Duck And Cover - Original 1950 Airing

[babylonsister]

Run time: 04:47 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ixy5FBLnh7o   Posted on YouTube: January 08, 2008 By YouTube Member: Views on YouTube: 0   Posted on DU: March 22, 2009 By DU Member: babylonsister Views on DU: 1121

 
Duck and Cover was a suggested method of personal protection against the effects of a nuclear detonation which the United States government taught to generations of United States school children from the late 1940s into the 1980s. This was supposed to protect them in the event of an unexpected nuclear attack which, they were told, could come at any time without warning. Immediately after they saw a flash they had to stop what they were doing and get on the ground under some cover—such as a table, or at least next to a wall—and assume the fetal position, lying face-down and covering their heads with their hands. Similar instructions were given in 1964 in the United Kingdom by Civil Defence Information Bulletin No. 5. and, in the 1980s, by the Protect and Survive series.

Critics have said that this training would be of little, if any, help in the event of thermonuclear war, and had little effect other than promoting a state of unease and paranoia.

The United States' monopoly on nuclear weapons was broken in 1949 when the Soviet Union tested its first nuclear device, and many in the government and public perceived that the United States was more vulnerable than it ever had been before. Duck-and-cover exercises had quickly become a part of Civil Defense drills that every American citizen, from kids to the elderly, practiced so as to be ready in the event of nuclear war. In 1950, during the first big Civil Defense push of the Cold War; the movie Duck and Cover was produced (by the Federal Civil Defense Administration) for school showings in 1951. At the time, it was believed the main dangers of a Hiroshima-type nuclear blast were from heat and blast damage: radioactive fallout itself was not clearly identified until 1954, after the Castle Bravo nuclear-weapon test in the Marshall Islands caused sickness and death in Japanese fishermen on the Lucky Dragon fishing vessel.

[Karenina]

1. BWHAHAHAHAHAHA!

:kick:

[liberal N proud]

2. Tweedle dum?

[grofys]

3. I hate to admit this but,

I am actually old enough to have gone through some of these drills. Some classes hid under their desks and some squeezed under doorways. I think I entered school during the last year of these drills, but I still remember how absurd they were. The phrase should have been: duck and vaporize. And I'm going to add something that I'll probably never have a chance to write. Kids then, including me, were very ugly and coarse-looking. Even the kids who were supposed to be cute looked like missing links. There were no beautiful children like the ones now. Although I'm glad I grew up then. No one cared what we did. We left the house and returned when called. We had complete freedom. No, nothing was safe and anything could have and did happen, but I will never experience a freedom like that again.

[eleny]

6. Welcome to DU!

I'm 62 and remember those drills. And also only going home from play when it got dark.

Btw, I was as cute as a button! Dirty from playing but cute, nevertheless. :hi:

[Voice for Peace]

7. "duck & vaporize"

yep

[sarge43]

8. Welcome to DU

Yup. We were ugly little spuds and you're right. In the summer we were fed breakfast, thrown out the back door and told to be back by noon if we wanted lunch. We did what we damned pleased, including stuff that would give today's parents heart attacks. Until we hit puberty we were always covered with dirt, scabs and cuts.

Yeah, most of us knew we were being bs'd about duck and die. I went to elementary school when they were in full swing. I remember watching the news reels about the A-bomb tests and thinking "my desk is supposed to protect me from that!. Give me a break."

[grofys]

16. yeah

dirty, scabby and bleeding...good times...

[Johnny Noshoes]

17. Yeah gee amazing ain't it

without helmets, knee pads, antispetic sprays, cell phones, hand sanitizer gel, et al most of us managed to survive.

[Towlie]

4. Duck and Cover parody from the first season of South Park

http://www.southparkstudios.com/clips/149714

[Voice for Peace]

9. so twisted

:rofl: :fistbump:

[Journeyman]

5. The effects of fallout were known long before Hiroshima. . .

Clement Atlee was the Prime Minister of England
who concurred with President Truman’s decision
to annihilate Hiroshima. However, 16 years later
Atlee wrote: We knew nothing whatever at the time
about the genetic effects of an atomic explosion.
I knew nothing about fall-out and all the rest. . .
Yet H.J. Muller had won the Nobel Prize in 1927
for investigating the genetic effects of radiation.
Are we not ruled by cliques of men as uninformed
as Palestinian shepherds?

- Evan S. Connell
Points for a Compass Rose (1973)


I dispute Connell on their motives. "Uninformed" implies innocent ignorance; their belief was willful, to permit unfettered testing and escape the world's inevitable wrath.

[Hekate]

10. Very interesting. Notice the classroom is integrated--filmed in NY, could have been my CA school. ..

This was a very scary message for us kids. One day in 1957 a transport plane and fighter jet collided over my Pacoima elementary school and the jr. hi next door, crashing into the playground. As the noise of the descending plane reached unbearable volume our teacher said "Duck!" and as we had all been taught we scrambled beneath our desks. We all thought, "This is it. This is The Bomb."
http://proquest.umi.com/pqdwebdid=1204095721&Fmt=3&clientId=1535&RQT=309&VName=PQD

Throughout my childhood years, surviving a nuclear attack was a recurring topic of conversation among adults; fostered by our own government, inducing both a sense of paranoia and false security.

Hekate

[tomm2thumbs]

11. Irony - 2 easy steps, but no 3rd step

they don't want you to think about the next one

[Joanne98]

12. The genius of the 1964 Lyndon Johnson "Daisy Ad" was the subconscious effect

it had on the boomers who had been tortured with "Duck and Cover"...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OKs-bTL-pRg

[formercia]

13. I can remember doing that in grade school.

We would have regular 'duck and cover' drills. About the only thing it was good for was to protect you from flying glass and keep you alive until the shock wave flattens the school.

[goforit]

14. Hilarious!!! It amazes me how much innocence there was back then.

[Downtown Hound]

15. Gee whiz I feel prepared now!

That was a swell film! Thanks Burt the Turtle!

[DutchLiberal]

18. So if the A-bomb is dropped, all I need to do is hide under my desk to survive?

If so, then why did they make such a big deal about the Soviets having the bomb? I mean, seriously, was there never a person to say: "hey, how big can the threat be, if we are all-right just staying under our desks?" Nobody was smart enough to think about that? Really? Or did they just enjoy scaring the crap out of their kids?