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NARRATOR:Interior inn on the park,
London, night.
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Howard Hughes.
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The billionaire tycoon,
aviator, and film producer
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has become a recluse.
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Locked in his penthouse suite,
he refuses to bathe.
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Sports a long white beard.
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Fingernails that protrude
like snakes,
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where he sits for hours,
naked,
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except for a pink hotel napkin.
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Another ritual would dominate
his final years.
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A motion picture that he would
play continually
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against a homemade
projector screen.
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The movie looks part western,
part musical.
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A would-be epic, a total farce.
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00:01:55,824 --> 00:01:57,033
To Howard Hughes,
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this film called
“The Conqueror”
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was his final masterpiece.
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I feel this tired woman
is for me.
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My blood says take her.
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The Conqueror in many ways
would be a--
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a entirely forgettable picture
today.
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Howard Hughes had this idea.
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He wanted to make
the Genghis Khan story.
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American
and international audiences
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loved these big
wide-screen epics.
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00:02:25,311 --> 00:02:27,397
Howard Hughes was a megalomaniac.
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He-- he certainly saw himself
as a conqueror
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00:02:31,568 --> 00:02:33,695
of the movie business.
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The aircraft business.
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A conqueror of politics.
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A conqueror of the whole world.
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John Wayne,
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and William Conrad,
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00:02:43,162 --> 00:02:44,914
and Ted de Corsia.
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Uh, even Agnes Moorehead.
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Playing Asiatics.
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Just because it was accepted,
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it doesn't necessarily mean
that it was correct.
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It was his creations.
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It was the Howard Hughes
presents this,
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you know, iconic motion picture
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that he believed was
his masterpiece.
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NARRATOR:For authenticity,
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Hughes chose
the perfect location
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00:03:05,310 --> 00:03:07,937
to recreate the world
of Genghis Khan.
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The Gobi Desert looks like
the area around St. George.
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Living in St. George
in the ‘50s and ‘60s
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was magical.
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We heard all aboutThe Conqueror being here
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and how the stars were here.
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The Conquerorwas a $6 million disaster
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that starred John Wayne
as Genghis Khan,
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the great Mongolian warrior,
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who conquered most of Asia
during the 12th century.
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I wouldn't say it's one of
the-- the best films I've seen
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or one of my father's
best films.
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00:03:36,507 --> 00:03:38,843
Of-- of all
the Howard Hughes movies,
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this is probably
the toughest movie
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00:03:41,596 --> 00:03:43,723
to find anything
admirable about.
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The Conqueror has been called “one of the worst films
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of the 1950s”,
if not of all time.
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If I could describeThe Conqueror in one word,
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I would probably just call it
“tragic”.
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Ah, unfortunate.
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Ridiculous.
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Miscast.
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00:04:02,951 --> 00:04:05,244
I've heard that
it's a terrible movie.
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I don't know if I've seen it
all the way through.
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You know,
I wouldn't watch it twice.
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The Conqueror was to be Hughes' cinematic masterpiece.
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Shot in breathtaking
CinemaScope
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and glorious Technicolor.
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Why Mr. Hughes,
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did you watch this film
over and over,
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as if searching for an answer?
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Are you thinking
about the people of St. George
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as well as your cast and crew?
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How they would be linked
in a dark chapter
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in American history?
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THE TEN COMMANDMENTS NARRATOR:There was a time,
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when the cinema was a place
of spectacle and wonder.
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When unforgettable films
played on gigantic screens,
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that overwhelmed
the imagination.
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Now, that time has come again.
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Behold His mighty hands.
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In the early ‘50s, studios were trying to create
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these larger-than-life epics.
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THE ROBE NARRATOR:Here is all the sweep
and spectacle.
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00:05:27,577 --> 00:05:29,704
BEN HUR NARRATOR:The spectacle, the color,
the excitement.
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00:05:29,787 --> 00:05:30,371
The human drama.
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THE CRIMSON PIRATE NARRATOR:Yes, and a whole new world
of entertainment wonders.
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Well, in the ‘50s, television
made the film industry
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very nervous.
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They were very, very conscious
of having to counteract that--
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that idea
that they were competing
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with little images
in a little box
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in black and white at home.
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So, you had to have
splashy color
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and you had to have things
that were big
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and felt important.
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SHANE NARRATOR:The motion picture unforgettable
for its spectacle and scope.
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And the other big factor
at the time was this thing
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called the “Cold War”.
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And there was this communist
agenda that was happening
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that Americans
were fighting against.
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And there was this
whole nuclear program
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that was happening,
and it was something that--
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that became a very big topic
in Hollywood as well.
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THEM! NARRATOR:But born in that swirling
inferno of radioactive dust
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were things so horrible,
so hideous,
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there is no word
to describe "Them!"
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We may be witnesses
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to a biblical prophecy
come true.
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5, 4, 3, 2, 1.
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It may be said that the Atomic Age is here to stay.
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The question is, “Are we?”
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The atomic bomb creates
a temperature
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at the center of the explosion
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00:07:04,924 --> 00:07:07,593
of a 100 million degrees
Fahrenheit,
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00:07:07,677 --> 00:07:09,804
which is three
and a half times
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00:07:09,887 --> 00:07:12,723
the temperature in the interior
of the sun.
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00:07:12,807 --> 00:07:16,769
This heat creates great fires.
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00:07:16,853 --> 00:07:21,941
Secondly,
it creates tremendous pressures
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which push the air
in front of them,
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00:07:25,736 --> 00:07:30,825
creating winds of 500
to a 1000 miles per hour,
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00:07:30,908 --> 00:07:33,619
10 times the velocity
of a hurricane.
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These winds knock everything
down in their path.
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00:07:37,123 --> 00:07:40,960
Thirdly,
it produces super radiations
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equivalent to tons
and tons of radium,
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which would kill all life
within an area
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of 10 square miles.
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These radioactive poisons
would be carried
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00:07:54,932 --> 00:07:56,726
and dispersed through the winds.
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The dust will settle
gradually everywhere.
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00:08:04,317 --> 00:08:08,946
The Atomic Energy Commission emerged as a way
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00:08:09,030 --> 00:08:13,409
to create
a separate government unit
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00:08:13,492 --> 00:08:19,248
to manage atomic energy outside
of the military.
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00:08:20,041 --> 00:08:25,421
I graduated University of Utah in 1954
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00:08:25,504 --> 00:08:30,384
with a degree in ROTC
for the air force
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and business management.
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I was to learn how
to handle radiological projects
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to protect uh, people.
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00:08:44,273 --> 00:08:49,695
The idea was that if we were
to bomb targets in Russia,
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the airplanes would be covered
with radiological contamination.
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00:08:55,576 --> 00:08:59,747
General Curtis LeMay was head
of the United States Air Force
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at that time.
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00:09:01,624 --> 00:09:02,750
And we were
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00:09:02,833 --> 00:09:05,878
under the Strategic Air
Command Commission.
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00:09:07,255 --> 00:09:13,052
The Soviet success with the atomic bomb in 1949
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00:09:13,135 --> 00:09:16,389
really created a sense
of urgency
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00:09:16,472 --> 00:09:20,476
for locating a more practical
continental test site.
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Because the Pacific
was expensive.
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It was logistically complicated
and they needed something
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00:09:27,024 --> 00:09:29,610
that could be used
more efficiently
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than the Pacific.
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New Mexico where
the Trinity bomb had been tested
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00:09:34,991 --> 00:09:36,158
was considered,
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00:09:36,242 --> 00:09:41,914
but ultimately they identified
two vast areas of Nevada,
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00:09:41,998 --> 00:09:45,960
one to the north,
Tonopah, Nevada,
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00:09:46,043 --> 00:09:50,631
and one about 70 miles north
of Las Vegas.
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NARRATOR:The US government chose
the Nevada desert
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north of Las Vegas
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as the site
for their atomic test program.
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300 miles away,
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00:10:00,099 --> 00:10:03,352
another blast was being felt
in Hollywood, California.
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00:10:03,436 --> 00:10:06,063
RKO, the king of B pictures,
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00:10:06,147 --> 00:10:10,026
but also prestigious films
such as Scarface, King Kong,
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00:10:10,109 --> 00:10:13,696
and perhaps the greatest film
of them all, Citizen Kane,
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00:10:13,779 --> 00:10:17,033
would be purchased
by an aviation pioneer,
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00:10:17,116 --> 00:10:18,951
millionaire, and dreamer,
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00:10:19,035 --> 00:10:21,662
determined to shake up
the film industry.
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00:10:33,257 --> 00:10:35,259
BRITISH MOVIETONE NARRATOR:The goal of aviators is now
the nonstop flight
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00:10:35,343 --> 00:10:36,469
around the world.
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00:10:36,552 --> 00:10:39,221
And Howard Hughes has taken
a big step towards attaining it.
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00:10:39,305 --> 00:10:41,223
Leaving Burbank, California,
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00:10:41,307 --> 00:10:42,933
the millionaire sportsman
and film producer,
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00:10:43,017 --> 00:10:44,602
calls at New York
on his way to Europe.
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00:10:45,936 --> 00:10:48,356
Even in the late ‘40s and early ‘50s,
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Howard Hughes was a name
surrounded by exoticism.
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A mystery figure in one way,
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00:10:56,238 --> 00:10:59,992
a very famous
highly public figure in another.
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00:11:00,076 --> 00:11:03,371
Howard Hughes was interested in really three things.
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00:11:03,454 --> 00:11:06,457
He was interested in aviation.
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00:11:06,540 --> 00:11:08,501
He was interested in women,
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00:11:08,584 --> 00:11:11,337
and he was interested
in making movies.
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00:11:11,420 --> 00:11:13,881
Those three things do not
necessarily make
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a good head of a studio.
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00:11:16,509 --> 00:11:19,470
NARRATOR:Howard fired most
of the RKO staff,
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00:11:19,553 --> 00:11:20,930
made fewer movies,
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00:11:21,013 --> 00:11:24,809
and upset the balance
of Hollywood in the early 1950s.
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00:11:24,892 --> 00:11:26,769
But there was one subject matter
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00:11:26,852 --> 00:11:29,688
he was determined to bring
to the big screen.
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00:11:29,772 --> 00:11:31,732
Howard Hughes had this idea.
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00:11:31,816 --> 00:11:35,778
He wanted to make
the Genghis Khan story.
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00:11:35,861 --> 00:11:37,571
The-- the story of Genghis Khan--
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00:11:38,531 --> 00:11:43,536
Is a story of like a Caesar
or you know, a Cleopatra.
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00:11:43,619 --> 00:11:46,288
This kind of blockbuster
kind of idea.
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00:11:46,372 --> 00:11:48,165
The agent who was with him
at the time said,
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00:11:48,249 --> 00:11:50,459
“I've got the perfect guy
for you.
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00:11:50,543 --> 00:11:53,379
This Oscar Millard,
he's an expert on Genghis Khan.”
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00:11:53,796 --> 00:11:56,298
OSCAR:I was in fact such an authority
on Genghis Khan,
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00:11:56,382 --> 00:11:58,426
when I prudently looked him up
in the Britannica
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00:11:58,509 --> 00:12:00,594
in the half hour I had
before the meeting,
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00:12:00,678 --> 00:12:01,846
I had trouble finding him,
207
00:12:01,929 --> 00:12:04,014
because I couldn't spell
his name.
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00:12:08,102 --> 00:12:11,939
Dick Powell was a figure in Hollywood for a long time.
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00:12:12,022 --> 00:12:14,483
He was a guy who was
very likeable.
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00:12:14,567 --> 00:12:15,317
Everyone liked him.
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00:12:15,943 --> 00:12:17,570
♪ Boy meets girl ♪
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00:12:17,653 --> 00:12:20,990
He'd come to Hollywood, uh, singer, dancer.
213
00:12:21,073 --> 00:12:21,949
But um,
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00:12:22,032 --> 00:12:23,868
he started to see himself
beyond being
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00:12:23,951 --> 00:12:24,702
in front of the screen
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00:12:24,785 --> 00:12:27,121
and started to think of himself
behind the screen.
217
00:12:28,080 --> 00:12:31,083
Hughes, he ended up getting
to know Dick Powell
218
00:12:31,167 --> 00:12:33,919
and somehow he managed
to convince him
219
00:12:34,003 --> 00:12:36,380
to let him direct
this epic picture
220
00:12:36,464 --> 00:12:37,339
called “The Conqueror”.
221
00:12:37,423 --> 00:12:38,591
It's a huge project,
222
00:12:38,674 --> 00:12:42,636
and I think he had the most uh,
223
00:12:42,720 --> 00:12:46,682
important qualification
for him getting that role,
224
00:12:46,765 --> 00:12:50,227
was his ability to say yes
a lot to Howard Hughes.
225
00:12:51,437 --> 00:12:53,147
NARRATOR:Interior, bedroom.
226
00:12:53,230 --> 00:12:55,983
Middle of the night,
the phone rings.
227
00:12:56,066 --> 00:12:58,402
A half waken man answers.
228
00:12:58,486 --> 00:13:00,362
Interior, parking garage.
229
00:13:00,446 --> 00:13:01,947
One hour later.
230
00:13:02,031 --> 00:13:05,618
Powell is meeting with Hughes
in the back of his limousine
231
00:13:05,701 --> 00:13:07,745
to go over mundane
production matters
232
00:13:07,828 --> 00:13:09,205
regarding The Conqueror.
233
00:13:09,288 --> 00:13:10,372
To Hughes,
234
00:13:10,456 --> 00:13:13,792
everything must be discussed
in utmost secrecy.
235
00:13:13,876 --> 00:13:16,003
Over the shoulder medium shot,
236
00:13:16,086 --> 00:13:19,173
as Powell watches
the millionaire drive away
237
00:13:19,256 --> 00:13:21,550
into the Los Angeles night.
238
00:13:21,634 --> 00:13:27,306
The 3:00 a.m. meetings in
secret back alley garages
239
00:13:27,389 --> 00:13:31,852
and all of this was being run
like a CIA operation.
240
00:13:31,936 --> 00:13:33,771
Nothing was simple with this guy.
241
00:13:33,854 --> 00:13:35,856
He was concerned that
his conversations
242
00:13:35,940 --> 00:13:36,982
would be overheard.
243
00:13:37,691 --> 00:13:40,236
I know a lot of the backstory from my husband
244
00:13:40,319 --> 00:13:42,488
having been a teenager
working there
245
00:13:42,571 --> 00:13:44,240
and the things he's told me.
246
00:13:44,323 --> 00:13:45,866
He thinks his dad did it,
247
00:13:45,950 --> 00:13:47,201
because it bought him
a nice house
248
00:13:47,284 --> 00:13:48,327
in Mandeville Canyon.
249
00:13:49,954 --> 00:13:51,664
OSCAR:Powell said he would get
Marlon Brando
250
00:13:51,747 --> 00:13:54,667
on loan out from Fox
to play the lead.
251
00:13:54,750 --> 00:13:56,418
Brando was the new magic name
252
00:13:56,502 --> 00:13:58,087
and I had just
heard him deliver,
253
00:13:58,170 --> 00:14:01,715
“Friends, Romans, countrymen”,
as if newly minted.
254
00:14:03,467 --> 00:14:04,093
Carried away,
255
00:14:04,176 --> 00:14:05,928
I decided to write
the screenplay
256
00:14:06,011 --> 00:14:09,890
in stylized,
slightly Archaic English.
