Name: "Atomic Cafe" Producers on Letterman, March 10, 1982
Uploaded: 2017-11-20T00:52:38.000Z
Description: Watch the stand-up comedy video '"Atomic Cafe" Producers on Letterman, March 10, 1982' from Don Giller on Comedy Buff. Published 2017-11-20. Transcript available.

Watch the stand-up comedy video '"Atomic Cafe" Producers on Letterman, March 10, 1982' from Don Giller on Comedy Buff. Published 2017-11-20. Transcript available.

Thank you. Welcome back to the show. The Atomic Café is an unusual documentary
created entirely
from propaganda film and newsreels of the 1940s and 50s, which tried to reassure
the public and
the military that the A-bomb, the atomic bomb, was something we could all
survive with comparative
safety. Two of the producers of the Atomic Café are with us and will explain.
This is Jane Loader
and Pierce Rafferty. Thank you, folks. Is this fairly accurate, the
introduction? The film is composed
of propaganda film, right? Yes. And this was the mission to convince everybody
that if one went off
in the garage, no problem. That's basically right. Yeah. How did you get
interested in this project?
Well, we discovered some years ago in San Francisco this book called 3,433 U.S.
government
films. And we started looking through it and had films like You Can't Get Away
With It by
the FBI. And we started to realize there was a whole wealth of this material
out there that
no one had ever really assembled into one package. And set out to do a film
which dealt with propaganda
only. And then it evolved into something on the A-bomb when we saw all the
material that was on that subject.
Yeah. Was there anything, was it surprisingly good, surprisingly bad, or any
surprises or what you thought it would be?
It was surprisingly a lot of stuff. There was much more than we ever imagined
when we started researching it.
Where did they use these films? On television or in theaters or...? Some were
films for children, some were films for the military, some were films for newsreel
audiences. They had films for Israel audiences. They had films on every imaginable
subject relating to the bomb, on how to use your car effectively to get out of
the city quickly, on how to keep your food exactly ready to go, how to pack up
the trunk of your kit.
Right. We have a sample of what is in the motion picture Atomic Cafe. And I
guess, is it self-explanatory? Do you need to tell the folks what we're looking
at here?
I think the first clip is mostly a clip directed at soldiers. And it was
designed to reassure them that they could survive both atomic tests, which they
were all subjected, a lot of soldiers were subjected to being an atomic test,
and a nuclear war, should we ever have to fight one?
All right. Do you know the year, roughly, of this that we're going to look at?
It's a compilation of a lot of different clips.
Okay. All from the '50s. All from the '50s. But this would be an example of
military propaganda within the military? Right. Directed towards soldiers.
Okay. Take a look at the monitors and we'll see what we're looking at here.
You are here to participate in an atomic maneuver. This is not a haphazard
maneuver.
Careful planning for it, started months back. Watched from a safe distance,
this explosion is one of the most beautiful sights ever seen by man.
You're probably saying, so it's beautiful. What makes it so dangerous?
Basically, there are only three things to think about. Blast, heat, and
radiation.
Radiation. This is the one new effect obtained by the use of an atomic weapon.
Truthfully, it's the least important of the three effects, as far as the
soldier on the ground is concerned.
The radiation level may be high, but if you follow orders, you'll be moved out
in time to avoid sickness.
Finally, if you receive enough gamma radiation to cause sterility or severe
sickness, you'll be killed by blast, flying debris, or heat anyway.
Well, that's the story. Don't worry about yourselves. As far as the test is
concerned, you'll be okay.
A submarine bomb exploded in a harbor might affect a city. The affected area
would be a poor picnic site, but might be entered briefly or passed through
quickly with a varying degree of risk.
Risk is something the military doesn't have a corner on. Occupational hazards
are accepted in a matter-of-fact manner in civilian life. Risk is part of the
pattern of daily routine.
Some of the falsehoods circulated about radiation effects are trivial but
upsetting. They're beamed right at one's self-esteem. And will eventually
result in a race of bald-headed people. Just imagine it. Imagine yourself with
no hair.
They'll call you old skinhead. Old chrome dome. And that's not all radioactivity
will do. It will...
Enough exposure to radiation will cause loss of hair. The treatment, if you'd
insist, would be symptomatic. A toupee.
But the condition would only be temporary. Your hair would come back. Same
color, same cowlick.
Which puts the finger squarely upon one of the major fallacies in the public
attitude toward atomic weapons.
It's the fallacy of devoting 85% of one's worrying capacity to an agent that
constitutes only about 15% of an atomic bomb's destroying potential.
And that's unsound. Doesn't fit.
That's amazing.
Now, this seems so silly. Did the government actually believe what they were
telling us or did they not know and so they chose to make everything seem to be
relatively harmless?
Well, I don't think they believed it. I think they consciously, especially with
the soldiers, consciously tried to reassure them so that they would do as they
were ordered.
Mm-hmm.
Which is to, you know, participate in these atomic bomb explosions which
endanger their health when they're now getting cancer from...
Yeah, but the point is, did they know there were negative things going on or
were they just assuming that there would be questions and people would be
worried so they produced these things?
It's hard to prove. It's very hard to prove. I think they knew and a lot of
evidence is coming out now that would support that contention, but it's
impossible at this point to say.
The scientists, for example, wore suits at a lot of these tests where the
soldiers marched into the blast area. All the GIs just had regular clothing.
This is 25 years ago, 20 years ago.
The next one we have is an application for civilians, right? A piece of film
for...
Right. Designed for civilians. Designed mostly for school kids.
Okay.
It was, you know, to show kids what to do in case of an atomic bomb attack. It
was shown all over the country in schools and...
Yeah, some people on their step actually remember going through these drills
that you'll see here.
Right.
This is edited from a lot of different films. It's not one film.
Okay. Another scene from Atomic Cafe.
"Dump, deedle dum-dump, deedle dum-dump, deedle dum-dump. There was a turtle by
the name of Bert. And Bert the Turtle was very alert. When danger threatened
him, he never got hurt. He knew just what to do. He duck, shh, and cover. Duck,
shh, and cover.
Now, you and I don't have shells to crawl into like Bert the Turtle, so we have
to cover up in our own way.
Paul and Patty know this. No matter where they go or what they do, they always
try to remember what to do if the atom bomb explodes right then.
It's a bomb. Duck can cover.
Here's Tony going to his Cub Scout meeting. Tony knows the bomb can explode any
time of the year, day or night. Duck can cover.
That a boy, Tony. That flash means act fast.
Sundays, holidays, vacation time, we must be ready every day, all the time, to
do the right thing if the atomic bomb explodes.
Duck can cover. That's the first thing to do. Duck can cover.
First, you duck. Then, you cover.
You duck and cover, pipe, duck and cover, under the table, it's a ball, duck
and cover, duck and cover, duck and cover, duck and cover, duck and cover, duck
and cover yourself, duck and cover, duck and cover, duck and cover, duck and
cover.
He did what we all must learn to do, you and you and you and you and you and
you and you and you and you and you and you and you and you and cover, duck and
cover, duck and cover.
Remember what to do friends, now tell me right out loud, what are you supposed
to do when you see the flash?
Very strange, Jane Loder in the Pierce Rafferty in the Motion Pictures called
Atomic Cafe and it opens March?
March 17th at the Film Forum here in New York City and in Los Angeles?
March 27th at Film X.
Thank you very much, terribly fascinating.
We'll be right back with Gloria Steinem.
Thank you.