Survival town

A great promotional newsreel from 1955 about "Survival Town", a full-set town model in the Nevada desert on which the US government threw an atom bomb in order to study what happens. They created scenes of daily life with mannequins and even stocked the fridges to analyze radiation levels afterwards.

There's also a two-part color video on Youtube that goes into much more detail about the setting up of the town and the subsequent blast which is rather interesting too. Of course it's all in super-patriotic fifties newsreel speak and music background! More reading and photos in the Weburbanist article.

Blown To Smithereens: The Secret Story Of Survival Town | Design + Ideas on WU