THE DAY CALLED 'X' NUCLEAR ATTACK ON PORTLAND OREGON COLD WAR FILM 71622
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- Опубліковано 11 лют 2025
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A Day Called X is a dramatized Civil Defense documentary set in Portland, Oregon ("roughly the size of Hiroshima"), in which the entire city is evacuated in anticipation of a nuclear air raid, after Soviet bombers had been detected by radar stations to the north. The film opens with an overhead shot of then-mayor Terry Schrunk striding purposefully into the old underground Kelly Butte Civil Defense Center-a bunker-like structure built into a hillside. The film details the activation of the city's civil defense protocols and leads up to the moment before the attack (the ending is left intentionally unknown). The operations were run from the Kelly Butte Bunker, which was the EOC during the time. It was filmed in September 1957 and shown in December of that year. Apart from presenter/narrator Glenn Ford, none of the people shown are actors. They are locals of Portland shown in their real jobs, including Schrunk.
The film was produced by CBS Public Affairs in conjunction with the Federal Civil Defense Administration.
On September 27, 1955, Portland actually conducted an exercise evacuation of downtown called "Operation Greenlight", and the film is often misattributed to that year. Ford's narration, however, does make direct reference to the 1955 exercise.
This print of the film came out of the estate of filmmaker Harry Rasky, and is one of the best we've seen. Rasky was born in Toronto into a Jewish family, where he completed studies at University College. He participated in CBC Television's first four years writing and producing CBC Newsmagazine (1952-1955). He also produced a documentary for the 1961 debut evening of CTV Television Network. He earned more than 200 awards during his career in which his films numbered more than 400.
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It's cool seeing this. Terry Schrunk was my grandpa. Never got to meet him. He passed before I was born.
Excellent!
Portland native...so cool to see this...I have a hazy memory of a show much like this on a black and white tv...and remember duck and cover...except when we moved into the city there was no duck and cover....they just lined us up and made sure we were in alphabetical order....[later,when I worked for the .gov I found out...this was to id the bodies] That opened my eyes a bit....[ my Grandmothe ran a cleaning shop at 18th and burnside,the Derby Cleaners.I remember Old Portland,ran those streets when it was safe for a 10yr old to do so...knew the girs at the fulton fish market,delivered clothes to the[shipyard] Zidells,ate burgers at the hot lips @powell and railroad tracks...did school trips to the old omzi [at the zoo]Rember the contest to name "packy'.....
Cool !
So you are likely somewhat related to the former Multnomah County (Portland) District Attorney?
I just read the wikipedia article. Portland was more fun back then.
8:12: "And there are those who can't go...These men are expendable."
That was very chilling, as well as seeing the police dispatchers that hadn't left their stations. There were people who would be left behind, and they knew it.
Like The Day After, the guys manning the missile silos after the missiles are launched.
Ugh I can't even imagine.
Screw that. Power operators are needed to repopulate the world once the dust settles.
"Martyrs in Training".
Back to the Iron Age, there's no need for electrical workers with no grid,
Only on UA-cam could I find these awesome, rare gems! Please keep posting more! May this never happen in reality EVER again.
@15:30....ah, those were the days when 5 children could be in a car and stand up without being belted in while a mother drives a car during a nuclear attack.
Lmao I remember those days too. I'm 35 🤣
While she drank an elegant martini with one hand, smoking a Camel with the other.
It was great.
17:17 Wow, that guy can't catch a break. He bought a Ford Edsel and now there's a nuclear war starting.
Zoomer30 lol
LOL nice
Point well taken
Haha
Hey, that car will last him the rest of his life.
My how the people of portland have changed.
Exactly. Portland is now full of evil satanists, lol
The Communist wouldn't bomb Portland today. They would loose all their agents.
@@hdanielnoble6572 LO freakin L.
What kind of plans have they got now? Civil unrest is exactly what we have now. Your plan is call it protest and do NOTHING!
"Forward thinking," he called the people of Portland... Look how that has worked out.
I'm a 'Duck and Cover' Baby Boomer and as a kid I knew where the Air Raid Shelters were in the area I played and I was to go to the nearest one if the sirens went off. There's an air raid siren near my house that's used during severe weather and the sound of it still turns my blood cold.
+46619TAB Don't be "Surprised", if it goes off, for the reason it was actually "Installed" . . . With what currently "Going On", it really SHOULDN'T be a "Surprise". . .
+46619TAB I live in the UK, we don't have many sirens for weather or civil defence but the sound of one still makes me quite scared.
