Underground film thrived in the same weeks as the missile-crisis atmosphere and Project Apollo

Evidence

The newspapers were filled with absurd headlines. On July 13, 1962, the New York Times reported a quixotic British demonstration in Red Square. Four days later, the Soviet leader boasted of a new missile accurate enough to “hit a fly” in outer space. The back-and-forth regarding the lapsed test ban treaty and need for fallout shelters culminated two weeks later in the announcement of Project Apollo, “man’s race for the moon.” Meanwhile, despite the Charles’s lack of air-conditioning, The Flower Thief played to full houses for the rest of the month. — J. Hoberman, Everything Is Now, 379