Houses with picket fencestrying to recover a past that never was in Pleasantville and Celebration, Florida

Abstract

When one thinks about traditional values and perfect families in the United States of America, the image that immediately comes to mind is that of the Fifties, a decade repeatedly portrayed in an endless number of Hollywood movies as the epitome of an idyllic past. Because the fi lmic representation of this period is more often than not sugarcoated and far too perfect, the movie Pleasantville (1998) denounces the pervasiveness of this fabricated image of the Fifties. Yet, the so-called utopian neighborhoods of the Fifties continue being an architectural goal, as the design and founding of the planned community of Celebration, Florida, testify to. This essay uses Pleasantville and the example of Celebration to explore how the Fifties are still very much present in contemporary American culture and life.