Recreation

After World War II, the rising standard of living enjoyed by most Americans opened up more opportunities to enjoy leisure time.

In the 1950s, Americans found themselves in the midst of a booming entertainment industry. Television, drive-in movie theaters, and movie houses popped up across the nation. Drive-ins, generally located on the outskirts of towns and cities, provided family entertainment and served as a haven for teenagers. The drive-ins were not concerned with the artistic excellence of the movies; popcorn, candy bars, and hot dogs were very much a part of the evening’s entertainment. By the 1960s, drive-in movie theaters made up one-third of the nation’s theaters.

With the development of a national highway system across the nation, more people took to the open road, traveling farther and faster. The whole travel industry enjoyed a spectacular boom. In 1962, there were nearly three times as many cars on the road as there had been a quarter century earlier. Nearly two-thirds of those cars were for recreational use only. With more Americans traveling, a need for hotels, national parks, and campgrounds grew. Vacationers crowded the roads; sun worshipers drove to Florida, Arizona, and California while others traveled to ski slopes farther north.

With more Americans traveling to the national parks, a number of these visitors became concerned about the urgent need to save these sites. They sought to protect places for future travelers to experience, explore, and enjoy high mountains, deserts, pine barrens, ocean shores, swamplands, and wild and scenic rivers. Acts were passed in response to the growing concern about the environment engendered by increasing numbers of people wanting to spend time in natural areas for recreational proposes. With the population’s growing interest in the wilderness, President Lyndon B. Johnson’s administration pushed for the Land and Water Conservation Fund of 1964. This led to a continuous source of revenue for acquisition of state and federal outdoor recreation lands, and the act spawned additional legislation, including the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act of 1968 and the National Trails Act of 1968.

Sports became a popular pastime in the postwar period, as more Americans enjoyed golf, tennis, baseball, basketball, swimming, and football. These sports were not only played by the amateurs but also by college students and professionals. Television brought spectator sports to people’s homes, and it made college football the country’s most popular Saturday afternoon indoor activity. Larger crowds crammed into stadiums to see their favorite teams play. Professional baseball was also popular at this time, as more people went to the games, and an even larger audience watched at home. Many sports developed into spectator sports, and golf, tennis, and boxing became popular in the 1960s.

No matter what type of recreation they preferred, more Americans were participating in leisure activities during the post-World War II years. Watching television, or taking part in some form of more active entertainment, Americans worked to play. Incentives were given to those who worked harder and better, and, in return, they secured more vacation time. Recreation was no longer solely for the upper class but for all classes, and commercial entertainment became a major industry.

Further reading: Foster R. Dulles, A History of Recreation: America Learns to Play (New York: Appleton-Cen-tury-Crofts, 1965).

—Robert A. Deahl

Red Power See American Indian Movement; Native Americans; treaty rights.