Winston
Lorenzo von Matterhorn
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Shown on The History Channel for Sputnik's 50th anniversary. Lots of rare footage. The portion on YouTube is a decent 55 minutes of it. I just watched the full documentary on a Netflix DVD:
[video=youtube;GhJnt3xW2Fc]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GhJnt3xW2Fc[/video]
Not worth the $49 for an apparently commercially manufactured/pressed version (which is what my Netflix copy was):
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00F8ONCUS/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20
From a press release:
"The Fever of '57" [previous title of "Sputnik Mania"] tells the gripping story of America's reaction to the Soviet Union's successful launch of Sputnik in October 1957. According to Hoffman, America's initial reaction of wonder and awe quickly turned to fear and widespread panic as the people were told by political and military leaders that the same rocket that carried Sputnik to space could also be used as an Intercontinental Ballistic Missile (ICBM) capable of delivering nuclear weapons to American soil.
"I uncovered a story that has never been told and got unprecedented access to people who told me parts of the story that allowed me to put the whole thing together. It shocked me, and I hope it shocks audiences as well," said Hoffman.
Notably, "The Fever of '57" was made by only three people: Hoffman, editor John Vincent Barrett and 24-year-old, first-time producer Eric Reid. They uncovered never-before-seen films and recently declassified government documents that proved crucial in capturing the feelings of the day and telling the story. Such facts included:
An April 1958 Gallup poll showed that more than 60 percent of Americans believed that nuclear war was imminent and that half the nation's population would be killed. Throughout 1958, a hydrogen bomb was exploded every three days in the atmosphere by the United States or Soviet Russia. In mid-1958, the Soviet military was placed on Full Alert status (its highest level of military readiness) for a 10-month period.
The Soviets, although they'd been carrying out regular nuclear bomb tests throughout 1957:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1957_Soviet_nuclear_tests
only two days after the orbiting of Sputnik successfully detonated their second and most powerful megaton range weapon of the year. They lied at the time about it being a 20 megaton weapon when is was "only" 2.9 Mt. Still, as this film points out, it had the intended terrorizing effect in the US.
[video=youtube;GhJnt3xW2Fc]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GhJnt3xW2Fc[/video]
Not worth the $49 for an apparently commercially manufactured/pressed version (which is what my Netflix copy was):
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00F8ONCUS/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20
From a press release:
"The Fever of '57" [previous title of "Sputnik Mania"] tells the gripping story of America's reaction to the Soviet Union's successful launch of Sputnik in October 1957. According to Hoffman, America's initial reaction of wonder and awe quickly turned to fear and widespread panic as the people were told by political and military leaders that the same rocket that carried Sputnik to space could also be used as an Intercontinental Ballistic Missile (ICBM) capable of delivering nuclear weapons to American soil.
"I uncovered a story that has never been told and got unprecedented access to people who told me parts of the story that allowed me to put the whole thing together. It shocked me, and I hope it shocks audiences as well," said Hoffman.
Notably, "The Fever of '57" was made by only three people: Hoffman, editor John Vincent Barrett and 24-year-old, first-time producer Eric Reid. They uncovered never-before-seen films and recently declassified government documents that proved crucial in capturing the feelings of the day and telling the story. Such facts included:
An April 1958 Gallup poll showed that more than 60 percent of Americans believed that nuclear war was imminent and that half the nation's population would be killed. Throughout 1958, a hydrogen bomb was exploded every three days in the atmosphere by the United States or Soviet Russia. In mid-1958, the Soviet military was placed on Full Alert status (its highest level of military readiness) for a 10-month period.
The Soviets, although they'd been carrying out regular nuclear bomb tests throughout 1957:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1957_Soviet_nuclear_tests
only two days after the orbiting of Sputnik successfully detonated their second and most powerful megaton range weapon of the year. They lied at the time about it being a 20 megaton weapon when is was "only" 2.9 Mt. Still, as this film points out, it had the intended terrorizing effect in the US.
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