The Day Called 'X'

{{Use mdy dates|date=April 2025}}

{{Use American English|date=January 2025}}

{{Infobox television

| image = A Day Called X title card.png

| image_size =

| image_alt =

| caption = The Title Card Used for the Film

| genre =

| creator =

| based_on =

| writer = Lester Cooper
Harry Rasky

| screenplay =

| story =

| director = Harry Rasky

| starring =

| narrated = Glenn Ford

| theme_music_composer =

| country = United States

| language = English

| num_episodes =

| producer = Harry Rasky

| editor = Bernard Birnbaum

| cinematography = Frederick Dietrich

| runtime = 30 minutes

| company = CBS Public Affairs, in co-operation with the Federal Civil Defense Administration

| budget =

| network = CBS

| released = {{Start date|1957|12|08}}

}}

The Day Called 'X' is a dramatized CBS documentary film set in Portland, Oregon, in which the entire city is evacuated in anticipation of a nuclear air raid, after Soviet bombers had been detected by radar stations to the north; it details the activation of the city's civil defense protocols and leads up to the moment before the attack (the ending is left intentionally unknown). The operations were run from the Kelly Butte Bunker, which was the emergency operations center at that time. It was filmed in September 1957{{cite news |url=http://www.districtone.com/oldhistory/end1958.htm#December%201957 |publisher=IATSE District One History |title=IATSE Bulletin |date=December 1957}} and aired December 8 of that year.{{cite news |url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,893810,00.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071121081519/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,893810,00.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=November 21, 2007 |work=TIME Magazine |title=Television: Review |date=December 16, 1957}}{{cite news |work=Chicago Daily Tribune |title=Review |date=December 8, 1957 |page=NW16}}

Apart from presenter/narrator Glenn Ford, none of the people shown are actors. They are locals of Portland shown in their real jobs, including Mayor Terry Schrunk.{{citation needed|date=June 2024}} Whenever one of these individuals is heard uttering warnings or statements regarding attack, the words "AN ATTACK IS NOT TAKING PLACE" are superimposed over the picture.

On September 27, 1955, Portland actually conducted an exercise evacuation of downtown called "Operation Greenlight",{{cite web |url=http://www.portlandonline.com/auditor/?c=cheai&a=bbafj |publisher=Portland Auditor's Office |title=Portland Historical Timeline: 1952 to 2001 |accessdate=August 13, 2009}}{{cite web |url=http://www.portlandonline.com/auditor/index.cfm?print=1&c=27928&a=24784 |publisher=Portland Auditor's Office |title=1955 Operation Greenlight civil defense evacuation |accessdate=August 13, 2009}} which is referenced by the film.{{citation needed|date=June 2024}} It was re-broadcast locally in 2004[http://feedback.pdxradio.com/messages/995/38321.html?1096518631 pdxradio Message Board] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070705230759/http://feedback.pdxradio.com/messages/995/38321.html?1096518631 |date=July 5, 2007 }} and uploaded by the online Prelinger Archives.