Can anyone recommend a stylish, retro 1950's style TEXT (not display) font? It must be very readable as I have lots of text.

Pablo Impallari's Lobster http://www.dafont.com/lobster.font is such a good choice that it's being used by almost everyone these days. One of the Typodermic fonts by Ray Larabie, http://www.dafont.com/typodermic.d1705 might also suit your purposes. An image sample of text similar to what you want to do would be helpful for additional suggestions.

Lots of text? A serif, not sans. Unless your text has a technical character and is set in columns of 5 to 7 cm wide max.

Thanks, Metaphasebrothel... those are great suggestions, especially COOLVETICA. Exactly what I was looking for!

coolvetica ? not that 1950's...