FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

CONELRAD's Official Nomination Succeeds: Bert the Turtle inDUCKted into the Library of Congress's National Film Registry.

Los Angeles, California—December 28, 2004—Last March CONELRAD, the website devoted to Cold War popular culture filed the official nomination with the Library of Congress to include the 1951 Civil Defense short "Duck and Cover" in its 2004 selection of 25 historically significant motion pictures in its National Film Registry. Today it was announced that Bert the Turtle, the animated hero of this first civil defense film produced for children, will indeed join such celluloid icons as Charles Foster Kane, Jake Gittes and Scarlett O'Hara in a temperature controlled vault paid for by you the taxpayer! Yes, DUCK AND COVER is going to be preserved for the ages!

CONELRAD believes that DUCK AND COVER deserves its inclusion in the Registry. Beyond the nominal entrance criteria, DUCK AND COVER is also one of the most famous educational films ever made. The movie's title alone has come to be used as universal shorthand for the Cold War. Images and clips from the film have been used for decades to evoke the era of the 1950's. In the post-9/11 world the phrase "Duck and Cover" has been resurrected for a whole new age of paranoia.

CONELRAD wishes to thank its readers in supporting the official nomination that ensured DUCK AND COVER's place in our nation's history. Without this support it is doubtful Bert and his film would have ever joined the esteemed company it now keeps.

Congress first established the National Film Registry in the 1988 National Film Preservation Act. Since 1989, the Librarian of Congress has selected 375 films for preservation. Titles include CASABLANCA, ALL ABOUT EVE, PATTON and the 1963 Zapruder film of President Kennedy's assassination. A complete list is available at http://lcweb.loc.gov/film/titles.html

You can read more about DUCK AND COVER in CONELRAD's recently posted production history of the film here http://www.conelrad.com/duckandcover/. This feature includes interviews, documents and photographs related to the film.

CONELRAD is a website that has been recognized by national media and as well as by academia for its incisive and witty Atomic pop culture analysis since its debut in 1999. For Cold War film, music, television, tourism, and secrets, CONELRAD is considered one-stop shopping for anyone obsessed with this bizarre era of American life.