Hollywood in the 1950s was a period when the film industry both set conventions and broke norms and traditions–from Cinerama, CinemaScope, and VistaVision to the epic film and lavish musical. Here is Eisenhower's America-seemingly complacent, conformity-ridden revealed in Vincente Minnelli's Father of the Bride, Walt Disney's Cinderella, and Brigadoon, among others. And here is its darkening, resonant landscape, beset by conflict, discontent, and anxiety (The Man Who Knew Too Much, It Came From Outer Space)...an America on the verge of cultural, political and sexual revolt, busting up and breaking out (East of Eden, A Streetcar Named Desire, and Jailhouse Rock). An important, riveting look at our nation at its peak as a world power and at the political, cultural, sexual upheavals it endured, reflected and explored in the quintessential American art form.