December 4, 2008

The cultural events of 1951

The Bank of England cut interest rates today to just 2% - the lowest for 57 years and the joint lowest in history. So what was life like in 1951? We take a look back at the cultural events of that year

Gallery 1951: Audrey Hepburn looks up at billboards in middle of Times Square — New Year's Day, 1951: Audrey Hepburn looks up at billboards in the middle of Times Square, New York. She had recently been in town for the run of the Broadway show Gigi Photograph: Time Life Pictures/Getty Image

Alan Freed, a New York disc jockey — 1951 was also the year that rock'n' roll hit the mainstream. Cleveland DJ Alan Freed (centre) is often credited with inventing the term - ostensibly to avoid the racially loaded connotations of rhythm and blues - and was later blamed for riots caused by the music in Boston Photograph: Corbis

Gallery 1951: 'All ABout Eve' — Joseph L Mankiewicz's All About Eve, starring Bette Davis as an aging Broadway star beseiged by a vindictive fan, won best picture at the Oscars in March after being nominated for a record 14 awards. The film also boasts an early screen appearance by Marilyn Monroe Photograph: Allstar/Cinetext/20 Century Fox

Gallery 1951: Lavender Hill Mob — British audiences were treated to Ealing comedy classic The Lavender Hill Mob, released in September. Alec Guinness starred as a timorous bank clerk who finds himself persuaded to smuggle gold bullion, Sid James (left) as one of his underworld accomplices Photograph: Kobal Collection

Gallery 1951: Four members of the 'Cambridge Five' — Clockwise from top left, Anthony Blunt, Donald Duart Maclean, Kim Philby and Guy Burgess. All were members of the so-called Cambridge Five, who passed information from British intelligence to the Soviet Union. Burgess and Maclean fled to Moscow in June Photograph: Keystone/Hulton Archive/Getty Images

Gallery 1951: A Streetcar Named Desire — Another of 1951's big films, released in September, was A Streetcar Named Desire, based on Tennessee Williams's play and starring Marlon Brando and Vivien Leigh Photograph: Ronald Grant Archive

Gallery 1951: inaugural colour television programme in New York — A camera focuses on television host Arthur Godfrey during an hour-long colour television programme broadcast from New York. 1951 was the first time anyone had seen colour TV Photograph: Ray Howard/AP

Gallery 1951: Eva Peron giving an election speech — Eva Perón gives an election speech at a mass labour meeting in Buenos Aires. In August Perón announces her candidacy for vice-president but the military objects, later launching a failed coup Photograph: Bettmann/Corbis

Gallery 1951: The Festival of Britain at South Bank — Back at home, the biggest cultural event of the year was the Festival of Britain, designed as a showcase for leading-edge British architecture and design. It opened to the public in May. Thousands of visitors trooped to London's South Bank, transformed from a rubble-strewn wasteland to a vision of the future Photograph: Davis/Hulton Archive/Getty Images

Gallery 1951: The United Nations Secretariat building in New York — Another architectural highlight of the year was the opening of the sleekly modernist United Nations Secretariat building in New York, designed by Le Corbusier, Oscar Niemeyer and others Photograph: AP

Gallery 1951: Tony Bennett is approached by autograph seekers — Singer Tony Bennett is hounded by autograph-hunters as he leaves a performance in 1951. Bennett's single Because of You raced up the charts in the autumn Photograph: AP

Gallery 1951: Winston Churchill gives the famous 'V for victory' sign — Winston Churchill gives the famous 'V for victory' sign after hearing the results of a poll returning him as MP in October's general election. Out of power since 1945, Churchill is about to turn 77; he would soldier on until 80 Photograph: J A Hampton/Hulton Archive/Getty Images

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