Die New York Times hat einen spannenden Artikel über die Atomic Moviemakers – jene Filmleute, die in den USA während des Kalten Kriegs im Staatsauftrag Atombomben-Tests dokumentiert haben. Insgesamt existieren rund 6500 solcher Streifen, die nun nach und nach für die Öffentlichkeit freigegeben werden. Einige davon findet man z.B. unter Declassified US Nuclear Test Films bei YouTube.
"They risked their lives to capture on film hundreds of blinding flashes, rising fireballs and mushroom clouds ... While many of the scientists who made atom bombs during the cold war became famous, the men who filmed what happened when those bombs were detonated made up a secret corps ... After inaugurating the nuclear age and dropping two atomic bombs on Japan in World War II, the United States threw itself into expanding its nuclear arsenal. New designs required test detonations to make sure they worked properly. Between 1946 and 1962, the nation set off more than 200 atmospheric blasts ... The secret film unit, established in 1947 by the military, was known as the Lookout Mountain Laboratory. Surrounded by the lush greenery of Laurel Canyon, just minutes from the Sunset Strip, the lab drew on Hollywood talent and technology to pursue its clandestine ends ..." The Bomb Chroniclers(via The Presurfer)
