True. But it would have been a madhouse in most places in the 1960s, too. My father grew up poor in Chicago during the 50s. If he was alive today he'd laugh at the idea that anybody in his childhood would be as pretty, rich or well-behaved as anybody in this film. These films are most valuable when you don't swallow the illusion of perfection - Leave it to Beaver was just Hollywood, or at best a small slice of a much bigger (less tasty) pie.
@0:27 Rowe-Manse Country Corner was a store located at 1053 Bloomfield Avenue in Clifton, New Jersey. It operated in the 1960s and was known for its extensive catalog, which featured a wide variety of items. The store was part of the Rowe-Manse Emporium and Country Store, which was a significant attraction in Styertowne, a shopping center in Clifton. The old days were something. Could go shopping and never worry about getting mugged or shot. No graffiti either.
16:24 I was just thinking that the gentleman speaking here sounded like someone who immigrated from Europe at a youngish age and is started to lose his native accent and pick up a NY/NJ one. A sort of random thought but I grew up in ocean county and recently moved out of state so I tend to pick up on the accent more acutely these days since it’s a reminder of home
in 2025 this would be a bunch of people in sweatpants being openly hostile due to not having internet access and going cold turkey off their psychiatric medications.
I was doing demo in a building that had one of these the "toilet was a cardboard drum the same size and the drinking water drum. it had a number of clear plastic bags that you'd use to line it and a plastic seat that fit on the drum. there was some toilet paper that looked and felt a lot like the waxed paper sheets you use to grab doughnuts. There might have been a can of some stuff to put on the poop to try and cut down the stink. Since it was the 50's-60's it was probably some really toxic stuff like formaldehyde. Someone had already swiped the Geiger counters from it , but there were a shitload of canned saltine crackers.
Coming from the country that is the Worlds leading authority on _Brexit_ 💩 I can tell you that the second is surprisingly easy; It's basically mud and water. If you can drain off the water for external disposal, what's left over can be bagged up, dried, and stored in a suitably distant area. The difficult part is the draining, in particular dealing with the odor... 🤮 And disgusting though it might sound to many; Human manure is the same as horse manure if those humans are on a strictly vegetarian diet. Provided that latter item is met and if the confinement is extensive (i.e: years long) both can - And may need to - Be used as compost. 🌱
Back in the seventies I was kid and found the section on fallout shelters in my grandparent's set of encyclopedias. My uncle, who at the time worked in various weapons programs said not to bother. If "the bombs" were coming, just go outside and get it over with quickly, especially since my folks and I lived near an army base. As it was, one school I went to had a "shelter" with the sign and all, butnit probably would have been lethal due to the windows and doors in that half basement place. Another school I went to in the late 80s purportedly had a shelter, but we weren't sure. There was some kind of entrance in the gym basement that was behind a cage of sorts. The staff would never say what it was. I thought I could squeeze through a gap in the wire but bever got the chance to try.
Building comprehensive shelters capable of taking any large fraction of the US urban population was heavily researched. It was decided that it would cost so much and be so provocative to the Soviets that it wasn't worth it. The Soviets had already built shelters for (they claimed) 25% of their urban population. It was actually more like 5%, but it was still significantly more than we had. It was done at massive expense in a country which was much poorer than the US, and thus it was assumed to be their maximum effort, i.e- they couldn't match us if we exceeded 25% shelter capacity. The problem was that nukes were cheap compared to hardened bunkers - the fear was that if we tried to match the Soviets in shelter building, they would be unable to reciprocate and would resort to simply nuking our cities twice to eliminate all the hardened shelters. This would thus negate the entire lifesaving effort and all the extra time & treasure. Ultimate outcome: he who nukes hardest and farthest survives.
Does anyone else notice that that guy never takes off the same black necktie for the entire time they're in the shelter and how clean everyone's clothes have stayed for the weeks they've been in there
Americans were lucky having purpose built shelters. Oh the luxury. We Brits would have had to make do with a few doors propped against an interior wall to hide under.
Oh yes. And an _extraordinary_ number of suitcases filled with conveniently available sand to pile up in front of them, plus a toilet made out of a kitchen chair with the seat removed and a bucket lined with a plastic bag that you _wish_ was nearly as thick as those sold in the 1970s! ☢🇬🇧😋 But on the bright side: At least you can _Listen to your radio_ while the batteries hold out... 😁
13:50 if one of you tries to get the kids to all start singing while we're stuck down there, I'm going outside to inspect the blast crater in person with just my shorts on.
I've told younger people about these occasionally over the years. Friend was in CAP, also, another helpful institution that no longer exists. They were all used in tornado areas during the Superoutbreak of '74. All these things our tax dollars paid for that were actually for our benefit back then.
