Glo Back: Welcome to 1946!

With the release of Gilda on Feb. 14, Rita Hayworth would forever be remembered for her seductive striptease scene—in which she takes off (gasp!) a single glove. With her breakout role, the girl from Brooklyn became the face of Max Factor, appearing in ads for the brand's Tru-Color Lipstick, which promised glamorous reds, lovely reds, dramatic reds.

French designer Christian Dior opened his Parisian fashion house, which would revolutionize women's clothing with the designer's New Look. The iconic Dior style featured ultra-feminine dresses with full, calf-length skirts, cinched waists and shapely bodices.

On March 12, Judy Garland gave birth to her first child, Liza Minnelli. The same year, births in the U.S. jumped from around 223,000 in January to 339,000 in October, marking the beginning of the Baby Boom. To help guide this new generation of parents, Dr. Benjamin Spock's The Common Book of Baby and Child Care was published on July 14 and cost just 25 cents.

One of the first family situational comedies, The Adventures of Ozzie & Harriet, started as a radio show in 1944, before moving to TV in 1954. The real-life Nelsons, including sons Ricky and David, epitomized the all-American nuclear family of the late '40s and '50s.

Just five years earlier in 1941, legislation passed ending restrictions that prevented married women from teaching, and in 1945, Harvard's first class of women was admitted to med school. But with skyrocketing postwar marriage rates and many women walking down the aisle by age 20, the oft-heard joke was that young girls were going to college to get their MRS degrees.

Housewives around the country rejoiced over the revolutionary Electric Sink, which included both a garbage disposal and dishwasher. Up to your elbows in greasy dishwater three times a day? the ad asked. Cheer up! There's an automatic dishwasher in the new GE Electric Sink.

In 1945, a mechanical engineer accidentally invented the Slinky while working on a project for the Navy. His mistake was an instant sensation. Around this same time, inventors were working on a substitute for rubber. Although they failed to find an adequate replacement, they did manage to come up with Silly Putty.

With housing tracts being built to accommodate the growing number of new families, architect Richard Neutra (whose living room is pictured) introduced the mid-century modern aesthetic to the California suburbs. In 1946, he built the Kaufmann House in Palm Springs. Similar to Neutra's own home, the now-famous Kaufmann House was characterized by open floor plans, clean lines and vast windows that opened to the outdoors.

In a walkup on New York's 2nd Ave., Eileen Ford, along with husband Jerry Ford, opened Ford Models, despite having only a handful of clients. The look of Ford's models became synonymous with fresh, radiant, all-American beauty and the agency would go on to represent household names including Lauren Hutton, Christie Brinkley, Ali MacGraw and Elle Macpherson.

At 19, Lauren Bacall starred alongside 45-year-old Humphrey Bogart in To Have and Have Not. The two married a year later and their next film, The Big Sleep, opened in August of 1946. One of Hollywood's famous love stories, the two stars remained devoted to one another until Bogart's death in 1957.

Rita Hayworth and then husband Orson Welles spent several months filming The Lady From Shanghai in Acapulco. With the Mexican Riviera fast becoming a celebrity hot-spot, the stars were joined by Errol Flynn (pictured left), whose luxury yacht was used in the film.

In 1946, King Cole Trio crooner Nat King Cole released hits including For Sentimental Reasons and The Christmas Song—or, as it's more widely known, Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire. The same year, Frank Sinatra released his first studio album, simply titled The Voice of Frank Sinatra. Strike up the band!