During the Cold War, the US government launched a country-wide effort to prepare its citizens for a possible thermonuclear war. Children were taught at school to duck under desks and families were instructed to build fallout shelters and stock food. Some Americans took these suggestions very seriously. Among them was businessman Girard Brown (Jerry) Henderson.

Henderson constructed a luxurious fallout shelter at his home in Las Vegas, 26 feet underground. It was built for comfort, fitted with swimming pools, a sauna, a garden with fountains and waterfalls, a mini gold course, and even a barbeque hidden inside an artificial rock. Instead of running for cover when the bomb hit, Henderson figured it would easier and safer to live there at all times.