Not a problem anymore. If you see anything at all, it'll be a glance of hypersonic MIRVs just before the light blinds you (even if you close your eyes), and then you melt. Neo-Armageddon gives so much less hassle than the old 60s Armageddon. ✌😎👍
Ah, but don't forget we're also living in a hypercapitalist world. Neo-Armageddon is _only_ much less hassle if you're signed-up to _Armageddon Plus_ for an extra $19,99 per month... 😉
That chick in charge of the medical supplies will likely report that after a thorough inventory, there is only a small fraction of the morphine that they originally thought they had. And then she walks around every day mumbling something about “good shit”.
I live within 15 miles of at LEAST 4 Minuteman silos. I always have a 6 pak chilling in the fridge and ice packs for my cooler. First sign of a nuclear showdown, I am hopping in my car and driving as quickly as possible to one of the silo's and want to watch one of the birds fly before I get vaporized along with my last beer.
...Or possibly heading for the shelter that you built yourself using locally available materials and the advice from the _Civil Defence_ self-safety guide that was sent to you 3-6 months ago? 😇
make sure occupants aren’t needlessly upset? I think if your city has been bombed and everyone else might be dead, there’s a war starting and you are hiding in a shelter with limited supplies, that severe upset is warranted. I’d say keep an eye on those who are not disturbed by that situation. These shelters were not long term stay sufficient. These people should be taking iodine too if they are going to be leaving.
That shelter should have the following to make it more livable, especially if the stay is longer than 2 weeks: 1. A 25 inch or 30 flatscreen TV on the wall left of the shelter door for weather, fallout tracking over the area, news, entertainment, status of other fallout shelters, etc. 2. A smaller TV on the wall right of the shelter door above the communications table and radiological monitoring station. (For more detailed fallout tracking for civil defense headquarters) 3. A computer for the shelter manager on his desk. Also used by his deputies. 4. Charge ports for smartphones, laptops, tablets. 5. 2 tubs and showers and 4 toilets in a separate room for the occupants with recyclable water and special filters and plumbing to prevent fallout contamination. 6. EMP Shield to protect all the basement electrical systems and telephone lines from EMP. 7. Robot assistants like ROOMBA, WALL-E, R2-D2, Baymax. 8. A kitchen in a nearby room from the main shelter floor. 9. A security camera with night vision just outside the shelter on the wall next to the door to let the manager know of any late arrivals. 10. A drone outside the shelter to monitor radiation levels and send the info to the RAD reader and manager.
none of that shit existed back then, but a small kitchen and proper bathroom facilities would've been great. Cellular networks wouldn't even function after an attack from the EMP wave
In 1965 there were no flatscreens. Computers were massive collections of reel to reel machines and cabinets that would take up the space of the shelter. No drones back then. No smartphones or tablets. Are you really this uneducated or just being foolish?
The shelters existed for one reason only: To try to keep people alive during fallout. Some say they were merely to provide a false sense of security, and that survivability would have been nil. Creature comforts didn’t factor into the equation.
Any likely attack on an urban area is going to be an airbust, which would almost certainly create a massive EMP that would knock out most modern electronics instantly, so flat screen TVs would be useless. Same with computers and portable energy banks. EMPs would also knock out most commercial communications networks, so even if the flat screens survived, you wouldn't have a lot of data to post on them. EMP-shielded networks used by the military and the government would likely survive, though. In any kind of nuclear attack over a wide area, water will be life, and as much as possible will need to be saved for drinking. Personal hygiene will need to be pursued in other ways. Food and water will need to be strictly rationed, to be enforced strictly and perhaps violently. Can't use open water from the outside like from rivers or lakes as they'll be contaminated. Depending on length of exposure, any "late arrivals" would likely be as good as dead. Opening the shelter would likely condemn everyone in the shelter to radiation sickness, so they're going to have to stay out. Something this film doesn't consider is the very real possibility that roving gangs looking for food or water may well try to attack the shelter, with all that implies. Something that we didn't know when this video was made was the theory of nuclear winter, the belief that a massive nuclear attack sending hundreds of millions of tons of dust and debris into the stratosphere would block out the sun over vast areas for weeks, maybe months, perhaps indefinitely. Heating would be an issue, especially as wood from outside couldn't be burned, as it would put radiation right back in the air.
It is always important when in a shelter to prove your importance, that way when they need to draw straws to decide who to eat, you will be exempt. Stay tuned for more important survivor shelter tips.
@mariekatherine5238 That is correct, Marie. A flatulence free society. It was purported, however, that Ms. Edna Paulsen, of Fort Lee, N.J. had bad gas, so the ptb kept her away from the public.
It seems manageable just looking at these shots with maybe 10 people to a room, but to realize this all has to scale to accommodate 10,000 people or more crammed into a shelter...
