Damn Yankees and the 1950s man: you gotta have (loyalty, an escape clause, and) heart

Despite its reception as a light-hearted romp, Damn Yankees (by Adler, Ross, and Abbott, 1955) embodies several cultural ideas that were in conflict or in flux in the mid-1950s. This story of a middle-aged man who makes a deal with the devil to become a champion baseball star can teach us much about the way the era viewed young healthy men versus older unfit men, in a time when concerns about fitness and international threats conflicted with growing prosperity and lives of ease. The musical delves into the time period's distinct notions of masculinity, fighting for country, fidelity to one's wife, and the psyche of a post-war suburban populace. Joe Boyd becomes representative of a growing type of 1950s man, teaching a somewhat ambiguous, not entirely inspirational lesson about the dangers of risking a comfortable lifestyle for the sake of adventure.