Book excerpt: The 1950s marked a decade of great fads - Hula-Hoops, Davy Crockett coonskin caps, Roy Rogers or Gene Audrey guns or Cowboy boots, and poodle skirts. It gave us Elvis Presley and rock and roll, crew cuts and sideburns, argyle sweaters, saddle shoes and white bucks. College kids on panty raids and sock hops. In the corner of every sitting room, was a small but ever-expanding eye fixed on an opening world - Television set. Films of the 1950s were wide variety and the stuidios sought to put audiences back in the seats of the theaters.