There were no Mass shelters ever designed in the United States to hold thousands of people, the largest known fallout shelter was designed to hold up to 1,000 people including staff, and that was designed for federal government continuity of government employees. Under The Greenbrier hotel. Most civil defense shelters were designed to hold maximum of 100. And yes it would have been crammed and uncomfortable but you would theoretically be alive
Its strange how so much effort was made in the 1950s and early 1960s to install sirens, link them, modify public buildings' basements like bricking up windows, and then equipping them with food, water, medical equipment, communications equipment, batteries and small numbers of electric lights, etc. as seen in this video. Then the shelter system was neglected, forgotten, and then gutted or demolished. Do any funtioning public shelters even exist in downwind areas anymore?? I think these shelters are built or arranged purely by the local government, so as they fell out usable status, nobody had to seek federal approval to decommission them. A really chaotic and incoherent system.
Nuclear weapons have developed to the point where there is no surviving. Our modern nukes are quite literally orders of magnitude more powerful than they were in the 50s and 60s. Some sort of shelter system would certainly be useful, but I'd guess that most local governments have decided it is hardly worth the funds necessary.
@jakesemrow2678 Fallout shelters were never meant to survive a direct hit or a near miss from a nuclear explosion. They were designed to protect from... fallout. Fallout in the downwind areas, where radiation levels would be lethal inside the first two weeks, but where buildings would be untouched and electricity and telephone service might even still be operating.
@@tedpeterson1156 Hydrogen bombs delivered by ICBM were the state of the art in 1965 when this film was made. If anything the bomb sizes have declined due to better targeting. Fallout shelters were never about protecting from direct hits, they were about protecting from FALLOUT in the downwind areas.
They had the basement of my grammar school was a shelter...I remember seeing 50 gal tanks of water...but when I knocked on them ,it sounded hollow.So I asked the Super why these gals of water are empty...he said if a nuclear attack happen they would be filled...hmmmm.There was a whole wall of them, Stacked on top of each other...this was in Queens, LIC ,NY...so there were alot of people...the water cans looked like the ones shown here....
I guess these were technically fallout shelters, not bomb shelters, so they figured there would be a little time to prepare before sealing the doors. If you were in one of these shelters and a nuke went off within a few dozen miles, you would still be toast - literally.
A deck of cards and some dice....lots of games use standard cards and dice. That, or some epic D&D campaigns. Bet that shelter would smell like a porta potty after a few days..
I was a kid in the 60s I remember the duck and cover under the school desk I’d love to know whether my parents believed any of that crap . it seems impossible to me anyone would believe it.
@@608et Even if there was zero threat of nukes, having emergency supplies makes sense. But I guess back then people didn’t prepare as much for natural disasters.
My Dad did nuclear experimentation in the Navy, 1950’s. The answer is no. If it’s just fallout, it would a small degree of protection. It would offer virtually no protection within a 25 mile radius by 1965.
@stevelind393 I was there man...! Giving me flashbacks...! To when you actually had to record stuff in a studio, and hope a record company would pick you up....
@@stevelind393 Fostex, Clydebank, Scotland! And we didn't realise the studio's air con was on the same electrical circuit as the wall sockets until we listened back to try and edit something useful out of the chaos! 🤣 Good times, lessons learned...!
My parents (early 70’s) were in grade school when this was filmed. In 60 years we allowed our nation to become an embarrassment. A disconnected, dysfunctional miasma of people who have nothing in common. Including values, heritage, spiritual beliefs et al. In 2025 half the people in this place would have to be professionals riot control. When I was a little kid (1970’s) men would tell other men to clean up their language when there were women and children were present. What we lost is so enormous it’s unfathomable.
You’re absolutely right. If the nuke was close, this shelter was probably useless, but at least we’d have gone out in style, well dressed, with class and dignity. Now? Forget it!
Yes, the US government stopped building them in the 70s, but there are plenty that are still active, mostly in City Halls, Court Houses, Post Offices and Library basements. Google it.
Some of the hippies might have been here in the UK for the annual music festival in Somerset which is held every year that is of course that the UK hadn't been attacked. The only difference also there were no shelters for a nuclear attack except for bunkers for local government and senior politicians as well as the BBC and military for communications and defence. The civilians had no shelters except for basements in pre war houses.and they would only give protection for a limited time measured in a few hours if you were lucky enough. They would certainly die very quickly.
Russia maintains the biggest and most organized civil defense infrastructure in the world. They mirrored the US’s. The United States of around 1955-1960. The era of America when this training film was produced. Today the US has no civil defense structure. None. Zip. Nada. Sadly ironic is that the Americans from this era almost all spoke the same language, kept much larger stores of foodstuffs in the home, women were all tremendously skilled in domestic tasks from mending to meatloaf, houseplants to haircuts. Most men had garages full of tools. Changed their own oil and did their own tuneups. Rotated their own tires and chopped their own fire wood. Over 12M of them had been through Basic Training in one of the four branches of Armed Services or the Coast Guard. Today? Today any slight disruption of services will cause chaos. 3-5 days without services will be both mayhem and tremendously dangerous. Many Americans who’ve survived regional disasters may disagree. Based on their experiences when they suffered a week or even a month without power, transportation or medical assistance. Sure everyone may have come together and even shared big spreads before refrigerated food spoiled. But when you know something is nationwide, or even hemispheric, and when no one knows when anything will be restored; people will flip out. Guaranteed. The best protocols are adopting a preparedness minded lifestyle, relocating to the lowest population density possible, training to be more competent in various tasks and lastly (and firstly) drawing nearer to God.
