In the 1950s, they made shitty food because they didn't know any better
Also because it was cheap and that was a golden age of mass-produced foods like canned cream of mushroom soup and tuna!
In fact, one of my favorite recipes was literally called “hold out til payday” and features a can of cream of mushroom soup and a can of tuna. You put peas in it and make cheesy biscuits to bake in it and it’s quite good!
This sounds awful… but equally cheap. Olives, wtf?