This week’s bonus video selection comes to us from 1953, the age of atomic weapons and energy - people were worried and both government and industry (in this case, General Electric) created videos to dispel myths and quell fears among the public. As usual, this video come to us via the Internet Archive.

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Animated classic presenting what an atom is, how energy is released from certain kinds of atoms, the peacetime uses of atomic energy and the byproducts of nuclear fission.

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I had intended to get this up sooner, but I was having some very annoying problems with various video sites. Without further adieu, the State of the Union Address 2007, as aired on C-SPAN.

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This week’s weekly video is one of my absolute favorite that I have downloaded from the Internet Archive. I’m talking about the classic Civil Defense and preparedness film, Duck and Cover.

Be it the catchy tune, the look into the culture of the early 1950s, or the advice it gives so sincerely that we now think to be almost pointless. Regardless of whether you saw this as a child or have never seen is, I highly recommend this film to everyone - for the entertainment vales alone.

From the description:

Selected for the 2004 National Film Registry of “culturally, historically and aesthetically significant” motion pictures.

Famous Civil Defense film for children in which Bert the Turtle shows what to do in case of atomic attack.

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It’s Christmas and I’m feeling especially generous with my posting. I now present to you the classic television special, A Charlie Brown Christmas. It should be noted that I found this one on Veoh and did not upload it myself.
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In this selection, we follow children as they take a trip to the mall to visit Santa Claus and watch him in a holiday parade.

Internet Archive:

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I would like to apologize for this week’s video being a day late, but I had some technical difficulties getting the video uploaded and working correctly. None the less, I present this week’s selection.

This week features only one video, but the selection is a feature-length film of nearly 80 minutes. I’ll be the first to admit that it is beyond strange, but finding a Christmas movie in the public domain is not all that easy of a task. With that in mind, I present Santa Claus Conquers the Martians, a comedy/sci-fi/holiday movie from 1964.
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Four or five years ago, not long after I first really started using broadband on a regular basis, one of my favorite websites was the Moving Image collection at the Internet Archive. Over the years, I’ve downloaded and watched dozens upon dozens of videos - from old television commercials to Cold War preparedness films, from how to behave videos to newsreels, and just about everything between.

With that in mind, I’ve decided to start a new, weekly feature on News. Views. Common Sense. Each Friday, I will post a collection of two or three ‘ephemeral‘ videos with a common theme that I have found of particular interest.

This week’s selection is the two part docudrama, A Day Called ‘X’. This 27 minute film was produced and aired by CBS Television in the late 1950s (approximately 1958) and illustrated what might happen if a nuclear bomb was headed for a major US city. The film was made during an evacuation drill in which the entire city of Portland, Oregon actually rehearsed it’s emergency plans. If nothing else, the video provides an interesting look at what cities did to be prepared during the heart of the Cold War.

Part One:

Part Two: