Burning down the Doom House
Fake small towns, complete with mannequins, food and home appliances, were built just to be obliterated by nuclear tests in the 50s
In what is probably the only memorable scene in Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, Indy finds himself in an eerie small town where all people are dead-eyed mannequins watching TV, watering gardens, on bicycles, and in cars. It was a Doom Town (or Nuketown), built on purpose to test the effects of a nuclear blast. Not even the preposterous “nuke fridge” sequence could spoil the scene.
Doom Towns were very real. From 1951 to 1992, 928 bombs were exploded in the Nevada Test Site, around 100 km north of Las Vegas - 100 of them in “atmospheric” tests (above ground). The idea was to test the effects of the explosions and radiation on urban infrastructure as well as people. Two towns were built, complete with houses, shops, water and electricity, cars, home appliances, food and those creepy mannequins representing average (white) American families, provided by J. C. Penney department stores.
The first town was blown to smithereens on March 17, 1953. It was a national event, with Walter Cronkite reporting on live television. A 15-kiloton bomb (with destructive power equivalent to 15,000 tonnes of TNT) was detonated and most of the town was destroyed - except for one house two and a half kilometres form the blast, and a few lucky mannequins who happened to be in the basements.
Two years later, on May 5, 1955, “Survival Town” was the next victim. Doing justice to the town’s name, a few buildings survived a 29-kiloton explosion.
The Nevada Test Site completely changed the region’s economy. As absurd as it may seem today, Las Vegas experienced a tourism boom (pun intended). Throughout the 50s, thousands gathered to watch atomic bombs explode, even organizing picnics. And there were those things you can only find in America, such as the “Miss Atomic Bomb”. Many people believed it was their patriotic duty to be present, naively believing the US Government’s assurance that “Nah, it’ll be fine”. Only it wasn’t.
Fallout radiation spread from Nevada to other states. It affected tens of thousands, especially in Nevada, Utah and Arizona, who became known as “Downwinders”. Cases of cancer, especially leukaemia, mushroomed (sorry for this one). The most famous victims were John Wayne, Susan Hayward, Agnes Moorehead and Lee Van Cleef, who filmed The Conqueror in Utah in 1956. They were among the 91 people from the cast and crew who ended up dying of cancer.
The Radiation Exposure Compensation Act was introduced in 1990 to try to remedy the criminal neglect of the victims - not only from nuclear tests, but also from uranium mining. More than 40,000 claims have been approved for compensation, but many communities are still fighting to be covered by the Act.
Come to think of it, it looks like the mannequins were treated with more respect.
Check this out:
Interview with historian Andrew Kirk, author of the book Doom Towns
Nevada Test Site Oral History Project
A nice piece by The Guardian on the Nevada Test Site