The House in the Middle

File:House in the Middle 1954 intertitle.jpg

Intertitle of the 1954 version of The House in the Middle, selected for preservation in the National Film Registry

The House in the Middle is the title of two American documentary film shorts (13 minutes), respectively from 1953 and 1954, which showed the effects of a nuclear bomb test on a set of three small houses.

1953 version

File:House in the Middle 1953 intertitle.jpg

Intertitle of the original 1953 version

The black-and-white 1953 film was created by the Federal Civil Defense Administration to attempt to show that a clean, freshly painted house (the middle house) is more likely to survive a nuclear attack than its poorly maintained counterparts (the right and left houses).

1954 version

File:The House in the Middle.webm

The House in the Middle (1954)

A color version was released the next year by the National Clean Up – Paint Up – Fix Up Bureau,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> a "bureau" invented by the National Paint, Varnish and Lacquer Association trade group (now known as the American Coatings Association).<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Production

Footage for the film was recorded during the Upshot-Knothole Encore test at the Nevada Test Site on May 8, 1953.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Legacy

In 2001, the Library of Congress deemed the 1954 film "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" and selected it for preservation in the National Film Registry.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

It was featured on Rick Prelinger's 2004 collage film Panorama Ephemera.<ref name="prelingeryoutube">Panorama Ephemera (2004) - Rick Prelinger on YouTube</ref>

See also

• Fallout Protection
• The Bomb
• Duck and Cover
• The Atomic Cafe

External links

• Template:IMDb title
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• The House in the Middle essay by Kelly Chisholm on the National Film Registry web site [1]
• The House in the Middle essay by Daniel Eagan in America's Film Legacy: The Authoritative Guide to the Landmark Movies in the National Film Registry, A&C Black, 2010 Template:ISBN, pages 483–484. America's Film Legacy: The Authoritative Guide to the Landmark Movies in the National Film Registry
• Internet Archive copy of the 1954 film
• Library of Congress copy of the 1953 film
• Library of Congress copy of the 1954 film