257
00:14:09,974 --> 00:14:10,766
Mindful of the fact
258
00:14:10,849 --> 00:14:14,144
that my story was nothing more
than a tarted up western,
259
00:14:14,228 --> 00:14:16,480
I thought this would give it
a certain cache.,
260
00:14:16,564 --> 00:14:19,191
and I left no lily unpainted.
261
00:14:19,275 --> 00:14:21,527
It was said that
when Marlon Brando
262
00:14:21,610 --> 00:14:25,364
was offered the-- the role
as Temujin,
263
00:14:25,447 --> 00:14:29,201
his biggest objection
was the dialogue.
264
00:14:29,285 --> 00:14:30,744
He couldn't handle it.
265
00:14:30,828 --> 00:14:33,664
And so they started looking
at who else they could get.
266
00:14:33,747 --> 00:14:34,540
And um,
267
00:14:34,623 --> 00:14:36,417
the one of the other names
that they were looking at
268
00:14:36,500 --> 00:14:37,376
was Yul Brynner.
269
00:14:37,459 --> 00:14:39,295
Yul Brynner
would've also been a--
270
00:14:39,378 --> 00:14:42,006
quite an interesting character
to kind of had done this movie.
271
00:14:42,089 --> 00:14:43,257
This is business.
272
00:14:43,340 --> 00:14:46,176
They're trying thinking of--
of the box office.
273
00:14:46,260 --> 00:14:49,346
Howard Hughes thought
they're doing a story
274
00:14:49,430 --> 00:14:53,183
about one of the great uh,
figures in the world history.
275
00:14:53,267 --> 00:14:55,728
This would be great to be sold
around the world.
276
00:14:57,229 --> 00:14:58,439
CAMEL CIGARETTES AD NARRATOR:Here's John Wayne.
277
00:14:58,522 --> 00:15:02,151
America's number one dramatic
movie star on location.
278
00:15:02,234 --> 00:15:03,110
As you can see,
279
00:15:03,193 --> 00:15:05,946
making a movie can be pretty
tough going,
280
00:15:06,030 --> 00:15:07,781
but free swinging He-Man parts
281
00:15:07,865 --> 00:15:09,700
are what John Wayne loves
to play
282
00:15:09,783 --> 00:15:11,577
and what the audience loves
to see him in.
283
00:15:11,660 --> 00:15:13,370
Okay, cut.
284
00:15:15,497 --> 00:15:19,126
You got The Beatles and-- and--
and Marilyn Monroe and Elvis.
285
00:15:19,209 --> 00:15:21,295
And John Wayne.
286
00:15:21,378 --> 00:15:25,507
He epitomized the masculine American male for,
287
00:15:25,591 --> 00:15:27,635
largely for 50 years.
288
00:15:27,718 --> 00:15:31,472
He was the iconic representation
of the American West.
289
00:15:31,555 --> 00:15:33,849
That characteristic walk.
290
00:15:33,932 --> 00:15:35,267
The slow draw.
291
00:15:35,351 --> 00:15:37,811
Looks like you've got
yourself around it.
292
00:15:37,895 --> 00:15:41,732
The massive brow and physical stature,
293
00:15:41,815 --> 00:15:45,361
embodied everything they thought
the American West should be.
294
00:15:45,444 --> 00:15:46,320
He's known,
295
00:15:46,403 --> 00:15:51,950
and continues to be known
as the big cowboy action star,
296
00:15:52,034 --> 00:15:54,328
who at one time
for a very long time
297
00:15:54,411 --> 00:15:57,373
was probably
the most famous person
298
00:15:57,456 --> 00:15:58,874
in the world.
299
00:16:01,543 --> 00:16:03,754
My father came from Iowa.
300
00:16:03,837 --> 00:16:08,467
He came from the core values
of middle America.
301
00:16:08,550 --> 00:16:10,886
Uh he, appreciated this country
for what it was.
302
00:16:10,969 --> 00:16:13,347
If you were willing
to work hard,
303
00:16:13,430 --> 00:16:15,683
the opportunity was there
to be a success.
304
00:16:15,766 --> 00:16:18,394
When Oscar Millard found out
John Wayne
305
00:16:18,477 --> 00:16:19,937
was going to be starring
in The Conqueror,
306
00:16:20,020 --> 00:16:24,066
he realized that it was going
to be a terrible mistake.
307
00:16:24,149 --> 00:16:26,402
Because John Wayne was gonna
butcher the dialogue.
308
00:16:27,236 --> 00:16:28,487
OSCAR:I called Dick Powell.
309
00:16:28,570 --> 00:16:31,407
He said, “Are you sitting down?
310
00:16:31,490 --> 00:16:33,242
Fox suspended Brando.
311
00:16:33,325 --> 00:16:35,119
So, we've got John Wayne.”
312
00:16:37,246 --> 00:16:38,747
“When he starts mangling
those lines,
313
00:16:38,831 --> 00:16:40,666
he's going to be a big joke”,
I said.
314
00:16:40,749 --> 00:16:42,292
“He's promised to work
on him with a coach
315
00:16:42,376 --> 00:16:44,753
and tape recorder”, Powell said.
316
00:16:44,837 --> 00:16:45,838
“He's very enthusiastic.
317
00:16:45,921 --> 00:16:48,048
Swears he'll work
his fanny off.”
318
00:16:49,425 --> 00:16:51,135
At our first meeting
for a run through,
319
00:16:51,218 --> 00:16:55,055
Wayne was genial,
complimentary, and drunk.
320
00:16:55,139 --> 00:17:00,310
JOHN WAYNE:In the United States of
America, that this can happen,
321
00:17:00,394 --> 00:17:03,439
it's getting to be
ri-goddamn-diculous.
322
00:17:04,398 --> 00:17:06,775
OSCAR:He dozed off
after the first few pages
323
00:17:06,859 --> 00:17:10,112
and there was no more talk
of his working on the dialogue.
324
00:17:13,115 --> 00:17:14,366
The challenge with The Conqueror
325
00:17:14,450 --> 00:17:16,744
was that
it was a historical film
326
00:17:16,827 --> 00:17:19,079
taking place
in the 13th century,
327
00:17:19,163 --> 00:17:22,541
and they needed to have
these vast, wide open spaces.
328
00:17:22,624 --> 00:17:26,587
Dick Powell had actually found
this area of St. George, Utah,
329
00:17:26,670 --> 00:17:27,504
um, and they felt
330
00:17:27,588 --> 00:17:29,882
this would look
fantastic on camera.
331
00:17:29,965 --> 00:17:34,052
When the location scout said,
“We need something, uh,
332
00:17:34,136 --> 00:17:38,307
similar to the Gobi Desert,
maybe about the 12th century.”
333
00:17:38,390 --> 00:17:40,601
A man
on the Chamber of Commerce,
334
00:17:40,684 --> 00:17:42,060
he said, “Ah.
335
00:17:42,144 --> 00:17:44,897
Uh, I was a pilot
in World War II.
336
00:17:44,980 --> 00:17:47,566
And I used to fly over the hump,
337
00:17:47,649 --> 00:17:50,611
flying gasoline
and supplies to China.
338
00:17:50,694 --> 00:17:52,112
And you know the deserts
that I--
339
00:17:52,196 --> 00:17:54,448
I flew over there,
340
00:17:54,531 --> 00:17:57,826
looked very much
like the deserts we have here,
341
00:17:57,910 --> 00:18:00,746
in a place called,
‘Snow Canyon’.”
342
00:18:00,829 --> 00:18:02,289
Immediately, the knew,
343
00:18:02,372 --> 00:18:04,792
Snow Canyon
in the St. George area
344
00:18:04,875 --> 00:18:07,044
was going to be the location
for this film.
345
00:18:12,883 --> 00:18:17,179
Living in St. George in
the ‘50s and ‘60s was magical.
346
00:18:17,262 --> 00:18:19,389
We grew up out on the little farm
347
00:18:19,473 --> 00:18:21,433
south of Cedar City.
348
00:18:21,517 --> 00:18:24,895
Small farm,
enough to have a big garden.
349
00:18:24,978 --> 00:18:30,234
Um, we had our chickens
and a cow once in a while,
350
00:18:30,317 --> 00:18:33,570
and a few pigs
when we did our forage group.
351
00:18:33,654 --> 00:18:36,490
Neighbors had sheep
and it was a great place,
352
00:18:36,573 --> 00:18:40,494
we played outside all day,
and I had a great childhood.
353
00:18:40,577 --> 00:18:42,621
My parents had a-- had a--
354
00:18:42,704 --> 00:18:45,791
about a 250-acre farm right
in the center of the valley,
355
00:18:45,874 --> 00:18:47,417
at Beryl Junction.
356
00:18:47,501 --> 00:18:48,627
And loved it.
357
00:18:48,710 --> 00:18:49,628
Every second of it.
358
00:18:49,711 --> 00:18:51,296
I learned how to work there.
359
00:18:51,380 --> 00:18:54,591
I knew every adult in town,
and every child,
360
00:18:54,675 --> 00:18:56,927
and their dogs,
and their horses.
361
00:18:57,010 --> 00:18:58,679
Everybody knew where everybody lived,
362
00:18:58,762 --> 00:19:01,306
and everybody knew
where everybody worked.
363
00:19:01,390 --> 00:19:03,100
And if we got into any kind
of trouble,
364
00:19:03,183 --> 00:19:04,351
everybody knew everybody,
365
00:19:04,434 --> 00:19:06,436
and told their parents
before we got home.
366
00:19:07,229 --> 00:19:10,357
We went, um, fishing
on the weekends.
367
00:19:10,440 --> 00:19:13,986
Swam in ponds with our dog.
368
00:19:14,069 --> 00:19:17,114
Uh, rode bikes,
climbed trees.
369
00:19:17,197 --> 00:19:18,991
When it snowed, we would gather up snow.
370
00:19:19,074 --> 00:19:22,703
We'd put vanilla and sugar in
it and pretend it was ice cream.
371
00:19:22,786 --> 00:19:25,581
The place to go to
when I was young,
372
00:19:25,664 --> 00:19:28,959
and today is
Judd's general store.
373
00:19:29,042 --> 00:19:32,170
Everybody went there,
everybody still goes there.
374
00:19:32,254 --> 00:19:33,547
It's the place to hang out.
375
00:19:54,234 --> 00:19:56,570
We were all called to get up about
376
00:19:56,653 --> 00:19:57,988
2:00 in the morning.
377
00:20:00,157 --> 00:20:03,619
We went to a bunker in Nevada.
378
00:20:07,331 --> 00:20:09,708
We were put in trenches.
379
00:20:13,503 --> 00:20:17,716
We were told to uh,
close our eyes.
380
00:20:17,799 --> 00:20:18,550
Three.
381
00:20:18,634 --> 00:20:22,679
And then put our hands
over our eyes.
382
00:20:22,763 --> 00:20:24,056
Zero.
383
00:20:27,225 --> 00:20:31,063
The light was so bright, I could see through
384
00:20:31,146 --> 00:20:33,941
on the other side
of my hands.
385
00:20:36,485 --> 00:20:41,907
And I could see the guy's feet
through the leather
386
00:20:41,990 --> 00:20:43,951
standing next to me.
387
00:20:55,420 --> 00:20:58,507
And we were told that
this would be uh,
388
00:20:58,590 --> 00:21:01,927
non-effective
to our personal bodies
389
00:21:02,010 --> 00:21:03,762
by the military.
390
00:21:03,845 --> 00:21:05,263
That you don’t--
you don't have anything
391
00:21:05,347 --> 00:21:06,306
to worry about.
392
00:21:20,445 --> 00:21:23,031
We had drills all the time,
393
00:21:23,115 --> 00:21:25,534
because we were told
the Russians are coming.
394
00:21:25,617 --> 00:21:28,829
I have just vivid memories of being in grade school
395
00:21:28,912 --> 00:21:30,247
and having the drills,
396
00:21:30,330 --> 00:21:31,957
where we had to jump
under our desk
397
00:21:32,040 --> 00:21:33,291
and cover our head.
398
00:21:33,375 --> 00:21:36,837
♪ There was a turtle
by the name of Bert ♪
399
00:21:36,920 --> 00:21:40,007
♪ And Bert the turtle
was very alert ♪
400
00:21:40,090 --> 00:21:43,301
♪ When danger threatened him,
he never got hurt ♪
401
00:21:43,385 --> 00:21:46,138
♪ He knew just what to do ♪
402
00:21:46,221 --> 00:21:49,766
♪ Please duck
and cover ♪
403
00:21:49,850 --> 00:21:52,894
♪ Duck and cover ♪
404
00:21:52,978 --> 00:21:55,814
♪ He did what
we all must learn to do ♪
405
00:21:55,897 --> 00:21:56,523
♪ You ♪
406
00:21:56,606 --> 00:21:57,232
♪ And you ♪
407
00:21:57,315 --> 00:21:57,983
♪ And you ♪
408
00:21:58,066 --> 00:21:59,651
♪ And you ♪
409
00:21:59,735 --> 00:22:00,944
♪ Duck ♪
410
00:22:01,028 --> 00:22:02,487
♪ And cover ♪
411
00:22:04,406 --> 00:22:06,658
The spring and summer of 1953
412
00:22:06,742 --> 00:22:09,911
were a critical turning point
for atomic testing.
413
00:22:09,995 --> 00:22:13,123
You have hundreds
different experiments happening,
414
00:22:13,206 --> 00:22:15,042
and there's a--
415
00:22:15,125 --> 00:22:18,503
a real sense
of Cold War urgency.
416
00:22:18,587 --> 00:22:23,800
And that is not necessarily
the best way to do science.
417
00:22:23,884 --> 00:22:28,805
Uh, under these hasty
emergency conditions,
418
00:22:28,889 --> 00:22:33,477
and there are some consequences
in 1953.
419
00:22:33,560 --> 00:22:37,022
And most infamously, the--
the Harry shot
420
00:22:37,105 --> 00:22:38,857
that is-- is bigger,
421
00:22:38,940 --> 00:22:41,568
and raises a much bigger cloud
of debris
422
00:22:41,651 --> 00:22:43,361
than was anticipated.
423
00:22:43,445 --> 00:22:44,571
And it also happens at a time
424
00:22:44,654 --> 00:22:48,033
when the prevailing wind
is heading directly
425
00:22:48,116 --> 00:22:50,285
toward Bunkerville
and St. George,
426
00:22:50,368 --> 00:22:52,662
and Cedar City in Southern Utah.
427
00:22:54,039 --> 00:22:56,833
These are the people
who are on the front lines
428
00:22:56,917 --> 00:22:59,377
of atomic warfare.
429
00:22:59,461 --> 00:23:04,091
And the AEC wants
to reassure them
430
00:23:04,174 --> 00:23:06,760
and in the process
reassure the American public
431
00:23:06,843 --> 00:23:10,222
that this continental testing
is so appropriate
432
00:23:10,305 --> 00:23:11,973
and still safe.
433
00:23:15,977 --> 00:23:19,022
When they were doing
the above ground testing
434
00:23:19,106 --> 00:23:21,149
at the Nevada test site.
435
00:23:21,233 --> 00:23:24,152
When they would have
an announced test,
436
00:23:24,236 --> 00:23:27,781
families in the St. George area
would come up here
437
00:23:27,864 --> 00:23:32,035
to the highest bluff
and bring their families
438
00:23:32,119 --> 00:23:34,454
for the evening tests
or the early morning.
