QUICKY QUIZ! EPISODE #3 FIRST NATIONWIDE ATOMIC BOMB CIVIL DEFENSE DRILL WASHINGTON DC XD81545c

Year Published: 1955

Format: 16mm

Description: This short film is one of a series entitled "Quicky Quiz!", which were developed and produced by Los Angeles TV personality Jim Hawthorne. Billed as the "TV's biggest little show", each Quicky Quiz! posed a question for viewers to answer. In this case, the question is "what year did the first nationwide a-bomb drill take place?" The footage shown includes civil defense fallout shelters, President Truman rushing to the White House shelter, empty streets of Washington, D.C., Chicago and New York during the drill. If you got the right answer, you must be very smart so take a bow! Short format shows of this type don't really exist today, but back in the early era of television -- especially during the live era when show lengths were irregular -- programs such as Quicky Quiz! were important to fill dead air. Jim Hawthorne (1918 –2007) was a beloved radio personality, disc jockey and TV comic actor who produced (in addition to Quicky Quiz!) the short format show "Jim Hawthorne's Funny World". He worked for a variety of TV stations including KLAC / Los Angeles Channel 13, where he created the first late evening talk show on television, "This Is Hawthorne."