5. Servants and domestics
Through the 1950s, films which depicted family life reflected the role of servants in homes across the United States. Families employed maids, cooks, nannies, gardeners, housekeepers, who in many cases were considered part of the family. During the 1940s, employment of domestics in the United States dropped by about 50%. One reason was the advance of tools to ease the burden of housekeepers. Another was the post-war trend of moving into the suburbs. The trend is visible in films of the time. The Best Years of Our Lives (1946) makes direct reference to one family having to “let go” of their maid for economic reasons during World War II, a reflection of life in much of America for the middle class.
Another post-war film, Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House (1948) features a family with a maid named Gussie, living in a cramped New York apartment while building a new home in Connecticut. By the time of the film’s release domestics serving the middle class was relatively rare. One reason was the move to the suburbs. Most serving as domestics did not have the means to relocate, and unless they were live-in servants they remained behind. In the 1960s a middle-class suburban family employed a maid named Hazel in the popular sitcom of the same name. By then the employment of live-in servants in America was relatively rare, especially in the expanding suburbs surrounding American cities.