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Bert the Turtle
Duck and Cover was a short 'educational' film produced in 1951 by the United States government's Civil Defense branch shortly after the Soviet Union began nuclear testing. Made with the help of Archer Productions, it was shown in schools as the cornerstone of the government's duck and cover public awareness campaign (see also: Civil Defense). The movie states that nuclear war could happen at any time without warning, and for U.S. citizens to keep this constantly in mind and be ever ready.
History & Logic
The force from a nuclear blast.
After nuclear weapons were developed, (the first being developed during the Manhattan Project during World War II) it was realized what kind of danger they posed. The United States held a nuclear monopoly from the end of the Second World War until 1949, when the Soviets, partially from using stolen American nuclear information, detonated their first nuclear device.
Possibly the most famous effect of an atomic bomb is death by radiation, but the most destructive aspect of an atomic bomb is the effect of its blast and resulting heat. There was little one could do to protect against the heat effects of an atomic bomb as the heat simply traveled too fast. At certain distances from the epicenter of the explosion, however, there would be a slight delay before the shockwave arrived, and so a "duck and cover" technique would perhaps help an individual against falling debris. For those who survived both the heat and the blast, there was then the radiation and fallout to contend with, which could cause relatively quick death by radiation sickness or manifest itself in cancers acquired many years later. Fallout shelters could provide some safety from these effects, were they employed quickly enough.
Putting any solid object between you and a radiation source offers some level of protection. However, the amount of safety offered by such barriers is directly related to how far from the blast you are. From a standing source of radiation (such as spilled nuclear waste), many forms of shielding could be helpful, but in a nuclear blast a shield would have to withstand the shock wave in addition to blocking radiation.
Part of the problem in communicating to the public how to deal with atomic weapons was that most civilians had never dealt with anything on the scale of magnitude as an atomic explosion before. Thus, the movie says, "you will see a bright flash, brighter than the sun, brighter than anything you have ever seen", and that the flash is much, much worse than a sunburn.
Summary
Because the film was a production of the U.S. government, it is in the public domain. It starts out with a sequence of animated cartoon, showing an anthropomorphic turtle walking down the road. A chorus sings the Duck and Cover theme:
- 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...
- Duck! [inhalation sound]
- And Cover!
- Duck! [inhalation sound]
- And Cover!
A Duck & Cover movie poster
As this goes on, Bert is attacked by a monkey (presumably symbolizing the Soviet Union) with a firecracker on a string. Bert ducks into his shell in the nick of time, as the firecracker goes off and blows up both the monkey and the tree he is sitting in (ironically, suicide bombing would become a modern terrorist tactic; see Duct Tape & Cover below). Bert, however, is perfectly safe - the duck and cover idea.
The film (which is about ten minutes long) then switches to live footage, as a narrator explains what children should do "when you see the flash" of an atomic bomb. The movie goes on to suggest that by ducking down low in the event of a nuclear explosion you are safer than you would be standing.
At a sufficient distance from a nuclear explosion, this is true, as the flying debris and breaking glass in the wake of a shock wave could be more carefully avoided. However at most distances in which an atomic flash would be seen, ducking and covering would be rather more futile: the intense heat and radiation from a nuclear explosion would be little guarded against by such a simple action. The entire movie displays this kind of muddled logic: in one scene, a father is shown holding a newspaper over his face as soon as he sees the flash. A newspaper is, in fact suitably thick enough to shield against alpha radiation, but would be torn to shreads by the shock wave. A far more logical suggestion presented by the narrator is to jump into a doorway not facing the explosion if one is handy; the brick or stone will shield you.
Duck and Cover in Pop Culture
Although now badly outdated in terms of usefulness (which was questionable to begin with), Duck and Cover, which was shown to an entire generation of children, is now occasionally incorporated into popular culture.
- In The Atomic Cafe, Duck and Cover footage is used. This version is often mistaken for the original Duck and Cover.
- In The Iron Giant, Hogarth Hughes and his classmates in the year 1957 watch a different version of Duck and Cover, featuring chipmunks (or possibly groundhogs) who, like Bert the Turtle, are also wearing Civil Defense helmets.
- In an Atom Ant music video on Cartoon Network, some audio clips from Duck and Cover, such as "We must all get ready, now" are used.
- In one episode of South Park, a volcano erupts and the townspeople are shown Duck and Cover.
- After Tom Ridge announced his duct tape and plastic sheeting plan for national security, a Flash movie entitled Duct Tape and Cover (http://www.solidarity.com/hkcartoons/duckandcover.html) was made, spoofing the whole idea. The monkey in this movie is Osama bin Laden.
See also
External Link(s)
Duck and Cover! is available for download or streaming at Prelinger Archive (http://www.archive.org/movies/details-db.php?collection=prelinger&collectionid=19069).
de:Duck and Cover
sv:Duck and Cover
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