Well said! And the Allies learned it from the Germans. It saved countless lives across the country during the nonstop bombing years of WW2. Hans Rumpf was in charge of CD operations for the entire country and wrote a book in the 50s or 60s titled The Bombing of Germany. He had something like 250,000 fire fighters and was well equipped and supplied. Fallout shelters were everywhere. He explains not only the numbers (stats) but the psyche of the citizens. He writes of them not being demoralized but instead galvanized against the enemy. Most were hungry but did not evacuate because they would rather live in a hole in the ground than be a burden on someone else in a strange place. Factories remained largely operational because most had moved underground, and the CD program kept workers alive. Yeah, we've got nothing like that, today.
10,000 calories and 3 1/2 gallons of water. OK, so the (optimistic) rule of thumb back then was 2 weeks to get the radiation levels down to something like so-called safe. That's 1 quart of water and 714 calories a day and per Google, the absolute minimum water needed for a person resting in a temperate environment. Calorically, that's starvation rations. Better than nothing, but I'd expect there to be some really upset folks by the end of that stay.
Those were the basic amounts provided by the federal government under the civil defense act, however local government was also supposed to maintain food stores, and people were supposed to bring supplies with them. So the bare minimum that the government provided which was basically shelter biscuits or essentially Bland crackers, and sugar-laden hard candies. Along with tap water stored in plastic line drums. Mini shelters went Way Beyond the very basic necessities. Only the basic necessities were kept in very small shelters for storage was a problem. The hospital kits that were designed by the civil defense department, also contained a very large amount of phenobarbital. For just such a problem. It helps keep people calm
In the days when arsenals were armed with fission devices, there was a degree of survivability that could be expected as the nucleides produced were relatively short lived. Once fusion devices were deployed, the maintenance of fallout shelters became a moot point.
I'm trying to imagine people in 2025 acting so orderly. I just can't.... It would be a mad house.
They would murder you to get in these days. We're is my shelter anyway?
@@toddsmith1617 various times a community needed emergency sheltering, not a lot of murders took place. I can't think of one instance
They wouldn't have been this orderly back then either. This is a fantasy world.
I'd rather have the radiation. Can you just imagine???
True. But it would have been a madhouse in most places in the 1960s, too. My father grew up poor in Chicago during the 50s. If he was alive today he'd laugh at the idea that anybody in his childhood would be as pretty, rich or well-behaved as anybody in this film.
These films are most valuable when you don't swallow the illusion of perfection - Leave it to Beaver was just Hollywood, or at best a small slice of a much bigger (less tasty) pie.
They only have enough food and water for five days yet the expectation was at least a minimum of a month underground to protect them from fallout
@4:20 What Mrs Paton doesn't realise yet, is that she'll be rapidly promoted to Shelter Surgeon...
@0:27 Rowe-Manse Country Corner was a store located at 1053 Bloomfield Avenue in Clifton, New Jersey. It operated in the 1960s and was known for its extensive catalog, which featured a wide variety of items. The store was part of the Rowe-Manse Emporium and Country Store, which was a significant attraction in Styertowne, a shopping center in Clifton.
The old days were something. Could go shopping and never worry about getting mugged or shot. No graffiti either.
16:24 I was just thinking that the gentleman speaking here sounded like someone who immigrated from Europe at a youngish age and is started to lose his native accent and pick up a NY/NJ one. A sort of random thought but I grew up in ocean county and recently moved out of state so I tend to pick up on the accent more acutely these days since it’s a reminder of home
you are a whiny pathetic coward too scared to leave your house
in 2025 this would be a bunch of people in sweatpants being openly hostile due to not having internet access and going cold turkey off their psychiatric medications.
100%
@@Ecosse57 You forgot all the people butt hurt because others don’t embrace their identities or use their pronouns. 😢
@@Ecosse571000%
It's all about two things in these shelters. 1) Fresh, drinkable water 2) What to do with poop.
That will be secured inside everyone’s pants probably
I was doing demo in a building that had one of these the "toilet was a cardboard drum the same size and the drinking water drum. it had a number of clear plastic bags that you'd use to line it and a plastic seat that fit on the drum. there was some toilet paper that looked and felt a lot like the waxed paper sheets you use to grab doughnuts. There might have been a can of some stuff to put on the poop to try and cut down the stink. Since it was the 50's-60's it was probably some really toxic stuff like formaldehyde. Someone had already swiped the Geiger counters from it , but there were a shitload of canned saltine crackers.
