Pollock was a major figure in the abstract expressionist movement until his death in 1956. He was widely known for his technique of pouring or splashing liquid household paint onto a horizontal surface, enabling him to view and paint his canvases from all angles. It was called "action painting", since he used the force of his whole body to paint, often in a frenetic, dancing style. This extreme form of abstraction divided the critics: some praised the immediacy of the creation, while others derided the random effects.

Walt Disney was over $4 million in debt and on the verge of bankruptcy when he released Cinderella on February 15, 1950. It became the greatest critical and commercial hit for the Disney studio since Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937) and helped reverse the studio's fortunes.

The Academy Awards ceremony was first broadcast by radio in 1930 and was televised for the first time in 1953, when The Greatest Show on Earth won Best Picture. The film stars Betty Hutton and Cornel Wilde as trapeze artists competing for the center ring, and Charlton Heston as the circus manager running the show. Jimmy Stewart also appears in a supporting role as a mysterious clown who never removes his makeup--even between shows.

The first color program was a variety show called "Premiere" that featured such celebrities as Ed Sullivan, Garry Moore, Faye Emerson, Arthur Godfrey, Sam Levenson, Robert Alda, and Isabel Bigley--many of whom hosted their own shows in the 1950s. Unfortunately, most people still had black-and-white televisions, so no one really noticed.

Life with Elizabeth, which aired from October 7, 1953 to September 1, 1955, was the first of numerous sitcoms for Betty White across the decades and was based on sketches involving the Elizabeth character that she had performed on her earlier talk show Hollywood on Television.

Ben-Hur was nominated for 12 Academy Awards and won an unprecedented 11. As of 2020, only Titanic (1998) and The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2004) had matched the film's wins.

Wham-O, a fledgling California toy manufacturer, soon took notice of the Australian Hula Hoop craze and began selling plastic hoops in the United States. Within four months, twenty-five million Hula Hoops had been sold.