1963 CIVIL DEFENSE NUCLEAR WAR & FALLOUT SHELTER SURVIVAL FILM 44024
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 7 ส.ค. 2016
- “Town of the Times” is the name of this 1963 color film from the Office of Civil Defense, starring Hollywood actors Ralph Meeker as George McCardle and Larry Gates as William Groves - two school board members who clash over the implementation of a public fallout shelter system. The film, from Wilding Productions, opens in a typical 1960s American town, “the one with the good Chinese restaurant and the movie theater that smells of popcorn,” as the camera pans along average citizens going about their lives as we catch glimpses of local stores and the town movie theater showing “The Day the Earth Caught Fire” and a newsstand with a furious Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev on the cover of the September 8, 1961 issue of TIME magazine … with a nuclear fireball behind him. And standing sentinel over the town: a Civil Defense siren. “No one thinks about it much any more; too many crises, too many scares. So we push it to the back of our minds, where it waits.”
As the scene cuts at mark 01:30 to carefree teens dancing to the 1961 pop song “Fallout Shelter,” we’re told that while the number of family fallout shelters in this Anytown USA numbers nearly 200, only five have been completed. So we learn about the possibility of building community fallout shelters, as opposed to ones for individual families, starting at mark 02:00. In a meeting scene, town officials discuss the positives and negatives of such public shelters, whether they be in a bank, school, or store basement, an the inevitable debate begins over who will pay for the construction and upkeep of the shelters, especially in public schools.
“I deny the issue is survival, because for the first time in human affairs, to kill is to be killed, and to let live is to live, An uneasy balance to be sure, but the beginnings of peace…,” says Gates’ character at mark 05:50 as he argues against their construction. “What will be left for those people when they come up out of their holes?”
As the film continues, there is talk of the strength of walls to protect against radiation, the implementation of a ventilation system, and storage facilities for water and other supplies. The smiling, innocent faces of young students are shown at mark 08:00, as Meeker’s character explains how the classroom’s brick walls would also offer protection against radiation, even though it’s above ground. Less than a minute later, the film takes us to a tour of a school in Paducah, Kentucky, that had already implemented such protocols.
Although the town in the film rejects the premise of community shelters, the storyline continues as Meeker’s character visits a neighboring town to visit a shelter that doubles as a meeting room. The two men go on to compare travel insurance to a Civil Defense shelter - as both offer protection to survivors of tragedy.
“If they want to build shelters in their homes that’s fine with me. But why a school?” Gates’ character laments at mark 14:25. “Why should a place for enlightenment suddenly become a center for war preparations?”
At mark 15:30, a presentation to an auditorium filled with parents discusses the danger of post-apocalyptic fallout for the benefit of the audience in the film … and this film’s audience. The speakers also field questions about what steps can be taken to survive a blast from a hydrogen bomb, including taking some sort of cover upon seeing the blinding flash of light and seeking a fallout shelter within 30 minutes, where one will likely have to stay for two weeks. But when an irate audience member questions what good would a shelter be if their town takes a direct hit, Gates’ character approaches the microphone at mark 21:25 and explains that he shares the sense of futility and doom - but that leads to inaction. “I had faced two possibilities: world peace and world destruction. I was notably reluctant to face the third: the possibility of a nuclear war in which some will survive. The most difficult of all to face because it requires intense preparation … for a day we hope will never come.”
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An insurance guy that doesn't want to sell a policy...... I have seen it all!
In all honesty, community shelter and preparedness are still good things. I grew up not far from Joplin MO - having a place to go when it goes pear shaped is a literal life saver.
Four years later in 1967, Larry Gates (William Groves) plays the role of Mr. Endicott in the movie "In the Heat of the Night" with Sidney Poitier. Amazing actor on stage and screen.
Ralph Meeker sitting opposite him.
A story of honest working people as told by Hollywood stars.
Way things are looking we may need to play this to the public again.
For diversity we might even add some colored people
It was really propaganda. Nuclear Weapons now would be Armageddon
@@homerp.hendelbergenheinzel6649 Diversity won't matter anymore, thanks to Biden's foreign policy. Every American citizen will be charred once the nukes drop. Everyone will have the same melanin afterwards, and there will be no more need for DEI. So hey, atleast there's something positive we can look forward to after all eh?
"The movie theater that smells of popcorn"
Yeah that narrows it down
Remember the fallout shelter signs on the outsides of schools and other large buildings? I remember them even as late as the 80s
The signs have been taken down and have now become private shelters for local government and the rich.
We paid for it.
You can still find them all over my area of Western NY if you know where to look.
Hey it’s the guy from the Twilight Zone about the bomb shelter!
