''The Day Called 'X is a dramatized CBS documentary film set in

Portland, Oregon Portland (, ) is a port city in the Pacific Northwest and the list of cities in Oregon, largest city in the U.S. state of Oregon. Situated at the confluence of the Willamette River, Willamette and Columbia River, Columbia rivers, Portland is ...

, in which the entire city is evacuated in anticipation of a nuclear air raid, after

Soviet The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nation ...

bombers A bomber is a military combat aircraft designed to attack ground and naval targets by dropping air-to-ground weaponry (such as bombs), launching torpedoes, or deploying air-launched cruise missiles. The first use of bombs dropped from an aircra ...

had been detected by

radar Radar is a detection system that uses radio waves to determine the distance ('' ranging''), angle, and radial velocity of objects relative to the site. It can be used to detect aircraft, ships, spacecraft, guided missiles, motor vehicles, we ...

stations to the north; it details the activation of the city's civil defense protocols and leads up to the moment before the attack (the ending is left intentionally unknown). The operations were run from the Kelly Butte Bunker, which was the

emergency operations center An emergency operations center (EOC) is a central command and control facility responsible for carrying out the principles of emergency preparedness and emergency management, or disaster management functions at a strategic level during an emerg ...

at that time. It was filmed in September 1957 and aired December 8 of that year. Apart from presenter/narrator

Glenn Ford Gwyllyn Samuel Newton "Glenn" Ford (May 1, 1916 – August 30, 2006) was a Canadian-American actor who often portrayed ordinary men in unusual circumstances. Ford was most prominent during Hollywood's Golden Age as one of the biggest box-offi ...

, none of the people shown are actors. They are locals of Portland shown in their real jobs, including Mayor

Terry Schrunk Terrence Doyle Schrunk (March 10, 1913 – March 4, 1975) was an American politician who served as the mayor for the city of Portland, Oregon, 1957–1973, a length tying with George Luis Baker, who also served 16 years (1917–1933). Schr ...

. Its local re-broadcast in 2004 and appearance in the on-line

Prelinger Archives The Prelinger Archives is a collection of films relating to U.S. cultural history, the evolution of the American landscape, everyday life, and social history. It was in New York City from 1982 to 2002 and is now in San Francisco. History The ...

attracted interest among local history buffs due to its extensive outside shots of the city, and the use of non-actor participants (local officials and broadcasters). Whenever one of these individuals is heard uttering warnings or statements regarding attack, the words "AN ATTACK IS NOT TAKING PLACE" are superimposed over the picture. On September 27, 1955, Portland actually conducted an exercise evacuation of downtown called "Operation Greenlight", and the film is often misattributed to that year. Ford's narration, however, does make direct reference to the 1955 exercise.

References

External links

*
''A Day Called X'' (part 1) at the Prelinger Archive

''A Day Called X'' (part 2) at the Prelinger Archive
* 1957 television films 1957 films American documentary television films Cold War films Culture of Portland, Oregon Films set in Oregon Films shot in Portland, Oregon 1957 documentary films CBS network films Documentary films about nuclear war and weapons 1950s American films {{war-documentary-film-stub

See also

References

External links