Randy Williams
Indeed! There's a siren near enough to my house that I can hear it, it's used to warn of severe storms. And yes my blood still turns to ice when I hear it.
Mr allertor 125 - This film is quite archaic but now days is still timely all things considered. However, with Nukes being delivered via missiles we have , I believe, 10 minutes to run. And there's no going back. Thanks I guess for the model 2T info.
Eh, it's more that they deliberately design them to have the most jarring, unnerving sound possible so that people can't ignore them...
In this film, Portland had three hours notice that Soviet bombers were coming. Today, in the age of nuclear submarines armed with missiles, coastal cities would be lucky to get three minutes warning.
Yup. We're all dead at that point.
The quicker the better.
Yup, a blinding flash, searing heat, and it's all over for the lucky ones. I feel more sorry for those who are left to slowly die of radiation poisoning and hunger. Pray it never happens.
When they were talking about how long they had to prepare and evacuate, the very same thing came into my head. Radar would certainly pick up bombers armed with atomic bombs. But with the advent of missile technology, in the apocalypse movie 'The Day After', John Lithgow's character uttered the minuteman missiles would reach targets in Russia within 30 minutes - but this is based on land-based silos. I don't think that movie took into account nuclear-armed submarines which existed at the time, thus shortening the evacuation window to: WASF.
Very much depends upon the submarine firing points -- there may not be any warning given that actually has time to reach people. It may not be desired that they have any warning in certain places. What could they do?
Most of their missiles are still silo, TEL and aircraft launched, though. Those will be spotted as soon as the IR flashes are seen -- when the missiles are high enough to be seen by OTH radar their targets can be guessed at reliably. Strategic command has from the time the flashes are spotted.
If this happened today, the broadcast on both radio and TV would likely say, "OK folks, you have three minutes to say your prayers to God then bend over and kiss your asses goodbye."
This was made in ‘57 and the grade school shown early on is Harvey Scott which both my parents had attended but were in high school in ‘57. It’s nice to see Portland closer to how I remember it instead of what it is now. I moved away over 25 years ago.
Smart. Lucky you.
Yep, I recognized it instantly, as it's where I went, too. Looked exactly the same in this filmed in '57 as it did when I went there in the '80s, as it does today. :-D (And the school was recently renamed to just "Scott Elementary", officially removing Harvey from the name - as it turns out Harvey was a terrible person. He was against public schools - why would you name a public school after someone who was against the idea of public schools!)
Ok, Boomer who drank all the Red Scare koolaid lol
Glad you moved away.👍😎
Poor old guy who let Mr Mayor in, had to close the blast door from the outside...
Years ago I worked with maintenance engineers at an emergency control centre. They wouldn’t have been allowed in the building in the event of nuclear attack, even though the air con and air filtration systems failed frequently..
After the Cuban missile crisis asked my grandfather why he always got his gun out during those drills He said it was for the looters
@palerider957 I wonder who they consider expendable now?
I miss Glen Ford… his calm voice of reason could steady even the most frazzled nerves.
I was from the NW, but completely unaware Portland had this level of Civil Defense planning! This was well before my time, but as a child of the 80’s, I well remember the fear of nuclear war.
Thanks so much for the upload! It is much appreciated!
Loved Glen Ford in the Big Heat. He was Canadian.
Boy, does this bring back memories. I lived in a small town of about 5,000 people in northern Ohio, and I remember our Civil Defense drills. We had it down and were rated very highly by officials. In the bigger cities, there were air raid shelter directions on the corners of the streets. In school, we were supposed to get under our desks and hold our hands over our heads. That was supposed to protect us from a nuclear attack. Some of the kids I knew had a shelter right in their own house. They remodeled their basements. One spring, the National Guard in our area wanted to practice taking our town over, as if they were in Germany or something. Anyhow, the Mayor said yes and sure enough, that following weekend we were at war and a hostile army was trying to take us over. Us kids had a blast because we knew all the woods and the areas they'd probably be hiding in. We would surprise them and shoot them with our water pistols. They were pissed. At one point we were hiding from them and it was all very exciting. Well, downtown, the Mayor and all the city council were in the city jail. The tanks were blocking all the main streets. All the stores were closed. Soldiers were everywhere, bristling with guns. It was quite a bleak day. They all stayed until the following night when they disappeared. I was 10 years old and little did I know what the future would hold.
John Allen That's an interesting story. Thanks for sharing it. People today wouldn't understand what we faced back then. I used to have nightmares of me and my family being killed in our sleep by a nuclear holocaust. I wonder who the 'brainchild' of the duck and cover drills were. I guess they knew since nothing could save you in a nuclear blast they tried to give students a false sense of security.