Hey its the idiot that makes stupid comments on videos containing serious subject matter. 🙄
Interesting , Thank You. Good points . Survival is GOOD
The Narrator would good for next Fallout game.
This isn't a game. You need to grow up and quit acting like a child.
@@ahole5407 did I offend you? You sound a little sensitive there buddy..
@@ahole5407 you know sometimes people laugh just so they don’t cry.. but seriously apparently you have an issue with the understanding meme type humor.. just saying.
Capitol City - the Windy Apple! :-D
This movie was always difficult to toss off to, that is, until the Q&A.
little dated,but fallout info is still valid!!!! problem is if you go to these "public fallout shelters" Today, they are completely gone or worse they are under buildings that would collapse on them at the first ground shock from a nuke detonation nearby!!!
If your wanting fallout protection today, build a 8ft x 12ft block shelter reinforced with rebar and concrete cap in your backyard or better still would be a hillside spot with the entrance door at a right angle to block direct exposure to radiation!!! Best set-up would involve use of said right angle doorway leads out into a small hallway with a secondary steel door set at a 90 degrees to main shelter door!!! Remember to keep in mind, camouflage of the entrance door can be a wise idea to avoid others who would be looking for places to take over or loot for supplies!!! Then there is the unpleasantness of having individuals trying to attack and/or abducting the females in your family and group!! My Advice.... Have a gun w/ AMMO ready for protection and KNOW HOW TO USE IT!!! Survive On!!!
Funny you should mention that... NYC has been taking down the historic signs on buildings for that very reason.
Chortle Chortle Chortle at this point in time, NYC has decided that it is okay to abort full term born children thus negating the need for shelters of this type or any other. It is fine with NY if all the people die because we are a cancer on this great planet and should be wiped out so the planet can continue with out us because that is how it should be. Only, they think they should be able to survive because they know how best to steward the planet because they care and we are just parasites to be destroyed. What a bunch of BS. Bye bye NY.
@@madogalpha1 i didnt say, I thought this.... lack of contingencies was a good thing. I was just pointing out a pertinent fact.
Hey, did you see who was in this video? It's Bugs Moran!
We have no shelters, no emergency teams, nothing, and as gorbachev's said, we are closer to nuclear war now, then anytime in history!
And all it really took was the Flu........................
My Mom and I have them.
@@ElCharvo Ignorant comment.
I'm pretty sure the fallout shelter in my hometown was converted to basement storage, but the CD placard is still up at the old VFW building. Building bunkers and shelters must have been a really good business to be in, at the time.
1:18 Federal Signal Thunderbolt 1000(T)
Yes, a classic. I have an original metal control panel (with all electronics) for a Thunderbolt for sale if anyone's interested. I'll be happy to send it to any siren restorer for the shipping (60 lbs) and a small fee for me packing it up.
1:24 Doing the atomic twist
It would give people a place to go when the city is in "lock down" now.
Like during Covid?
@@markkrause4407 you mean hoax
@@anagramconfirmed1717 Yes , the cold that the 1% made a media softball. Less people dying of heart disease so covid can get credit for the body count.
@@markkrause4407 Actually, Mike, the heart disease deaths were approximately what they'd been in previous years. But the total death count was up by half a million each of the last two years. So how did all those people die if it was a "hoax"?
And no, it's not the CDC inflating the numbers, because those numbers come from the individual counties. So if you want to claim that all 3000 US counties and parishes somehow managed to conspire without leaving any kind of paper trail, good luck with that.
Lock downs another smokescreen for the populace.
A bomb was just dropped in theaters everywhere, I will let you decide what it was.
What was it?
The Rise of Skywalker....
You know the town...the one that will be decimated, in later years, when a Walmart moves in...
I'm 60 and I learned something from this. Do they teach this to adults in your area? To kids, anywhere? ? No! If 'it' happened tomorrow the majority of US citizens would be completely clueless. Or already dead.
Modern weapons in use today eliminate any chance of survival. The fallout is too long lived. Sad but true. Any civil defense preparedness would be a waste of time.
our population is just too massive for shelters to even make sense and they haven't been stocked in decades...
I know a place where the H-Bomb drops, called Wipe Out. Twist, Twist. LOL
I did a project on civil defense and nuclear war in the late 80s. I found that the latest doctrine from the Feds was to let people shelter themselves. I can see the need for community shelters but only for those caught away from home. Relocation was the watchword in the late Seventies onwards. One EMA manager told me that the county with the target was the one that we had to worry about the most. Adjacent counties would be host counties since the Commies would be more precise with their nukes.
In a full scale exchange it won't matter where you try to hide. Read or watch "On the Beach", a fictitious but scientifically accurate story about the aftermath of such an exchange.
As it turns out all of this protection was a waste of money and has since been largely forgotten about.
