The Secret History of the Pentagon's Hollywood Studio

Angry Planet

Matthew Gault

War, Politics, Conflict, Government, History, News

4.3 • 882 Ratings

🗓️ 22 February 2019

⏱️ 33 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

At the end of World War II and deep into the Cold War, the American Military operated a strange building deep in the Hollywood Hills. It was the 1352nd Photographic Group of the United States Air Force, and for two decades it served as a nexus between the Pentagon and Hollywood. Part movie studio, part propaganda machine, and part meeting hall—it attempted to shaped American minds for a generation. And it’s story is largely untold.

Here to tell us the story is Kevin Hamilton and Ned O’Gorman. Hamilton and O’Gorman are both professors at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. They’ve worked together on articles and books about the American Military, the Cold War, and the role of images in the US consciousness. Their new book is Lookout America! The Secret Hollywood Studio at the Heart of the Cold War

You can listen to War College on iTunes, Stitcher, Google Play or follow our RSS directly. Our website is warcollegepodcast.com. You can reach us on our Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/warcollegepodcast/; and on Twitter: @War_College.

Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/warcollege.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Love this podcast.
0:02.0	Support this show through the A-Cast supporter feature.
0:05.0	It's up to you how much you give and there's no regular commitment.
0:09.0	Just click the link in the show description to support now.
0:20.5	Part of the reason Look at Mount was established is because they didn't trust private contractors. They didn't trust private contractors to keep secret all this footage of nuclear tests and of missiles and such.
0:29.0	They felt like they had to set up, that is the Pentagon felt like it had to set up its own totally self-contained film shop. You're listening to War College, a weekly podcast that brings you the stories from behind the front
0:51.7	lines. Here are your hosts. Hello, welcome to War College. I'm Matthew Gault. And I'm Derek Gannon.
1:11.2	At the end of World War II and deep into the Cold War, the American military operated a strange building in the Hollywood Hills.
1:18.0	It was the 1352nd photographic group of the United States Air Force,
1:22.0	and for two decades it served as the nexus between the Pentagon, a shape American minds for a generation and its story is largely untold.
1:34.7	Here to tell us the story is Kevin Hamilton and Ned O'Gorman.
1:38.8	Hamilton and O'Gorman are both professors at the University of Illinois Ur Urbana Champagne.
1:43.0	They've worked together on articles and books about the American military, the Cold War, and the role of images in the U.S. consciousness.
1:50.0	Their new book is Look Out America, The Secret Hollywood Studio at the Heart of the Cold War.
1:55.0	Thank you both so much for joining us.
1:57.0	Thank you for having this. It's good to be here.
2:00.0	Yeah, really happy to be here. This is real thrill.
2:02.0	All right, well let's start out with the basics. really happy to be here. This is real thrill.
2:07.6	All right, well let's start out with the basics. What was the Lookout Mountain Laboratory?
2:10.3	Go for Kevin.
2:21.0	Well, Lookout Mountain Laboratory was the Air Force's premier film and photography production studio for about 20 years during the height of the Cold War. And it was partly civilian, partly military outfit that worked on a
2:26.3	contract basis for a number of clients across the U.S. government and covered all the nuclear
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Matthew Gault, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Matthew Gault and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.