of 1956.

Movies

The popular movies of 1956 included “The Ten Commandments”, “War and Peace”, “The King & I”, and “High Society”. Ingrid Bergman was the woman of the year, sweeping the various film awards for Best Actress in “Anastasia”. The Best Picture category was dominated by “Around the World in 80 Days”. 1956 was a year of finality in film. James Dean played in his final role in “Giant”, Grace Kelly’s movie “High Society” was her last before marrying Prince Rainier. “The Harder They Fall” marked Humphrey Bogart’s final role. Even the kids lost favorites as Donald Duck and Chip & Dale ended their series as well.

Slang & Fads
As in many years, there were plenty of fads and trends in 1956. But many still hold true today. TV Dinners were a 50s creation to make life easier as more women began seeking careers. These days, tv dinners are practically a staple. The debate on whether or not that’s a good thing is a different story. And of course, if you were going to cook, you’ll need somewhere to store those leftovers and Tupperware was around to save the day. Other popular items included Frisbees, scrabble, blue jeans, beanies, hula hoops and legos.

Music
1956 was the year of rock n roll and no one embodied that better than the Million Dollar Quartet. The nickname was given to Roy Orbison, Carl Perkins, Johnny Cash, and Elvis Presley who toured together often and dominated the charts. Check out the playlist below for some of the great tunes of 1956.

Books
Books in 1956 were immensely varied but some of the most beloved children’s books released this year. CS Lewis ended the Narnia series with “The Last Battle” and Marguerite Henry released “Misty of Chincoteague”. Ian Fleming added to his James Bond series with “Diamonds are Forever”. And the world lost a great children’s author with the death of “Winnie the Pooh” author, A.A. Milne.