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They look 
like scenes from a

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Twilight Zone episode.

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But these are photos from

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another midcentury 
Hollywood production

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images staged by everyday people 
to bring attention

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to a seriously scary 
public health crisis.

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We often see this golden 
sort of aura

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around Los Angeles in the 1940s.

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But it doesn't have 
any real meaning

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if you have to wear a gas mask 
to walk down the street.

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In the 1950s, air 
pollution in L.A.

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was so bad that on some days,

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it looked like parts of the city 
had disappeared.

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The Los Angeles 
International Airport shut down

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because pilots couldn't

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see the runway 
and it wasn't safe to fly.

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People wheezing, people

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not being able to see clearly, 
to breathe clearly.

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Kids were kept inside at recess

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because the acrid air 
could burn your lungs.

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In October of 1954, 
there's a streak of smog

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that's so bad that The New York 
Times reports on it.

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People are up in arms about it. 
Goes on for about two weeks.

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Angelenos 
were absolutely sick of smog,

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So they decided 
to do something about it.

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There was a crescendo 
of public anger.

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And that crescendo erupted 
at Pasadena Civic Auditorium.

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About 6000 
people were in the audience,

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and they were frothing

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at the mouth.

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Ladies and gentlemen, we have 
met here tonight unitedly

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for one purpose in mind to get 
some action!

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Smog. This is our only enemy!

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The good news 
was that no one knew

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how to get the media's 
attention

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like the residents of La 
La Land.

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LIFE magazine ran a big article

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about smog 
in the land of sunshine.

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And the ‘Optimists Club in Los 
Angeles

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had a dinner where they donned 
World War Two-style gas masks.

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They had a big banner 
behind them saying:

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‘Why wait for 1955?

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We may not be alive.

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But that was just the beginning. 
Because the constituency

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the city really couldn't 
ignore...was moms.

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And in late 1958, they took 
the smog crisis straight on.

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An organization was created, 
one of the early grassroots

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environmental organizations 
by a set of ladies

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in Beverly Hills.

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Their organization was called 
S.O.S.:

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“Stamp Out Smog”.

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“We started with nine women...”

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And it was founded

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by a bunch 
of unbelievably talented women

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who, because of the era, weren't 
employed outside of the home,

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who took care of their kids 
and who were enraged about smog.

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They were a force 
no one expected...

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and they demanded to be reckoned 
with.

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Margaret Levee's 
husband was a movie producer.

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She also had a two-year-old 
daughter that had really bad

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that had really bad asthma.

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The doctor 
advised her to leave Los Angeles

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because of the air quality.

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And her response was to say, 
‘no, this is crazy.

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I'm going to stay here, 
 I'm going to fight

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and I'm going to do something 
about it.

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The women of S.O.S. had high 
powered Hollywood connections,

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and they understood 
the power of the media.

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They brought their kids 
frequently to meetings

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wearing gas masks.

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They became a political force 
that put more pressure

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on politicians to do something 
about the problem of smog.

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Social media 
didn't exist that time,

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but they were able to use 
phone trees.

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They were able to use letter 
writing campaigns to reach out

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to politicians to say 
we have to do something.

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They joined forces with 
something like

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400plus organizations.

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They gained 
so much expertise

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that they actually had

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credibility to comment 
about things like technologies

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that could actually help 
address the smog problem.

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Stamp Out Smog was

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channeling the anger of citizens

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against what they 
 were experiencing.

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Because of the awareness S.O.S.

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created, the government 
was forced to take action.

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California became 
the first state in the U.S.

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to implement a statewide 
pollution control act.

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And S.O.S. mom Margaret 
Levee helped develop

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the nation's earliest 
vehicle emission standards.

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And that's 
why today's L.A. has cleaner air

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Because this determined 
group of women fought for it.

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There's still a lot of work 
we need to do to clean up ozone.

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Los Angeles continues to have 
a big air pollution problem,

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but it's really important 
to stress

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that it's orders of magnitude 
better than what it was.

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Los Angeles has

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not had a smog alert since 2003, 
which just tells you

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everything you want to know.

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For more on the decades 
long fight to rid L.A.

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of smog, check out Clearing the 
Air from American Experience.