1951 ATOMIC ATTACK CIVIL DEFENSE FILM "PATTERN FOR SURVIVAL" 31574

PATTERN FOR SURVIVAL opens with a museum guide leading a wheel chair bound youth through a weapons display. (00:00:55:00) The purpose of this tour? To explain how mankind frequently creates frightening weapons which they struggle to understand. Such is the dilemma created by atomic bombs, manifested in the film as a mushroom cloud erupts across the screen. (00:02:15:00) As one of the earliest civil defense productions, Pattern for Survival enjoyed a wide distribution, delivering massive amounts of information by presenting lectures, demonstrations, and a hypothetical atomic attack.
We then cut to the office of William Laurence, a journalist for the New York Times and media expert on nuclear developments who would later anchor the ABC evening news. Writer of multiple books on the atomic bomb and winner of several Pulitzer prizes, Laurence speaks:
"I saw, with my own eyes, the power of the exploding atom! I witnessed the end of an era, and the beginning of a new one. I saw a world blow up in a burst of cosmic fire, a new one born from its ashes! I saw a great city disappear in a mushroom cloud in the fraction of a millionth of a second! I knew at last, man had a weapon that could destroy civilization!" The atomic bomb is the most powerful physical destructive weapon history has ever known! But it is above all a psychological terror weapon! Does this mean that we are helpless against an attack? There is most definitely a defense against the Atomic bomb! Note very carefully what is to follow!"
- William Laurence
We are then introduced to narrator and CBS radio reporter, Chet Huntley. Huntley then explains the scientific facts of nuclear detonations. We see an animated atom, shaking and ready to burst, releasing fission. (00:05:10:00) The animation outlines the three dangers produced by atomic combustion. Blast, shown removing a chunk of an animated city, fire, igniting the city, and Gamma rays, basking the rubble in a radioactive glow.
Deep underground blast shelters, capable of surviving the fire and heat of the blast are the key to survival. The film advocates these structures for inner city target areas. Anticipating the scenario of a surprise attack, the film relates the concept of ducking into a doorway or sturdy alcove. Accompanying this advice are several amazing animated depictions of proposed blast shelters and men crouched behind shelter in the shadow of an atomic flash. (00:07:45:00)
Later, Huntley returns to the screen again to emphasize the danger of flying glass, In the home as well as the office, a comprehensive survival kit should be kept handy at all time. (00:10:10:00) Suggested supplies include: Lava soap, bottled water, raisins, chocolate, canned goods, campsite table, cookware, and a first aid with sunburn cream along with a Red Cross manual, a pamphlet on atomic warfare, and several local maps. Putting all of this information together, PATTERN FOR SURVIVAL offers a hypothetical attack scenario, depicting the quick action that would be needed after a warning. (00:11:40:00)
Finally, Huntley warns of another mode of attack, one more devastating then even a surprise air-burst. He speaks of a water-burst, an underwater detonation of atomic devices in port cities and coastal territories. (00:14:00:00) It was believed that an explosion underwater would bring fallout-laced rain pouring down upon major cities. At the end of this segment, a longshoreman watches a water burst mushroom cloud fly into the air (00:15:50:00) before stumbling indoors, narrowly missing the water raining over his work zone.
PATTERN FOR SURVIVAL was produced in 1951 by Cornell Films.
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[@redwingfan9393]

That first guy yelling and waving around a cigarette is what I'm here for.

[@TheDrcyko]

The kid in the wheelchair probably won't survive.

[@mrlodwick]

No he will look like a tyre - melted and ill

[@christopherconard2831]

So remember, when you see jazz hands, do a Bela Lugosi.

[@rapman5363]

That scene where everyone is running around trying to find shelter is reminiscent of the movie “The Day After” from 1983. There is a scene just like that one where people are panicked and running around in circles but going nowhere. Just a complete cluster. The more things change....the more they stay the same.

[@Devthadude101]

I think you mean from the atomic cafe movie

[@sirtrently77]

There’s also a scene like that in the 1984 movie “Threads” that is like a British, more grotesque version of The Day After.

[@robinj.9329]

I "Think" that I can remember seeing this while I was in school! I grew up and was in school, late 50's and through the 60's. Yup, I was one of those "Duck and Cover" kids! And we saw a lot of films like this while in Public School.

[@wpankey57]

"Remember to cover your eyes. It it this that might save your life." Sure it will.

[@PlasmaCoolantLeak]

13:32 Hey, hey! A nuclear attack is no excuse for lousy parking! The awesome Chet Huntley (RIP) doing the narration.

[@heywoodjablome8409]

and because you covered you're eyes you'll be able to see your'e skin melting off

[@bboucharde]

CORRECTION (AT 5:30): The shock wave is not first. The thermal flash is first.

[@thomaswhitten2537]

People back then really had no clue.

[@kurtbjorn]

Wow, a VERY EARLY CD film... totally ignores the fallout danger. They simply say "Follow the instructions of those in authority." Good luck with that.

[@christopherconard2831]

KurtB Until the Castle Bravo test we didn't really understand fallout. The few that did, didn't publicize their theories. Also, the government wanted to promote the idea of atomic weapons as just big bombs. After the results of the Castle tests became public, they had to admit that a bomb, detonated miles away, could still do extreme damage. Though some of the advice given in early civil defense films is laughably, almost suicidally, wrong.

[@ultimatecorgi3392]

@@christopherconard2831 Honestly the advice in this film is still... 90% useful for short-term preparations. Of all the Civil Defense films on preparedness this honestly seems to be one of the best I've seen, if only because it offers useful advice and doesn't depict people driving to the market to buy supplies after the bombs drop. Yes. I've seen one like that.

@@christopherconard2831 nuclear use doctrine at the time advocated for air busts in order to maximise blast damage instead of close to ground bursts, the fallout effect hadn't been fully understood yet.

[@jasonm949]

@@christopherconard2831 You're 100% wrong.

[@booklover6753]

@@jasonm949 Christopher is pretty much correct Jason. Large fusion devices like Castle Bravo make smaller yield fission bombs look like fire crackers and they spread fallout over a much larger area that is far longer lived. Islands over 200 miles away were made uninhabitable. Check your facts.

[@lomgshorts3]

I was born in practically the "center of worry" about the bomb. Now, seventy years after, we have to worry about "total conversion" in which a few grams of anti-protons can equal a 50 megaton bomb if exposed to regular matter. How has man progressed in its power to destroy.

[@allandavis8201]

Really...........I don’t think so, by the time the flash happens you are either blind or vaporised, I love how every CD film says don’t look at the flash, to late.

[@jeffreywoods4040]

Those instructions are for people miles from ground zero. If you’re far enough away, you’ll see the flash and have time to duck and cover to avoid being injured by the shock or heat wave. We came up with this stuff after touring Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

[@wardenphil]

I wouldn't want people to abandon their cars in the MIDDLE of the road - that would hinder Emergency Services Personnel (I am making the optimistic assumption that they would be there.).

[@nathanjustus6659]

They would.

[@booklover6753]

@@nathanjustus6659 Brave people but they wouldn't survive either.

[@whiskeysixindigo7371]

The fact that we are willing to do something like this to our fellow humans proves that we are sinful creatures at heart.

[@booklover6753]

Not all of us are necessarily willing, but we must be able to do so. It's called deterrence.

[@calvinjackson8110]

​​@@booklover6753hat does not deterrent the other nation. They just arm themselves like you with even more even deadlier weapons. Now it's a vicious cycle with everyone arming themselves. Now the whole world is a powder keg, ready to ignite at the least provocation.

[@SwedeProof]

HONK if you survived this bomb! 💣

[@JChang0114]

The days before an ICBM.

[@Xerdar36]

Cigarettes in these old days Were more healthier... lol

[@SuV33358]

Love the way the guy is casually smoking.......causes cancer just like nuclear energy

[@mariekatherine5238]

But you’re going to be nuked, why not enjoy a cigarette?

[@johntilson2535]

I'm afraid of the atomic bomb. I'm afraid I'll be OUTSIDE of 'ground zero' and SURVIVE the blast, only to either suffer slow death from radiation poisoning, starvation or Mad-Max dystopian barbarism!

[@stargo2931]

Stock up on Dinky Dog canned food for long term survival.

[@calvinjackson8110]

Yeah, makes you almost want to be one of those who are vaporized instantly. It's over and done and you are gone and can't suffer for years awaiting a slow miserable death.

[@FixItStupid]

And Now It;s A Nuclear END One Way Or The Other Any Time Now

[@charletonzimmerman4205]

"PUFF,PUFF, that cigarette, will filter alpha/Beta, radiation.

[@tjlovesrachel]

Most cigs back then weren’t filtered….. and there’s nothing wrong with smoking

[@artemisworshiper2010]

I really can't believe tha family on the last minute were happily eating fresh food, on an unscratched home. In real life, there would be MASSIVE MIGRATIONs, like the ones we see in S-I*R/I/A

[@josephkelley8641]

"The MOMENT you become AWARE of the *Characteristic Water Column* run for the daylights, man. Boy to self after UBER EXPLOSION: "Oh, I recognize the Characteristic-Water-Column!!!" (CFW to us pro's) "I'd better Run-For-My-Life like the-Beatle's-song."

[@commonsense31]

There are no defense!

[@kingfish4575]

And yet he touch types lol

[@FixItStupid]

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