I just recently saw this film for the first time and have been scouring the internet looking for the original McCall's article in which this film was said to be inspired by. Alas, I keep coming up empty (I can't even find anyone who's read it).

Apparently, the article was in an April 1963 issue of McCall's Magazines, with the title "They Thought the War Was On!" According to a post I found from almost a decade ago, it was featured on pages 96, 97, and continued on pages 201-203. I believe, as the film's credits say, the original article was written by Lois Dickert (who later went by Lois Armstrong) and may have been a short story inspired by an actual event, as opposed to an actual news story.

From what I understand, the true story was from a November 01, 1962 issue of the Los Angeles Times. According to the aforementioned post, it was reported on by Paul Weeks, entitled "How Morning of Terror Hit War - Alerted School Principal, Teachers Got Children Away, Thinking Attack Would Come Within Hour ALERT", and was two pages long.

I'd heard somewhere that, due to the false alarm, one child died. It wasn't ever stated how they died, and I was curious as to whether or not it was really due to attempting to hide in a refrigerator and suffocating. The more I keep reading, however, I'm now beginning to believe this was more likely to be an event depicted in Dickert's fictionalized short story rather than something that occurred in the actual, real-life event (otherwise, I'd assume the original news article would mention the death in the stories title). Nevertheless, it would still be cool to read the actual news article and short story inspired by it.

If anyone has any information on either of those stories, let us know! It's terrible when these sorts of things become lost in time. Let's preserve them, if possible!