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

Portland, Oregon Portland ( ) is the List of cities in Oregon, most populous city in the U.S. state of Oregon, located in the Pacific Northwest region. Situated close to northwest Oregon at the confluence of the Willamette River, Willamette and Columbia River, ...

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

Soviet The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

bombers A bomber is a military combat aircraft that utilizes air-to-ground weaponry to drop bombs, launch torpedoes, or deploy air-launched cruise missiles. There are two major classifications of bomber: strategic and tactical. Strategic bombing is ...

had been detected by

radar Radar is a system that uses radio waves to determine the distance ('' ranging''), direction ( azimuth and elevation angles), and radial velocity of objects relative to the site. It is a radiodetermination method used to detect and track ...

stations to the north; it details the activation of the city's

civil defense Civil defense or civil protection is an effort to protect the citizens of a state (generally non-combatants) from human-made and natural disasters. It uses the principles of emergency management: Risk management, prevention, mitigation, prepara ...

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 "coordination structure" responsible for managing emergency response, emergency preparedness, emergency management, and disaster management functions at a strategic level dur ...

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 Ford (May 1, 1916 – August 30, 2006), known as Glenn Ford, was a Canadian-born American actor. He was most prominent during Classical Hollywood cinema, Hollywood's Golden Age as one of the biggest box-office draws of th ...

, 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). Schru ...

. 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", which is referenced by the film. It was re-broadcast locally in 2004pdxradio Message Board
and uploaded by the online

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. Originally based in New York City from 1982 through 2002, it is now based in San Franci ...

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 short documentary films CBS films Documentary films about nuclear war and weapons 1950s American films {{war-documentary-film-stub

See also

References

External links