Air Raid Warning

This looks like a scene from “Batman,” with anxious city officials on their bat phones, perhaps learning that the Joker is on the loose. It’s actually Times Square in 1958 during a civil defense exercise, part of a nationwide drill to practice in case of a nuclear attack. After 10 minutes, the drill was over and Gotham returned to normal.

Mayor Robert Wagner (left) and Robert E. Condon, the city’s Civil Defense director, are the grim-faced officialsÊgetting updates shortly after 10:30 a.m., May 6, 1958. A take-cover signal ÛÒ “a three-minute glissando of sirens” ÛÒ had just sounded and the city fell eerily silent.

The drill, titled Operation Alert 1958, was the fifth annual civil defense test. “The public went peaceably and swiftly enough to shelter, and all nonessential traffic stopped on cue,” wrote The Times. “However, the drill seemed to be quietly endured but not taken seriously.”

Some citizens failed to heed the sirens. In Times Square, “coffee-drinkers sitting at a big plate-glass window in a cafeteria had a perfect view of the proceedings, despite the fact that civil defense instructions adjure people seeking shelter to stay away from windows.” Batman would not have been happy.