For the Record

Now that the party’s over, what happened? It seems that The Day After changed no one’s mind. Warner-Amex Qube poll found 49 per cent “still supporting nuclear-arms control,” 29 per cent “still supporting strength through nuclear-arms buildup.” …. Prof. William C. Adams of George Washington U. in Washington, D.C., who did polls just before and just after, says “our evidence is that The Day After failed to change existing views of the horror of nuclear war, the need for mutual arms control, and the strategy for deterrence.” …. But while not changing minds it stirred up leftist juices. Thirty organizations went to work with newspaper ads, TV spots, leaflet and picket operations. More than $350,000 was budgeted for a toll-free 800 phone number; freeze converts can call for info on what to do….Joanne Woodward wants everyone to know that she’s “taking on the nuclear issue because there is no other issue…. This is for survival. Not just for Democrats or Republicans.” …. Hubby Paul Newman is “offering a citizens’ guide to what you can do to help prevent nuclear war” with help of Center for Defense Information, which is selling the sixty- second spots to ABC affiliates…. Jane Fonda and Tom Hayden are signing up with Council for a Livable World, along with ex-MIT President Jerome Wiesner….On the Right, Terry Dolan of the National Conservative Political Action Committee says none of the estimated $2.5 million he plans to spend on TV political spots next year will go to ABC affiliates that ran The Day After…. For ABC it was a financial flop. It got $100,000 for each thirty-second commercial (the last episode of M*A*S*H— also with audience of a hundred million—got $400,000 a shot). ABC hopes to recoup with sales of film to 22 foreign countries, among them all of our Western European allies. But—what do you know?—Eddie Kalish, vice president for worldwide marketing for the film’s distributors, reports very little Soviet interest in buying the film…. The rambunctiously conservative New York Post calls The Day After a “100 mega-yawn bomb.”

“The ball was in their court. They took it—and went home.”

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Now that the party’s over, what happened? It seems that The Day After changed no one’s mind. Warner-Amex Qube poll found 49 per cent “still supporting nuclear-arms control,” 29 per cent “still supporting strength through nuclear-arms buildup.” …. Prof. William C. Adams of George Washington U. in Washington, D.C., who did polls just before and just after, says “our evidence is that The Day After failed to change existing views of the horror of nuclear war, the need for mutual arms control, and the strategy for deterrence.” …. But while not changing minds it stirred up leftist juices. Thirty organizations went to work with newspaper ads, TV spots, leaflet and picket operations. More than $350,000 was budgeted for a toll-free 800 phone number; freeze converts can call for info on what to do….Joanne Woodward wants everyone to know that she’s “taking on the nuclear issue because there is no other issue…. This is for survival. Not just for Democrats or Republicans.” …. Hubby Paul Newman is “offering a citizens’ guide to what you can do to help prevent nuclear war” with help of Center for Defense Information, which is selling the sixty- second spots to ABC affiliates…. Jane Fonda and Tom Hayden are signing up with Council for a Livable World, along with ex-MIT President Jerome Wiesner….On the Right, Terry Dolan of the National Conservative Political Action Committee says none of the estimated $2.5 million he plans to spend on TV political spots next year will go to ABC affiliates that ran The Day After…. For ABC it was a financial flop. It got $100,000 for each thirty-second commercial (the last episode of M*A*S*H— also with audience of a hundred million—got $400,000 a shot). ABC hopes to recoup with sales of film to 22 foreign countries, among them all of our Western European allies. But—what do you know?—Eddie Kalish, vice president for worldwide marketing for the film’s distributors, reports very little Soviet interest in buying the film…. The rambunctiously conservative New York Post calls The Day After a “100 mega-yawn bomb.”

“The ball was in their court. They took it—and went home.”