Old Dude, Old PSA - "Duck and Cover"

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0213381/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1

This 15-minute public service announcement (PSA), released in 1952, is an precious artifact to anyone who lived during the Cold War era.  Character actor Robert Middleton narrated, in a friendly patriarchal tone. Knowing what we know now, it's a strangely quaint presentation. Even in the 1950s, citizens had to know that the effects of a nuclear detonation were severe. How much hope or protection could one really draw from hiding under a wooden desk?

The opening, with the turtle encountering a monkey carrying a lit firecracker, was disarming. As a kid in the '60s, I don't think I would have appreciated the importance of the message from this scene. From that opening, we get short vignettes of people in everyday life - kids in school, folks walking on the street, a family in the park. "Without warning", folk would get an indication (a flash of light, an announcement over a speaker or a siren's wail) directing them to duck and cover their heads.

I know, it's too easy to direct snark at something produced 60 years ago. That isn't my intent. But, consider the blinding light, the blast of superheated air and the lingering radiation that all result from detonation of a nuclear weapon. Since those aspects were either barely covered or covered not at all, I wonder what the PSA creators hoped to achieve by glossing over that stuff. Were the creators in denial, or were they worried they would cause a panic if they shared more information?

I do remember Civil Defense signs on buildings. I remember "duck and cover" drills in my elementary school. I remember reading about Hiroshima and Nagasaki being devastated. Later, when I spent some time in Strategic Air Command and actually studied the weapons and after-effects, I realized this film was a product of its time, and nothing more. Things were just done that way in the '50s.

If someone were to watch this with the mindset of seeing this issue through the eyes of our forebears, it's not bad. If someone watched it hoping it would save lives, the viewer would be disappointed.