I remember seeing bomb shelters being built by houses. One I saw was built under a front lawn. It had pipes sticking out of the ground. I guessed they were for outside air. Even much later when malls started popping up I saw bomb shelters being sold in the center isles. They had several sizes. It looked like a small one not much bigger than a phone booth was just for 2 people for a very short period of time. Others were big, maybe 10 feet by 10 feet. They all were expensive. I wonder how many are buried around the US. I imagine most deteriorated into the ground but some might still be functional.
MovieMakingMan
I spent much of the Cuban Missile Crisis in a panic and terror. I was 15.
MovieMakingMan
I imagine some are being used as cellars, and tornado shelters. No,such thing in Florida
@@MovieMakingMan
Duck and cover actually had a very important role to play. If you were in the blast zone, you were toast but do you know what caused 70% of all injuries outside the blast zone?
Glass.
Seeing a sudden flash then taking cover automatically was the difference between relative safety and a face full of glass at the speed of sound. Not nearly as silly as people think.
@@MrPig40 How many nuclear war have you lived through? It could be the margin for people in a certain radius of distance. Outside of that radius, it's just the fires. Then there's the fallout. It all depend on which way the wind is blowing.
So the men at the power station are expendable,while the office workers go to the bunkers.Nice.
ffoto+,,, Have to keep the office workers. Who is going to send out the bills, to the survivors... LOL
That’s okay. I’m Sure the office workers can rewire the whole network after an EMP burns out every switch and substation.
OF COURSE YOU DOLT! We were protecting capitalism!
Lolololol. No wonder why some of these old people are so nutty. They grew up watching this shit.
Narrator should have said "The power workers were essential and had to stay at their posts, expendable civilians told they could leave."
Thanks for keeping history alive and I'll support as I can :-)
I love how even facing nuclear annihilation women still had the good taste to wear a hat and gloves. That's what separates us from the Godless communists.
Haha
Hehehe!!!
🤣👍
Godless who dropped the atomic bombs
Christians don’t even follow the teachings of Jesus. “Lay down your life for your brothers and sisters.” “If you see your brother or sister without and you don’t show pity, the love of god is not in you.” “It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than to enter the kingdom of heaven.”
Worshipping “billionaire” narcissistic dictators doesn’t sound like something a Christian should be doing. I guess Christians forgot about the cleansing of the temple?
Thank you, Periscope! You are indespensible!!
I'm old enough to remember when the term, "H-Bomb" 0:55 , was on many people's lips. We'd practice duck and cover back then in school. I believe our teachers, the Good Sisters of the IHM, were convinced some of us would make it through a nuclear holocaust. Those were the days.
It was a scary time but the quality of life far outweighed the fear, it was a fantastic era in which to be growing up. I was 4 years old then, the drama continued throughout grade school.
Quality of life.. good for the privileged, not so great for others, people of color in the south
We lived near enough to New York City that a near miss with a missile (the early ones could literally miss by miles which is why their warheads were in the Megatons range! Also there were limited Antimissile missiles which could knock one off course) could hit us with a big shock wave, if not hit us!
Duck and cover drills were very common!!!
I remember the last time they tested the air raid sirens in Calgary , that sound goes right to your soul.
Technically it's not meant as an air raid siren. Its primary use is for tornadoes. Medicine Hat has one too. They had a small twister when I was visiting on my first wedding anniversary in 2007.. about the only significant thing damaged was the mast with the damned siren on it! 🤣
I just stumbled upon this Channel and how fitting it still is today. We have become so lazy and unconcerned with this still very real possibility. Lord have mercy on us.
Amen 🙏
I can smell the stench of Boomeritis in these comments…of course it’s followed by an “amen”…your generation obviously got too much lead in their diet
dig the school superintendent's sun glasses
Like Dr. Strangelove
Watch Threads and then laugh at the optimism in this film.
It's on my watch list, will probably watch it now.
Rick C I’d be interested to hear what you think of it. Let me know once you’ve watched it! 🍻
The world survived the last 75 years. What did pessimism do for those that were? And if it did happen who is more likely to survive? The pessimist or the optimist. In either case you find supporting circumstances to make your expected outcome come true.
Read "Surviving Doomsday" by Dr. Bruce Clayton. Still relevant after all these years...
yuanyuan zeng it’s not about hope or lack of it. A full scale counter value nuclear war is not survivable. Anyone who survives the initial blasts and firestorm will either succumb to famine, disease or cannibal raiders.
