The 1950s: A decade defined by sock hops, muscle cars, and everyone blissfully believing that pretending to be a turtle can and would save them from an incoming Russian ballistic missile. But when they weren't dropping by the soda parlor, doing the twist, and insisting on in encasing all of their food in gelatin, folks in the '50s grabbed their cameras and got to work, snapping now-iconic photos that came to define their generation.

From the origins of Coca-Cola to Elvis after he had left the building, here are 33 photos that exemplify the 1950s.