Duck and Cover (film)
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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Duck and Cover is a civil defense social guidance film that is often popularly mischaracterized as propaganda. With similar themes to the more adult oriented civil defense training films, the film was widely distributed to United States schoolchildren in the 1950s. It instructionally teaches students on what to do in the event of a nuclear explosion.
The film was funded by the US Federal Civil Defense Administration and released in January 1952. At the time, the Soviet Union was engaged in nuclear testing and the US was in the midst of the Korean War.
The film was written by Raymond J. Mauer, directed by Anthony Rizzo of Archer Productions, narrated by actor Robert Middleton, and made with the help of schoolchildren from New York City and Astoria, New York.
The film is now in the public domain, and is widely available through Internet sources such as YouTube, as well as on DVD. It was selected by the National Film Registry for preservation in 2004.
See also
- Duck and cover, for further discussion of this method of self-defense.
- List of films about nuclear issues
- List of films in the public domain in the United States
- Civil Defence Information Bulletin, a 1964 British film which deals with the same topic.
- Protect and Survive, a 1970-80s British information film on the same topic.
