Back in the 1940s and 1950s, did American men grow beards very often?
I get the impression that beards were not in fashion at the time, but I am not absolutely certain about this.
Any information would be appreciated. Thanks!
beards were not, though mustaches were not unusual.
From the Wiki article “Beard”:
It was similar in Britain and Australia when I was growing up. When I finished high school in Australia, in 1962, I stopped shaving and grew a beard: it was unusual enough that I got my picture in one of the Sydney newspapers!
Beards were extremely uncommon in the 1950s when I was growing up. I don’t remember a single beard on anyone. For that matter, I don’t remember mustaches either. Even in the media you had to be an eccentric, like Gabby Hayes or Maynard G. Krebs, or a historic character to wear a beard.
Those dirty beard-wearing hippies™ changed everything. I can’t think of anything that major happening in the 40 years since. It would be the equivalent today of all women going topless.
All the stories you hear about peoples’ reactions to long hair and beards on hippies are true. The change was that enormous and startling.
Most young adult males in the US in the 40’s were serving in the military, where facial hair was prohibited. This custom carried on even after men came back from service and began raising families. It was the next generation in the 60’s that brought back the beard as a rebellious statement. Beards became more popular.
Movies in that era often had a few characters with very neatly trimmed moustaches, usually effete foreigners and such.
Slightly earlier than you’re asking, but Charles Evans Hughes, who served as Chief Justice from 1930 to 1941, was mocked back then for having an anachronistic beard. It was a symbol for the argument that the Court was out of touch with Roosevelt’s modernization of the federal government.
Interesting replies!
I knew that beards were not common during that era – I just wasn’t sure exactly how uncommon that they were, however!
It might make for some fun searching to locate pictures from the era of people with beards. Movie types I can remember (in my mind’s eye) include:
– cowboy sidekicks like Al “Fuzzy” St. John and Gabby Hayes who appeared to be on past middle age and were “eccentric”
– suave and sophisticated types like artists, musicians, scientists
– villains who usually had well-trimmed and elegant beards
– hoboes and bums
– drunks with mostly stubble
– “historical characters” like Moses and Greek gods and pharaohs and such
– Civil War era types
Neat mustaches were not uncommon and I can think of quite a few leading man types with them. But even longish sideburns were out of fashion until Elvis.
Clips from movies of the era might also be fun to locate and post links to.
Mustaches had died out by the 1950s; Thomas Dewey was the last successful politician who wore one, and it was partly the cause of the “he looks like the man on a wedding cake” crack. Secretary of State Dean Acheson stayed on a little longer, but he didn’t run for office and his mustache was used as a sign he was out of touch with “real America.”
Outside of the movies, American men did not wear any facial hair from the end of World War II (other than a few holdouts) until the hippies came along. You certainly wouldn’t see a young man of this era with one. It probably started with World War II, where soldiers didn’t wear them.
Leading men did have mustaches in the 30s, and actors who established themselves prior to WWII could still have careers (e.g., William Powell, Clark Gable). But you’d be hard pressed to find any postwar era movie stars that wore them (outside of the occasional role that called for it. Charlton Heston, for instance, had a mustache in Touch of Evil, but he was supposed to be Mexican – which the mustache was there to prove.)
Those with mustaches tended to be foreigners, villains, or sidekicks (with a beard, too).
I do know that when I was growing up in the 50s and 60s, I can’t recall ever seeing anyone with a mustache except for a couple of great uncles of mine. But anyone of my parents generation did not wear them; when my father grew one for a play he was in, he took a lot of ribbing for it, and shaved it off as soon as the final curtain fell.
I remember a 'Lectric Shave commercial where a guy in his early 20’s has heavy stubble. His Dad walks up an says “growing a beard son?” then sternly points his finger at him and says “Not in this house you’re not!” The son goes on to say how the electric razor makes his skin uncomfortable and then Dad introduces him to the 'Lectric Shave product. Which he probably should have already known about living in the same house and all.:rolleyes:
I seem to think the Dad was character actor Eugene Roche but I’m not certain.
Anyway, this ad spoke to the mores at the time about beards, especially on younger men.
And Walter Cronkite.
Hmm… Somehow men with beards doesn’t seem quite as interesting. 
My grandfather informed that for the sesq… sesquec… seques… 150th anniversary of the fouding of Springfield (said anniversary being 1959), many of the men in the city took to wearing beards for… some reason.
Surely as a resident of Springfield, HeyHomie, you must know that everything in Spffld is done “because of Lincoln.” tygre used to say that the traffic lights in Springfield were never synchronized “because Abe Lincoln would have wanted it that way.”
Burl Ives? Colonel Sanders?
All older generation. I’m talking about men who reached adulthood after WWII. If you reached adulthood from about 1940 to 1965, you didn’t have a mustache. I remember how much pressure there was on my in the late 60s when I grew one.
There were the beatniks, of course, but they were considered weirdos (and were defined as having beards rather than mustaches). For the average American male, mustaches were for their father or people far outside the mainstream.
What’s funny is that classical music used to be called “long hair music” in the days before kids had long hair and listened to rock and roll. Now if anyone says long hair music we assume they mean rock.
And Walt Disney.
And these weren’t considered eccentrics in the media?