(A film excursion into past events, events which form the pattern by which we live today!)
Office of Civil and Defense Mobilization
In 1959, planners within the Office of Civil and Defense Mobilization (O.C.D.M.) were facing a daunting task. They needed to explain the dangers of radioactive fallout to an American public who, for much of the previous decade, had been told it was a harmless and short-lasting effect of an enemy atomic attack. Further, the agency needed to convince homeowners to construct private fallout shelters, ideally in a basement level room, with no offer of financial assistance from the government. To help persuade a skeptical and apathetic populace, the O.C.D.M. released a number of promotional materials including radio commercials, motion pictures, printed pamphlets, and a lengthy booklet entitled The Family Fallout Shelter which proved to be particularly popular. However effective these methods were, the O.D.C.M. continually sought a larger audience and so turned to a little used medium, the television. Federal and state agencies had long been airing short television spots to advertise specific facets of civil defense programs such warning signals and emergency first aid training. Additionally, in 1959 the O.C.D.M. and NBC created Ten For Survival, a series of discussion films hosted by Chet Huntely designed to air on educational television networks. A new project was developed, however, which would result in a prime-time television series sponsored by the O.C.D.M.
According to their annual report
for 1959, that year the O.C.D.M. began cooperating with "a national
television station" to produce a ten episode television series offering
civil defense advice. It would take two years, but in 1961, the O.C.D.M,
had Retrospect, a fifteen minute program designed to air once a week for
thirteen weeks. Douglas Edwards, the first ever television news anchor
and predecessor to Walter Cronkite for the CBS Evening News, was selected to
host Retrospect. In order to hold an audience's attention on a subject
they often ignored or actively avoided, Retrospect was formatted in a unique
manner. For the first several minutes, Edwards would discuss an
interesting historical event or figure. The next segment of the show
would feature civil defense experts or simple lectures on preparedness from
Edwards, all taking place on a set modeled upon one of the do-it-yourself
shelter designs contained within The Family Fallout Shelter booklet.
Retrospect concluded each episode by highlighting an appealing current event,
often sports related, such as speed boat racing or football. In this way,
viewers tuning in for the more appealing content at the beginning and end, were
still exposed to the civil defense message.
It is not known exactly how many Americans viewed the
episodes of Retrospect, though officials within the O.C.D.M. explained that in
1961 alone over 170 television stations across the United States requested
copies of the series. From this figure, government planners projected an
estimated audience of 110 million. Despite this estimated success,
Retrospect would quickly fade from the spotlight as the Kennedy administration
unveiled ambitious plans for a national system of public fallout shelters which
would diminish the attention focused on home shelter construction.
Douglas Edwards would again collaborate with the O.C.D.M. to produce Briefing
from Room 103, a 1961 episode of the Armstrong Circle Theatre focusing on
shelter habitability. He would eventually return to CBS news, providing
radio broadcasts until shortly before his death in 1990. The Office of Civil Defense, which took over emergency preparedness responsibilities from the O.C.D.M. would also turn to the television to explain the dangers of radioactive fallout. A Primer For Survival, a four episode series sponsored by the government, would air in 1965. Featuring soft spoken host Dave Garroway, A Primer For Survival would lack the entertainment elements of Retrospect, instead devoting an entire fifteen minutes to fallout protection strategies. The full series
of Retrospect may be viewed by clicking the links above the episode
descriptions provided below.