439
00:23:34,538 --> 00:23:39,751
And watch the tests that would
be coming up over this bluff.
440
00:23:39,835 --> 00:23:42,212
And bring food, a picnic,
441
00:23:42,295 --> 00:23:45,507
whatever, they would
spend hours.
442
00:23:45,590 --> 00:23:46,550
The kids would play,
443
00:23:46,633 --> 00:23:49,761
they'd communicate
with their neighbors, have fun.
444
00:23:51,555 --> 00:23:55,142
The test had come up
as a big ball of flame
445
00:23:55,225 --> 00:23:56,685
go up into the sky
446
00:23:56,768 --> 00:23:59,855
and then it’d dissipate
into a mushroom cloud,
447
00:23:59,938 --> 00:24:03,150
depending on how the wind
was blowing.
448
00:24:03,233 --> 00:24:07,529
It would either go north, south
or drift this way.
449
00:24:07,612 --> 00:24:09,781
And typically, it would come
this way,
450
00:24:09,865 --> 00:24:10,615
because they'd wait
451
00:24:10,699 --> 00:24:13,201
till the wind was blowing
our direction.
452
00:24:13,827 --> 00:24:15,078
AEC REPRESENTATIVE 1:Ladies and gentlemen,
453
00:24:15,162 --> 00:24:18,915
we interrupt this program
to bring you important news.
454
00:24:18,999 --> 00:24:21,293
Due to a change
in wind direction,
455
00:24:21,376 --> 00:24:24,296
the residue from this morning's
atomic detonation
456
00:24:24,379 --> 00:24:27,507
is drifting
in the direction of St. George.
457
00:24:27,591 --> 00:24:30,677
To prevent unnecessary exposure
to radiation,
458
00:24:30,760 --> 00:24:33,680
it is better to take cover
during this period.
459
00:24:33,763 --> 00:24:37,475
Parents need not be alarmed
about children at school.
460
00:24:37,559 --> 00:24:40,228
No recesses outdoors
will be permitted.
461
00:24:40,312 --> 00:24:42,272
There is no danger.
462
00:24:42,355 --> 00:24:44,816
This is simply routine
safety procedure.
463
00:24:59,623 --> 00:25:02,167
NEVADA ATOMIC TESTS NARRATOR:Yes, the very nature
of testing weapons
464
00:25:02,250 --> 00:25:03,627
for national defense
465
00:25:03,710 --> 00:25:05,754
requires we accept
the possibility
466
00:25:05,837 --> 00:25:08,632
of some exposure
to additional radiation.
467
00:25:09,466 --> 00:25:11,635
There is some potential risk.
468
00:25:13,136 --> 00:25:18,975
So a fallout quite simply is
any particulate matter
469
00:25:19,059 --> 00:25:23,355
that is generated
by a nuclear explosion,
470
00:25:23,438 --> 00:25:27,692
thrown into the atmosphere
that then later falls down.
471
00:25:27,776 --> 00:25:29,110
Some of it could fall
straight down.
472
00:25:29,194 --> 00:25:33,698
Some of it could go
extremely high, 30-40,000 feet.
473
00:25:33,782 --> 00:25:36,451
And get pulled
into the atmosphere.
474
00:25:36,534 --> 00:25:38,495
And circle the globe.
475
00:25:38,578 --> 00:25:42,749
Uh, so, these could be
particles of dirt.
476
00:25:42,832 --> 00:25:45,585
They could be vaporized rock.
477
00:25:45,669 --> 00:25:49,589
They could be the particles
of the tower
478
00:25:49,673 --> 00:25:54,886
and other parts of the military
testing equipment.
479
00:25:54,970 --> 00:25:57,013
And they could also be
particles of radiation.
480
00:25:58,014 --> 00:26:00,850
DEFENSE BRIEFING NARRATOR:Radioactive atoms produced
in the explosion
481
00:26:00,934 --> 00:26:04,187
join with the particles
of earth and debris.
482
00:26:04,271 --> 00:26:08,358
The mushroom shaped cloud forms
and climbs higher.
483
00:26:08,441 --> 00:26:12,362
It now contains billions
of highly radioactive particles.
484
00:26:12,445 --> 00:26:14,948
We call them, “fallout”.
485
00:26:15,031 --> 00:26:17,993
The winds of the upper
altitudes blow on the cloud,
486
00:26:18,076 --> 00:26:20,745
sending it in one
or more directions.
487
00:26:20,829 --> 00:26:23,707
Some of the very light particles
may remain suspended
488
00:26:23,790 --> 00:26:25,709
in the atmosphere for years
489
00:26:25,792 --> 00:26:29,045
and travel thousands of miles
before landing.
490
00:26:29,129 --> 00:26:31,548
But the heavy particles
drop to the ground
491
00:26:31,631 --> 00:26:33,633
within 24 hours.
492
00:26:33,717 --> 00:26:35,385
These are the most hazardous,
493
00:26:35,468 --> 00:26:37,262
because they emit
the largest amount
494
00:26:37,345 --> 00:26:39,431
of nuclear radiation.
495
00:26:39,514 --> 00:26:41,474
A 100 miles from the explosion,
496
00:26:41,558 --> 00:26:43,685
they are about the size
of table salt
497
00:26:43,768 --> 00:26:45,353
or fine sand.
498
00:26:53,653 --> 00:26:57,949
When we would go to school, uh, in elementary,
499
00:26:58,033 --> 00:27:00,035
men would come
in big black suits
500
00:27:00,118 --> 00:27:04,372
and check our thyroids,
with Geiger counters.
501
00:27:04,456 --> 00:27:08,168
And when we'd light it up,
I remember lighting it up once
502
00:27:08,251 --> 00:27:10,003
and asking what it meant,
503
00:27:10,086 --> 00:27:13,465
and being told it meant
that I'd had a dental X-ray.
504
00:27:13,548 --> 00:27:17,802
Well, my mother was an RN
and I knew what an X-ray was.
505
00:27:17,886 --> 00:27:19,346
And I--
506
00:27:19,429 --> 00:27:22,015
back then you didn't go
to the dentist for everything.
507
00:27:22,098 --> 00:27:25,435
And I knew I hadn't had
a dental X-ray.
508
00:27:25,518 --> 00:27:28,229
I remember it in fourth grade,
fifth grade,
509
00:27:28,313 --> 00:27:30,607
all the way through high school.
510
00:27:30,690 --> 00:27:32,942
They would come,
check our thyroids
511
00:27:33,026 --> 00:27:36,196
with their fingers and say,
“Take a sip.
512
00:27:36,279 --> 00:27:37,447
Swallow.”
513
00:27:37,530 --> 00:27:39,449
Give us a little sip of water
514
00:27:39,532 --> 00:27:42,035
and we did that,
we went back to class.
515
00:27:42,118 --> 00:27:46,081
This is Atomic Test In Nevada.
516
00:27:46,164 --> 00:27:48,083
It's a booklet the government
put out,
517
00:27:48,166 --> 00:27:52,045
one of their propaganda pieces
in '57.
518
00:27:52,128 --> 00:27:54,756
Uh, to kind of assuage
peoples' fears.
519
00:27:54,839 --> 00:27:57,509
So, it tells them
they don't really have much
520
00:27:57,592 --> 00:27:58,802
to worry about.
521
00:27:58,885 --> 00:28:00,387
It's got pictures in it,
522
00:28:00,470 --> 00:28:03,223
like you can see
the little cowboys,
523
00:28:03,306 --> 00:28:07,060
and it just makes it look
like people here,
524
00:28:07,143 --> 00:28:08,770
a bunch of Western yahoos.
525
00:28:09,604 --> 00:28:12,482
“You people who live
near Nevada test site
526
00:28:12,565 --> 00:28:15,360
are in a very real sense
active participants
527
00:28:15,443 --> 00:28:18,113
in the nation's atomic
test program.
528
00:28:18,196 --> 00:28:20,281
You have been close observers
of tests
529
00:28:20,365 --> 00:28:23,368
which have contributed greatly
in building the defenses
530
00:28:23,451 --> 00:28:26,121
of our country
and of the free world.
531
00:28:26,204 --> 00:28:29,249
Nevada tests have helped us
make general progress
532
00:28:29,332 --> 00:28:32,085
in a few years
and have been a vital factor
533
00:28:32,168 --> 00:28:34,587
in maintaining the peace
of the world.
534
00:28:34,671 --> 00:28:37,966
Some of you may have been
inconvenienced
535
00:28:38,049 --> 00:28:40,260
by our test operations.”
536
00:28:41,761 --> 00:28:43,638
That one always kills me.
537
00:28:48,017 --> 00:28:49,936
♪ I am not scared ♪
538
00:28:51,980 --> 00:28:53,857
♪ I am pretty prepared ♪
539
00:28:55,942 --> 00:28:58,069
♪ I'll be spared ♪
540
00:29:03,700 --> 00:29:05,994
♪ I've got a fallout shelter ♪
541
00:29:06,077 --> 00:29:08,037
♪ It's nine by nine ♪
542
00:29:08,121 --> 00:29:12,167
♪ A hi-fi set
and a jug of wine ♪
543
00:29:12,250 --> 00:29:14,586
♪ Let the missiles fly ♪
544
00:29:14,669 --> 00:29:16,337
♪ From nation to nation ♪
545
00:29:16,421 --> 00:29:21,342
♪ It's party time
in all my radiation station ♪
546
00:29:25,638 --> 00:29:27,140
♪ I'm not spared ♪
547
00:29:29,726 --> 00:29:33,104
I, Temujin,
chief of all Mongols...
548
00:29:33,188 --> 00:29:34,606
And my dad playing Genghis Khan?
549
00:29:34,689 --> 00:29:35,690
Are you serious?
550
00:29:35,773 --> 00:29:36,441
Come on.
551
00:29:36,524 --> 00:29:39,527
I wish you well, Temujin Khan.
552
00:29:39,611 --> 00:29:41,654
Yes, it is odd.
553
00:29:41,738 --> 00:29:43,781
Was it unusual for the time?
554
00:29:43,865 --> 00:29:44,616
No.
555
00:29:44,699 --> 00:29:47,577
Who got the job was
who was the big box office guy?
556
00:29:47,660 --> 00:29:51,122
There's no question that John Wayne had his fans
557
00:29:51,206 --> 00:29:54,459
and followers, who would come
to a movie
558
00:29:54,542 --> 00:29:57,045
even where he's wearing
a ridiculous painted on,
559
00:29:57,128 --> 00:29:59,214
Fu Manchu moustache.
560
00:29:59,923 --> 00:30:01,633
I do think
the general assumption
561
00:30:01,716 --> 00:30:07,388
is that-- that Wayne may have
read the script,
562
00:30:07,472 --> 00:30:08,806
but not when he was sober.
563
00:30:09,349 --> 00:30:11,267
OSCAR:I doubt if he looked
at the script again
564
00:30:11,351 --> 00:30:13,686
until the day before
the cameras were to roll.
565
00:30:13,770 --> 00:30:17,815
When he called me at home,
“Oscar”, he said,
566
00:30:17,899 --> 00:30:20,777
“You got to do something
about these effing lines.
567
00:30:20,860 --> 00:30:22,487
I can't read 'em.”
568
00:30:22,570 --> 00:30:24,447
“Duke”, I replied,
569
00:30:24,531 --> 00:30:26,366
“I'd have to rewrite
the entire script for you.
570
00:30:26,449 --> 00:30:28,201
Why didn't you speak up sooner?”
571
00:30:28,284 --> 00:30:31,037
He muttered an expletive
and hung up.
572
00:30:31,120 --> 00:30:34,123
She's a woman, Jamuga.
573
00:30:34,207 --> 00:30:35,500
Much woman.
574
00:30:36,584 --> 00:30:39,629
Should her perfidy be less
than that of other women?
575
00:30:40,463 --> 00:30:41,923
It's the dialogue.
576
00:30:43,424 --> 00:30:44,717
I take her with me.
577
00:30:44,801 --> 00:30:48,388
That people loved repeating.
578
00:30:48,471 --> 00:30:50,848
On those rare occasions,
thank God they're rare,
579
00:30:50,932 --> 00:30:55,562
when my wife will be annoyed
with me about something.
580
00:30:55,645 --> 00:30:57,188
I like to say...
581
00:30:57,272 --> 00:30:59,983
You're beautiful in your wrath.
582
00:31:00,066 --> 00:31:02,944
And then again, the line delivery.
583
00:31:03,027 --> 00:31:04,654
Eternal skies,
584
00:31:04,737 --> 00:31:07,699
Yessugai, my father, hear me.
585
00:31:07,782 --> 00:31:10,034
John Wayne's performance
did not draw--
586
00:31:10,952 --> 00:31:12,912
A great deal of critical praise.
587
00:31:17,625 --> 00:31:19,794
At the time, St. George, I believe had
588
00:31:19,877 --> 00:31:22,463
under 30 motels.
589
00:31:22,547 --> 00:31:26,092
So, they not only had
to rent all of the hotels,
590
00:31:26,175 --> 00:31:29,470
but a lot of locals rented out
their homes.
591
00:31:29,554 --> 00:31:33,224
Susan Hayward rented a home
from a local
592
00:31:33,308 --> 00:31:37,228
and the enthusiasm,
especially the young people
593
00:31:37,312 --> 00:31:41,065
was such that they had
to limit autographing sessions
594
00:31:41,149 --> 00:31:42,775
to two and a half hours.
595
00:31:42,859 --> 00:31:44,527
My mother was my mother.
596
00:31:44,611 --> 00:31:47,989
Uh, and that other person,
597
00:31:48,072 --> 00:31:50,199
she had a job
and that job was acting.
598
00:31:52,243 --> 00:31:54,287
Susan Hayward was uh, in many ways
599
00:31:54,370 --> 00:31:57,081
one of the quintessential stars
of the 1950s.
600
00:31:57,165 --> 00:31:59,667
She was beautiful,
she was talented.
601
00:31:59,751 --> 00:32:01,002
She was smart.
602
00:32:01,085 --> 00:32:03,421
She would come
to Hollywood around 1937.
603
00:32:03,504 --> 00:32:06,382
Um, along with a whole lot
of other Hollywood starlets
604
00:32:06,466 --> 00:32:07,383
who were being uh,
605
00:32:07,467 --> 00:32:09,510
tested for the role
of Scarlett O'Hara
606
00:32:09,594 --> 00:32:10,803
in Gone with the Wind.
607
00:32:11,596 --> 00:32:13,097
Scarlett.
608
00:32:14,766 --> 00:32:15,975
What is it?
609
00:32:18,645 --> 00:32:20,521
I love you.
610
00:32:21,147 --> 00:32:25,234
Um, she didn't get the part, but she did stay around.
611
00:32:25,318 --> 00:32:28,363
She was always fighting for--
for the good movies.
612
00:32:28,446 --> 00:32:29,739
Um, but um,
613
00:32:29,822 --> 00:32:33,201
RKO had-- had contracted
with Fox to get her on loan
614
00:32:33,284 --> 00:32:34,952
to do The Conqueror.
615
00:32:35,453 --> 00:32:36,954
It was an absurdity.
616
00:32:37,038 --> 00:32:38,289
Really off the wall.
617
00:32:38,373 --> 00:32:40,458
That-- I think that was--
that was evident to everybody
618
00:32:40,541 --> 00:32:41,834
who was connected with it.
619
00:32:42,418 --> 00:32:45,588
She knew with this was not gonna be great casting.
