Fran Frost, a model for a beautician representing Utah in a national hairdressing competition, poses next to a Bomarc replica.
The hairdresser who designed Frost’s look utilized the "buzz" about the missile as inspiration.
Press from the time pointed out that Miss Bomarc’s hairstyle suggested that the missile’s "nuclear payload" had gone into "super action."
(USAF photo courtesy of the National Museum of the US Air Force)

http://www.airforce-magazine.com/MagazineArchive/Pages/2012/July%202012/0712nuclear.aspx

For a short time, the Air Force had thousands of nuclear-tipped weapons ready to defend the United States against Soviet bombers.
For decades, Air Force interceptors sat on strip alert, ready to defend the United States from Soviet bomber attack. Around the clock and across the country, crews were at the ready, able to take flight in minutes toward approaching Soviet aircraft, guided by a web of Air Force radar stations across North America.

Much less remembered, however, are the small nuclear weapons carried both by the interceptors and atop hundreds of long-range Air Force Bomarc surface-to-air missiles. The defenses stemmed from concerns in the aftermath of World War II, where increased bomber speeds and cruising altitudes made destroying an aircraft in flight a daunting task. Anti-aircraft guns were ineffective, while air-to-air engagement required high-performance interceptors that could locate a target, fly high and fast enough to overtake it, and then sustain an extended fight.

The MN ANG museum at the MSP airport is an old alert facility. The doors go up in just a few seconds, taxiway is direct to the runway. The guides say an f-89 could be airborne 59 seconds after engine start.

Yes!  My Dad worked on the Bomarc when he was at Boeing!  
 

What was the kill radius on one of those?