“‘Duck and Cover’ - Original TV Advert.” 1951. Educational video. Youtube, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zMnKNHNfznE
The next artifact is a civil defense film that was commonly played as a TV advert in the early 1950s, which depicted what someone should do in the event of an unexpected nuclear attack on American soil. The film, known as Duck and Cover, starts off by showing a turtle hiding in its shell in order to protect itself from an explosion, followed by examples of what you should do in the event that there is a nuclear attack. The film was produced by the Federal Civil Defense Administration, with the purpose of teaching “life skills to students across the country in a uniform way”.4 The film encouraged students to first take cover from the blast, which was usually either under a desk or against a wall, and then cover themselves to protect them from the blast. Following the Soviet Union’s development of an atomic bomb, tension and paranoia surrounding a nuclear attack was at an all-time high, and in order to help calm these fears, civil defense films such as this one were created to help demonstrate what people can do in case of an attack. While these films helped people feel more comfortable about what they could do to protect themselves in the event of an attack, they serve as a reflection of the mass paranoia throughout the country, as fears of another war continued to build.
Notes
4. “The Cold War in the Classroom.”