Originally telecast on CBS on December 8, 1957.
Because this was televised, a disclaimer had to be shown at a key moment at 25:30.
Noon on a Sunday...
When the mayor enters the bunker, the security guard stays outside...oh well...
In reality, the guard with the gun would be on the inside and the mayor outside banging on the door
Peter Roberts as the way it should be today 🤣
I heard that the bunker no longer exists today.
17:14 Poor guy is about to be bombed in his brand new 58 Edsel Pacer! This was made in September 1957, the Edsel came out on September 4.
What happened after that point? Well, we'll leave you to contemplate because we have no special effects budget at all.
The portland removal device has worked perfectly
The Hydrogen bombs that would have hit Portland would not be survivable and the devastation and radiation would make it pointless to return to the city. These bombs are so powerful that they make the Hiroshima bomb look like a hand grenade.
Yes. Read about DARPA and the real Hydrogen bomb test in the Bikini Islands . It was much worse than even their worst anticipation.
Those big 50s city busters were of particularly high yield, certainly, but their other properties would have compensated. The people who made this video were certainly very optimistic, though.
A true representation of the devastation of a nuclear strike would be UK docudrama Threads (1984)
@@JetDom767 Absolute best movie about the aftermath of a nuclear exchange. It's uniquely horrific and beautiful. The figures given in terms of yield are much higher than actual, and the winter lengths/intensity are now known to be bogus, but it's otherwise very good. I love it.
You forget the unique geography of Portland. Sure, the center would be destroyed- but there are many places close by to hide behind bluffs and cliffs.
That is not the actual sound of a Chrysler Victory air raid siren. They are much louder and deeper-sounding; obviously the sound effects editor just dubbed in a different siren sound he had on file.
My dad's elementary school had the same fire alarm horn seen at 8:08.
That climax is real nightmare fuel!
This film is chilling to me. Just because of how realistic it feels. The implications of it and what’s going on.
I dunno.... if the military has time to send us a 3 hour warning that a plane is heading over with a nuke, what the F*CK is our airforce DOING? Twiddling their thumbs? They can send out a fleet of flies to destroy the Nazis and Japanese, but can't send a couple of anti-air craft to stop one measily plane with a nuke? Also, no Hollywood and civil defense... everyone in a city is NOT quietly walking out of thier buildings to their cars with smug smiles on thier faces as they prepare to leave the city and their pasts behind for who knows where. We saw first hand what happened with Covid and all people were told to do what wear a mask and stand apart from each other and try not to go to crowded areas unnecessarily. People will probably throw "Radiation parties" and several right wingers will deliberately blow thier own houses up just to prove "the bomb isn't scary".
You should see Portland now!
It’s great!! Every town has problems but of course you’ve never been so…
@@FYMASMDguess I didn’t make it to your area. Where i was it reminded me of Seattle. Both toilets. No offense intended toward actual toilets. Have anyone in either city actually driven around their cities at all? Or are some so oblivious or delusional they cant see what’s right in front of them?
My company gave me a choice: 4 weeks training in Portland or 4 weeks training in Detroit? SO GLAD I chose Detroit!
Planes being slower than missiles gives them hours to evacuate. But there would always be a vehicle breaking down, someone knowing a shortcut, which would mess things up.
This is so cool. I have been living in Portland for the last 50 years!
A day called X survivor! How did you do it?
@@johnrflinnHe arrived after they rebuilt...
March 11th, 1957 the sunrise in Portland Oregon was at 0631 AM - per Google.
It was also on a Monday.
2019. Emergency supplies on west coast consist of prozac and white flags.
How time changes:
then the most of the US hoped that Portland NEVER got nuked.
now the most of the US is hoping it WILL be nuked asap 😈
@@obelic71 Where did you get those numbers? Whatever your source they're really uninformed. A nuclear attack against a west coast city would leave the Midwest and Canada covered in radioactive dust.
@@mr.pavone9719 depends on the yield, the altitude and type of warhead that detonates.
A high thermonuclear airburst will give a wide range of contamination and electromagnetic pulse frying electronics.
An optimal hight airburst for a target is used to destroy as most as possible of the structures of a city / area.
The contamination radius is less but the area is more densly contaminated
A groundburst will only destroy a part of a city and the huge contamination will make the erea of limits for friend and foe.
The 4th gen Nukes who are in development work only as pure fussion weapons.
The Fission part gives the contamination not the fussion part of the 3th gen thermonuke.
