Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: civil defense films shown during 1950's & 1960's in theatres?

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Posted by Matthew Bailey (Member # 601) on 01-08-2003, 05:54 PM:

I am wondering if there were any Civil Defense films shown in theatres during the 1950's & 1960's. My brother has a collection of some C.D. stuff & there are some C.D. related sites that have some video clips & still shots of various C.D. films such as the Cold War Era Civil Defense Museum for example. I wonder besides having prints of these films on 16 mm if there also was any of them on 35 & 70 mm.

Posted by Dan Lyons (Member # 1454) on 01-08-2003, 06:01 PM:

For those of us who don't know, what is a Civil Defense film about?
Danny

Posted by Ian Price (Member # 14) on 01-08-2003, 06:30 PM:

What to do during a Nuclear Attack!

Bend over
Place your head between your knees and...
Kiss your ass goodbye!

Posted by Gordon Bachlund (Member # 124) on 01-08-2003, 06:36 PM:

Danny, during World War II the government organized a nationwide cadre of volunteers trained to assist in the event of enemy action and to enforce "blackouts" during possible air raids by enemy planes. These folks wore helmets and arm bands with the logo "CD" and their presence was conforting to the civilian population. For a whimsical look at the paranioa of those days, watch Spielberg's hilarious 1975 comedy "1941."

Matthew, as far as I know theatres ran war bond promos (most theatres sold them in the lobby), but no "CD training films." I expect most such films were only in 16mm and were used as a part of civilian training programs.

Posted by Dan Lyons (Member # 1454) on 01-09-2003, 01:44 AM:

Hmm, those sound very amusing. I wouldn't be surprised if there aren't any clips of that nature floating around online.

Danny

Posted by Mark Lensenmayer (Member # 134) on 01-09-2003, 07:53 AM:

There are lots of great old films at this address:

Prelinger Archive

All clips are totally free and free distribution is encouraged.

Here are some of the top items there:

1. Duck and Cover
2. Are You Popular?
3. Perversion for Profit (Part I) [ANTI-porn film]
4. Classic Television Commercials (Part I)
5. 1955 Chevrolet Screen Ads
6. A is for Atom
7. My Japan
8. As Boys Grow
9. Molly Grows Up
10. Perversion for Profit (Part II) [More Anti-Porn]

Here's just another of items available there:

Psychological Operations in Support of Internal Defense and Development Assistance Programs (Part I)
Military training film showing psychological operations in "Hostland," a mythical (probably Latin American) country, designed to aid the host government in gaining the support of the population.

This is one INCREDIBLE source for goverment and old educational films, and is one of my most highly recommended web sites. Wonderful stuff buried there.

Here are a few of special interest to Film-Tech readers:

Finding His Voice

Sound Recording and Reproduction

Facts about Projection (16mm)

Posted by Dustin Mitchell (Member # 372) on 01-11-2003, 02:00 PM:

If you can find it the documentary "The Atomic Cafe" has some great CD footage.

On the issue of WWII Civil Defesne drills and blackouts, while having blackouts in places like Chicago was likely a little dumb, it made perfect sense on the East Coast and to a lesser extent on the West. These blackouts weren't for air raids, they were an anti-submarine measure. Few people today realize that in the first few monhts after the US entered the war hundreds of ships were sunk off the East Coast by German submarines and thousands of sailors lost their lives. The German submarine campaign off the US East Coast was effective in part because businesses refused to dim their lights at night, complaining that they would lose customers.

Posted by Mark Gulbrandsen (Member # 72) on 01-11-2003, 02:10 PM:

"The Atomic Bomb" movie(aka "Trinity And Beyond") also has some civil defence clips, and the all to hilarious announcer narating the first Hydrogen Bomb Detonation from on board the Ship Estes. Actually, this is a pretty good film that should be required watching in History class. Peter Kuran perfected an important color restoration process while making this film and received a Technical Oscar for his work. A description can be seen here....
http://www.vce.com/rci.html

Another really neato documentary on this sort of thing is the "Atomic Filmakers" film....its funny that none of these guys got sick from these jobs........imagine the one group having an a-bomb dropped right over their heads so it could be filmed from underneath.......Check it out here....
http://www.vce.com/atomic.html
Mark

Posted by Leo Enticknap (Member # 534) on 01-13-2003, 02:26 AM:

The Atomic Café is a great compilation film contrasting educational, training and commercial film and sound archive dealing with the Cold War from the '50s and '60s, as is the lesser-known but similar documentary Are We Winning, Mommy?. The latter is more of a social comment piece and does not go for the ironic/humour effect quite as much, though.

We have prints of several civil defence films made by the British government. The ones designed to be shown to members of the emergency services or trained volunteers are far more realistic about the effects of nuclear weapons than the ones made for the general public. As our original elements are all 16mm I'd guess that these films were made more for non-theatrical showing (classrooms, church halls and so on) than for cinemas.