Not a waste of money. The Soviet Union were well aware we were trying to prepare for survival by these plans and shelters. Then, the USA and President Reagan outspent the Soviets in all facets of defense, and technology , and realized nuclear war was unwinnable and guaranteed MUTUAL ASSURED DESTRUCTION ((MAD) OF both countries, hence sensible and verifiable nuclear agreements, and the Communist Bloc disintegrated. Now, we have a new psychotic old Soviet kgb agent willing to take a gamble on world domination and WW3. We must be prepared and help our European allies and Ukraine, and pray for peace.
Gonna live live live in my fallout shelter!
What is the name of that song
Fallout Shelter by Mike and Bernie Winters, 1962. The song made them so mad, they went out and made this film 😂
This guy is so BS about the water supply settling out in a few days. Ridiculous.
Why do you say that?
Ridiculous is the correct spelling
Heavy isotopes would settle but the point is moot. Long term effects from fallout eliminate any chance of survival.
@@booklover6753 so, an area that had a direct hit would be uninhabitable long term?
@@insideoutsideupsidedown2218 Depends on the nature of the particles. As "radiation" is really just microscopic exploding atoms which pierce our bodies and can damage our organs akin to tiny shrapnel. We know better what radiation actually is than we did before where it was treated like an invisible force that magically spread around (you can't "wash it out of you" for example, that's like "washing out a bullet wound"), but the issue is mostly how to subvert the radiation enough to know it's safe to return. If the particles no longer are exploding or unstable or they're mostly sparse then we'll probably risk a few people getting sick from it, but for awhile the ground would be covered in mines just cause of physics.
Plus bombs are a lot bigger and more volatile than before. and odds are multiple will be dropped if it comes to that. any country who fires a missile is doing so for blood, not to "See what happens"
Continuity of Government assures that the ones in charge have a place to go while leaving us plebs out here in the fallout.
The whole idea seemed practical on the surface but in reality when the SHTF most people would rather spend the nuclear apocalypse with their family not a small room crowded with strangers
If I can't be with loved ones I ain't going to a fallout shelter
I actually went 7th-12th grade in a nuclear Bomb Shelter (60s/70s) ... it was built after the Cuban Missile Crisis and was completely underground ... had decontamination chamber and everything else to support 2k people if needed. Was the first one in the USA built as such.
12:37 Survive a crash maybe, fly thru a radioactive cloud? It's bye bye and hopefully quick.
You do know that in the 40s and 50s, the military had pilots who did exactly that, right?
@@almostfm Pilots were used initially but they quickly changed to drones for those flights. Not much was published about the guys who flew those missions.
Millennials thought they invented Twerking! SMH
I wonder if they have shelters for the "coloured folks"?
Hopefully not
No, but there are for “colored folks”
@@rapman5363 Coloured is how it's spelled in the UK. Just sayin.
I was born in 57, I never went to college or planned anything out because I couldn't believe we would still be here today. I guess we are and the joke is on me. A broken down body from a life of hard manual labor, all the while not making enough money to survive for the last 40 years. And, still the possibility is far from minut that we could vaporize tomorrow. I don't know about other countries but I've lived in this one for 61 years and I've seen it become too retarded to live. Politicians act and speak with all the maturity of kindergarteners. People think that rap is music, adult is a verb, there are more than 2 genders, we claimed our independence from Japan and we lost World War II. Nuclear destruction? Bring It On! Those who are old enough walk around with their memories of America, the rest walk around with their illusions of it.
I love the way the audience sounds, he's a politician, he's with the government, Lynch him!
What country are you from?
@@jonathanstern5537 " are old enough to remember America"...... you need a little reading comprehension there partner
Didn't have a real successful family life ?
@@8800081 You can remember America without being from it. Plus, globally America isn't necessarily the country, but the two continents.
@@jonathanstern5537 it obviously means something more to grow up in America as a citizen who was born here and North America has three countries in it. There's a difference between North America and America., Heaven help you if anybody ever asked you what the difference was between the United Kingdom, England and Great Britain.
I have really bad gas right now.
And here we are 5 years after this posting worrying about a nut in Moscow dropping the big one on us or letting Cherynobel (sp) boil dry and contaminate the world God alone knows how bad. Don’t things ever change for the better?
Greed Corp Gov Slaves & Depopulate The World We All Down On The Farm
You can stop by not buying into the fear and propaganda.
@@jasonm949 I'm curious if you've bought into "the fear and propaganda" that tells you to lock your doors at night. Or is it only fear and propaganda when it's stuff you disagree with?
@@jasonm949 Putting your head in the sand doesn't alter reality Jason. Typical Tucker Carlson crap.
@@booklover6753 You're joining the infantry in Ukraine then? Tough guy?
a price on a person's head.