When I first saw this photo, my “Oh, what a lovely dawn!” reaction turned to a horrified “Oh my God!” when I read the description. The glow behind downtown Los Angeles is from an atom bomb test conducted on June 4th, 1953 in Yucca Flat, Nevada, which is 300 miles away. If it was this bright in LA, I hope the townsfolk of Las Vegas (80 miles southeast) were wearing two pairs of sunglasses that night. The tower with the light that we can see at the center of the photo is the Richfield building at 555 S. Flower Street.
Although a different test from the one shown above, this photo shows the mushroom cloud from the atomic bomb test held at the same place on April 22nd, 1952:
WOW, impressive, what a photo. We were living in LA at the time, I was 8. Saw a few tests on our B&W Dumont TV
Like Paul I was living in LA in 1953 when this happened. More ominously, I was in Boulder City, Nevada, visiting my grandmother when they tested another one. I remember the sound and how it shook the house. These were above ground explosions. We weren’t affected by the fallout which blew east into Utah and exposed the unfortunate people there.
There was a movie made about people living near the blast site in the 90s (?). I’m blanking on the name of it. Annabeth Gish was in it. It was a fictional story, but the background of the nuclear testing gave it a more ominous tone.
I was alive and living in Culver City by then, but I was barely 18 mos. old, so I don’t remember it. It’s kinda cool and kinda creepy all at once.
That movie was called Desert Bloom. Released in 1986, it co-starred Jon Voight, JoBeth Williams, and Ellen Barkin.
Thanks! The name I had in my head was Desert Rose, so I was close.
Guess the Ford Pinto doesn’t look so bad in retrospect.