• Music of 1956
• Radio in 1956
• TV in 1956
• Movies of 1956
• Books of 1956
• Postwar Cars
• Vietnam in 1956
• 1956 Memorabilia

Dwight D Eisenhower

TV in Australia

• Suez Crisis - Suez canal nationalised by Egypt
• Hungarian Uprising suppressed by Soviet troops
• Israeli forces under Moshe Dayan seize the Gaza Strip & Sinai Peninsula.
• Fidel Castro and Che Guevara land in Cuba and begin a guerrilla war.
• Transatlantic telephone cable
• Eisenhower re-elected President of US (Nixon Vice President)
• DLP formed
• First LP in hit parade (Frank Sinatra's Songs for Swinging Lovers)
• "My Fair Lady" opens in New York
• Film actress Grace Kelly marries Prince Rainier III of Monaco
• TV in Australia
• Melbourne Olympics
• Donald Campbell breaks world water speed record (216 mph = 348 kph)
• Poker machines introduced on NSW clubs

Introduction of Television
The Australian broadcasting industry was not quite as backward as it might seem from the late date of the first public television broadcasts in Australia (1956).
In fact, experimental broadcasts began as early as 1929 with the first broadcast licence being issued in 1934. Trial broadcasts were conducted in Brisbane but were curtailed with the outbreak of the Second World War.
Following the War, political wrangling over the type of television system (PAL or NTSC), whether there should be only a government service, only a commercial service or both and what restrictions there should be on the who could hold a broadcast licence, delayed its introduction for over a decade.
The catalyst which finally got television broadcasting off the ground in Australia was the staging of the Olympic Games in Melbourne in 1956. However, the Games were not the live television event we tend to imagine today. There were no satellite links, fibre optic cables or even co-axial cables linking Melbourne to anywhere else. Even in Melbourne, there were only about 10,000 TV sets. The vast majority of Australians saw the 1956 Olympics on the cinema newsreels, not in TV.
The 1960 and 1964 Olympics were seen on television. (There were over 600,000 TV sets in Australian homes by 1960,) But these were broadcasts of film taken a day or so before and flown to Australia. The first live Olympic broadcast in Australia was of the 1968 Games in Mexico City.

Melbourne Olympics
The Melbourne Olympic Games in 1956 are remembered as "The Friendly Games". Part of the reason for this was the contrast between the atmosphere in Australia and the Cold War which was at its height.
Early in November 1956, Soviet tanks crushed a democratic movement in Hungary. The Olympic Games commenced less than three weeks later. The Dutch and Spanish refused to attend the Olympics because the Soviets would be there. In October, the British and French commenced bombing Egypt in retaliation for annexing the Suez Canal. They ceased fire shortly after the Soviet action in Hungary. In the Americas, Castro's Communists invaded Cuba during the Olympic Games.
One of the most memorable events of the Games was the violent clash between Hungary and the USSR in water polo. The Hungarians eventually won the gold medal with the USSR getting the bronze. At the end of the Games, 56 Hungarian athletes from a team of 113 remained in Australia.
But the overall impression of the Games was the peaceful, open, friendly atmosphere of Australia focusing on sport in contrast to the Cold War atmosphere elsewhere.

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Suez Crisis Britain and France attack Egypt

Hungarian Uprising Five days of freedom in Bucharest

Melbourne Olympic Games

Melbourne in 1956

The Music of 1956

• The Wayward Wind (Gogi Grant)
• Que Sera Sera (Doris Day)
• Just Walkin' in the Rain (Johnny Ray)
• Memories Are Made of This (Dean Martin)
• Singing the Blues (Guy Mitchell)
• The Great Pretender (Platters)
• Only You (Platters)
• Blueberry Hill (Fats Domino)
• Earth Angel (Crew Cuts)
• Heartbreak Hotel (Elvis Presley)
• Don't Be Cruel (Elvis Presley)
• Be-Bop-a-Lula (Gene Vincent)
• Long Tall Sally (Little Richard)
• My Fair Lady (Cast LP)

Australian Radio in 1956

• Australia's Amateur Hour (1940-60)
• The Children's Hour - Argonauts' Club (1941-69)
• Tarzan (1940s & 50s)
• The Quiz Kids (1942-early 60s)
• The Air Adventures of Biggles(1945-60s)
• When a Girl Marries (1946-65)
• Pick-a-Box (1948-71)
• Blue Hills (1948-76)
• Dr Paul (!949-71)
• Superman (late 1940s-late 50s)
• The Goons (1951-60)
• Portia Faces Life (1952-70)
• Life with Dexter (1953-64)
• Eric Baume's This I Believe (1953-67)
• Keith Smith's Pied Piper (1954-60s)
• The Air Adventures of Hop Harrigan (1955-60)

