1945 image and description courtesy of Captain Bijou Facebook page.

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1945 image and description courtesy of Captain Bijou Facebook page.

A-BOMB BALLYHOO - Less than two weeks following the nuclear bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, independent film distributor, United Screen Attractions, re-titled the feature version of the 1935 PHANTOM EMPIRE serial starring Gene Autry as ATOMIC RAIDERS.

The accompanying publicity made no mention of Autry – even though he was still one of the most popular screen cowboys despite the fact that he was still serving in the U.S. Army Air Corps – described the film as telling “…of an Electrical Empire and the Atomic Defensive Devices they used – a preview a preview of what we might expect in the future.”

ATOMIC RAIDERS was paired with the early talkie documentary, AFRICA SPEAKS (1930), the publicity for which added the provocative tagline, “Secrets of the Virgin Jungle.”