'Lost' Gene Hackman Film Unearthed by Cold War Pop Culture Preservationists CONELRAD

COMMUNITY SHELTER PLANNING, a 1966 Civil Defense training film starring two-time Academy Award winner Gene Hackman, a long lost 'relic' from the 'Golden Age of Homeland Security' has just been unearthed by the research staff of CONELRAD, an organization recognized by national media and academia for its incisive and witty Cold War popular culture analysis.

Los Angeles, CA (PRWEB) March 21, 2006 -- CONELRAD (www.conelrad.com), the organization that has been recognized by national media and academia for its incisive and witty Cold War popular culture analysis has recovered a “lost” Gene Hackman film that the actor made for the U.S. government in 1966 during the ‘Golden Age of Homeland Security’.

Gene Hackman brought his pre-fame acting skills to COMMUNITY SHELTER PLANNING, a 22-minute, 16mm color movie that was produced by the Office of Civil Defense (OCD), a forerunner of FEMA and the Department of Homeland Security. The film does not appear in any biography or filmography of the two-time Academy Award winning actor.

Hackman, a former Marine, was already making a name for himself on Broadway and in Hollywood when he starred as Regional Field Officer Donald Ross in the instructional film shot in Bucks County, PA. The original intent of the film was to convey the importance of fallout shelter planning in communities where there might not be adequate shelter space for the population. Hackman’s character -- an earnest, but firm young bureaucrat -- helps educate a County Commissioner on the finer points of “community shelter planning.”

A year after appearing in COMMUNITY SHELTER PLANNING, Hackman would earn his first Oscar nomination as Buck Barrow in BONNIE AND CLYDE starring Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway.

In its continuing effort to examine the popular culture of the Cold War era, CONELRAD has posted an extensive examination and history of COMMUNITY SHELTER PLANNING starring Gene Hackman with images and video clips from the film at CONELRAD.com (http://www.conelrad.com/hackman)

Gene Hackman, via his agent, Fred Specktor of Creative Artists Agency, declined an invitation to be interviewed about the film. CONELRAD has donated a copy of the film to the Bucks County Historical Society in Doylestown, PA, so it doesn’t get “lost” again!

CONELRAD welcomes any press inquiries on this remarkable piece of formerly lost history.

CONTACT INFORMATION:

Bill Geerhart

Editor and co-founder of CONELRAD

(213) 482-1497

Ken Sitz

Creative Director and co-founder of CONELRAD

(323) 528-7745

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