620
00:32:45,672 --> 00:32:46,756
It would be an odd choice,
621
00:32:46,839 --> 00:32:50,218
but Howard Hughes
didn't really care.
622
00:32:50,301 --> 00:32:52,345
Hughes had personally wanted
to work with her,
623
00:32:52,428 --> 00:32:53,805
because he wanted to--
624
00:32:53,888 --> 00:32:55,598
he wanted to get
Susan Hayward into bed
625
00:32:55,682 --> 00:32:57,225
is what it was.
626
00:32:57,308 --> 00:32:59,060
Susan Hayward decided,
627
00:32:59,143 --> 00:33:03,189
made a conscious decision
not to change her appearance
628
00:33:03,272 --> 00:33:04,899
for The Conqueror.
629
00:33:04,982 --> 00:33:08,861
And that says a lot about her.
630
00:33:08,945 --> 00:33:11,572
She's not gonna changer
her look at all,
631
00:33:11,656 --> 00:33:12,657
to be a Mongolian!
632
00:33:12,740 --> 00:33:13,408
Come on now!
633
00:33:14,033 --> 00:33:15,076
She's not gonna do this.
634
00:33:15,159 --> 00:33:17,370
She's gonna be
the Hollywood actress,
635
00:33:17,453 --> 00:33:18,413
Susan Hayward.
636
00:33:18,496 --> 00:33:20,289
You could tell that this was a smart woman.
637
00:33:20,373 --> 00:33:21,916
She wasn't afraid.
638
00:33:21,999 --> 00:33:23,668
Whether it be for vanity.
639
00:33:23,751 --> 00:33:25,712
Maybe she didn't
wanna see herself--
640
00:33:26,421 --> 00:33:27,755
In that sort of makeup.
641
00:33:27,839 --> 00:33:29,215
But she-- she took a stance.
642
00:33:29,298 --> 00:33:31,217
I know she said at the time,
she said,
643
00:33:31,300 --> 00:33:36,097
“I play a red-haired
Tartar princess,
644
00:33:36,180 --> 00:33:40,059
as if some wild Irishman
got lost
645
00:33:40,143 --> 00:33:43,229
on the way to the road
to old Cathay,
646
00:33:43,312 --> 00:33:44,981
which is pretty clever comment.
647
00:33:45,690 --> 00:33:47,775
The one thing that Howard Hughes and Dick Powell did
648
00:33:47,859 --> 00:33:49,694
when they castThe Conqueror was,
649
00:33:49,777 --> 00:33:51,279
they did have a really re--
650
00:33:51,362 --> 00:33:53,948
resounding supporting cast
of people.
651
00:33:54,031 --> 00:33:57,660
Pedro Armendariz was a very
successful actor in Hollywood,
652
00:33:57,744 --> 00:33:59,454
but also he had done
a lot of uh,
653
00:33:59,537 --> 00:34:00,788
Mexico's version of Hollywood
654
00:34:00,872 --> 00:34:03,541
in Mexico's golden age
of films.
655
00:34:03,624 --> 00:34:06,294
He was uh,
a very ethnic-looking actor.
656
00:34:06,377 --> 00:34:08,713
He could fit in to a lot
of really interesting roles.
657
00:34:08,796 --> 00:34:11,799
Whether he was playing a--
a Mexican or an Asian,
658
00:34:11,883 --> 00:34:14,135
or a Turk
or whatever the role was.
659
00:34:14,218 --> 00:34:19,223
I know that John Wayne fought
for Pedro getting roles
660
00:34:19,307 --> 00:34:22,727
and getting the credit uh,
that he deserved.
661
00:34:22,810 --> 00:34:25,938
And there are a lot of scenes
that are Jamuga,
662
00:34:26,022 --> 00:34:29,776
Pedro Armendariz interacting
with Temujin, John Wayne.
663
00:34:29,859 --> 00:34:30,651
Tempting.
664
00:34:30,735 --> 00:34:32,153
Tempting,
but unwise, my brother.
665
00:34:32,236 --> 00:34:32,904
Listen to me.
666
00:34:32,987 --> 00:34:34,739
There are moments for wisdom,
Jamuga.
667
00:34:34,822 --> 00:34:36,532
Then I listen to you.
668
00:34:36,616 --> 00:34:39,410
There are moments for action,
then I listen to my blood.
669
00:34:39,494 --> 00:34:43,706
And Pedro Armendariz actually--
670
00:34:43,790 --> 00:34:46,918
and it is a sign
of a very good actor,
671
00:34:47,001 --> 00:34:51,839
he seems, uh,
a little bit more comfortable
672
00:34:51,923 --> 00:34:55,718
with this
ridiculously stilted script.
673
00:34:55,802 --> 00:34:57,845
Speak then.
674
00:34:57,929 --> 00:34:59,972
- Deny it!
- I will not.
675
00:35:00,056 --> 00:35:02,350
To deny it would give substance to your thought.
676
00:35:02,433 --> 00:35:03,684
This shame might spare you.
677
00:35:03,768 --> 00:35:05,103
Curb that silver tongue.
678
00:35:05,186 --> 00:35:06,437
Speak straight!
679
00:35:06,521 --> 00:35:08,481
But there's Spanish accent there.
680
00:35:09,524 --> 00:35:12,318
And that's a--
a little bit in--
681
00:35:12,401 --> 00:35:13,361
incongruous.
682
00:35:16,614 --> 00:35:20,535
A fair prize, my son,
if my eyes see well.
683
00:35:20,618 --> 00:35:22,245
Fairer than you, my mother.
684
00:35:22,328 --> 00:35:25,498
Agnes Moorehead was cast
as John Wayne's mother.
685
00:35:25,581 --> 00:35:27,500
Even though she was
only seven years older
686
00:35:27,583 --> 00:35:28,960
than he was.
687
00:35:29,043 --> 00:35:32,505
And then Agnes Moorehead,
how did she get there?
688
00:35:32,588 --> 00:35:35,132
Spawn of evil.
689
00:35:35,216 --> 00:35:38,803
Let your slaves have
their sport with her.
690
00:35:38,886 --> 00:35:40,513
I will not have her
within our tents.
691
00:35:40,596 --> 00:35:42,598
We have Agnes Moorehead in this.
692
00:35:42,682 --> 00:35:44,350
Lee Van Cleef is in it.
693
00:35:44,433 --> 00:35:47,144
And uh-- and Conrad
and-- and--
694
00:35:47,228 --> 00:35:51,440
and all these white actors
are in this film,
695
00:35:51,524 --> 00:35:52,692
which was common.
696
00:35:52,775 --> 00:35:55,403
Unfortunately,
it was deemed acceptable
697
00:35:55,486 --> 00:35:59,657
to have yellowface played
in Hollywood at the time.
698
00:35:59,740 --> 00:36:02,785
White men ran studios,
699
00:36:02,869 --> 00:36:09,792
and the culture at the time was
anything other than Anglo
700
00:36:09,876 --> 00:36:12,128
is less than white.
701
00:36:12,211 --> 00:36:18,134
Racism was horribly prevalent
at that time.
702
00:36:18,217 --> 00:36:22,638
John Wayne felt that he could
play Genghis Khan, an Asian.
703
00:36:22,722 --> 00:36:29,812
It shows a lot of ego,
and lack of self awareness,
704
00:36:29,896 --> 00:36:33,107
and lack of empathy towards
the Asian race.
705
00:36:33,190 --> 00:36:34,901
The thing
about the cultural appropriation
706
00:36:34,984 --> 00:36:41,490
in this movie, is there were
Asian American actors
707
00:36:41,574 --> 00:36:44,410
who actually worked
in Hollywood.
708
00:36:44,493 --> 00:36:46,245
I mean, why not?
709
00:36:46,329 --> 00:36:48,831
At least-- at least for some
of the minor roles.
710
00:36:49,749 --> 00:36:51,751
What think of you that, Shaman?
711
00:36:51,834 --> 00:36:54,337
So grave a question demands
a shorter answer.
712
00:36:54,420 --> 00:36:56,088
Let a sheep be slaughtered,
713
00:36:56,172 --> 00:36:57,840
and the shoulder blade
brought hither.
714
00:36:57,924 --> 00:37:00,051
There's not a chance
in the world
715
00:37:00,134 --> 00:37:02,929
they could make a film anything
like this today.
716
00:37:03,012 --> 00:37:04,221
Can you imagine?
717
00:37:04,305 --> 00:37:08,476
The only director who could
have handled this uh, film,
718
00:37:08,559 --> 00:37:11,103
I think successfully
making it delightful
719
00:37:11,187 --> 00:37:12,605
would have been Mel Brooks.
720
00:37:25,618 --> 00:37:29,956
That summer, we would go to the local swimming hall,
721
00:37:30,039 --> 00:37:31,540
where all the other kids went.
722
00:37:31,624 --> 00:37:33,334
And we went to uh,
723
00:37:33,417 --> 00:37:36,087
we went to the morning church
on uh, on Sundays.
724
00:37:37,254 --> 00:37:38,756
The casting crew of The Conqueror
725
00:37:38,839 --> 00:37:41,384
largely had set up houses in--
in St. George's.
726
00:37:41,467 --> 00:37:43,302
They'd rented homes in a--
on a block,
727
00:37:43,386 --> 00:37:44,971
and they all lived
next to each other,
728
00:37:45,054 --> 00:37:45,930
across the street
from each other.
729
00:37:46,013 --> 00:37:47,473
So, they all were sort
of surrounding each other.
730
00:37:47,556 --> 00:37:49,850
And it was a--
a bit of a family atmosphere.
731
00:37:50,810 --> 00:37:52,812
My father never came up to St. George.
732
00:37:52,895 --> 00:37:56,023
And I don't recall us going
back to Los Angeles
733
00:37:56,107 --> 00:37:57,274
to spend time with him.
734
00:37:57,358 --> 00:37:58,818
Yeah, they were going
through a divorce.
735
00:37:58,901 --> 00:38:03,197
And it-- it was uh,
it wasn't a real pleasant time.
736
00:38:03,280 --> 00:38:04,949
It wasn't a pleasant for I--
737
00:38:05,032 --> 00:38:06,617
I think for anybody
in the family.
738
00:38:07,243 --> 00:38:08,995
But I remember John Wayne,
739
00:38:09,078 --> 00:38:11,580
because he lived across
the street.
740
00:38:11,664 --> 00:38:13,749
He was a very personal guy.
741
00:38:13,833 --> 00:38:16,877
I had a-- a scar under this eye.
742
00:38:16,961 --> 00:38:18,796
So, John Wayne saw it
and he asked me what it was.
743
00:38:18,879 --> 00:38:20,464
And I told him I got hit
with a rock
744
00:38:20,548 --> 00:38:21,924
underneath my eye.
745
00:38:22,008 --> 00:38:23,342
And I remember him--
746
00:38:23,426 --> 00:38:24,552
him laughing
and him saying,
747
00:38:24,635 --> 00:38:25,970
“Put beef steak on it.”
748
00:38:26,762 --> 00:38:28,097
Susan Hayward um,
749
00:38:28,180 --> 00:38:30,349
always had this affection
for John Wayne.
750
00:38:30,433 --> 00:38:32,685
She always thought he was one
of her favorite leading men
751
00:38:32,768 --> 00:38:34,729
and she was attracted to him.
752
00:38:34,812 --> 00:38:37,898
And so, she--
she did make moves on Wayne.
753
00:38:37,982 --> 00:38:40,067
They said at one time
she had a love scene on the set
754
00:38:40,151 --> 00:38:43,029
and she kissed him,
and he said,
755
00:38:43,112 --> 00:38:46,073
she stuck her tongue
in his mouth.
756
00:38:46,157 --> 00:38:47,158
One of the things that
my brother
757
00:38:47,241 --> 00:38:48,492
and I liked to do
758
00:38:48,576 --> 00:38:52,038
was we liked to camp out
on the front yard.
759
00:38:52,121 --> 00:38:54,582
And all I'm gonna say is this,
that uh,
760
00:38:54,665 --> 00:38:56,709
one morning
about 3:00 in the morning,
761
00:38:56,792 --> 00:38:58,252
we saw this figure.
762
00:38:58,335 --> 00:39:02,840
We were both up come running
across the lawn uh,
763
00:39:02,923 --> 00:39:08,179
to the house across the street
where John Wayne was living.
764
00:39:08,262 --> 00:39:09,764
And it was my mother.
765
00:39:09,847 --> 00:39:10,806
And I don't think uh,
766
00:39:10,890 --> 00:39:12,183
she was running over there,
you know,
767
00:39:12,266 --> 00:39:14,852
to get a-- to get a bagel.
768
00:39:17,980 --> 00:39:19,523
When we moved to St. George,
769
00:39:19,607 --> 00:39:23,819
we heard all about The Conqueror
being here,
770
00:39:23,903 --> 00:39:25,654
and how the stars were here.
771
00:39:25,738 --> 00:39:29,283
They were hanging out
at the Big Hand Cafe.
772
00:39:29,366 --> 00:39:31,243
And there were a lot
of pictures at the time
773
00:39:31,327 --> 00:39:34,538
before the Big Hand Cafe
was torn down.
774
00:39:34,622 --> 00:39:39,460
A lot of pictures of John Wayne
and Dick Powell.
775
00:39:39,543 --> 00:39:40,586
And those guys,
776
00:39:40,669 --> 00:39:42,922
and their pictures were
plastered all over the walls.
777
00:39:43,005 --> 00:39:45,007
They were pretty proud of that.
778
00:39:45,091 --> 00:39:46,300
Dick's Cafe,
779
00:39:46,384 --> 00:39:49,428
a renowned restaurant
in St. George,
780
00:39:49,512 --> 00:39:52,598
was not only the chief uh,
dining spot,
781
00:39:52,681 --> 00:39:57,144
but Dick Hammer catered
on location.
782
00:39:57,228 --> 00:40:01,398
A lot of the locals were used
as security guards,
783
00:40:01,482 --> 00:40:02,900
As greensmen.
784
00:40:02,983 --> 00:40:04,318
As extras.
785
00:40:04,402 --> 00:40:07,696
Just about everyone was needed
to be in the film.
786
00:40:07,780 --> 00:40:11,033
We were a movie set town
and we got to be extras.
787
00:40:11,117 --> 00:40:12,535
It was a big deal.
788
00:40:12,618 --> 00:40:16,038
NARRATOR:The cast and crew took part
in a charity softball game
789
00:40:16,122 --> 00:40:18,833
against the local Elks Club
of St. George.
790
00:40:18,916 --> 00:40:20,668
Wayne signed autographs.
791
00:40:20,751 --> 00:40:22,795
Dick Powell entertained
the crowd,
792
00:40:22,878 --> 00:40:24,922
and Susan Hayward kicked off
her high heels
793
00:40:25,005 --> 00:40:26,632
to run around the bases.
794
00:40:26,715 --> 00:40:28,467
A local family, the Smoots,
795
00:40:28,551 --> 00:40:30,594
presented Susan Hayward
with a giant cake
796
00:40:30,678 --> 00:40:31,637
for her birthday.
797
00:40:31,720 --> 00:40:32,721
The whole town
798
00:40:32,805 --> 00:40:34,390
as well as Powell
and Wayne were there,
799
00:40:34,473 --> 00:40:36,100
as Tim Barker recalls.
