Spectravision ‘China Syndrome’ Advertisement, 1982

After a partial nuclear meltdown occurred at the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant only days before the release of a 1979 film discussing just that possibility, the term “China Syndrome”—used by nuclear power experts to describe a hypothetical scenario in which an overheating reactor core melted its way to the other side of the planet—quickly passed into common usage…

Uzi Sales Brochures, 1980 – 1984

Immortalized when one appeared in the hands of U.S. Secret Service Special Agent Robert Wanko during John Hinckley Jr.’s 1981 attempt to assassinate President Reagan, the Uzi—a submachine gun designed by German-born Israeli Uziel Gal, from whom it took its name—was sold to more law enforcement and military markets than any other weapon in its class…

You Dropped a Bomb on Me: Jerry Ahern’s ‘The Survivalist’

By Richard McKenna

In the early 1980s, the spectrum of opinions regarding life after a nuclear exchange ranged from that held by the scientific establishment—at best a severely compromised environment, and at worst the extinction of the human race—to another, less pessimistic view that sensed an opportunity for a mankind neutered by the shackles of modern society to return to the more unambiguous, manly, uncompromised moral certainties of a simpler age…

Rainier Beer Advertisement, 1976

This 1976 promotional poster for Rainer beer, entitled “Barbeerian [sic] conquers Sasquatch” and showing a muscular warrior serving the mythical creature the beverage, demonstrates that high fantasy and cryptozoological tropes had penetrated the popular culture of the second half of the 20th century to such an extent that they could be reliably mined for mainstream parody…