Because Cold War-era nuclear paranoia wasn’t just limited to monster movies, you know…
Let’s take a closer look at the giant, mutated radioactive can of corn niblets shall we?
Not sure how niblets the size of this housewive’s fist are supposed to convey freshness, but I guess that’s why I’m not in advertising.
If you’ve seen the first two sets of vintage New Year’s postcards from the former Soviet Union (USSR), then you know the deal by now. With this third set we move into the ’70s, so let’s get going!
As with the first two sets, all card scans courtesy Flickr user katya. Enjoy, and С Новым годом! (Happy New Year!)
I hope you enjoyed the first set of New Year’s cards from the USSR of the 1950s, because we’re moving on to the ’60s. And while most of the imagery found in the ’50s was brought over into the next decade, you can definitely see some more of the Space Age creeping in as well.
As with the first set, all card scans courtesy Flickr user katya. Enjoy, and С Новым годом! (Happy New Year!)
I guess I just always assumed that once the Communists came to power in Russia and the rest of what became the USSR, any holiday not linked directly to the Communist Party ceased to exist. But lo and behold, I stumbled upon a Flickr set of postcards from the Soviet Union celebrating New Year’s, some of them dating back to the 1930s.
What I find most fascinating about these cards is how for the most part they look like they could have come from the West. Most of them feature images of idyllic forest scenes, cityscapes, and smiling children. The more overt Soviet stuff pops up in the cards from the ’60s, which I’ll feature in the next post on this series.
Let’s look at some cards, and as they say in Russia, С Новым годом! (Happy New Year!)
I wasn’t around to witness the fallout — no pun intended — of the Soviet Union’s detonation of Tsar Bomba on October 30, 1961. It was and still is the biggest test of a nuclear weapon, in terms of explosive yield. It packed a destructive force approximately 1,400 times the combined power of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki atom bombs.
Needless to say, America was a little spooked. So in its November 10, 1961 issue, Life magazine ran a story on the bomb, and a companion piece on nuclear fallout. To demonstrate the effect of radiation on a human body, a plastic skeleton partially filled with fluorescent fluid was used.
Here’s the photo of the dummy used in the article:
As the article explains,
[the] thyroid gland in neck becomes a repository of iodine 131. Strontium 90 lodges in the bones. Lung tissue retains some inhaled radioactive dust. Cesium 137, which migrates to soft tissues, may change cells in reproductive organs and produce mutations in succeeding generations.
Cheery!
Here are a few unused photos from the session, as well as the unedited version of the one from the article. These were all shot by Frtiz Goro.
Here’s a totally fascinating and somewhat disturbing image from the early days of the Atomic Age and the Cold War (click for a larger copy).
As you might be able to guess, this is a family nuclear fallout shelter, made out of steel and full of all the home comforts of 1950. I spot two board games — Life and Chutes & Ladders, a Reader’s Digest book, a box of macaroni dinner, a block of Velveeta, some Ajax cleaner, and assorted other sundries.
Why, in the event the Soviet Union ever drops the Big One I would expect to live comfortably in this thing for at least a week before going insane.
(Source — National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center)
When most Americans think of Yugoslavia technology, this is probably the first thing that comes to mind (at least for those of us who remember the ’80s):
But if the trailer to the upcoming documentary Houston, We Have a Problem! is to be believed, the former Yugoslavia has a pretty rad space program back in the day. So rad, in fact, that the United States bought the whole thing from Marshal Josip Broz Tito in March of 1961.
Then, just two months later, President John F. Kennedy gave a speech before Congress announcing America’s ambitious plan to land a man on the moon. In September 1961 he gave a speech at Rice University that included the now-famous quote, “We choose to go to the moon. We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard…”
Herman Potočnik
It’s certainly an interesting proposition, and one which the team of researcher/writer Boštjan Virc and co-writer/director Žiga Virc claim will contain other evidence showing that Yugoslavia’s space program was at one time the most advanced in the world.
The film credits Herman Potočnik and his 1928 book Das Problem der Befahrung des Weltraums – der Raketen-Motor (The Problem of Space Travel – The Rocket Motor) with inspiring, among others, Wernher von Braun, one of the fathers of both German rocketry and the American space program.
I certainly have no idea how accurate any of these claims are but it sure looks like a fascinating documentary. Houston, We Have a Problem! is set for a Spring 2013 release, and here’s that trailer I mentioned. God I miss the Cold War.
Here’s a fresh batch of some quality interweb finds I’ve come across over the last 7 days or so:
Waaaay back in 2007 I looked back at five flicks that made a big impact on me during my formative years. The next year I ran through four more. And today I drag out another five. Let’s reminisce!
Better Off Dead (1985) — There is not one part of this movie that isn’t 100% awesome, even more than 25 years later. This Savage Steve Holland masterpiece was perfectly cast and written, which makes its more surreal vignettes feel like integral parts of the movie instead of just absurd asides. It never really sunk in when I was a kid that this was a pretty dark film. Hell, the lead character (John Cusack as Lane Meyer) spends most of the it trying to kill himself. Over a breakup. Fortunately he fails and gets to see an Eddie Van Halen-esque hamburger wailing a Frankenstrat to “Everybody Wants Some!!”? Genius.
Cusack reportedly told Holland that Better Off Dead was, “the worst thing I have ever seen. I will never trust you as a director ever again, so don’t speak to me.” I wonder what he said to the guy who directed Martian Child?
Stand By Me (1986) — Hey, more John Cusack! Well, with or without him, is this not one of the greatest movies ever? And fellas, how many of you said to yourself as you watched this, “man, my friends suck compared to these kids”?
Rob Reiner could do no wrong in the ’80s, and it certainly helped that he had great source material to work with here (Stephen King’s short story “The Body”). All I know is that between him and the cast, I was absolutely transported to Castle Rock, Oregon in the summer of 1959. I felt like I was in that clubhouse playing cards and looking at nudie magazines. And I was there when Gordie, Chris, Teddy, and Vern busted their asses to find that dead kid’s body.
I really wish I had skipped out on that last part. Still, great movie and another one I cherish to this day.