Mr. Pavone what about all the bombs in the desert if New Mexico Arizona and Nevada we are all still here
I live in oregon and u forgot the wine and the dankest weed you will ever smoke
I love the doggie running for cover lmfao.
If it happened in Portland today, nothing of value would be lost.
Hey, I'd rather it not burn, I keep all my stuff here. 🤣
I think the reason we stopped nuclear drills is because the biggest terrorists to US society are right wing keyboard warriors who have a very cynical view of everything thanks to Fox News. There's a reason the Nazis, Russia and ISIS don't bother attacking us...
If this happened today ,there's no way Mayor Ted Wheeler could be of any help . You'd be on your own .
The planes would be his instead. And they'd be dropping tear gas instead of H-Bombs.
Wow you are really stupid. Poor little fella.
When growing up, they tested the air raid siren every month. The first Tuesday at 11:00am.
When I was a kid the tests were every Saturday at noon.... Used to creep me out.... What if the attack came at noon on a Saturday? Was my simple childlike logic.
jimmy fortrue
Every day at noon in my town in Massachusetts. We used to joke that the Russians should attack us at noon. We’d not be alert.
They test the sirens here in Columbus Ohio every Wednesday at noon.
Would we miss Portland today?
There's one from the 50s called Alert Today Alive Tomorrow from the local city of Reading, PA for me.
Wow, what a different time; they had time to evacuate (hours) because bomber aircraft were approaching. Of course, now we all have ICBMs and a maximum of 28 minutes to react.
A submarine launched ICBM (SLBM) would arrive in Portland in about 5 minutes. You wouldn't even have time to finish that bowl of cornflakes you were eating.
In reality the evacuation would not have gone tgat Smoothly.
With the SLBM more like between 3 and 15 minutes, actually.
@@richardcommins4926 You underestimate my ability to consume cornflakes
@@somedude5422 Take your time and don't wolf down those cornflakes and get indigestion. LOL It would be your last meal in Portland if you were in the city when a hydrogen bomb went off.
Big differences between that Portland OR and today. Sad really.....very very tragic.
Only if you’re a quitter. Like you. Easily 90% of Portland is just fine. My house in Irvington is valued over 3 million$$. Every large city has problems. Maybe you should move to Florida or Texas.
@@FYMASMDEdward Bernays was the master. Manipulation of public opinion is so easy
The Russians never abandoned their Civil defence program. They currently have fully functional fallout bunkers. In most of their major city's.
Who's watching this in 2020 with their fingers still crossed?
Imagine had they gotten Rod Serling to do narration
And Ray Bradbury wrote the screenplay. 😰
@@luisreyes1963 a terrifying combination in the Twilight Zone
Even the dog knows how to evacuate...
Dogs know how to do that by instinct...
So does the terrified populace, no doubt!!
Very interesting and very well made. Despite having lived through the duck-and-cover, Cuban Missile Crisis days, I never thought much about civil defense, and what it meant. Looks like it was well thought out, with strong cooperation and participation by all levels of government. Of course, one can really never know how effective a CD operation is until AFTER the dreaded moment -- we've been lucky not to have had to find out.
Civil Defense primarily was to keep people from freaking out over the threat of WWIII.
If WWIII had occurred, then the Hydrogen Bomb would have killed everyone in the CD Shelters, as they were designed for the Atom Bomb.
OH seems like yesterday. I was there on the Day Called X when Portland was nuked. Leveled the whole city I was so lucky to get out alive.
🤣
You were lucky , I didn't make it out ...
Perhaps, in a parallel timeline...
Who's here getting stoked for the Fallout TV show?
Portland, OR is an excellent choice!
Wonder if that city bunker still exists
I looked it up, it was buried in ‘06 due to being so vandalized and destroyed over the years.
What sort of person would say " well kids I'm off to my allotted space in the shelter, I won't bother to to say see you later as you are all going to be turned to ashes"
A government official? ROFL XD
Anyone who actually listened to this garbage and developed rose tinted views of life in the 1950s when being a white male meant you were legally superior to everyone else.
People would be looting and stealing cars if they tried a drill like that today.
You're kind of asking for it if you treat people like sh8t and then just walk away. Quick to blame the blacks doing all this stuff, but I live in a wealthy, predominantly white neighborhood, Guess how much bail money the parents spend each month? We ALL have RING cameras....
And you think they didn't back then?
@@MarioMastarwho said anything about blacks? Why does everything have to be about race with you people? More white people are in prison than blacks. Bop.gov.
