ABSTRACT
By 1946, only one year after the atomic bombs had been dropped on Japan, Hollywood studios were anxious to capitalize upon the public interest in what Life magazine called the "biggest event since the birth of Christ." The American media began devoting massive and direct attention to atomic issues; over three hundred articles on the topic of the atomic bomb were published in major popular periodicals such as Time, Life, and Reader's Digest in 1946 alone. Commercial entertainment films produced during the period provide insight into Hollywood's initial attempts to frame and present atomic topics while still realizing their main goal in film production—profit. The differences in the presentation and emphasis of atomic issues in Hollywood film between the late 1940s and early 1950s can be illustrated by comparing two major motion pictures produced in docudrama genre by one of the largest film studios, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM). MGM planned to adapt the atomic bomb issue to the previously successful documentary-style format.
