“The concept of freedom,” wrote one commentator in 1959, “has become as familiar to us as an old hat or a new Ford.” And a new Ford—or Chrysler or Chevrolet—now seemed essential to the enjoyment of freedom’s benefits. Along with a home and television set, the car became part of what sociologists called “the standard consumer package” of the 1950s. By 1960, 80 percent of American families owned at least one car, and 14 percent had two or more, nearly all manufactured in the United States. Most were designed to go out of style within a year or two, promoting further purchases.
Auto manufacturers and oil companies vaulted to the top ranks of corporate America. Detroit and its environs were home to immense auto factories. The River Rouge complex had 62,000 employees, Willow Run 42,000. Since the military increasingly needed high-technology goods rather than the trucks and tanks that had rolled off assembly lines in World War II, the region around the Great Lakes lagged in defense contracts. In the long term, the continued funneling of federal dollars from the North and Midwest to the Sunbelt would prove devastating to the old industrial heartland. But during the 1950s, the booming automobile industry, with its demand for steel, rubber, and other products, assured the region’s continued prosperity.
A 1959 Cadillac Eldorado Biarritz, an example of the design excesses of 1950s carmakers. Behemoths like this, which got less than fifteen miles to a gallon of gasoline, depended on the availability of cheap fuel. When gas prices rose in later decades, consumers turned to smaller, more fuel-efficient foreign cars, helping to bring about the decline and fall of the American automobile industry.
Begun in 1956 and completed in 1993, the interstate highway system dramatically altered the American landscape and Americans’ daily lives. It made possible more rapid travel by car and stimulated the growth of suburbs along its many routes.
The automobile, the pivot on which suburban life turned, transformed the nation’s daily life, just as the interstate highway system (discussed later) transformed Americans’ travel habits, making possible long-distance vacationing by car and commuting to work from ever-increasing distances. The result was an altered American landscape, leading to the construction of motels, drive-in movie theaters, and roadside eating establishments. The first McDonald’s fast food restaurant opened in Illinois in 1954. Within ten years, having been franchised by California businessman Ray Kroc, approximately 700 McDonald’s stands had been built, which had sold over 400 million hamburgers. The car symbolized the identification of freedom with individual mobility and private choice. On the road, Americans were constantly reminded in advertising, television shows, and popular songs, they truly enjoyed freedom. They could imagine themselves as modem versions of western pioneers, able to leave behind urban crowds and workplace pressures for the “open road.”