The House in the Middle
{{Short description|1954 American film}}
{{Use American English|date=January 2025}}
{{italic title}}
File:House in the Middle 1954 intertitle.jpg]]
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
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
A color version was released the next year by the National Clean Up – Paint Up – Fix Up Bureau,{{Cite web|url=https://www.paint.org/about/about-aca/|title=About ACA|website=American Coatings Association}}{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VifrCgAAQBAJ&pg=PT586|title=Encyclopedia of Consumption and Waste: Encyc Consumption and Waste|first1=Carl A.|last1=Zimring|first2=William L. Rathje, Consulting|last2=Editor|date=Feb 27, 2012|publisher=SAGE Publications|isbn=9781506338279 |via=Google Books}}{{Cite web|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1u01AQAAMAAJ&pg=RA3-PA56|title=American Paint and Oil Dealer ...|date=Aug 7, 1917|publisher=American Paint Journal Company, Incorporated|via=Google Books}}{{Cite web|url=https://prn.library.cornell.edu/cgi-bin/cornell-prn?a=d&d=PRN19650301.2.8&e=-------en-20--1--txt-IN------|title=Preservation News 1 March 1965 — Preservation News|website=prn.library.cornell.edu}} a "bureau" invented by the National Paint, Varnish and Lacquer Association trade group (now known as the American Coatings Association).{{cite web|url=http://blogs.loc.gov/now-see-hear/2015/03/the-cold-war-meets-commerce-the-houses-in-the-middle/|title=The Cold War Meets Commerce: The House(s) in the Middle|author=Mike Mashon|date=March 10, 2015|accessdate=August 6, 2015|work=Now See Hear!|publisher=Library of Congress}}{{cite web|url=https://www.paint.org/about-aca/past-to-present.html?tmpl=component&print=1|title=Past to Present|publisher=American Coatings Association|accessdate=August 6, 2015}}
Production
Footage for the film was recorded during the Upshot-Knothole Encore test at the Nevada Test Site on May 8, 1953.{{cite web|last1=Eden|first1=Lynn|title=Whole World on Fire: Organizations, Knowledge & Nuclear Weapons Devastation|url=https://web.stanford.edu/~lynneden/wwf/gallery.htm|accessdate=9 June 2017}}
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.{{Cite web|title=Complete National Film Registry Listing |url=https://www.loc.gov/programs/national-film-preservation-board/film-registry/complete-national-film-registry-listing/|website=Library of Congress|access-date=2020-04-30}}{{Cite web|title=Librarian of Congress Names 25 More Films to National Film Registry|url=https://www.loc.gov/item/prn-01-184/national-film-registry-2001/2001-12-18/|website=Library of Congress|access-date=2020-04-30}}
It was featured on Rick Prelinger's 2004 collage film Panorama Ephemera.[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vy6KlxyxibM Panorama Ephemera (2004) - Rick Prelinger on YouTube]
See also
References
{{reflist}}
External links
{{Commons category}}
- {{IMDb title|0303271}}
- {{TCMDb title|id=732185}}
- The House in the Middle essay by Kelly Chisholm on the National Film Registry web site [https://www.loc.gov/static/programs/national-film-preservation-board/documents/house_in_middle.pdf]
- 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 {{ISBN|0826429777}}, pages 483–484. [https://books.google.com/books?id=deq3xI8OmCkC&source=gbs_similarbooks America's Film Legacy: The Authoritative Guide to the Landmark Movies in the National Film Registry]
- Internet Archive copy of the 1954 film
- [http://stream.media.loc.gov/blogs/navcc/HouseMiddle_v1_768x432_800.mp4 Library of Congress copy of the 1953 film]
- [http://stream.media.loc.gov/blogs/navcc/HouseMiddle_v2_768x432_800.mp4 Library of Congress copy of the 1954 film]
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Category:American short documentary films
Category:United States National Film Registry films
Category:Documentary films about nuclear war and weapons
Category:Documentary films about the Cold War
Category:American social guidance and drug education films
Category:1953 short documentary films