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The Record

Survival Under Atomic Attack

The companion film to the twenty-million-copy civil defence booklet of the same name: what a householder was told to do, and what to keep.

Year
1951
Made by
US Federal Civil Defense Administration and the National Security Resources Board
Directed by
Anthony Rizzo
Free to use because
A work of the United States government — no copyright, anywhere

The note

Where Duck and Cover sang, this one recites. It is the sound of official calm applied to an uncontainable subject, and the gap between tone and content is the document. Federal work, no copyright.

Survival Under Atomic Attack, 1951. US Federal Civil Defense Administration and the National Security Resources Board. Directed by Anthony Rizzo. This is the film’s soundtrack: narration, score and location sound, streamed from the Internet Archive’s master. No picture — the audio is the work. A work of the United States government, and therefore free of copyright anywhere it is used.

The soundtrack

Survival Under Atomic Attack

Survival Under Atomic Attack

1 Jan 1951 · 8 min

Survival Under Atomic Attack (1951). US Federal Civil Defense Administration and the National Security Resources Board. Held by the Internet Archive; public domain.