Just hold it.😂
Coming from the country that is the Worlds leading authority on _Brexit_ 💩 I can tell you that the second is surprisingly easy; It's basically mud and water. If you can drain off the water for external disposal, what's left over can be bagged up, dried, and stored in a suitably distant area. The difficult part is the draining, in particular dealing with the odor... 🤮
And disgusting though it might sound to many; Human manure is the same as horse manure if those humans are on a strictly vegetarian diet. Provided that latter item is met and if the confinement is extensive (i.e: years long) both can - And may need to - Be used as compost. 🌱
Back in the seventies I was kid and found the section on fallout shelters in my grandparent's set of encyclopedias. My uncle, who at the time worked in various weapons programs said not to bother. If "the bombs" were coming, just go outside and get it over with quickly, especially since my folks and I lived near an army base.
As it was, one school I went to had a "shelter" with the sign and all, butnit probably would have been lethal due to the windows and doors in that half basement place. Another school I went to in the late 80s purportedly had a shelter, but we weren't sure. There was some kind of entrance in the gym basement that was behind a cage of sorts. The staff would never say what it was. I thought I could squeeze through a gap in the wire but bever got the chance to try.
Building comprehensive shelters capable of taking any large fraction of the US urban population was heavily researched. It was decided that it would cost so much and be so provocative to the Soviets that it wasn't worth it.
The Soviets had already built shelters for (they claimed) 25% of their urban population. It was actually more like 5%, but it was still significantly more than we had. It was done at massive expense in a country which was much poorer than the US, and thus it was assumed to be their maximum effort, i.e- they couldn't match us if we exceeded 25% shelter capacity.
The problem was that nukes were cheap compared to hardened bunkers - the fear was that if we tried to match the Soviets in shelter building, they would be unable to reciprocate and would resort to simply nuking our cities twice to eliminate all the hardened shelters. This would thus negate the entire lifesaving effort and all the extra time & treasure.
Ultimate outcome: he who nukes hardest and farthest survives.
I wish this had been uploaded five years ago. It would've given a *lot* of positive preparedness for the lockdowns associated to Covid-19... ❤
Does anyone else notice that that guy never takes off the same black necktie for the entire time they're in the shelter and how clean everyone's clothes have stayed for the weeks they've been in there
I noticed at the beginning the guy said it was a trainIng film not a reality show.
This was the 60s. Barbara Billingsley came by and did everybody's laundry.
Americans were lucky having purpose built shelters. Oh the luxury. We Brits would have had to make do with a few doors propped against an interior wall to hide under.
Oh yes. And an _extraordinary_ number of suitcases filled with conveniently available sand to pile up in front of them, plus a toilet made out of a kitchen chair with the seat removed and a bucket lined with a plastic bag that you _wish_ was nearly as thick as those sold in the 1970s! ☢🇬🇧😋
But on the bright side: At least you can _Listen to your radio_ while the batteries hold out... 😁
Thanks 👍 for sharing this 😊❤
There was a shelter at my last job... it was used a couple times during tornadoes.
What a different time…
13:50 if one of you tries to get the kids to all start singing while we're stuck down there, I'm going outside to inspect the blast crater in person with just my shorts on.
18:50 put. that guitar. down. Guitars are for openers only. Open the door and let me out before you start playing.
The first scene in this video is Styertowne Shopping Center, in Clifton, NJ! None of those stores are there any more, all of them gone.
I've told younger people about these occasionally over the years. Friend was in CAP, also, another helpful institution that no longer exists. They were all used in tornado areas during the Superoutbreak of '74. All these things our tax dollars paid for that were actually for our benefit back then.
Not a problem anymore. If you see anything at all, it'll be a glance of hypersonic MIRVs just before the light blinds you (even if you close your eyes), and then you melt.
Neo-Armageddon gives so much less hassle than the old 60s Armageddon.
✌😎👍
Ah, but don't forget we're also living in a hypercapitalist world. Neo-Armageddon is _only_ much less hassle if you're signed-up to _Armageddon Plus_ for an extra $19,99 per month... 😉
Well - that's terrifying.
That chick in charge of the medical supplies will likely report that after a thorough inventory, there is only a small fraction of the morphine that they originally thought they had. And then she walks around every day mumbling something about “good shit”.
Take a moment to appreciate the frustrated woman in red at 4:00
I've always noticed in these films each community only has 1 black person.
Idk about ya’ll, but when the time comes I’ll be walking TOWARDS the bright flash and 2nd sunrise
I live within 15 miles of at LEAST 4 Minuteman silos. I always have a 6 pak chilling in the fridge and ice packs for my cooler. First sign of a nuclear showdown, I am hopping in my car and driving as quickly as possible to one of the silo's and want to watch one of the birds fly before I get vaporized along with my last beer.
Looks like Hank Hill's brother running the show while Hank is off camera pouting because he is not running the show.😊
Little Girl walking her dog, not being stabbed, not being attacked, not being kidnapped.
Unless they are from a very wealthy family, or a family undergoing a very contentious divorce.
The odd of a child being kidnapped are almost zero.
in a _fictional_ scenario depicted in an advert, it doesn't mean what you think it means dummy
The world is a lot less dangerous than you think it is.