800
00:40:36,183 --> 00:40:37,393
It was on the set,
801
00:40:37,476 --> 00:40:39,937
and there were pictures of that
with Dick Powell
802
00:40:40,020 --> 00:40:43,190
and John Wayne, and uh,
some of the other principals.
803
00:40:43,274 --> 00:40:47,444
Uh, John Wayne cut the cake
with his Mongol sword.
804
00:41:09,258 --> 00:41:11,469
They had 20 stuntmen.
805
00:41:16,223 --> 00:41:20,644
These stunts were
very seriously dangerous.
806
00:41:20,728 --> 00:41:21,854
We're talking horse stunts,
807
00:41:21,937 --> 00:41:24,148
which the horses are tripping,
falling.
808
00:41:24,231 --> 00:41:27,151
The men are falling
into the sands.
809
00:41:27,234 --> 00:41:28,903
And there were
lots of accidents.
810
00:41:31,822 --> 00:41:33,782
What I found fascinating
about this
811
00:41:33,866 --> 00:41:35,159
and I don't know how they did it
812
00:41:35,242 --> 00:41:36,619
or whether they did it
deliberately,
813
00:41:36,702 --> 00:41:38,412
is all the horses falling down.
814
00:41:39,163 --> 00:41:41,624
And maybe once they--
they had trip wires.
815
00:41:43,584 --> 00:41:45,502
But where was the SPCA?
816
00:41:48,088 --> 00:41:50,299
There was actually a--
a joke on the set at one point
817
00:41:50,382 --> 00:41:52,843
where there was gonna be
a big action sequence
818
00:41:52,927 --> 00:41:53,802
and Dick Powell said,
819
00:41:53,886 --> 00:41:56,222
“This is where we separate
the men from the boys,
820
00:41:56,305 --> 00:41:56,805
in this scene.”
821
00:41:56,889 --> 00:41:57,848
And John Wayne,
822
00:41:57,932 --> 00:41:59,308
you know, joked back to him
and said,
823
00:41:59,391 --> 00:42:01,477
“Well, let's just hope
we don't separate the men
824
00:42:01,560 --> 00:42:02,478
from the horses.”
825
00:42:08,442 --> 00:42:11,445
Sadly, a short time later,
there was a-- a big action scene
826
00:42:11,528 --> 00:42:13,822
and Pedro Armendariz had been
thrown from his horse,
827
00:42:13,906 --> 00:42:16,200
and his horse at the time,
um, fell,
828
00:42:16,283 --> 00:42:17,785
and actually landed on top
of him.
829
00:42:17,868 --> 00:42:19,078
So, he was injured
and they--
830
00:42:19,161 --> 00:42:20,454
at the time, they feared
that he may have
831
00:42:20,538 --> 00:42:21,413
even broken his back
832
00:42:21,497 --> 00:42:24,708
and they actually had to, um,
take him to the hospital.
833
00:42:24,792 --> 00:42:27,336
He was ended up not being hurt
as badly as they'd feared,
834
00:42:27,419 --> 00:42:30,172
but it was one of those kind
of serious mishaps.
835
00:42:37,513 --> 00:42:39,390
NARRATOR:After finishing shooting
an action scene,
836
00:42:39,473 --> 00:42:41,392
Powell turned to Wayne
and said,
837
00:42:41,475 --> 00:42:42,643
“There were no injuries.
838
00:42:42,726 --> 00:42:44,645
Do you think the stuntmen
are getting better?”
839
00:42:44,728 --> 00:42:45,646
Wayne replied,
840
00:42:45,729 --> 00:42:48,399
“No, the horses
are getting smarter.”
841
00:42:52,653 --> 00:42:56,115
The nature of The Conqueror taking place
842
00:42:56,198 --> 00:42:58,784
in 12th century, Mongolia,
843
00:42:58,867 --> 00:43:01,495
you have to hire hundreds
of extras,
844
00:43:01,578 --> 00:43:04,748
who can be made up
to look as close as possible
845
00:43:04,832 --> 00:43:09,336
to those who would be living
in that area of Asia.
846
00:43:09,420 --> 00:43:12,381
The nearest
and most practical people
847
00:43:12,464 --> 00:43:14,883
to hire were 300 members
848
00:43:14,967 --> 00:43:18,012
of the Shivwits Indian
reservation,
849
00:43:18,095 --> 00:43:21,015
not far distant from St. George.
850
00:43:21,098 --> 00:43:22,391
Yes, a 130 degrees.
851
00:43:22,474 --> 00:43:24,977
They're wearing these
Mongolian costumes.
852
00:43:25,060 --> 00:43:26,228
These kind of armor
853
00:43:26,312 --> 00:43:28,814
and these heavy winter
animal skin,
854
00:43:28,897 --> 00:43:30,941
thick, kind of heavy costumes.
855
00:43:31,025 --> 00:43:33,027
These people were very hot.
856
00:43:33,110 --> 00:43:36,488
And hundreds of extras
on horses and things,
857
00:43:36,572 --> 00:43:38,949
they would be out there
for hours in this--
858
00:43:39,033 --> 00:43:40,367
this grueling heat.
859
00:43:40,451 --> 00:43:43,787
Environment of the American West is harsh.
860
00:43:43,871 --> 00:43:45,789
Aridity and weather conditions
861
00:43:45,873 --> 00:43:49,460
that can be extreme ranging
from heat to cold.
862
00:43:51,003 --> 00:43:53,797
And the desert is windy.
863
00:43:53,881 --> 00:43:57,176
It's one of the windiest parts
of the United States.
864
00:43:57,259 --> 00:44:00,512
And the winds can be ferocious
and unpredictable.
865
00:44:00,596 --> 00:44:04,266
So, there would be these vast scenes of blowing,
866
00:44:04,350 --> 00:44:06,769
you know, dirt
and dust swirling around.
867
00:44:06,852 --> 00:44:09,980
And not only was it--
was it bad enough with the--
868
00:44:10,064 --> 00:44:11,857
the natural winds
that were happening.
869
00:44:11,940 --> 00:44:13,317
It was the fact that they were--
870
00:44:13,400 --> 00:44:15,277
they were creating
their own dust
871
00:44:15,361 --> 00:44:17,488
by having these massive
fight scenes
872
00:44:17,571 --> 00:44:19,323
and these horses were
running around
873
00:44:19,406 --> 00:44:20,491
and they were having this--
874
00:44:20,574 --> 00:44:22,534
kicking up all this
dust and debris,
875
00:44:22,618 --> 00:44:24,828
that was literally covering
the actors.
876
00:44:24,912 --> 00:44:27,373
And so they-- they ended up
coi-- calling it
877
00:44:27,456 --> 00:44:31,043
like “Utah chili powder”,
because it was on everything.
878
00:44:31,126 --> 00:44:32,378
So, they would sit down to eat
879
00:44:32,461 --> 00:44:34,838
and it would be covering
the food they were eating.
880
00:44:40,386 --> 00:44:42,012
NARRATOR:After two months in Utah,
881
00:44:42,096 --> 00:44:43,555
the cast
and crew of The Conqueror,
882
00:44:43,639 --> 00:44:45,224
returned to Los Angeles,
883
00:44:45,307 --> 00:44:48,102
for interior shooting
on the RKO sound stages.
884
00:44:48,185 --> 00:44:51,230
Let there be music and a feast
befitting Temujin,
885
00:44:51,313 --> 00:44:52,439
chief of the Mongols.
886
00:44:54,817 --> 00:44:58,529
I was a harem girl lounging somewhere.
887
00:44:58,612 --> 00:44:59,655
You know, there's a lot
of lounging
888
00:44:59,738 --> 00:45:01,323
when you're in a harem thing.
889
00:45:02,950 --> 00:45:03,951
And I--
890
00:45:04,034 --> 00:45:05,953
I was looking around
and I looked at Wayne, too,
891
00:45:06,036 --> 00:45:08,622
you know, and I thought,
“This is really bad.”
892
00:45:10,040 --> 00:45:11,750
Genghis Khan, he's not.
893
00:45:14,711 --> 00:45:17,506
Between takes, I'd be there and he'd be there.
894
00:45:17,589 --> 00:45:21,468
He is sitting up on his throne
and just hanging out.
895
00:45:21,552 --> 00:45:24,263
We knew he'd been drinking
in the daytime.
896
00:45:24,346 --> 00:45:29,351
We all felt that he was drinking
his way through that picture.
897
00:45:33,105 --> 00:45:38,152
The costume designer,
Michael Woulfe,
898
00:45:38,235 --> 00:45:41,905
he wanted it to look
as if I were naked.
899
00:45:43,907 --> 00:45:44,700
The censor,
900
00:45:44,783 --> 00:45:48,162
the haze office would decide
that well,
901
00:45:48,245 --> 00:45:51,707
this scene is too racy,
and they'd edit a film
902
00:45:51,790 --> 00:45:54,376
before they would open it
in the city.
903
00:45:54,460 --> 00:45:58,046
My dance number was cut out
of the film,
904
00:45:58,130 --> 00:46:01,216
in Baltimore, in Boston.
905
00:46:01,300 --> 00:46:03,135
I don't know where else.
906
00:46:03,218 --> 00:46:07,264
Woman of Samarkand,
I recognize her by the uh...
907
00:46:07,347 --> 00:46:09,766
There are no finer dancers
under the heavens.
908
00:46:09,850 --> 00:46:12,561
And without compare
in the arts of love.
909
00:46:12,644 --> 00:46:14,146
After them all other women
are like
910
00:46:14,229 --> 00:46:15,689
the second pressing
of the grape.
911
00:46:17,483 --> 00:46:17,941
I didn't--
912
00:46:18,025 --> 00:46:21,236
I thought it was, um,
not good.
913
00:46:28,452 --> 00:46:32,456
There's so many strange things
about this movie.
914
00:46:32,539 --> 00:46:36,001
And about Howard Hughes'
participation.
915
00:46:36,084 --> 00:46:39,338
But one of the things that
apparently he insisted upon,
916
00:46:39,421 --> 00:46:41,215
was they moved tons,
917
00:46:41,298 --> 00:46:45,886
literally tons of desert sand
and-- and brought it
918
00:46:45,969 --> 00:46:47,679
onto a sound stage.
919
00:46:47,763 --> 00:46:51,308
In fact, Howard Hughes and the crew
920
00:46:51,391 --> 00:46:54,895
carried 60 tonnes of this stuff
back to the studio,
921
00:46:54,978 --> 00:46:57,356
so that this deep,
rich red sand
922
00:46:57,439 --> 00:47:00,400
could be spread on the floors
of the sound stage.
923
00:47:00,484 --> 00:47:03,445
When they rebuilt parts
of the village
924
00:47:03,529 --> 00:47:05,948
in Culver City at RKO.
925
00:47:06,031 --> 00:47:08,283
They have a campfire scene.
926
00:47:08,367 --> 00:47:10,077
They would actually shoot that
in the stage.
927
00:47:10,160 --> 00:47:12,871
They'd bring all the sage brush,
the sand, the rocks.
928
00:47:14,122 --> 00:47:16,959
So, when they shot these scenes with these close-ups
929
00:47:17,042 --> 00:47:18,335
of John Wayne,
and Susan Hayward,
930
00:47:18,418 --> 00:47:20,587
and Agnes Moorehead,
and Pedro Armendariz,
931
00:47:20,671 --> 00:47:22,214
it would fit with the film,
932
00:47:22,297 --> 00:47:24,675
so there wouldn't be
a jarring difference.
933
00:47:24,758 --> 00:47:26,385
So, they ended up bringing back
934
00:47:26,468 --> 00:47:29,888
all this radioactive soil back
for a sound stage filming.
935
00:47:29,972 --> 00:47:32,099
They would leave it there for all of the weeks
936
00:47:32,182 --> 00:47:35,269
that were necessary
to film the interiors.
937
00:47:35,352 --> 00:47:36,895
They were exposed to it
938
00:47:36,979 --> 00:47:40,524
in these hermetically-sealed
sound stages
939
00:47:40,607 --> 00:47:42,693
day after day, after day.
940
00:47:54,871 --> 00:47:58,500
JOHN:The Conqueror
was released in 1956.
941
00:47:58,584 --> 00:48:00,502
And there was a big push
for it.
942
00:48:00,586 --> 00:48:04,506
It-- it got a lot of promotion,
a lot of publicity.
943
00:48:04,590 --> 00:48:06,133
Hughes had invested $2 million
or something
944
00:48:06,216 --> 00:48:07,801
in promoting this film.
945
00:48:12,973 --> 00:48:14,182
The critics were not kind.
946
00:48:17,644 --> 00:48:20,731
A John Wayne fan all the way through childhood
947
00:48:20,814 --> 00:48:22,941
and adult life.
948
00:48:23,025 --> 00:48:26,236
The Conqueror,
I cannot say that I ever saw it.
949
00:48:26,320 --> 00:48:28,655
And from what I've heard,
we didn't miss anything.
950
00:48:28,739 --> 00:48:36,163
It was not quite my John Wayne
uh, movie.
951
00:48:36,246 --> 00:48:36,997
It--
952
00:48:37,080 --> 00:48:39,416
It was an incredibly cheesy
movie that you know,
953
00:48:39,499 --> 00:48:42,711
even being young,
we laughed at it.
954
00:48:42,794 --> 00:48:43,920
THE CONQUEROR NARRATOR:For a hundred years,
955
00:48:44,004 --> 00:48:46,256
the children of their loins
ruled half the world.
956
00:48:49,593 --> 00:48:51,261
That's one of the things that's remarkable
957
00:48:51,345 --> 00:48:56,475
about the film is,
it does feel like an epic.
958
00:48:56,558 --> 00:49:00,187
But it's only a--
a 111 minutes long.
959
00:49:01,146 --> 00:49:02,773
And it's has that-- a great virtue
960
00:49:02,856 --> 00:49:05,192
of feeling much longer
than it is.
961
00:49:09,112 --> 00:49:12,949
As bad as they sayThe Conqueror was,
962
00:49:13,033 --> 00:49:14,826
it was not unsuccessful.
963
00:49:14,910 --> 00:49:18,080
The movie cost $6 million
to make,
964
00:49:18,163 --> 00:49:21,166
but the movie made $12 million.
965
00:49:21,249 --> 00:49:22,668
$12 million in 1956
966
00:49:22,751 --> 00:49:26,963
would equate to about
$130 to $135 million today.
967
00:49:27,047 --> 00:49:29,549
So, it--
it was a successful movie.
968
00:49:30,217 --> 00:49:32,302
NARRATOR:The cost to promote
and market the film
969
00:49:32,386 --> 00:49:34,638
erased any profit for Hughes.
970
00:49:50,028 --> 00:49:53,073
NEVADA ATOMIC TESTS NARRATOR:That great flash
in the western sky.
971
00:49:53,156 --> 00:49:55,367
An atomic bomb
at the Nevada test site,
972
00:49:55,450 --> 00:49:58,745
140 miles to the west.
973
00:49:58,829 --> 00:50:01,248
But it's old stuff
to St. George.
974
00:50:01,331 --> 00:50:02,457
Routine.
975
00:50:02,541 --> 00:50:06,294
They've seen a lot of them,
ever since 1951.
976
00:50:06,378 --> 00:50:08,505
Nothing to get
excited about anymore.
977
00:50:08,588 --> 00:50:12,342
I mean, they did 928 tests in that desert.
978
00:50:12,426 --> 00:50:14,469
That's 928 bombs.