Interesting that this comes up in my feed today. Portland. Gets nuked. Huh.
Yes. And now we know it wasn’t a nuke, but rather was something put in their drinking water that made everyone go nuts.
Back when the gov cared about its people. Today, we're screwed.
Today with hypersonic missiles, we will have little or no warning to do much of anything, How far could you evacuate before an EMP takes out your vehicle..
With SRBM's off the coast your warning time is
Pfft. Healthcare? Nah, remove it all.
You really think they actually cared? Pffft, they knew _very_ well that the absolute majority would not survive a nuclear clash, not the ones that would have been caught in the open, not the ones in their makeshift shelters and most likely not even the biggest part of people in the shelters provided by the government.
There is a reason why this doctrine of both enemies being able to utterly destroy each other was called (ironically) "M.A.D. / Mutual Assured Destruction" and the governments knew that.
This was just a smoke grenade, a means to keep people from panicking and to give them the warm and fuzzy feeling that the government would care and that they could actually survive this.
Furzkampfbomber You are ignorant and arrogant.
Naive children often assume that everything that happened before they were born occurred at the same time, but it’s neither factually accurate or intelligent to apply a concept like MAD which developed in the 1970s to a film shot in 1957. At this point nobody but a small handful of defense scientists knew EMP existed, and not even they knew how damaging it could be to electronic devices. They didn’t irradiate the desert for shits and giggles; they honestly didn’t know how carcinogenic ionizing radiation was. They knew half the population of the US would die; this film was meant to help the other half. (Do I need to point out that the film was shot before Sputnik?)
Oddly enough, most people in the government back then did care about their constituents. Most still do. Your pseudo-cynical naive child edgelord beliefs don’t negate that.
12:37: "Government must survive if it's people are to survive"
In recent years, I'm not too sure about that now...
I enjoyed that, many thanks to those responsible. Graet to see and hear Glenn Ford. I view the entire Atomic age CD effort a display of national will. Will too prepare and survive.
That siren was powered by a Chrysler Hemi V8. I think they were 331 cubic inches.
The Chrysler Victory Air Raid Siren.
@@christophercarey3232 Those sirens got them before the cars did...
I would like one those mounted on the roof of my house, lol.
That’s what my girl n daughter need as a friggen alarm clock 😂😂😂
As a native Portland resident, it's hard to think that if something like this attack actually occurred, we'd have a lot fewer bums, junkies, and other miscreants.
Best part is that you would be gone as well.
@@FYMASMD Amen. Without you around anymore, it'll be so much better.
The literal term "Junkie" was popularized as a subculture movement during the 1940s and 50s.
Ahh, at 1:00 our old friend, the Chrysler Hemi powered air raid siren.
The one thing I don't get is that if there was a 2+ hour advance warning why couldn't the US military intercept the enemy planes before arrival?
That's a question for another movie. This one did a good job of focusing in on its subject matter -- having a well-prepared civil defense infrastructure -- and not digressing from that. Glenn Ford's epilogue aptly summarizes the purpose of the film.
However, if you want a more definite answer, interception of hostile aircraft wasn't that straightforward in the 1950s. RADARs had a higher area of grass (the low-altitude area when ground reflections clutter the RADAR picture), permitting Soviet bombers to perform penetrations at higher altitudes and remain hidden. Airborne RADAR didn't have look-down/shoot-down capability provided by modern systems. The Falcon and Sidewinder air-to-air missiles were relatively new and you often needed multiple missiles to drop a single bomber, let alone a whole squadron. SAM capability was also in relative infancy, putting a lot of the anti-air capability on modernized flak guns, and there was no SAGE (Semi-Automatic Ground Environment) computerized integrated air defense system to employ all these assets efficiently.
TL,DR: Even with a 3 hour lead time, the Soviets could've penetrated our air defense network at least enough to nuke a few cities back then. We'd try our hardest, but we couldn't guarantee total protection.
Interesting explanation. Is grass an acronym -- ground reflection something-something-something ?
No, just a slang term. It's IMO a combination of the idea of hiding in tall grass and how ground clutter looks on certain RADAR scope presentations.
The short version is that no defense system is 100% reliable; there will always be a few "leakers" that get through each layer of it, so a large enough attack will always have a few weapons reach their target.
The city is under attack...and yet everyone walks at an ordinary pace....
Well, in The Day After, they went to the movies AND a college football game!