That comment says more about you than anything else.
Complains about kids being safer "back then" on a video about fears of thermonuclear war from the era, lol.
Not told- 50 miles from any big city and you'd be better off just eating your last meal.
...Or possibly heading for the shelter that you built yourself using locally available materials and the advice from the _Civil Defence_ self-safety guide that was sent to you 3-6 months ago? 😇
The narrator's style reminds me of Edward R. Murrow's. He died in April of 1965.
It doesn’t even tell me how to organize my own post-apocalyptic gladiatorial arena…
Simple.
Two men enter.
One man leaves.
Reminnds me of that 1980s 8-bity computer game called Cholo
make sure occupants aren’t needlessly upset? I think if your city has been bombed and everyone else might be dead, there’s a war starting and you are hiding in a shelter with limited supplies, that severe upset is warranted.
I’d say keep an eye on those who are not disturbed by that situation. These shelters were not long term stay sufficient. These people should be taking iodine too if they are going to be leaving.
"Jesus, lady I know your family is dead but you don't need to make it so inconvenient for everyone."
That shelter should have the following to make it more livable, especially if the stay is longer than 2 weeks:
1. A 25 inch or 30 flatscreen TV on the wall left of the shelter door for weather, fallout tracking over the area, news, entertainment, status of other fallout shelters, etc.
2. A smaller TV on the wall right of the shelter door above the communications table and radiological monitoring station. (For more detailed fallout tracking for civil defense headquarters)
3. A computer for the shelter manager on his desk. Also used by his deputies.
4. Charge ports for smartphones, laptops, tablets.
5. 2 tubs and showers and 4 toilets in a separate room for the occupants with recyclable water and special filters and plumbing to prevent fallout contamination.
6. EMP Shield to protect all the basement electrical systems and telephone lines from EMP.
7. Robot assistants like ROOMBA, WALL-E, R2-D2, Baymax.
8. A kitchen in a nearby room from the main shelter floor.
9. A security camera with night vision just outside the shelter on the wall next to the door to let the manager know of any late arrivals.
10. A drone outside the shelter to monitor radiation levels and send the info to the RAD reader and manager.
none of that shit existed back then, but a small kitchen and proper bathroom facilities would've been great.
Cellular networks wouldn't even function after an attack from the EMP wave
In the sixties... Ok ok ok...
In 1965 there were no flatscreens. Computers were massive collections of reel to reel machines and cabinets that would take up the space of the shelter. No drones back then. No smartphones or tablets. Are you really this uneducated or just being foolish?
The shelters existed for one reason only: To try to keep people alive during fallout. Some say they were merely to provide a false sense of security, and that survivability would have been nil. Creature comforts didn’t factor into the equation.
Any likely attack on an urban area is going to be an airbust, which would almost certainly create a massive EMP that would knock out most modern electronics instantly, so flat screen TVs would be useless. Same with computers and portable energy banks. EMPs would also knock out most commercial communications networks, so even if the flat screens survived, you wouldn't have a lot of data to post on them. EMP-shielded networks used by the military and the government would likely survive, though.
In any kind of nuclear attack over a wide area, water will be life, and as much as possible will need to be saved for drinking. Personal hygiene will need to be pursued in other ways. Food and water will need to be strictly rationed, to be enforced strictly and perhaps violently. Can't use open water from the outside like from rivers or lakes as they'll be contaminated.
Depending on length of exposure, any "late arrivals" would likely be as good as dead. Opening the shelter would likely condemn everyone in the shelter to radiation sickness, so they're going to have to stay out. Something this film doesn't consider is the very real possibility that roving gangs looking for food or water may well try to attack the shelter, with all that implies.
Something that we didn't know when this video was made was the theory of nuclear winter, the belief that a massive nuclear attack sending hundreds of millions of tons of dust and debris into the stratosphere would block out the sun over vast areas for weeks, maybe months, perhaps indefinitely. Heating would be an issue, especially as wood from outside couldn't be burned, as it would put radiation right back in the air.
It is always important when in a shelter to prove your importance, that way when they need to draw straws to decide who to eat, you will be exempt. Stay tuned for more important survivor shelter tips.
When people were prepared for the big one, they barely noticed natural disasters.
20:50 and following, describes 2025 exactly. Sad! 😢
Where's the Booze?!
I need BOOZE!!! 🤬
😂😂😂
Wrong movie 😂
You might as well go for hard drugs, it's not like you're going to have much of a lifespan anyway
You’ll get a free kick in your a**
I’m a huge fan of Troy McClure’s early work
Is WiFi available?
@randygravel2057 FTW!
Supervisor, overseer whats the difference?
What about those who break dirty wind?
The people in 1965 didn’t pass wind!
@mariekatherine5238 That is correct, Marie. A flatulence free society. It was purported, however, that Ms. Edna Paulsen, of Fort Lee, N.J. had bad gas, so the ptb kept her away from the public.
