A B-47 bomber. Air Force photo.
I’m finally getting around to reading Doug Keeney’s 2011 book 15 Minutes: General Curtis LeMay and the Countdown to Nuclear Annihilation. Keeney describes the mood in 1950s Las Vegas, capital of nuclear America:
The atomic tests added a degree of excitement to a city that made excitement its stock-in-trade. Las Vegas hotels advertised “atomic” room specials, sold “atomic cocktails” at their bars and offered picnic baskets as part of packages and weekend deals that included field trips to nearby Mount Charleston and Angel’s Peak to view atomic blasts.
Hell of a book.
Speaking of nuclear testing and the atmosphere at the time, that desert shot looks like the opening to Them!