National Clean-Up Paint-Up Fix-Up Bureau

Welcome to the National Clean-Up Paint-Up Fix-Up Bureau website

This website is dedicated to sharing information about the unique aspects of the cold war paranoia in the United States in the 1950s.

While we are not the official National Clean-Up Paint-Up Fix-Up Bureau, we are dedicated to sharing knowladge about interesting, little known things, like them. All information is shared in the goal of education.

While all information is researched, it should be considred an opinion of the author(s) in the legal sense.

PART 1: THE HOUSE IN THE MIDDLE

Operation Doorstep: March 17th, 1953

Nevada Test Site, USA

"The House in the Middle" was a film produced by a group in the 1950s called, "The National Clean Up - Paint Up - Fix Up Bureau." (I'm just going to abreviate it as the NCUPUFUB from here on out.) As far as I can tell, this orginization was never incorporated, but was created by the National Paint, Varnish and Lacquer Association (Bloomberg.com). These groups banded together to create this orginization because they had a clearly vested interest in getting United States citizens to build new houses, and keep them up and paint them constantly.

What is truly interesting about this video is how much work the NCUPUFUB put into it. It truly took a lot of production value to produce this. They had to actually design andf build these houses, as well as convincing the governemnt that it was a good idea to blow up the desert. Let's be fair though, the government liked blowing up the desert at the time, so I guess it wasn't that hard to convince them.

The nuclear test that you see in this video is one of the most famous nuclear explosions that the United States government conducted. It was viewed by many at the time, as it was nationally televised. One of the interesting things about this speciffic test, is that when it was recorded the audio was also preserved. Therefore, it is one of the few examples humans have of the sound of a nuclear explosion. This footage has been preserved and can even be viewed now. This test was branded as Operation Doorstep and also as Upshot Keyhole - Annie. While this was a smaller yield (16 Kilotons), this was one of the most important tests conducted by the US Government. It provided key insights as to how different structures at different distances could stand up to a nuclear blast.

Of course, you're not here for the science of the test, you're here because of the unique oddities of this test.

Page updated

Google Sites

Report abuse