It seems manageable just looking at these shots with maybe 10 people to a room, but to realize this all has to scale to accommodate 10,000 people or more crammed into a shelter...
There were no Mass shelters ever designed in the United States to hold thousands of people, the largest known fallout shelter was designed to hold up to 1,000 people including staff, and that was designed for federal government continuity of government employees. Under The Greenbrier hotel. Most civil defense shelters were designed to hold maximum of 100. And yes it would have been crammed and uncomfortable but you would theoretically be alive
This is wild lol
Its strange how so much effort was made in the 1950s and early 1960s to install sirens, link them, modify public buildings' basements like bricking up windows, and then equipping them with food, water, medical equipment, communications equipment, batteries and small numbers of electric lights, etc. as seen in this video. Then the shelter system was neglected, forgotten, and then gutted or demolished. Do any funtioning public shelters even exist in downwind areas anymore?? I think these shelters are built or arranged purely by the local government, so as they fell out usable status, nobody had to seek federal approval to decommission them. A really chaotic and incoherent system.
Nuclear weapons have developed to the point where there is no surviving. Our modern nukes are quite literally orders of magnitude more powerful than they were in the 50s and 60s. Some sort of shelter system would certainly be useful, but I'd guess that most local governments have decided it is hardly worth the funds necessary.
@jakesemrow2678 They do seem to have shelters for government officials . . . . . .
@jakesemrow2678 Fallout shelters were never meant to survive a direct hit or a near miss from a nuclear explosion. They were designed to protect from... fallout. Fallout in the downwind areas, where radiation levels would be lethal inside the first two weeks, but where buildings would be untouched and electricity and telephone service might even still be operating.
No, what happened was the deployment of hydrogen bombs via ICBM. A fallout shelter made sense up until then.
@@tedpeterson1156 Hydrogen bombs delivered by ICBM were the state of the art in 1965 when this film was made. If anything the bomb sizes have declined due to better targeting. Fallout shelters were never about protecting from direct hits, they were about protecting from FALLOUT in the downwind areas.
Americans would have never handled an actual nuclear attack. The human condition would create absolute chaos and worse.
14:11 The soap opera 😂
Today, smoking wouldn't be allowed in a shelter full stop
What about weed? Vaping? 😂
@@stevelind393 🤔👍
You're correct because everyone would be dead.before they had a chance to even think about getting to a shelter
They had the basement of my grammar school was a shelter...I remember seeing 50 gal tanks of water...but when I knocked on them ,it sounded hollow.So I asked the Super why these gals of water are empty...he said if a nuclear attack happen they would be filled...hmmmm.There was a whole wall of them, Stacked on top of each other...this was in Queens, LIC ,NY...so there were alot of people...the water cans looked like the ones shown here....
I guess these were technically fallout shelters, not bomb shelters, so they figured there would be a little time to prepare before sealing the doors. If you were in one of these shelters and a nuke went off within a few dozen miles, you would still be toast - literally.
Which school did you attend?
A deck of cards and some dice....lots of games use standard cards and dice.
That, or some epic D&D campaigns.
Bet that shelter would smell like a porta potty after a few days..
What is this, for three days? 🤪
☢️😁👍
I played this game. It doesn't end well.
- WOPR
War, War never changes
The only way to win is not to play.
How about a nice game of chess?
Maybe u just need to get good! Lol
Can't I use an app?
What's the wi-fi password?
Are there snacks? I'm vegan and gluten free
You forgot to ask is their a safe space.
@@AndrewDaley-lr9qgand their preferred pronouns…
@@AndrewDaley-lr9qg I thought _the shelter itself_ was the designated safe space in that sort of situation? 🙃
I was a kid in the 60s
I remember the duck and cover under the school desk
I’d love to know whether my parents believed any of that crap . it seems impossible to me anyone would believe it.
I was 10, we lived out in the country and remember that Dad had a few emergency supplies stored in the cellar, He must have believed it.
@@608et Even if there was zero threat of nukes, having emergency supplies makes sense. But I guess back then people didn’t prepare as much for natural disasters.
My Dad did nuclear experimentation in the Navy, 1950’s. The answer is no. If it’s just fallout, it would a small degree of protection. It would offer virtually no protection within a 25 mile radius by 1965.
Almost everyone here I'm watching is dead now
What task would someone who sucks at everything be given? Not asking for myself or anything.
Topside radiation detector… like a canary in a coal mine…
That guy just happened to have a guitar? They had electricity?
He was 50 years too early to have a social media viral hit, unfortunately. Better luck next time, pal.
@stevelind393 I was there man...! Giving me flashbacks...! To when you actually had to record stuff in a studio, and hope a record company would pick you up....
@@stevelind393 Fostex, Clydebank, Scotland! And we didn't realise the studio's air con was on the same electrical circuit as the wall sockets until we listened back to try and edit something useful out of the chaos! 🤣 Good times, lessons learned...!
