Blast-Door Art: Cave Paintings of Nuclear Era

December 26, 2018 12:21 PM

At the back of what looks like an enclosed porch of an unpretentious ranch house near Wall, South Dakota, a steel-runged ladder leads down a 30-foot concrete access shaft. At the bottom, a massive, eight-ton steel-and-concrete door is painted the red, white and blue image of a Domino’s Pizza box, with a slightly altered phrasing of the chain’s familiar promise: “World-wide Delivery in 30 Minutes or Less; Or Your Next One is Free.” (via NuclearAnthro)
posted by eotvos (5 comments total)

Tragedy and humor are two sides of a very thin coin.

...3, 2, 1, CALL IT!
posted by cenoxo at 12:58 PM on December 26, 2018 [1 favorite]

It’s kind of refreshing when they don’t leave the fascism to your imagination.
posted by saturday_morning at 1:33 PM on December 26, 2018 [2 favorites]

Among the DO article’s comments, ex-Missileer ”Tony Gatlin” [04.04.08 03:16], who was 26 years old at the time, claims to have created the Domino’s graffiti:

... I painted the blast door at Delta One the following month (December 1989). Dominoe's Pizza was still in its infancy, and the commercials announcing their 30-minute delivery garauntee were all over the television. That's where the idea came from (plus, the only paint we had on site were the colors of the pizza box).

For the other blast doors, some of them were based on WWII-era concepts. They came either directly from old units, or their aircraft, or were based loosely on them. If some of the art looks "Disney-esque" that's because Walt Disney himself penned some of the Army Air Corps' mascots back during the 40's. The originals of Disney's designs hang in the office of the Secretary of the Air Force.

Yes, it was pretty boring out in the missile fields. A lot of waiting around for what we hoped never came. Guess we had a lot of time on our hands.
...
The blast doors were really a line of no return. Once you entered the capsule, it was all business. It was ok to put art on the door, but once we were sealed inside, there were very strict rules about what we could and couldn't do.

posted by cenoxo at 2:56 PM on December 26, 2018 [4 favorites]

The Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency is based in The Bunker, an underground complex on Rte. 9 in Framingham. It was originally designed as a place for state officials to ride out a nuclear attack on Boston - the thing sits on giant springs and it has retractable radio antennas, a two-bay refrigerated morgue, 30 days worth of diesel fuel and water, a situation room and a giant blast door at the surface (that leads into a sloping corridor with several several turns at right angles, the better to deflect any stray alpha rays). In front of the blast door is a little wooden hut with a telephone in it, on which you could, theoretically, call whoever was on the other side of the blast door. The last time I was there, back when I was reporting some story, I asked what would happen if the missiles were coming and they sealed themselves and the governor and whoever else in and the phone rang. Would they let the person at the other end of the line in? They couldn't say - that would be a decision the governor would have to make.
posted by adamg at 5:56 PM on December 26, 2018 [2 favorites]

I have seen that Domino's door in person. That whole missile museum is surreal to visit. It's a time capsule to the Cold War, of course, and it is so bleak. I cannot imagine what it was like to work in one of these places.
posted by workerant at 6:52 PM on December 27, 2018 [1 favorite]