In 1954

The “auteur theory” was first rudimentarily expressed by 21 year-old critic/filmmaker Francois Truffaut in his essay in the French film-review periodical “Cahiers du Cinema” titled “A Certain Tendency in French Cinema.”  Dorothy Dandridge was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress, the first African-American ever nominated, for her role in Carmen Jones.

The first mass vaccination of children against polio began in Pittsburgh, United States. RCA manufactured the first color television set (12-inch screen; price: $1,000). Bill Haley & His Comets recorded “Rock Around the Clock”, thus mainstreaming the rock and roll craze. Texas Instruments announced the development of the first commercial transistor radio. In Brown v. Board of Education, The U.S. Supreme Court ruled unanimously that segregated schools are unconstitutional.

On April 22, Senator Joseph McCarthy began hearings investigating the United States Army for being “soft” on Communism.  On June 9, Joseph Welch, special counsel for the United States Army, lashed out at Senator Joseph McCarthy, famously saying, “Have you, at long last, no decency?”.  By the end of the year,The United States Senate condemned McCarthy for “conduct that tends to bring the Senate into dishonor and disrepute.”.

John Patrick won the Pulitzer Prize in drama for The Teahouse of the Autumn Moon.  No prize was awarded for fiction.  Kitty Kallen’s “Little Things Mean a Lot” spent 9 weeks atop the Billboard Charts in the US.

In Febuary, after authorizing $385 million over the $400 million already budgeted for military aid to Vietnam, President of the United States Dwight D. Eisenhower warned against U.S. intervention in Vietnam.  On April 7, Eisenhower gave his “domino theory” speech

On May 7, the battle of Dien Bien Phu ended in a French defeat.  Four days later,  U.S. Secretary of State John Foster Dulles declared that Indochina was important but not essential to the security of Southeast Asia, thus ending any prospect of American intervention on the side of France.

In July, the Geneva Conference sent French forces to the south, and Vietnamese forces to the north, of a ceasefire line, and called for elections to decide the government for all of Vietnam by July 1956. Failure to abide by the terms of the agreement lead to the establishment de facto of regimes of North Vietnam and South Vietnam, and the Vietnam War.  On August 1, The First Indochina War ended with the Vietnam People’s Army in North Vietnam, the Vietnamese National Army in South Vietnam, the Kingdom of Cambodia in Cambodia, and the Kingdom of Laos in Laos, emerging victorious against the French Army.

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I’m really looking forward to 1954, one of the great years in cinema. The list of films I will choose from is here.  I have previously reviewed  on this site.

Montage of stills from the Oscar Winners