AS ALWAYS we say thanks to the artists and labels responsible for producing tonight's music, and to the loyal listeners who encourage us to air it every week!

(For eight years now, Radio Rumpus Room has been broadcast Fridays at 9-10:30 p.m. on KFAI Fresh Air Radio, FM 90.3 Minneapolis and 106.7 St. Paul. The show streams live on the Internet, and as always, our most recent show is archived in its entirety in RealAudio. Just link up through the RRR web page anytime to listen to this terrific noise and catch Jean and Ron spouting the usual half-truths and unsupported "statements of fact!")

Playlist for Friday, October 11, 2002

To commemorate the launch of Sputnik I on October 4, 1957, the followup of Sputnik II with Laika a month later, this month's 40th anniversary of the Cuban Missile Crisis, and a nod to the first full-scale thermonuclear (hydrogen bomb) test 50 years ago this month, the always historically minded Radio Rumpus Room aired its own special:

FLYING SAUCERS VS. THE RED MENACE: SONGS AND SOUNDS OF THE COLD WAR

Here's what went down when the warning sirens were sounded in the concrete- and glass-block Radio Rumpus Room garage-turned-fallout shelter:

"I am not an atomic playboy" (Vice Admiral W.H.P. Blandy, Commander of Joint Task Force I at Operations Crossroads, Bikini Atoll) (1946)

ATOMIC I (Tests of the Atom and Tests of Faith)

"You have a grandstand seat..." (spokesman for Mike Shot, Operation Ivy; first full-scale test of H-bomb at Eniwetok Atoll, 1952)
Al Rex -- Hydrogen Bomb (1959)
Johnny and Jack -- Jesus Hits Like the Atom Bomb (1951)
"If everything goes according to plan..." (spokesman at Mike Shot, Operation Ivy, 1952)
Louvin Bros. -- The Great Atomic Power (1961; first recorded in 1952)
Hawkshaw Hawkins -- When They Found the Atomic Power (1947)

SPUTNIK ("It's So Ironic; Are They Atomic?")

Ray Andersen & The Home Folks -- Sputniks and Muttniks (1958)
Dell Vaughn -- Rock the Universe (1958)
Nelson Young -- Rock Old Sputnik (1957)
Stan Beaver -- Got A Rocket in My Pocket (1957)
Billy Hogan -- Shake It Over Sputnik (1957)

ATOMIC II (Waving the Big Stick at the Russkies)

Hank Williams (as Luke the Drifter) -- No No Joe (1950)
Rep. James E. Van Zandt (Penn.) (1953 interview)
Jackie Doll & His Pickled Peppers -- When They Drop the Atom Bomb (1951)
"Statistically Very Few Casualties" (anonymous but assuring civil defense department spokesman)
Roy Acuff & His Smoky Mountain Boys -- Advice to Joe (1951)
Johnny Tyler -- God's Going to Turn Us to Dust (1955)

COMMUNISM (The Red Menace)

"Let's give Jerry a real Red Nightmare" (excerpt) (introduction to "Red Nightmare" by narrator Jack Webb; Warner Bros., 1962)
Grandpa Jones -- I'm No Communist (1953)
I Was A Communist for the FBI (introduction to radio show starring Dana Andrews, broadcast '52-'54)
Spencer and Spencer -- Russian Bandstand (1959)
"Any last request, comrade Donovan?" (excerpt from "Red Nightmare", 1962)
Jim Eanes -- They Locked God Outside the Iron Curtain (1952)

ATOMIC III (After the Bomb Drops)

The Complacent American (excerpt) (civil defense "scare" LP, 1961)
Glenn Barber -- Atom Bomb (1955)
Bill Haley & The Comets -- 13 Women [and only one man in town] (1955)
Johnny Paycheck -- The Cave (1967)

SAUCERS (We Are Not Alone)

Introduction and saucer landing, "Day the Earth Stood Still" (Lux Radio Theater broadcast, 1954)
Buchanan Bros. & The Georgia Catamounts -- When You See Those Flying Saucers (1947)
K-Pers -- The Red Invasion (ca. 1966)

An excellent site devoted to the cultural artifacts of the first 20 years of the Atomic Age is www.conelrad.com. It really is one of our favorite places on the Net, and an excellent example of how any topic, including this one, can be dealt with in a smart, informed and non-smarmy manner. Look for lists of the Top 100 Atomic Films, Top Atomic Platters, in-depth reviews of essential Cold War films as "Invasion U.S.A." (1952) and "Panic in the Year Zero (1962). Wonderful stuff.

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