Boing Boing pal Wil Wheaton says,
BoingBoing readers whose interest in the Manhattan Project has been piqued by your Simnuke posts will find hours of Cold War-era atomic bomb-related footage in the Prelinger Archive at the Internet Archive.
They've got lots of propaganda films like the hilarious Duck and Cover, and the horrifying My Japan. There are also official government test films, like Operation
Crossroads (better known as the tests on Bikini Atoll) and Operation Cue, which features tests conducted at the Nevada Test Site in 1955.
Shown above, a series of stills from Duck and Cover.
Previously on Boing Boing:
Xeni on NPR — SIMNUKE: Having a Blast in the Nevada Desert
Xeni headed to Simnuke
Simnuke snapshots
Reader comment: Nick James says,
I couldn't let your post on Boing Boing go by without pointing out 1954's amusing "The House in the Middle," a documercial sponsored by the National Paint, Varnish and Lacquer Association, of course, claiming that a clean house with a fresh coat of paint will save your house and family from a nuclear blast.
I wrote an essay on bomb shelter culture in the US a couple years ago, which I've made available, in case anyone's interested:Link.
There seem to be a fair number of readers with a thing for Cold War culture, so I thought I'd share.
A number of my sources for the paper were the safety films now featured on Boing Boing.
Anthony Hall says,
You neglected to mention the most fun factoid about Duck and Cover — that Mia Farrow was the Duck and Cover kid.