979
00:50:14,553 --> 00:50:17,806
More powerful than Hiroshima
and Nagasaki,
980
00:50:17,889 --> 00:50:20,225
that were dropped
on our own country
981
00:50:20,308 --> 00:50:21,685
by our government.
982
00:50:22,853 --> 00:50:24,688
It was a common experience.
983
00:50:24,771 --> 00:50:28,984
When I'd feel that concussion,
I knew exactly where to look.
984
00:50:29,067 --> 00:50:30,444
We'd be working out there
in the field,
985
00:50:30,527 --> 00:50:31,153
and you know,
986
00:50:31,236 --> 00:50:33,739
you could see the mushroom
cloud come up.
987
00:50:33,822 --> 00:50:37,659
My mom would come out to um,
the field,
988
00:50:37,743 --> 00:50:39,995
and she would take us back home.
989
00:50:40,078 --> 00:50:41,329
And make us stay in the house
990
00:50:41,413 --> 00:50:44,332
when that cloud floated
over the valley.
991
00:50:44,416 --> 00:50:46,793
This one time,
992
00:50:46,877 --> 00:50:50,172
I went
and opened up the door.
993
00:50:50,255 --> 00:50:51,173
And looked at that cloud
994
00:50:51,256 --> 00:50:53,884
as it was drifting over
the valley.
995
00:50:53,967 --> 00:50:58,638
And it had an eerie orangish
red tint to it.
996
00:50:58,722 --> 00:51:01,391
You know, so you knew,
that the cloud was hot.
997
00:51:04,102 --> 00:51:05,771
Starting in '53,
998
00:51:05,854 --> 00:51:10,150
there were sheep ranchers
who were noticing
999
00:51:10,233 --> 00:51:13,111
disease effect on sheep.
1000
00:51:13,195 --> 00:51:16,865
Sheep that were dead,
sheep that had lesions.
1001
00:51:16,948 --> 00:51:19,659
Things that they claimed
they'd never seen before,
1002
00:51:19,743 --> 00:51:22,245
and that were happening
in numbers
1003
00:51:22,329 --> 00:51:24,664
that were unprecedented.
1004
00:51:25,248 --> 00:51:26,708
During lambing season,
1005
00:51:26,792 --> 00:51:29,795
our neighbors had piles
of dead lambs.
1006
00:51:29,878 --> 00:51:32,798
They were deformed lambs.
1007
00:51:32,881 --> 00:51:36,051
And I always thought that
that was normal
1008
00:51:36,134 --> 00:51:39,930
to have piles
of dead deformed lambs
1009
00:51:40,013 --> 00:51:41,890
during lambing season.
1010
00:51:41,973 --> 00:51:45,560
I remember the Bulloch family losing a lot of sheep
1011
00:51:45,644 --> 00:51:47,229
and not--
they weren't just dead,
1012
00:51:47,312 --> 00:51:48,855
they lost their livelihood.
1013
00:51:48,939 --> 00:51:50,774
They lost their way
to make a living.
1014
00:51:51,900 --> 00:51:56,404
It was determined that the sheep had died from starvation
1015
00:51:56,488 --> 00:51:57,989
and being cold.
1016
00:51:58,073 --> 00:52:00,951
Well,
we knew those sheepherders.
1017
00:52:01,034 --> 00:52:03,078
We knew them personally.
1018
00:52:03,161 --> 00:52:05,872
They weren't starving
their sheep.
1019
00:52:05,956 --> 00:52:07,833
Their sheep weren't freezing.
1020
00:52:10,502 --> 00:52:12,462
So, it was a low blow.
1021
00:52:12,546 --> 00:52:15,465
Those people lost
their livelihoods
1022
00:52:15,549 --> 00:52:21,179
and that’d been generation
after generation of farmers.
1023
00:52:33,525 --> 00:52:36,403
The Conqueror was the last film Howard Hughes produced.
1024
00:52:36,486 --> 00:52:37,779
Before the film's release,
1025
00:52:37,863 --> 00:52:40,615
Hughes sold RKO
to General Teleradio
1026
00:52:40,699 --> 00:52:42,659
for $25 million.
1027
00:52:42,742 --> 00:52:46,621
By 1967, he was the richest man
in America
1028
00:52:46,705 --> 00:52:51,084
valued at $1.37 billion.
1029
00:52:51,167 --> 00:52:52,377
The fact he bought back
the rights
1030
00:52:52,460 --> 00:52:54,045
to his last two pictures,
1031
00:52:54,129 --> 00:52:57,340
Jet Pilot and The Conquerorfor $12 million,
1032
00:52:57,424 --> 00:52:59,175
led one observer to comment,
1033
00:52:59,259 --> 00:53:04,514
“It was the show business coup
of the century for Teleradio.
1034
00:53:04,598 --> 00:53:07,392
What were you thinking Howard?”
1035
00:53:07,475 --> 00:53:08,810
Hughes got his wish
1036
00:53:08,894 --> 00:53:11,730
when he began an affair
with Susan Hayward.
1037
00:53:13,440 --> 00:53:16,902
My mother dated Howard Hughes
for a short period of time.
1038
00:53:16,985 --> 00:53:20,363
And Howard Hughes
was a very weird man.
1039
00:53:20,447 --> 00:53:22,032
He was really trying
to make an impression
1040
00:53:22,115 --> 00:53:22,949
on my mother,
1041
00:53:23,033 --> 00:53:25,160
and he came to the house
one time,
1042
00:53:25,243 --> 00:53:26,661
and he met my brother and I.
1043
00:53:26,745 --> 00:53:28,997
He gave each of us
a silver dollar.
1044
00:53:29,080 --> 00:53:33,418
And you know, my mother said,
“Give me the silver dollars.”
1045
00:53:33,501 --> 00:53:35,420
She gave them back to him.
1046
00:53:35,503 --> 00:53:38,381
She didn't approve of the fact
of-- of him,
1047
00:53:38,465 --> 00:53:42,969
giving stuff to children
that he really didn't know.
1048
00:53:43,929 --> 00:53:45,347
NARRATOR:When Hayward discovered that
1049
00:53:45,430 --> 00:53:48,266
the wandering eyes of Hughes
hadn't abated,
1050
00:53:48,350 --> 00:53:50,852
she terminated
the short-lived romance.
1051
00:53:51,937 --> 00:53:54,105
My mother had this uncanny knack.
1052
00:53:54,189 --> 00:53:55,732
I understand it now,
1053
00:53:55,815 --> 00:54:00,195
but the men she had in her life
were just totally inappropriate.
1054
00:54:00,278 --> 00:54:03,615
My mother repetitiously got
involved with men
1055
00:54:03,698 --> 00:54:06,076
who you know,
same guy, different face,
1056
00:54:06,159 --> 00:54:07,535
that kind of thing.
1057
00:54:07,619 --> 00:54:08,578
And uh,
1058
00:54:08,662 --> 00:54:11,414
a lot of her relationships
didn't really last that long.
1059
00:54:23,218 --> 00:54:25,011
My father had a dairy.
1060
00:54:25,095 --> 00:54:27,514
Uh, it was called
the “St. George Ice Company”.
1061
00:54:27,597 --> 00:54:30,266
They were the only ones
that pasteurized milk,
1062
00:54:30,350 --> 00:54:33,478
uh, probably south of Provo.
1063
00:54:33,561 --> 00:54:37,065
My uncle, Grant Whitehead was a milkman,
1064
00:54:37,148 --> 00:54:39,526
that everybody knew
and he was recruited to be
1065
00:54:39,609 --> 00:54:42,904
in the Atomic Energy Commission
movie,
1066
00:54:42,988 --> 00:54:46,700
that told everybody
this sleepy town.
1067
00:54:46,783 --> 00:54:48,535
NEVADA ATOMIC TESTS NARRATOR:Pretty deserted at this hour.
1068
00:54:48,618 --> 00:54:50,704
Everything is closed down.
1069
00:54:50,787 --> 00:54:52,706
Everyone's asleep.
1070
00:54:52,789 --> 00:54:55,834
Everyone that is,
except a milkman.
1071
00:54:55,917 --> 00:54:58,962
Been delivering over
the same route for 12 years.
1072
00:54:59,045 --> 00:55:00,171
Never missed a day.
1073
00:55:01,131 --> 00:55:05,343
They filmed The Conqueror here when I was a teenager.
1074
00:55:05,427 --> 00:55:06,344
So, I was often,
1075
00:55:06,428 --> 00:55:09,681
I uh, asked to go out
and deliver milk to uh--
1076
00:55:09,764 --> 00:55:13,184
to the onsite filming,
but mostly up in Snow's Canyon,
1077
00:55:13,268 --> 00:55:14,477
not-- not far from here.
1078
00:55:14,561 --> 00:55:17,022
The cows ate the crops.
1079
00:55:17,105 --> 00:55:20,233
The kids drank the milk
from the cow,
1080
00:55:20,316 --> 00:55:21,651
and adults did.
1081
00:55:21,735 --> 00:55:24,696
If radiation gets into the ground,
1082
00:55:24,779 --> 00:55:27,323
and then grass grows
on that ground,
1083
00:55:27,407 --> 00:55:28,992
and cows eats that grass,
1084
00:55:29,075 --> 00:55:32,328
then the milk can have
strontium, uh,
1085
00:55:32,412 --> 00:55:35,582
or other radioactive elements
in it.
1086
00:55:35,665 --> 00:55:38,209
And that was a fact
that was well known.
1087
00:55:40,754 --> 00:55:41,588
Growing up
1088
00:55:41,671 --> 00:55:44,549
many of my childhood friends
were getting sick.
1089
00:55:44,632 --> 00:55:46,676
I had little Tammy Packer
down the street,
1090
00:55:46,760 --> 00:55:50,430
who was probably 8
when I was 7.
1091
00:55:50,513 --> 00:55:55,185
And she came to school one day
with her head shaved.
1092
00:55:55,268 --> 00:55:56,895
Because she had had
a brain tumor
1093
00:55:56,978 --> 00:55:58,438
and had surgery.
1094
00:55:58,521 --> 00:56:00,607
Um, she ended up dying,
1095
00:56:00,690 --> 00:56:03,401
and you're not used
to your little friends dying.
1096
00:56:03,485 --> 00:56:04,527
Four weeks later,
1097
00:56:04,611 --> 00:56:07,572
her 4-year-old brother died
of testicular cancer.
1098
00:56:07,947 --> 00:56:10,867
Darwin Hoyt was in fifth grade.
1099
00:56:13,161 --> 00:56:15,622
And Bruce Stone was
in sixth grade,
1100
00:56:15,705 --> 00:56:16,581
when he got sick.
1101
00:56:16,664 --> 00:56:18,958
And he died when we were
in eighth grade.
1102
00:56:19,042 --> 00:56:20,418
He had his leg amputated,
1103
00:56:20,502 --> 00:56:24,089
and he actually lived
till he was in eighth grade.
1104
00:56:24,172 --> 00:56:28,551
Darwin died, I believe,
when he was in sixth grade.
1105
00:56:29,052 --> 00:56:31,888
I knew that Coleen may had cancer.
1106
00:56:31,971 --> 00:56:34,474
I knew that
Mark Bradshaw's mother,
1107
00:56:34,557 --> 00:56:37,268
Welwyn, was going to died
because she had cancer.
1108
00:56:37,352 --> 00:56:41,189
At my age,
it wasn't until later on
1109
00:56:41,272 --> 00:56:43,942
that I started to really
get a grasp
1110
00:56:44,025 --> 00:56:45,568
of what had happened.
1111
00:56:45,652 --> 00:56:47,862
Because so many of them
were happening around me,
1112
00:56:47,946 --> 00:56:51,491
I grew up thinking it was
just normal for people
1113
00:56:51,574 --> 00:56:52,408
to get cancer,
1114
00:56:52,492 --> 00:56:54,452
and for people
to lose their dads,
1115
00:56:54,536 --> 00:56:56,454
and for the little kids to die.
1116
00:56:57,247 --> 00:57:00,583
Irma Thomas' daughter, Michelle, was a good friend of mine
1117
00:57:00,667 --> 00:57:02,961
and I spent a lot of time
at their house.
1118
00:57:03,044 --> 00:57:08,341
And Irma had a hand-drawn map
of St. George.
1119
00:57:08,424 --> 00:57:12,053
And she started marking X's
on the houses of people
1120
00:57:12,137 --> 00:57:13,847
that had cancer.
1121
00:57:13,930 --> 00:57:17,142
And it became very apparent
that like,
1122
00:57:17,225 --> 00:57:21,479
wait, there's a lot of people
dying of cancer.
1123
00:57:21,563 --> 00:57:25,108
And it was because
of Irma Thomas
1124
00:57:25,191 --> 00:57:26,609
that we really started to think,
1125
00:57:26,693 --> 00:57:29,571
“Wow,
something's going on here.”
1126
00:57:29,654 --> 00:57:31,865
When Michelle Thomas
contracted cancer,
1127
00:57:31,948 --> 00:57:32,657
I thought,
1128
00:57:32,740 --> 00:57:35,785
“And here's her mom trying
to prove
1129
00:57:35,869 --> 00:57:38,413
that that government
gave us all cancer
1130
00:57:38,496 --> 00:57:40,832
and then her own daughter
gets cancer.”
1131
00:57:42,125 --> 00:57:46,921
When the exposure is
to a young person,
1132
00:57:47,005 --> 00:57:49,799
the cancer may come then
at any point in their life
1133
00:57:49,883 --> 00:57:50,550
in the future,
1134
00:57:50,633 --> 00:57:53,636
and many times
the latency period for cancer
1135
00:57:53,720 --> 00:57:56,848
is on the order
of 10, 20, 30, 40,
1136
00:57:56,931 --> 00:57:58,600
even 50 years later.
1137
00:57:58,683 --> 00:58:01,227
There were the questions.
1138
00:58:01,311 --> 00:58:04,189
But there was
so much propaganda
1139
00:58:04,272 --> 00:58:05,607
that we were safe.
1140
00:58:05,690 --> 00:58:06,774
GREGORY:There has been
some exaggeration
1141
00:58:06,858 --> 00:58:08,735
says the Atomic Energy
Commission.
1142
00:58:08,818 --> 00:58:11,571
The tests do not produce
dangerous fallout.
1143
00:58:15,783 --> 00:58:18,203
They said we were fine.
1144
00:58:18,286 --> 00:58:20,788
And they wouldn't do anything
to harm us.
1145
00:58:36,971 --> 00:58:40,099
NARRATOR:Dick Powell would direct
three more films,
1146
00:58:40,183 --> 00:58:41,559
and executive produced,
1147
00:58:41,643 --> 00:58:44,020
as well as hosted popular
television shows.
1148
00:58:44,103 --> 00:58:46,064
ZANE GREY THEATER NARRATOR:Tonight's star, Dick Powell.
1149
00:58:47,232 --> 00:58:48,983
Most important of all
the professional men
1150
00:58:49,067 --> 00:58:50,860
who moved to the frontier
was the doctor.
1151
00:58:51,778 --> 00:58:54,822
NARRATOR:While directing
a television program in 1962,
1152
00:58:54,906 --> 00:58:57,325
Powell's neck
and face began to swell.
1153
00:58:57,408 --> 00:59:00,870
And he was diagnosed
with cancer of the lymph glands.
1154
00:59:00,954 --> 00:59:02,705
Doctors told Powell's wife,
1155
00:59:02,789 --> 00:59:06,542
movie star June Allyson
to prepare for the worst.
