In this photograph taken by famed photographer Stanley Forman in September 1978, singer and controversial figure Anita Bryant walks out of the Copley Plaza Hotel and past a Fallout Shelter sign while in Boston to rally for Howard Phillips, who was running for U.S. Senate at the time.
Anita Bryant had been an outspoken figure and was specifically an opponent of gay rights. According to Mr, Forman, she had to be escorted by Boston Police to various events in Boston due to threats. Phillips ended up finishing fourth in the Democratic primary for Senate that year.
As for the Fallout Shelter sign, it had its own controversy when it was first developed in 1961 because many anti-nuclear activists believed it promoted the idea of war over disarmament and gave Americans a false sense of security. In many places in the US, including San Francisco and right at Harvard University in Cambridge (which Phillips attended), the signs were torn down multiple times. The one in this photo and many others, however, lasted many years beyond (it is now gone), and hundreds of signs are still up throughout the US, although they are coming down as time passes and buildings are rehabbed or demolished. Many were also removed over the past decade due to city governments not wanting people to think shelters still exist or can be used. New York City specifically took all remaining signs off their public school buildings in 2017 for the same reason.
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Photograph taken and owned by Stanley Forman and used with permission. Special thanks to Mr. Forman for use of the photo. More of his work can be found at his website https://stanleyformanphotos.com/
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