what was the film industry like in the 1950s?

Question

how was hollywood and all the actresses?

Answer 1

Busy.
The 50s were big for movies.
Groomed.
Think actors are pressured now? Doesn't even compare to the 50s. They were groomed to look like these paragons of society. And so many cracked under the pressure.

Answer 2

Hollywood was still recovering from the depression, and in order to survive, studios were a little more willing to lend their contracted stars out to other studios for films, in order to generate more money from the films they made.

It also seemed like the 50's was the genesis of actors and the general public branching out and starting to develop their own independent film companies, and thus, started producing their own independent films. (So this is when there was a huge boom in cult B-movies as well.)