1156
00:59:06,626 --> 00:59:09,879
Dick Powell was one of the first to kind of succumb to cancer.
1157
00:59:09,963 --> 00:59:12,548
Dick Powell was the guy
who was--
1158
00:59:12,632 --> 00:59:14,717
he was there
through the entire thing.
1159
00:59:14,801 --> 00:59:17,553
He was there probably longer
and in more,
1160
00:59:17,637 --> 00:59:19,138
um, danger than anybody.
1161
00:59:19,222 --> 00:59:21,266
Because he was sitting
in the director's chair
1162
00:59:21,349 --> 00:59:23,810
in this huge boom,
sitting there,
1163
00:59:23,893 --> 00:59:27,146
just being hit with this dust
in his face for hours.
1164
00:59:28,106 --> 00:59:32,235
My dad uh, frequently wore a-- a mask.
1165
00:59:32,318 --> 00:59:33,987
Then when he was talking
to the actors, he--
1166
00:59:34,070 --> 00:59:36,281
he-- he took it off.
1167
00:59:36,364 --> 00:59:38,908
Some of the actors were only in portions of the film
1168
00:59:38,992 --> 00:59:40,952
who could kind of come and go.
1169
00:59:41,035 --> 00:59:42,745
Dick Powell was there
all the time.
1170
00:59:46,541 --> 00:59:48,459
NARRATOR:Allyson learned that
the nuclear tests
1171
00:59:48,543 --> 00:59:50,295
done near the set
of The Conqueror,
1172
00:59:50,378 --> 00:59:52,422
after Powell's death.
1173
00:59:52,505 --> 00:59:54,382
She was later heard to remark,
1174
00:59:54,465 --> 00:59:56,718
“Had I stayed longer on
location with Richard,
1175
00:59:56,801 --> 01:00:00,346
I might not be alive today
nor the children.”
1176
01:00:07,854 --> 01:00:10,440
On the set of the second
James Bond feature,
1177
01:00:10,523 --> 01:00:11,607
From Russia with Love,
1178
01:00:11,691 --> 01:00:14,902
Armendariz was fighting
a losing battle.
1179
01:00:14,986 --> 01:00:17,864
He took the part of Kerim Bey,
the Bond ally,
1180
01:00:17,947 --> 01:00:20,074
in order to provide
for his family.
1181
01:00:20,616 --> 01:00:23,494
Take a look,
you should remember him.
1182
01:00:23,578 --> 01:00:25,788
This man kills for pleasure.
1183
01:00:26,706 --> 01:00:29,334
Pedro kept the fact
he was dying from lymph cancer
1184
01:00:29,417 --> 01:00:32,879
that had spread to his hips
making walking difficult.
1185
01:00:32,962 --> 01:00:36,507
He kept working
with regular doses of morphine.
1186
01:00:40,720 --> 01:00:43,639
When From Russia with Love
went into the editing phase,
1187
01:00:43,723 --> 01:00:47,018
Armendariz was admitted
to the UCLA Medical Center.
1188
01:00:47,101 --> 01:00:48,353
He asked his wife, Carmen,
1189
01:00:48,436 --> 01:00:50,897
to get a ham sandwich for him
to eat.
1190
01:00:50,980 --> 01:00:52,065
She leaves.
1191
01:00:52,148 --> 01:00:54,901
Pedro goes into the drawer
in the stand next to him
1192
01:00:54,984 --> 01:00:56,736
and pulls out a gun.
1193
01:00:56,819 --> 01:00:58,112
When Carmen returns,
1194
01:00:58,196 --> 01:01:00,448
she finds him dead
from a gunshot wound
1195
01:01:00,531 --> 01:01:01,657
through the heart.
1196
01:01:01,741 --> 01:01:03,284
He was 51.
1197
01:01:06,746 --> 01:01:10,583
Someone had gotten him a gun
and he-- he took his own life.
1198
01:01:10,666 --> 01:01:12,335
I mean, it was terrible.
1199
01:01:12,418 --> 01:01:14,879
Everybody was in a state
of shock.
1200
01:01:14,962 --> 01:01:17,423
I mean, he had--
obviously had terminal cancer,
1201
01:01:17,507 --> 01:01:18,758
and he didn't wanna
deal with it.
1202
01:01:18,841 --> 01:01:21,386
I can understand that
completely.
1203
01:01:21,469 --> 01:01:22,512
He didn't want to--
1204
01:01:22,595 --> 01:01:25,181
He didn't want to exist,
you know,
1205
01:01:25,264 --> 01:01:27,475
unless the quality of life
is good.
1206
01:01:27,558 --> 01:01:28,476
You know, what is the point?
1207
01:01:29,727 --> 01:01:31,646
NARRATOR:When learning
of his friend's death,
1208
01:01:31,729 --> 01:01:34,649
Wayne stated,
“I don't blame Pete.
1209
01:01:34,732 --> 01:01:36,359
I'd do the same thing.”
1210
01:01:44,659 --> 01:01:47,370
♪ My friends all tell me,
go to him, run to him ♪
1211
01:01:47,453 --> 01:01:48,913
♪ Say sweet, lovely things
to him ♪
1212
01:01:48,996 --> 01:01:55,420
♪ Tell him, he's the one ♪
1213
01:01:55,503 --> 01:01:56,754
♪ Deep in my heart ♪
1214
01:01:56,838 --> 01:01:59,173
♪ I know it, but it’s so hard
to show it ♪
1215
01:01:59,257 --> 01:02:02,260
♪ ‘Cause it's easier ♪
1216
01:02:02,343 --> 01:02:05,596
♪ Easier said than done ♪
1217
01:02:05,680 --> 01:02:06,556
♪ My buddies tell me ♪
1218
01:02:06,639 --> 01:02:08,349
♪ Fly to him, sigh to him ♪
1219
01:02:08,433 --> 01:02:10,101
♪ Tell him I would die for him ♪
1220
01:02:10,184 --> 01:02:16,607
♪ Tell him he's the one ♪
1221
01:02:16,691 --> 01:02:18,401
♪ Although, he gives me
a feeling ♪
1222
01:02:18,484 --> 01:02:20,278
♪ That sets my heart a-reeling ♪
1223
01:02:20,361 --> 01:02:23,156
♪ Yeah, it's easier ♪
1224
01:02:23,239 --> 01:02:25,450
♪ Easier said than done ♪
1225
01:02:27,201 --> 01:02:27,952
♪ Well, I know ♪
1226
01:02:28,035 --> 01:02:28,953
♪ I know ♪
1227
01:02:29,036 --> 01:02:30,580
♪ That I love him so ♪
1228
01:02:30,663 --> 01:02:34,083
♪ But I'm afraid
that he'll never know ♪
1229
01:02:34,167 --> 01:02:39,422
JOHN F. KENNEDY:Continued unrestricted testing
by the nuclear powers
1230
01:02:39,505 --> 01:02:42,425
will increasingly contaminate
the air
1231
01:02:42,508 --> 01:02:46,179
that all of us must breathe.
1232
01:02:46,262 --> 01:02:49,223
The loss of even one human life
1233
01:02:49,307 --> 01:02:52,643
or the malformation
of even one baby,
1234
01:02:52,727 --> 01:02:56,939
who may be born long
after all of us have gone,
1235
01:02:57,023 --> 01:02:58,524
should be of concern to us all.
1236
01:03:01,861 --> 01:03:08,743
♪ Easier said than done ♪
1237
01:03:10,828 --> 01:03:15,291
They banned atmospheric testing and uh,
1238
01:03:15,374 --> 01:03:16,834
the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty
1239
01:03:16,918 --> 01:03:21,297
was one of the big achievements
of the Kennedy administration.
1240
01:03:21,380 --> 01:03:26,177
Tragically, it came too late
for Pedro Armendariz,
1241
01:03:26,260 --> 01:03:27,678
and John Wayne,
and Susan Hayward,
1242
01:03:27,762 --> 01:03:31,057
and Dick Powell,
and um, so many other people.
1243
01:03:32,099 --> 01:03:35,269
A fast ship going in harm's way.
1244
01:03:37,313 --> 01:03:41,984
Lousy situation,
Commander Eddington
1245
01:03:42,068 --> 01:03:45,988
John Wayne's first
direct encounter
1246
01:03:46,072 --> 01:03:49,951
with the scourge of cancer
occurred in 1964.
1247
01:03:50,034 --> 01:03:53,287
Uh, he had just completed
filming In Harm's Way
1248
01:03:53,371 --> 01:03:54,330
in Hawaii.
1249
01:03:54,413 --> 01:03:56,582
He was coughing like crazy.
1250
01:03:56,666 --> 01:04:01,462
His wife, uh, Pilar asked him
to go get checked out.
1251
01:04:01,546 --> 01:04:04,674
They discovered
a rather large-sized tumor
1252
01:04:04,757 --> 01:04:06,008
on one of his lungs,
1253
01:04:06,092 --> 01:04:08,553
and diagnosed him
with lung cancer,
1254
01:04:08,636 --> 01:04:11,138
and in very short order,
1255
01:04:11,222 --> 01:04:13,015
the lung was removed
in its entirety,
1256
01:04:13,099 --> 01:04:15,059
along with two ribs.
1257
01:04:15,142 --> 01:04:17,895
He had a procedure where
they broke his sternum open
1258
01:04:17,979 --> 01:04:18,854
like this.
1259
01:04:18,938 --> 01:04:22,984
They took out a lobe of his
lung and sewed him back up.
1260
01:04:23,067 --> 01:04:26,195
He was-- he was in the hospital
for six weeks
1261
01:04:26,279 --> 01:04:29,073
after the procedure
in convalescence.
1262
01:04:29,156 --> 01:04:31,367
He was so swollen up,
he looked like Jabba the Hutt.
1263
01:04:31,450 --> 01:04:34,120
I was absolutely just
scared to death.
1264
01:04:34,203 --> 01:04:36,122
I just thought that was gonna
be the end of it.
1265
01:04:36,205 --> 01:04:39,250
Somehow, he made it
through this experience.
1266
01:04:42,837 --> 01:04:46,591
I was just finishing my 199th picture.
1267
01:04:46,674 --> 01:04:48,551
Never felt better in my life
1268
01:04:48,634 --> 01:04:49,760
And I said to myself,
1269
01:04:49,844 --> 01:04:54,265
“When this is finished,
I'm going out on my boat.”
1270
01:04:54,348 --> 01:04:57,893
And then I got nagged into
going for a medical checkup.
1271
01:04:57,977 --> 01:04:59,854
They found a spot on the X-rays.
1272
01:04:59,937 --> 01:05:01,063
It was lung cancer.
1273
01:05:01,147 --> 01:05:03,566
If I'd waited a few more weeks,
I wouldn't be here now.
1274
01:05:05,109 --> 01:05:07,528
The whole anti smoking movement was kind of,
1275
01:05:07,612 --> 01:05:09,822
just being born in that era.
1276
01:05:09,905 --> 01:05:11,991
Smoke now, pay later.
1277
01:05:13,242 --> 01:05:17,455
He would get uh, requests
to be a spokesperson.
1278
01:05:17,538 --> 01:05:19,415
And ironically,
and interestingly,
1279
01:05:19,498 --> 01:05:21,167
he always said no.
1280
01:05:21,250 --> 01:05:24,420
And the reason he gave
for saying no,
1281
01:05:24,503 --> 01:05:27,673
was that no one had proven
to his satisfaction,
1282
01:05:27,757 --> 01:05:30,968
that his cancer was caused
by cigarette smoking.
1283
01:05:31,052 --> 01:05:33,262
So, why don't all of you
do yourselves a favor?
1284
01:05:33,346 --> 01:05:34,555
Get a checkup.
1285
01:05:41,562 --> 01:05:44,231
NARRATOR:It was also during the summer
of 1963,
1286
01:05:44,315 --> 01:05:47,193
that Agnes Moorehead's career
began to rise.
1287
01:05:48,235 --> 01:05:49,654
Though not
in the recognition factor,
1288
01:05:49,737 --> 01:05:51,322
as Wayne or Hayward.
1289
01:05:51,405 --> 01:05:53,032
She worked constantly,
1290
01:05:53,115 --> 01:05:55,993
and won acclaim
in the comedy television series,
1291
01:05:56,077 --> 01:05:57,703
Bewitched.
1292
01:05:57,787 --> 01:06:01,082
The Conquerorwas the last thing on her mind.
1293
01:06:01,165 --> 01:06:04,293
During a routine checkup
at the Mayo Clinic,
1294
01:06:04,377 --> 01:06:07,046
Moorehead was diagnosed
with uterine cancer,
1295
01:06:07,129 --> 01:06:09,298
that was spreading.
1296
01:06:09,382 --> 01:06:13,427
Alas, there is no peace
even for him
1297
01:06:13,511 --> 01:06:15,846
who seeks only
to enjoy his hard-won riches.
1298
01:06:16,389 --> 01:06:18,182
And then there were a bunch of other people
1299
01:06:18,265 --> 01:06:20,685
that were on the cast
and crew that were not known,
1300
01:06:20,768 --> 01:06:22,853
not named actors who would
have cancer
1301
01:06:22,937 --> 01:06:24,397
that were-- would die.
1302
01:06:24,480 --> 01:06:25,606
This was just happened
1303
01:06:25,690 --> 01:06:27,858
to be one of the movies
they made.
1304
01:06:27,942 --> 01:06:30,945
Of course, it was the multiple sicknesses
1305
01:06:31,028 --> 01:06:37,243
and the ultimate multiple
deaths of similar cause.
1306
01:06:37,326 --> 01:06:41,163
That's when people started
to talk about
1307
01:06:41,247 --> 01:06:47,128
the likelihood of them being
exposed up on location.
1308
01:06:47,211 --> 01:06:49,797
Those of us who had worked
on the picture, the dancers,
1309
01:06:49,880 --> 01:06:53,509
started realizing something
really horrible
1310
01:06:53,592 --> 01:06:55,511
had likely taken place.
1311
01:06:55,594 --> 01:06:58,556
And were we the luckiest people
in the world
1312
01:06:58,639 --> 01:07:00,307
not to have been there?
1313
01:07:00,391 --> 01:07:02,810
Lucky you didn't go on location,
1314
01:07:02,893 --> 01:07:05,771
because these people are dying
that did.
1315
01:07:05,855 --> 01:07:07,523
That was the word around town.
1316
01:07:08,441 --> 01:07:11,402
My sister and I, uh, were there the whole time.
1317
01:07:11,485 --> 01:07:13,154
You know, I was digging
in that dirt.
1318
01:07:13,237 --> 01:07:15,114
She was riding horses.
1319
01:07:15,197 --> 01:07:19,994
Uh, and uh,
my sister and I had been uh,
1320
01:07:20,077 --> 01:07:22,621
cancer-free all--
all of these years.
1321
01:07:22,705 --> 01:07:23,330
Yes.
1322
01:07:23,414 --> 01:07:26,959
And I consider us both very,
very lucky.
1323
01:07:27,042 --> 01:07:31,672
Of the 220 people who were
constantly on location
1324
01:07:31,756 --> 01:07:37,887
shooting in Utah,
90 or 91 came down with cancer.
1325
01:07:38,929 --> 01:07:40,806
NARRATOR:Agnes Moorehead confided
to close friend
1326
01:07:40,890 --> 01:07:43,267
and confidante,
Debbie Reynolds,
1327
01:07:43,350 --> 01:07:45,978
“I should never have taken
that part.”
