So ... I'm not entirely sure that the OP is accurate. While it was universal Church law still, starting in the 1940s and 1950s, Pope Pius XII did start delegating permission to the bishops of various countries to establish standard for the countries. This came out in the history of the various vigils, where the US bishops had made certain vigils non-fast/non-abstinence days, but it was for the entire country by agreement of the US bishops, and not diocese by diocese. So I believe the truth is somewhere in between the OP. I do believe it was for the entire US, not just diocese by diocese, but we'd have to confirm. This was a slight step in the direction of the national bishops' conferences, but for things like this a national policy does make sense, especially when so many Catholics travelled for Thanksgiving, wondering whether they're bound by the edict of the bishop in the place they were at or the one in their home diocese.
Now, there's also this myth about how the dispensation was granted due to lack of refrigeration during that time, but by 1950, over 80% of US households had refrigerators, and I believe that it would have been much lower than that by the mid-1950s.