Isn’t this how you want to spend your honeymoon?
The pair whose civil defense stunt was featured in numerous newspapers and magazines including LIFE and PRAVDA recall that they had already been seeing each other casually for ten years when, on a date, they heard a radio promotion for an unusual contest. The station, in conjunction with Bomb Shelters, Inc. (a firm whose business card featured a mushroom cloud and the slogan “It will save your life.”), were seeking a couple willing to marry and then immediately spend two weeks in a fallout shelter. A “real” all-expenses-paid Mexican honeymoon was promised to the winners.
Reflecting back on the moment that changed their lives, Mel Mininson says with a hearty laugh, “I just looked over at Maria and we both knew it was now or never!” The Mininsons are quick to point out, however, that contest or no contest they would have eventually taken the matrimonial plunge. The convergence of geopolitics, commerce and luck merely served to expedite their vows.
From Conelrad.