This kind of film is what gives people today the impression that the 50's were a kinder, gentler, more civilized time. Notice how very few black people appeared in the film? Notice how they're all white, middle class families and older laborers? nice, obedient and well behaved children? Nobody is freaking out, everyone is doing what they're told
This movie is a best case depiction of human behavior. No matter the time, when the news announces a surprise nuclear attack is on the way there's going to be chaos.
@@mr.pavone9719 That's why it's even more BS than it otherwise would've been. The fact that the govt made this really reinforces that this is how narrow minded and egotistical people were back then. Every time you see a "1950s was the golden age" from some 30 year old red hat, that's when you know "the rest of the world actually learned how to think for themselves".
Though heck I can tell you as a black man we wouldn't have bothered with this nonsense. They wouldn't have let us in the shelters anyway, so when the nuke didn't actually drop.... guess who was still around to pick up what everyone dropped? XD
Can we do this now? Please! Please! Please!
Wouldn't want to lose a classic Edsel to enemy fire.
I saw the frontgrill and I immediately screamed - An Edsel! - :D It's crazy, You wont see any of those in any movie from today that is playing in that era, but people actually bought them back then
@@Calisota ,,, we had a 1958 edsel ... big 4 barrel carb and corome out the ying yang...i got to drive it as i had my "learners permit" age 15...to this day, i love the sound of a 4 barrel opening up...
@@Calisota This was filmed in September 1957...several of what must have been the first Edsels to arrive in Portland are seen.
Went to school 1964. We did civil defense drills. Cover your head, duck under your desk, or we were matched down to the school basement and sat against the cinder block walls and instructed to cover our heads as we bent over.
Is it just me or did that bomb shelter seem unnecessarily big or did they just film it in an aircraft hangar ? On a side note you got to love that old timey way of acting . yeah I know these weren't actors but still it's cool to see how real people from other errors conducted themselves . Another side note, the bank in Portland from 1957 was far as more cleaner, organized and customer-friendly than my credit union is today ! 😂
3 hours? Today, we'd probably be Lucky to get 15 minutes for inland cities and areas and probably even less for places on the coast
This is awesome!
Never mind city officials. What about the people?
"Government must survive if it's people are to survive" Remember that.
Ppssh, whatever!
Just found out that Portland City Council voted in 1963 to abolish their civil defence programme. So, it didn’t last long after this film was made.
100’s of people shown. All are razor thin by today’s standards. Say what you will about Cigarettes, Alcohol and Sleeping Pill 1950’s Culture - the population looks fit.
Also haven’t fattened up the population yet with Corn Syrup and GMO’s and 64oz Soft Drinks in Cup Holders.
P G I like my one gallon big gulps
That's cause they only fllmed the best looking people for this. Gotta make sure everyone born after the 50s remembers how "perfect" America was back then before they went outside and saw a black kid listening to music and minding his own business. God forbid....
5:33 *"Okay Kyle. I know that's you doing that behind the desk. I'm not falling for it this time. Quit goofing off and get back to work."*
I was hoping this was a real news cast.
Provision checklist for the fallout shelter:
Lucky Strike ☑️ Winston ☑️ Viceroy ☑️ Pall Mall ☑️ Chesterfield ☑️ Tareyton ☑️ Camel ☑️Marlboro ☑️ L&M ☑️ Kent ☑️ Salem ☑️ Kool ☑️ Paper matches ☑️ We're good.
Since it’s Portland, I’m sure Antifa would come out of heir parents basements and protest / sabotage the evacuation process.
Lol
Lol...dead
I bet they'd actually let the civilians escape. They might paint a big red X on the police station and federal courthouse though. There's nothing like the smell of bacon in the morning.
Boy, did you call it. Are you psychic?
I find it hard to believe than any Soviet Bombers would be able to get through, considering the number of fighters the US had, not to mention the amount of time it would take for the bombers to reach the main land.
Today Portland's nuking itself.
I wonder if that operations center is still in existence today and able to function.
Your coffee! 173.5 degree Fahrenheit. Brewed to perfection!
Heh, thanks, Codsworth!
Soviet Storm boi
I bet the Soviets studied these films thoroughly
They probably made them. XD
I wouldn’t mind seeing Portland disappear.
I wouldn't mind seeing Florida disappear.
Why's that?
@@mr.pavone9719he’s a loser trump supporter. They hate Americans. Simple.
15:10 ........... "Follow the green light out of the city" ............ I only saw shades of grey lights. Hopefully KOIN TV6 would show the traffic signals in living color for this evacuation.
