You are aware that I have an abiding interest in both history and anything nuclear. Those interests combined in a video I just saw from the Nuclear Archive channel on YouTube. It's a program from 1958 about living with nuclear fallout, one of a series called Ten for Survival broadcast weekly on NBC.

This is an episode about radiation dosage and the damage it does, and how to survive finding water and food in a fallout-irradiated location. Here is the video:

There are a few lessons here. First, there are hazards when putting out a program live. The poor doctor was drunk and it was getting worse throughout the program, and no one could stop it and fix anything! They just pressed on until the poor man couldn't stand up straight. I wish I could find his friends reaction the next day. Maybe Dr. Shield Warren was a booze hound and this was no surprise. Or maybe he wasn't a drinker with tremendous stage fright and someone offered some booze, not knowing the effect it would have. Chet Huntley was the usual host; he got out of this episode and let a junior newsman handle the debacle.

Second, the radiological technician who came in at the end hadn't been very careful in rehearsals, and managed to contaminate his hands with radioactivity, rendering most of his food demos pointless, particularly the banana.

Third, never script a discussion! The whole show was scripted, and scripted badly. The performances were far worse, though, making this some of the most unintentionally funny TV of the late 50s. This was the thing that Milton Burle and Dick Van Dyke would spoof on their programs.

The only thing I liked were some of the figures and graphics. Those were okay; great for the time.

I really want to find all these programs and add them to my Nuclear Media Archive (ask for a password: [email protected])