My parents (early 70’s) were in grade school when this was filmed. In 60 years we allowed our nation to become an embarrassment. A disconnected, dysfunctional miasma of people who have nothing in common. Including values, heritage, spiritual beliefs et al. In 2025 half the people in this place would have to be professionals riot control. When I was a little kid (1970’s) men would tell other men to clean up their language when there were women and children were present. What we lost is so enormous it’s unfathomable.
Chivalry. Today's society doesn't know the meaning🤙🏼
You’re absolutely right. If the nuke was close, this shelter was probably useless, but at least we’d have gone out in style, well dressed, with class and dignity. Now? Forget it!
These days the women and children are spewing profanity more than the men.
bet USA wished the old 60s shelters were still operational...
Yes, the US government stopped building them in the 70s, but there are plenty that are still active, mostly in City Halls, Court Houses, Post Offices and Library basements. Google it.
Well we certainly did during the last four years
1965? Where all the hippies at?
too stoned to make it to the shelter.
Too early! Two more years to go and everything changed. Society has steadily degraded ever since.
Sheeeet, where the black folks, 'cept da token radio fella. No chicanos either.
A little early, I think. Were the beatniks still a thing then?
Some of the hippies might have been here in the UK for the annual music festival in Somerset which is held every year that is of course that the UK hadn't been attacked. The only difference also there were no shelters for a nuclear attack except for bunkers for local government and senior politicians as well as the BBC and military for communications and defence. The civilians had no shelters except for basements in pre war houses.and they would only give protection for a limited time measured in a few hours if you were lucky enough. They would certainly die very quickly.
musta been something to have your govt actually be responsible
Would you like to play a game?
Russia maintains the biggest and most organized civil defense infrastructure in the world. They mirrored the US’s. The United States of around 1955-1960. The era of America when this training film was produced. Today the US has no civil defense structure. None. Zip. Nada. Sadly ironic is that the Americans from this era almost all spoke the same language, kept much larger stores of foodstuffs in the home, women were all tremendously skilled in domestic tasks from mending to meatloaf, houseplants to haircuts. Most men had garages full of tools. Changed their own oil and did their own tuneups. Rotated their own tires and chopped their own fire wood. Over 12M of them had been through Basic Training in one of the four branches of Armed Services or the Coast Guard. Today? Today any slight disruption of services will cause chaos. 3-5 days without services will be both mayhem and tremendously dangerous. Many Americans who’ve survived regional disasters may disagree. Based on their experiences when they suffered a week or even a month without power, transportation or medical assistance. Sure everyone may have come together and even shared big spreads before refrigerated food spoiled. But when you know something is nationwide, or even hemispheric, and when no one knows when anything will be restored; people will flip out. Guaranteed. The best protocols are adopting a preparedness minded lifestyle, relocating to the lowest population density possible, training to be more competent in various tasks and lastly (and firstly) drawing nearer to God.
Well said! And the Allies learned it from the Germans. It saved countless lives across the country during the nonstop bombing years of WW2. Hans Rumpf was in charge of CD operations for the entire country and wrote a book in the 50s or 60s titled The Bombing of Germany. He had something like 250,000 fire fighters and was well equipped and supplied. Fallout shelters were everywhere. He explains not only the numbers (stats) but the psyche of the citizens. He writes of them not being demoralized but instead galvanized against the enemy. Most were hungry but did not evacuate because they would rather live in a hole in the ground than be a burden on someone else in a strange place. Factories remained largely operational because most had moved underground, and the CD program kept workers alive. Yeah, we've got nothing like that, today.
Good luck finding your fallout shelter in Russia.
10,000 calories and 3 1/2 gallons of water. OK, so the (optimistic) rule of thumb back then was 2 weeks to get the radiation levels down to something like so-called safe. That's 1 quart of water and 714 calories a day and per Google, the absolute minimum water needed for a person resting in a temperate environment. Calorically, that's starvation rations. Better than nothing, but I'd expect there to be some really upset folks by the end of that stay.
Those were the basic amounts provided by the federal government under the civil defense act, however local government was also supposed to maintain food stores, and people were supposed to bring supplies with them. So the bare minimum that the government provided which was basically shelter biscuits or essentially Bland crackers, and sugar-laden hard candies. Along with tap water stored in plastic line drums. Mini shelters went Way Beyond the very basic necessities. Only the basic necessities were kept in very small shelters for storage was a problem. The hospital kits that were designed by the civil defense department, also contained a very large amount of phenobarbital. For just such a problem. It helps keep people calm
The Cold War and Vietnam. The 60s sucked.
9/11, foreign forever wars and globalization. The 21st century sucks much, much more
It's coming
You're joking, right?
This spawned the hippie thing
I hope they have a good stock of deodorant….
Fantasy.
In the days when arsenals were armed with fission devices, there was a degree of survivability that could be expected as the nucleides produced were relatively short lived. Once fusion devices were deployed, the maintenance of fallout shelters became a moot point.