Just goes to show us, "Colored lights matter".
heh, heh
Even for that time that is going on the presumption that everything is going to run perfectly,that every citizen knows what or where they are suppose to do or go,that cars won't break down,that some won't panic,that parents won't automatically run to schools to get children,the strangers in the town visiting or have business will also be aware of the plans,that traffic will move smoothly an any number of the unexpected events,some who go on in disbelief,people who are disabled or elderly,that weather is good,time of the year its summer or early fall,if winter everything will most likely fall apart and last human nature.
At 10:30 all those kids and bikes and not a bike lock to be seen. Yah times have changed.
Yep, easy pickings once the camera turns off. I don't think they even HAD bike locks back then cause they probably weren't invented yet...
What ever would the people do without their bureaucrats and politicians? They would be lost, unable to survive without the vital services of those worthy folk.
Good thing I'm black and stopped listening to those fools who still think my ancestors belong in chains well before I was born. Now then... time to purchase my third home. SOMEONE's Gotta actually do the work that keeps this country moving and NOT spend all day on twitter d8mning everyone else who exists.
Nowadays the mayor would put a bullseye downtown and applaud
24:55 Ok, who did those two motorcycle cops piss off?
24:11 Sterling Hayden?
God damn, going through nuclear war if it was just slow lumbering bombers instead ICBM's seems nice and laid back. They portray it as a picnic or something, like theyve got all the time in the world. Need to finish the laundry? Wash the car? Mow the yard? Hell you've got time those pesky Reds wont be here foooorrr ohhhh another 2 1/2 hours. Might just take a nap. Gotta love CD videos.
LMAO!!!!
I think this was before ICBM’s became reliable enough to be the main strategic deterrent for either side.
This movie is way different than the movie THE DAY AFTER.
In THE DAY AFTER when the air Raid sirens were activated you can see the people in mass hysteria and panic running around like chickens with their heads cut off.
Right now there are no plans for the American people to survive a Nuclear Attack. You are responsible for your own survival plans.
How many cities have disabled their air Raid sirens? How many States have shut down their fallout shelters?
Martha Reeves and The Vandella had a song called NO WHERE TO RUN, NO WHERE TO HIDE. So should a Nuclear Attack happen IT'S EVERY PERSON FOR THEMSELVES AND GOD FOR US ALL.
Now with MUTUALLY ASSURED DESTRUCTION AND PRECISE TARGETING MISSILES I can make this suggestion. """ IF BY CHANCE YOU JUST SHOULD HAPPEN TO GET WORD OF AN IMMINENT NUCLEAR ATTACK. PLEASE JUST SIMPLY GO TO A SECLUDED PLACE AND GET NAKED AND SPREAD YOUR LEGS AND BEND OVER AND KISS YOUR ASS GOODBYE!
Yeah, it's almost like the Air force has PLENTY Of time to counter that bomber.... if only....
In the 1960's I remember my Mom taking me with her to a Red Cross exhibition somewhere in San Diego California and for years afterward going through grade school I had a booklet from it that was all about nuclear defense and first aid. This is the Era of Personal Bomb Shelters, and many of them are still being found as new home owners of old properties are finding buried shelters not mentioned in the deeds. It begs the question: Did William Randolph Hearst prepare his castle with a similar attention to detail to this as he did his pool?
* I cannot believe a billionaire would choose a skyscraper over a dungeon in the worst extremity. I wonder how deep they went?
This needs to happen in 2020
Narrated by Glenn Ford 😎 Loved him in the Big Heat, a great film. He’s Canadian btw
Ohhh wow…it’s nice to see a time when Portland’s sidewalks weren’t used as the toilet and a sharps container 😂😂
I’ve never ONCE seen a needle on the streets of Portland. As far as the outside being used as a toilet, maybe there should be publicly available bathrooms for people to use. I’ve seen plenty of houses people outside bars using the public domain as a latrine but never seen a homeless person doing so…they’re basically disenfranchised feral people who’ve been marginalized and pushed into invisibility except when they come out of the woodworks to find food and water
Oh jeez, what's the difference between a jam-up and a bottle-neck? Which one should I avoid? I'm soo confused!
The whole time I was wondering, was any attempt made to shoot down those slow moving bombers?
because it was portland!
It was Portland. They thought could just offer the Soviets a joint and they would go home.
They would have tried. I did an explanation in another comment reply on the video, but the short version is that you'd be looking at hundreds of bombers attacking the US, in the exceptionally early days of guided missiles and large-scale air defense systems. Some would still make it through, despite all efforts to stop them.
Imagine going through that today during the Corona virus 😷
Damn...missed our chance.