This week’s video was originally posted here fourteen years ago. Since that time, the links in the post have gone dead. Flash video is no longer supported by most browsers, and the original post is a bit of a mess.  So in the spirit of recycling an old post, and also restoring this video to the blog, here it is again, all shined-up, and polished with a nifty new upgraded print.

Duck And Cover, is an infamous educational film from the Cold War era that teaches children how to survive a direct nuclear blast by covering up their head and hitting the ground.

Dan Kehde and Mark Scarpelli, inspired by this camp classic, wrote the song, “Duck And Cover” for their musical, “The Blob.” You can see that song in Radio Free Charleston episode 82, with will be The RFC Flashback next Saturday.

Duck and Cover is a Civil Defense film, demonstrating the “Duck and Cover” technique of minimizing harm from a nuclear blast. The techniques have been widely ridiculed, although experts still support them. Some critics believe the film was meant to serve a dual purpose of propagandizing against communism. That theory makes sense because this film is about as absurd as current GOP political ads.