Web Project 2 - Cultural Anxiety and the Atom Bomb

STEPS IN THIS PROJECT:

1. Find out more about how these fears became part of popular culture.
2. Then, create a web page, with an original title, in which you briefly illustrate and describe at least one example from four (4) of the categories listed below.
3. Now, assume that you are a teenager in Middletown, U. S. A., in the 1950s and that these images and ideas are a part of your life.
4. Describe for your viewer a day from your ‘50s life in which all of your examples appear.

   Feel free to be creative here!

CATEGORIES (you must choose 1 example from 4 of these categories)

1. Music - Who could forget hits like "50 megatons" or "Old Man Atom"?

2. Movies - We worked out our anxieties by screaming at the monstrous results of atomic testing gone wrong:

• The Giant Gila Monster (1959)
  A west Texas teenager who wants to be like Elvis fends off mutant desert reptile with the help of his friends.
• Attack of the Crab Monsters (1957)
  Researchers on a remote island disappear at the claws of mutant crustaceans.
• Them (1954)
  my personal favorite – giant atomic mutated ants. The picture closes with the apocalyptic lines: "We haven’t seen the end of Them . . . . We’ve only had a close view of the beginning of what may be the end of us."
• Attack of the Giant Leeches (1959)
  You get the picture . . . .
• The Thing (1951)
• The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms (1953)
• The Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954)
• The Creature with the Atom Brain (1956)
• The Incredible Shrinking Man (1957)
• The Fly (1958)
• The Attack of the Fifty Foot Woman (1958)

Or we transferred our Cold War fears of invasion from Communists to aliens:

• It Came from Outer Space (1953)
• The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951)
• Earth vs. the Flying Saucers (1956)

You can find plot summaries & posters on the web for all of these.

3. Civil defense drills, fallout (bomb) shelters, and the Emergency Broadcast System - We had to be prepared for the mushroom cloud.

4. Toys and comics – Maybe if we played with it, we could somehow control it.

5. Art or literature – Artists and writers confronted the anxiety of the decade.

6. Your choice – Find another example of atomic influence in popular culture.

RESOURCES:

Here are some websites to start you off:

• http://www.conelrad.com
  a site The New York Times calls "an eerie, creepy look at Cold War Culture." You’ll have fun in this one.
• http://www.newi.ac.uk/rdover/other/the_50s_.htm
  a guide to 50s B-movies, including the mutant monsters.
• http://www.archive.org/movies/movies.php
  The Prelinger Archive. Search "civil defense" and find examples of educational films about atomic danger. Check out Bert the Turtle and his famous "duck and cover" video.

Many people hailed rather than feared the atom and thought it would take us to new heights:

• http://www.projectrho.com/rocket
  guide for building an atomic powered rocket with images from the 50s.
• http://www.megazone.org/ANP/atomair.shtml
  atomic powered airplanes
• http://www.radiationworks.com/flyingreactor.htm
  more atomic powered flight

Are you interested in art? New York became the center of the art world in the 1950s as a young group of artists known as abstract expressionists grappled with the post-war reality of man’s vulnerability and irrationality:

• http://www.usc.edu/schools/annenberg/asc/projects/comm544/library/styles/
  AbstractExpressionism.html
  some images of Abstract Expressionism. You can then find out more about the artists.
• Learn more at the Metropolitan Museum of Art:
  http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/abex/hd_abex.htm

From The Authentic History Center:

• http://www.authentichistory.com/images/1950s/atomic_toys/atomictoys01.html
  Atomic toys
• http://www.authentichistory.com/audio/1950s/atomic_music_01.html
  Atomic music (audio clips)
• http://www.authentichistory.com/images/1950s/atomic_comics/atomiccomics01.html
  Atomic comics
• http://www.authentichistory.com/images/1950s/duck_and_cover/duck_and_cover_01.html
  Civil defense signs, ads, and artifacts

PROJECT CHECKLIST:

• Original title for your page
• 400 – 500 words of text
• In-text parenthetical citations for all material either paraphrased or directly quoted
• Acknowledgement of sources for both text and images at the bottom of your page in MLA format

TECH CHECKLIST:

• At least 4 images
• Page name that reflects your project
• Link from your menu page to the project and from the project back to the menu page
• Link to an at least one external website, opening in a new window, that gives your viewer additional information
• Alt tags for images
• At least 1 thumbnail of an image

Project due: March 26

Images:

“Civil Defense poster.” Online Image. Civil Defense Museum. 9 February 2004. <http://www.civildefensemuseum.com/artgal/artgallery.html>.