Television in 1956

The Lone Ranger	1949-61	cast
Dragnet	1951-58 & 1967-69	cast
I Love Lucy	1951-55	cast
The Cisco Kid (First TV series made in colour)	1951-55
Victory at Sea	1952
Our Miss Brooks	1952-57	cast
The Nelsons	1952-66	cast
The Adventures of Superman	1953-55	cast
The Loretta Young Show	1953-60
Father Knows Best	1954-63	cast
Lassie	1954-72
The Honeymooners	1955-56	cast
Sergeant Preston of the Yukon	1955-57
The Mickey Mouse Club	1955-59	cast
The Phil Silvers Show (Sgt Bilko)	1955-59	cast
The Adventures of Robin Hood	1955-59	cast
The Life & Legend of Wyatt Earp	1955-60	cast
Cheyenne	1955-62	cast
Gunsmoke	1955-75	cast
Circus Boy	1956-57

Movies in 1956

Title	Cast	Academy Awards	Buy
Anything Goes directed by Robert Lewis	Bing Crosby Donald O'Connor Zizi Jeanmaire Mitzi Gaynor
Around the World in 80 Days directed by Michael Anderson	David Niven Shirley Maclaine Cantinflas Robert Newton Marlene Deitchrich	Best Picture Best Cinematography Best Editing Best Score Best Screenplay
Carousel directed by Henry King	Gordon MacRae Cameron Mitchell Shirley Jones
The Eddie Duchin Story directed by George Sidney	Tyrone Power Kim Novak James Whitmore Victoria Shaw Shepperd Strudwick Frieda Innescourt
High Society directed by Henry Cornelius	Bing Crosby Gene Kelly Frank Sinatra
Invasion of the Body Snatchers (aka Sleep No More)< directed by Don Siegel	Kevin McCarthy Dana Winter Larry Gates
The King and I directed by Walter Lang	Yul Brynner Deborah Kerr Rita Moreno	Best Actor Best Art & Set Direction Best Costume Design Best Score Best Sound
The Man Who Knew Too Much directed by Alfred Hitchcock	James Stewart Doris Day Brenda de Banzie	Best Song
Reach for the Sky directed by Lewis Gilbert	Kenneth More Muriel Pavlow London Brook Lee Patterson
The Searchers directed by John Ford	John Wayne Jeffrey Hunter Vera Miles Ward Bond Natalie Wood John Qualen
Teahouse of the August Moon directed by Daniel Mann	Marlon Brando Glenn Ford Eddie Albert Machiko Kyo Paul Ford Jun Negami
The Ten Commandments directed by Cecil B. de Mille	Charlton Heston Yul Brynner Anne Baxter Edward G. Robinson Yvonne de Carlo Deborah Paget	Best Special Effects
To Catch a Thief directed by Alfred Hitchcock	Cary Grant Grace Kelly Jessie Royce Landis John Williams Charles Vanel Brigette Auber	Best Cinematography
A Town Like Alice (aka Rape of Malaya) directed by Jack Lee	Virginia McKenna Peter Finch Takagi Tran Van Khe
Trapeze directed by Carol Reed	Burt Lancaster Tony Curtis Gina Lollobrigida Katy Jurado Thomas Gomez

Watch a free movie from 1956 now:

• Please Murder Me Lawyer Raymond Burr brilliantly defends Angela Lansbury
• Shake, Rattle & Rock Stars Fats Domino, Joe Turner, Mike "Touch" Connors, Margaret DuMont and Lisa Gaye 
• Rock, Rock, Rock  includes an appearance by disc jockey Alan Freed, and performances by artists including Chuck Berry, LaVern Baker, and Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers  

Books of 1956

Title	Author	Buy
Peyton Place (banned in Australia)	Grace Metalious
The Tribe that Lost Its Head	Nicholas Monsarat
Diamonds Are Forever a James Bond book	Ian Fleming
Battle of the River Plate	Dudley Pope
The Quare Fellow	Brendan Behan
A Long Days Journey into Night	Eugene O'Neill
Look Back in Anger	John Osborne
History of the English Speaking Peoples	Winston Churchill

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