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I remember a joke about a man who was granted three wishes in the 50's. He wished for an Edsel, a bomb shelter and $5000 a year. So, I guess about $2.50/hour or $400 - $500/month.
I do not know about the "brag" part but it is easy to compare past dollars to current ones. First, go to the BLS Inflation Calculator.
http://www.bls.gov/data/inflation_calculator.htm
Key in an amount and select 2016, for example 30,000 in 2016, in the "in" box further below select 1950. $30,000 in 2016 is the equivalent of $3,004.40 in 1950, about a 90% decrease in nominal dollars. A $50,000 present income would have been about $5,000. That makes sense to me, since I remember $10,000 a year being respectable in the 1960s.
There is still some apples-to-oranges involved. People lived differently in the 1950s. They sensed less need for big houses. There was usually one breadwinner per household, and one car. Families ate more of their meals in. McDonalds as a franchise operation did not yet exist. No computers. TVs were big and clunky, and pricey. Globalization had not yet brought cheap apparel or other low-priced consumer goods. Generally speaking, even after accounting for inflation, incomes were lower and people had less stuff. The average household income was $3,300 compared to $57,657 in 2014.
http://www.mybudget360.com/cost-of-living-2014-inflation-1950-vs-2014-data-housing-cars-college/
