Meme Scholar with Madness (PhD)

[EndtheMadnessNow]

June 7, 1960: BROKEN ARROW, a BOMARC (Boeing Michigan Aeronautical Research Center) surface-to-air missile on alert at McGuire AFB, New Jersey, caught fire. The high-intensity blaze melted the 10-kiloton W40 warhead and caused significant plutonium contamination of the surrounding soil that was not properly cleaned up until 2004.



Summary of Nuclear Weapons Incident, June 1960 | Report of Special Weapons Incident, BOMARC Site (PDFs)



Yes, nuclear missiles for air defense! Several types deployed around dozens of large US cities from the 1950s into the 1970s, all to protect against the vastly over-hyped threat of a Soviet nuclear bomber attack. Initially planned for 52 sites, BOMARC missiles were ultimately deployed at just eight US Air Force bases in Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, and Virginia from 1959-72, and at two Royal Canadian Air Force bases in Ontario and Quebec from 1962-72.

Hello Miss BOMARC...




I have one of these installed in my bunker...


...with an AI sexy robot slave in bikini at the crank wheel. German tech of course.


The Atomic Pen, designed by imaginative Parker Pen Co. stylists, would contain a tiny controlled reactor if ever developed by scientists. This pen used radioactive isotopes to heat the ink to produce various line widths. Or it would have, except no production units were ever made.



It did, however, have a brief career in Hollywood.





1954: "Timely as the H-Bomb." Groucho Marx cocktail napkins by Monogram of San Francisco. The 'H' is for Hilarity, with art by Don Whearty. The legendary Groucho Marx chipped in for civil defense in this radio PSA from 1953:




Early Post-Apocalyptic Influencer:




"About as décolletage as one can get, decently, is in his 'fallout shelter' tops to slim..." "The models in the 'fallout shelter' came out carrying cigars." Rudi Gernreich "Fallout Shelter" fashion news published June 7, 1966 via United Press.




The 60s must have been lit!