1957 Hit Parade

The American Institute of Architects celebrated its one hundredth anniversary.

Los Angeles adopted a building code permitting construction of high-rise buildings.

Popular movies included
    The Bridge on the River Kwai
starring William Holden and Alec Guinness
   
Twelve Angry Men starring Henry Fonda and Lee J. Cobb
   
Love in the Afternoon starring Gary Cooper, Maurice Chevalier, and Audrey Hepburn, Sayonara starring Marlon Brando
   
The Three Faces of Eve starring Joanne Woodward and Lee J. Cobb.

Fiction included James Agee’s A Death in the Family, James Gould Cozzens’s By Love Possessed, William Faulkner’s The Town and Jack Kerouac’s On The Road.

Popular music included Pat Boone’s “Don’t Forbid Me” and “April Love,” Elvis Presley’s “Too Much,” “All Shook Up,” “Let Me Be Your Teddy Bear,:” and “Jailhouse Rock,” Sonney James’s “Young Love,” Buddy Knox’s “Party Doll,” Debbie Reynolds’s “Tammy,” Johnny Mathis’s “Chances Are,” and Sam Cooke’s “You Send Me.”

Killer bees imported from Africa spread north in the Americas from Brazil

The Cat in the Hat by Dr. Seuss became popular.

The Motown Corporation was founded by Berry Gordy, jr.

Wham-O Manufacturing introduced the Frisbee and the Hula Hoop.

January 2:  The Immigration and Naturalization Service announced that 350,000 immigrants entered the country in one year.

May 21:  Lawrence Ferlinghetti, owner of San Francisco’s City Lights Books, was arrested for selling lewd materials (“Howl” by Allen Ginsberg).

September 21:  “Perry Mason” debuted on CBS

September 26:  West Side Story with music by Leonard Bernstein premiered at the Winter Garden Theater.

October 4: “Leave it to Beaver” first appeared on CBS

October 10:  Secretary of State John Foster Dulles and Attorney General Herbert Brownell announced that fingerprinting would no longer be required for visitors entering the country for a year or less.

December 23:  The U.S. Census Bureau announced that the United States had an average of fifty-sevens per square mile of land.