In 1955 I was five years old when Rebel Without a Cause starring James Dean, Sal Mineo and Natalie Wood hit the silver screen. It was the story about an emotionally confused suburban, middle class teenager. The film was a groundbreaking attempt to portray the moral decay of American youth, critique parental style, and explore the differences and conflicts between generations. That pretty much always sums up the era whenever some writer or historian tackles the subject matter and describes what it was like in the fifties.