Fallout Shelter signs, as this website shows, are being taken down as time goes on, but still have a prominent place on walls and buildings throughout the United States.
On occasion they even appear on television; sometimes this is done purposely for dramatic effect (often in movies or TV shows having to do with nuclear disasters). Often though, they end up inadvertently in the background of a shot. Bill Geerhart’s “Conelrad Adjacent” site has an entire page dedicated to Fallout Shelter signs that make appearances in the background of movies and TV shows (very fascinating if you’ve never seen it).
Even locally, on news or local TV shows, such appearances can happen, and as you can see below, even appearances of former signs.
In the late 1970’s, WCVB-TV in Boston produced local TV shows/sitcoms. Two such shows were The Baxters and Park Street Under. Neither show ran for a long time, and while The Baxters eventually ended up becoming a national TV show, Park Street Under did not and ran only in the Boston area. It was about a fictitious bar near the real Park Street MBTA Station, and the workers and patrons who frequented it.
That’s right, the 6 sign marks from (most likely) an exterior Fallout Shelter sign after it was taken off of the building.
It took some time going through the remainder of the clip to see where this building was, as the bar did not really exist. However, it was finally discovered that the building was in fact 23 Beacon Street, and the sign marks still exist today, as seen in the Google Maps image below.
It is unknown when and why the sign was removed, and whether or not any interior signs remain, but that is 99% likely the 14″ x 20″ square of a former exterior Fallout Shelter sign.
Have another local show or example that you know a shelter sign appeared? Let us know.
Park Street Under screen shot from YouTube clip owned by Jacksonupperco and website “That’s Entertainment!”; show aired and owned by WCVB-TV Boston, a Hearst television station.
Google screen shot from and owned by Google Maps.
I love the fallout shelter sign and thoroughly enjoy the detailed effort the CONELRAD site owner-operators put into researching its history. I own two type two models (interior signs), a type one and some decals, all new original stock. I posed holding one to create an art self-portrait and will link to it in a separate comment.