31 Photos That Could Only Be Taken in 1958
From poodle skirts to polished chrome, 1958 was a year when postwar optimism blended with pop culture swagger. The first IHOP opened, Dean Martin and Frank Sinatra could be heard on the radio, and kids played stickball in the street. These vintage snapshots of 1958 capture the unique sights and sounds of that year, all while hinting at social revolutions on the horizon.
1. Third Grade Classroom in Baltimore
2. The Classified Section of a Los Angeles Newspaper
3. Elvis Presley’s Army Enlistment Photo
4. Pelé Strolling Around Sweden Before the 1958 World Cup
5. A Computer Technician Wiring a Tangled IBM Computer
6. Giggling at the Saturday Afternoon Matinee
7. A Road Trip Wouldn’t Be Complete Without a Stop at the Pecan Shoppe
8. Just a Casual Game of Stickball
9. Christmas in Marion, Indiana
10. ‘Paul Newman Glancing at His ‘Noscar’ Next to His Wife, Joanne Woodward, With Her Actual Oscar Statuette’
11. Johnny Cash Strumming His Guitar in a Hotel Room
12. Superwoman, Is That You?
13. In 1958, Crayola Made Its First Box of 64 Crayons With a Built-in Sharpener
14. Tourists (and Cool Cars!) at Niagara Falls
15. Getting Netball Instructions at a Secondary School in the UK
16. The Very First IHOP Opened in California in 1958
17. The Club DeLisa on Chicago’s South Side
18. A Young Freddie Mercury
19. The Central Artery — Also Known as the John F. Fitzgerald Expressway — Running Through Boston
20. Miami International Airport, a Fraction of Its Size Today
21. Standing in Line Has Never Looked So Fashionable
22. ‘Demonstrating the Removable Air Conditioning in a 1958 Buick’
23. All Bundled Up To Go Trick-or-Treating
24. ‘A Diner Somewhere in America’
25. The Ultimate Duo: Dean Martin and Frank Sinatra
26. Missing the Subway Is No Laughing Matter
27. Wonder Who Won the Marilyn Monroe Look-Alike Contest?
28. Sidney Poitier, Tony Curtis, Sammy Davis Jr., and Jack Lemmon on the MGM Studio Lot
29. Packed and Ready for a Road Trip in a 1951 Oldsmobile
30. ‘Junior Tap Dancing Class in a Harlem Dance Studio’
31. This Michigan Bowling Team Looks Like They Mean Business
Curious what other years in the 1950s looked like?
Get your ’50s fix with A Look Back at 1953: 33 Retro Photos That Bring the Year to Life, Here’s What Life in 1955 Looked Like in 32 Nostalgic Photos, and 30 Incredible Photos From 1957 That Capture a Bygone Era.