"My best salesmen are named Khrushchev and Kennedy," Chicago's Frank F. Norton, president of the National Shelter Association, cried last fall. With Khrushchev threatening war over Berlin, and Kennedy encouraging U.S. families to build home shelters, Norton's own Atomic Shelter Corp. and scores of other companies were swamped with orders to build a haven in the basement or bury one in the backyard. But last week Norton, who has lost $100,000 and estimates that over 600 firms have failed, had changed his tune. Grieved he: "The market is dead—the manufacturers have had it."
What killed home shelters was the lull...
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