Anaheim : This Blowup Is a Balloon, Not Bomb

If you see a black mushroom cloud hovering next to the Anaheim Convention Center on Saturday, do not run for the nearest bomb shelter.

A 30-foot-tall mushroom-shaped balloon will be on display that day to climax a week of protests by local anti-nuclear weapons groups at an international defense exposition to be held at the center this week.

The balloon, the work of Los Angeles artist Lee Waisler, will be inflated at 1 p.m. Saturday while demonstrators stage a die-in by lying immobile on the ground for 20 minutes. It will be the first U.S. display of the balloon, which was first used in Amsterdam on Aug. 6, 1985, during a commemoration of the 40th anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima.

Artist Waisler, who is primarily a painter, said the balloon is made of nylon and took about 14 months to create. He said he undertook the project because of the “urgency of the nuclear weapons situation.”

The Mildex International Defense Expo, featuring conventional weapons from handguns to automatics, will run from Wednesday to Saturday with delegates expected to attend from other nations, including Israel and El Salvador. Seminars will be held on the Strategic Defense Initiative, nicknamed “Star Wars,” and on how nations can buy and sell weapons. Members of the Orange County Alliance for Survival called the exposition an “arms supermarket,” and they will picket daily.