In 1951, grocer Wyndall Smith begins bringing in top names to entertain his customers at free shows. The first year draws 8,100 people. The arena's all-time record paying crowd will be the 7,371 who see a Harlem Globetrotters basketball game on March 3, 1952. Two years later, she's in New York City studying at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts. The '50s see a boom in public housing in Owensboro.
Segregation still holds an iron lock on most facets of life.
The Nannie Locke Apartments and P.G. Walker Apartments are built for blacks, and Rolling Heights and Harry Smith Homes are built for whites. There's talk about an Ohio River parkway running from Louisville through Owensboro to Paducah. But the route will be shifted south and shortened before it is built as the Western Kentucky Parkway in the '60s. The Soap Box Derby, an annual race with boys in home-built cars without engines, comes to town in 1950 and becomes a major event throughout the decade. Industry is changing as the century passes the midpoint.