As Seen on TV: The Visual Culture of Everyday Life in the 1950s by Karal A. Marling (1994, Hardcover)

Key Details
Author:	Karal A. Marling
Language:	English
Publisher:	Harvard Univ Pr
Format:	Hardcover
ISBN-10:	0674048822
ISBN-13:	9780674048829

Size
Thickness:	1 in
Weight:	23.2 oz

Publisher's Note

America in the 1950s: the world was not so much a stage as a setpiece for TV, the new national phenomenon. It was a time when how things looked--and how we looked--mattered, a decade of design that comes to vibrant life in As Seen on TV. From the painting-by-numbers fad to the public fascination with the First Lady's apparel to the television sensation of Elvis Presley to the sculptural refinement of the automobile, Marling explores what Americans saw and what they looked for with a gaze newly trained by TV. A study in style, in material culture, in art history at eye level, this book shows us as never before those artful everyday objects that stood for American life in the 1950s, as seen on TV.

The cake in kitchen, the house in the suburbs, Mamie in her mink stole, Elvis in his pink Cadillac. It was America in the 1950s, and the world was not so much a stage as a setpiece for TV, the new national phenomenon. It was a time when how things looked - and how we looked - mattered, a decade of design that comes to vibrant life in As Seen on TV. This book captures a visual culture reflecting and reflected in the powerful new medium of television. Looking closely at a number of celebrated instances in which the principles of design dominated the public arena and captivated the popular imagination, Karal Ann Marling gives us a vivid picture of the taste and sensibility of the postwar era. From Walt Disney's Wednesday night TV show, the leap was easy to his theme park, where the wildly popular TV characters could be seen firsthand, and Marling conducts us through this heady concoction of real life and fantasy. Next she takes us into the picture-perfect world of Betty Crocker's Picture Cook Book of 1950, the runaway bestseller of the decade, and shows us how the look of food, culminating in the TV Dinner, attained paramount importance. From the painting-by-numbers fad to the public fascination with the First Lady's apparel to the television sensation of Elvis Presley to the sculptural refinement of the automobile, Marling explores what Americans saw and what they looked for with a gaze newly trained by TV. A study in style, in material culture, in art history at eye level, her book shows us as never before those artful everyday objects that stood for American life in the 1950s, as seen on TV.

Industry Reviews
"Karla Ann Marling's enthusiasm is refreshing, entertaining and imaginative. Her energy is infectious."
Los Angeles Times - Karen Stabiner

"Karal Ann Marling, a professor of art history and American studies at the University of Minnesota, offers in seven chapters some witty riffs on 50's themes: the topics evoked in [the book] are, in order, women's fashion, amateur painting, the arrival of Disneyland, those fabulous finned autos, the taming of Elvis Presley, home cooking and Richard Nixon's 'kitchen debate' with Nikita Khrushchev."
(unknown) - John Updike

"An intellectual romp, a dizzying free fall though the exuberant 'visual culture' of that first post-World War II decade."
New York Times Book Review - John Updike

"'As Seen on TV' combines high seriousness and just plain fun. It's a pleasure to read...Marling is as mercilessly convincing as she is witty and bright. Her stinging portrait of the 1950s easily extends beyond that much-satirized decade, enabling us to see its primitive reflection in today's popular culture and mass markets."
Seattle Times