You could use the Dow though. It varied from 2700 to 2900 in 1950, and is now about 45,000, so about a 16x increase, while inflation over the same period has been about 30x. However the index price doesn't account for dividends, so total return has been much larger.

It's tricky to say if the Dow is really a good measure across time like that. Exactly two of the companies on it were there in 1950; the other 28 were added in 1976 and beyond. It's not clear if the price weighting really accounts for that much of a shift in composition.