1328
01:07:46,061 --> 01:07:47,229
I think she told
Debbie Reynolds,
1329
01:07:47,313 --> 01:07:48,647
who was a friend of hers,
1330
01:07:48,731 --> 01:07:50,483
that she had never should have
gone there,
1331
01:07:50,566 --> 01:07:51,984
and made The Conqueror.
1332
01:08:07,958 --> 01:08:10,252
My father was a delightful person.
1333
01:08:10,336 --> 01:08:13,088
His name was Orville Wardle,
1334
01:08:13,172 --> 01:08:16,717
and he worked
on road construction.
1335
01:08:16,801 --> 01:08:20,054
He had been healthy
his whole life.
1336
01:08:20,137 --> 01:08:24,058
Suddenly,
he got very sore muscles.
1337
01:08:24,934 --> 01:08:27,186
He went to the doctor.
1338
01:08:27,269 --> 01:08:31,816
He was sent up to LDS Hospital
in Salt Lake City.
1339
01:08:31,899 --> 01:08:35,653
And the doctor said,
“We opened up your dad
1340
01:08:35,736 --> 01:08:38,572
and he's completely full
of cancer.
1341
01:08:38,656 --> 01:08:40,950
All over lungs,
all over his pancreas,
1342
01:08:41,033 --> 01:08:41,909
everything.
1343
01:08:41,992 --> 01:08:43,911
There's absolutely nothing
we can do.
1344
01:08:43,994 --> 01:08:46,747
We are sewing him back together
right now.”
1345
01:08:47,373 --> 01:08:53,170
In 1997, dad was diagnosed with leukemia.
1346
01:08:53,254 --> 01:08:57,633
They basically gave dad
two weeks to live.
1347
01:08:57,716 --> 01:09:00,010
Uh, which was a little bit
of a shock.
1348
01:09:00,094 --> 01:09:04,557
Uncle Stan was asking dad
what his uh, symptoms were.
1349
01:09:04,640 --> 01:09:08,269
And dad started telling
his symptoms to him.
1350
01:09:08,352 --> 01:09:10,104
And Uncle Stan looked at him,
and said,
1351
01:09:10,187 --> 01:09:12,273
“Those are exactly
the same symptoms
1352
01:09:12,356 --> 01:09:14,859
as Grandma Holt.”
1353
01:09:14,942 --> 01:09:19,363
And Grandma passed away
in about 1967.
1354
01:09:19,446 --> 01:09:22,867
At the time, they had no idea
what caused the--
1355
01:09:22,950 --> 01:09:24,660
my grandma's death.
1356
01:09:24,743 --> 01:09:29,707
But uh, dad and Uncle Stan
felt very, very positive
1357
01:09:29,790 --> 01:09:32,042
that it was uh, leukemia.
1358
01:09:32,126 --> 01:09:33,752
Very similar to what dad had.
1359
01:09:35,004 --> 01:09:37,882
In the summer before my 29th birthday,
1360
01:09:37,965 --> 01:09:42,845
I found a lump on my neck,
1361
01:09:42,928 --> 01:09:44,597
and it was like the size
of a piece of corn.
1362
01:09:44,680 --> 01:09:45,890
And I kept moving it
up and down.
1363
01:09:45,973 --> 01:09:47,850
It didn't hurt.
I didn't think anything of it.
1364
01:09:47,933 --> 01:09:50,394
Then I got bronchitis
and I got pretty sick.
1365
01:09:50,477 --> 01:09:52,730
I went to the doctor
for the bronchitis
1366
01:09:52,813 --> 01:09:53,772
and she's feeling my throat.
1367
01:09:53,856 --> 01:09:56,108
And she says,
“Oh, you have a lump here.
1368
01:09:56,192 --> 01:09:57,359
Hmm.
1369
01:09:57,443 --> 01:09:59,111
Well,
we should probably check it.”
1370
01:09:59,194 --> 01:10:01,155
I thought, “Hm, okay.”
1371
01:10:01,238 --> 01:10:05,326
So, she sent me
to an endocrinologist
1372
01:10:05,409 --> 01:10:08,704
and he took a biopsy
and I was getting ready to go
1373
01:10:08,787 --> 01:10:11,206
with my then-husband
to a concert he was playing
1374
01:10:11,290 --> 01:10:12,166
when the phone rang.
1375
01:10:12,249 --> 01:10:17,087
It was the doctor and he said,
“Um, you've got cancer.”
1376
01:10:17,671 --> 01:10:22,551
My doctor said I had uh,
the beginning of uh,
1377
01:10:22,635 --> 01:10:24,178
prostrate cancer.
1378
01:10:24,261 --> 01:10:32,895
In 1955,
they excised the prostrate.
1379
01:10:33,479 --> 01:10:37,650
It was just the most painful
time of our lives.
1380
01:10:37,733 --> 01:10:42,404
We took my dad home
and laid him on the couch,
1381
01:10:42,488 --> 01:10:44,573
and we watched him die
little by little.
1382
01:10:44,657 --> 01:10:46,408
And he was in terrible pain.
1383
01:10:47,826 --> 01:10:50,371
After he was diagnosed with cancer,
1384
01:10:50,454 --> 01:10:54,124
dad lived two and a half years.
1385
01:10:54,208 --> 01:10:56,418
About 2006, 2005,
1386
01:10:56,502 --> 01:11:00,130
my mom was diagnosed
with lymphoma.
1387
01:11:00,214 --> 01:11:05,052
Mom lived for about six
to eight months after that.
1388
01:11:05,135 --> 01:11:07,262
My sister, three years ago,
1389
01:11:07,346 --> 01:11:10,808
passed away
with pancreatic cancer.
1390
01:11:10,891 --> 01:11:12,643
So, my sister and my parents
1391
01:11:12,726 --> 01:11:15,312
have all passed away
with cancer.
1392
01:11:15,396 --> 01:11:17,481
But life is life.
1393
01:11:17,564 --> 01:11:20,985
You take the challenges
and go with it.
1394
01:11:21,068 --> 01:11:23,487
And I do have to say that
1395
01:11:23,570 --> 01:11:29,076
I wouldn't want to wish cancer
on anyone.
1396
01:11:30,744 --> 01:11:32,705
I had surgery right away.
1397
01:11:32,788 --> 01:11:37,084
They removed my thyroid
and then they had
1398
01:11:37,167 --> 01:11:39,837
to remover lymph nodes
around it.
1399
01:11:39,920 --> 01:11:44,091
And when my mother
started crying
1400
01:11:44,174 --> 01:11:46,093
as they wheeled me
into the operating room,
1401
01:11:46,176 --> 01:11:49,304
I thought maybe this is worse
than I think.
1402
01:11:49,388 --> 01:11:51,432
Maybe this isn't so good.
1403
01:11:53,434 --> 01:11:55,060
So, because they removed
my thyroid,
1404
01:11:55,144 --> 01:11:57,062
I had no thyroid hormone,
1405
01:11:57,146 --> 01:12:00,441
which meant that I had
to be on thyroid medicine
1406
01:12:00,524 --> 01:12:02,276
for the rest of my life.
1407
01:12:02,359 --> 01:12:03,652
And I-- I did ask ‘em,
1408
01:12:03,736 --> 01:12:05,696
I said, “What would have happen
if I just never
1409
01:12:05,779 --> 01:12:06,322
took this again?”
1410
01:12:06,405 --> 01:12:08,240
They go, “Well, you-- you die.”
1411
01:12:09,491 --> 01:12:10,868
And it did make me think,
1412
01:12:10,951 --> 01:12:13,620
“I've just gotta always be sure
to have extra.”
1413
01:12:27,009 --> 01:12:31,096
NARRATOR:Interior, Desert Princess Hotel,
Las Vegas, day.
1414
01:12:31,180 --> 01:12:32,848
Medium shot.
1415
01:12:32,931 --> 01:12:36,435
Howard Hughes is now a recluse
in his Las Vegas hotel,
1416
01:12:36,518 --> 01:12:39,021
rarely venturing
from his top floor suite.
1417
01:12:39,104 --> 01:12:41,273
He has become consumed
by irrational fears
1418
01:12:41,356 --> 01:12:42,858
of germs and diseases.
1419
01:12:42,941 --> 01:12:45,360
He would only communicate
through edicts and memos
1420
01:12:45,444 --> 01:12:46,987
to select employees.
1421
01:12:47,071 --> 01:12:50,699
Hughes by the 1970s
had become an enigma,
1422
01:12:50,783 --> 01:12:52,826
surrounded in mystery.
1423
01:12:52,910 --> 01:12:53,786
Hughes read with horror
1424
01:12:53,869 --> 01:12:55,746
about the continued
atomic testing
1425
01:12:55,829 --> 01:12:57,539
near his desert paradise,
1426
01:12:57,623 --> 01:12:59,208
and decided to do
whatever it took
1427
01:12:59,291 --> 01:13:00,876
to stop the testing.
1428
01:13:00,959 --> 01:13:03,587
He sent his top aide,
Robert Maheu,
1429
01:13:03,670 --> 01:13:05,714
to meet President Lyndon Johnson
1430
01:13:05,798 --> 01:13:08,801
and offer him $1 million
after he left office
1431
01:13:08,884 --> 01:13:11,303
if he would stop the testing.
1432
01:13:15,641 --> 01:13:18,310
NARRATOR:The tests went off as planned.
1433
01:13:20,145 --> 01:13:22,856
Why was Hughes concerned
about atomic testing
1434
01:13:22,940 --> 01:13:25,067
in the area 135 miles
1435
01:13:25,150 --> 01:13:27,486
from where he produced
The Conqueror?
1436
01:13:31,448 --> 01:13:33,867
Before production began on The Conqueror,
1437
01:13:33,951 --> 01:13:35,953
RKO would have made some effort
1438
01:13:36,036 --> 01:13:38,330
to make sure that the area
was safe.
1439
01:13:38,413 --> 01:13:39,706
So, RKO, Dick Powell,
1440
01:13:39,790 --> 01:13:42,292
would have had conversations
with the government
1441
01:13:42,376 --> 01:13:44,545
about the nuclear testing
program.
1442
01:13:44,628 --> 01:13:48,298
They knew of all this, because the location departments,
1443
01:13:48,382 --> 01:13:50,300
but they also had
a weather department.
1444
01:13:50,384 --> 01:13:52,427
They had other departments
relating to--
1445
01:13:52,511 --> 01:13:54,763
to permitting from
the United States government
1446
01:13:54,847 --> 01:13:56,557
for shooting on national parks.
1447
01:13:56,640 --> 01:13:59,768
So, when they were thinking
of shooting in these areas
1448
01:13:59,852 --> 01:14:01,895
near where the Yucca Flats is.
1449
01:14:01,979 --> 01:14:03,772
Of course, they were told.
1450
01:14:03,856 --> 01:14:06,567
They all knew
that the 1953 tests,
1451
01:14:06,650 --> 01:14:09,778
11 tests were done
in Yucca Flats there.
1452
01:14:10,612 --> 01:14:17,202
The AEC consistently indicated that the conditions were safe.
1453
01:14:17,286 --> 01:14:22,708
They talked less about the fact
that they had done studies
1454
01:14:22,791 --> 01:14:26,253
that indicated that the series
in the spring
1455
01:14:26,336 --> 01:14:30,841
and summer of '53 had generated
downwind levels of radiation
1456
01:14:30,924 --> 01:14:34,636
that exceeded
their own existing standards
1457
01:14:34,720 --> 01:14:37,389
for what would be
an appropriate level, uh,
1458
01:14:37,472 --> 01:14:39,558
of radiation exposure.
1459
01:14:40,475 --> 01:14:43,729
The government told people what they knew
1460
01:14:43,812 --> 01:14:45,606
they wanted to hear,
1461
01:14:45,689 --> 01:14:47,274
and what they wanted
to tell them,
1462
01:14:47,357 --> 01:14:49,234
but they really didn't know
for sure
1463
01:14:49,318 --> 01:14:52,112
what the long-term impacts were
of these things.
1464
01:14:52,196 --> 01:14:54,239
NEVADA ATOMIC TESTS NARRATOR:There is no danger.
1465
01:14:54,907 --> 01:14:59,077
JAMES:The Conqueror was the last movie
that Hughes produced.
1466
01:14:59,161 --> 01:15:03,665
And he ended up buying up
all the prints
1467
01:15:03,749 --> 01:15:05,667
that were in circulation
at the time
1468
01:15:05,751 --> 01:15:08,754
to the biggest movie
he had ever made.
1469
01:15:08,837 --> 01:15:10,255
Why?
1470
01:15:10,881 --> 01:15:13,133
Some people question as to whether Howard Hughes
1471
01:15:13,217 --> 01:15:16,011
did that out of some feeling
of guilt.
1472
01:15:17,179 --> 01:15:20,182
That he had somehow brought
these people together in--
1473
01:15:20,265 --> 01:15:21,767
in Utah to film The Conqueror,
1474
01:15:21,850 --> 01:15:24,853
and that he was somehow
responsible for their deaths.
1475
01:15:26,688 --> 01:15:29,149
No one saw the movie for--
for 25 years.
1476
01:15:31,235 --> 01:15:33,862
He removed it from distribution.
1477
01:15:33,946 --> 01:15:37,366
And the fact that
he was addicted
1478
01:15:37,449 --> 01:15:39,910
to watching The Conqueror
again and again,
1479
01:15:39,993 --> 01:15:45,958
it was as if only he himself
had the right to feast his eyes
1480
01:15:46,041 --> 01:15:50,420
on the splendor
of its wild magnificence.
1481
01:16:03,892 --> 01:16:09,523
♪ Well, you say
you got the blues ♪
1482
01:16:09,606 --> 01:16:12,943
♪ You got holes in both holes
of your shoes ♪
1483
01:16:13,026 --> 01:16:14,236
♪ Yeah ♪
1484
01:16:14,319 --> 01:16:17,531
♪ You’re feelin' alone
and confused ♪
1485
01:16:17,614 --> 01:16:19,992
♪ You got to keep on smilin' ♪
1486
01:16:20,075 --> 01:16:22,452
♪ Just keep on smilin' ♪
1487
01:16:22,536 --> 01:16:24,037
♪ Yeah, you're... ♪
1488
01:16:24,121 --> 01:16:28,292
♪ You're about to go insane ♪
1489
01:16:28,375 --> 01:16:32,963
♪ ‘Cause your woman’s
playing games, ♪
1490
01:16:33,046 --> 01:16:36,258
♪ And she says that
you're to blame ♪
1491
01:16:36,341 --> 01:16:38,677
♪ You got to keep on smilin' ♪
1492
01:16:38,760 --> 01:16:40,804
♪ Just keep on smilin' ♪
1493
01:16:40,887 --> 01:16:47,686
♪ Keep on smilin'
through the rain ♪
1494
01:16:47,769 --> 01:16:52,065
♪ Laughin' at the pain ♪
1495
01:16:52,149 --> 01:16:56,320
♪ Just rolling
with the changes ♪
1496
01:16:56,403 --> 01:16:59,531
♪ Till the sun comes out again ♪
1497
01:16:59,614 --> 01:17:06,705
♪ Keep on smiling
through the rain ♪
1498
01:17:06,788 --> 01:17:10,709
♪ Laughin' at the pain ♪
1499
01:17:10,792 --> 01:17:15,422
♪ Just rolling
with the changes ♪
1500
01:17:15,505 --> 01:17:18,008
♪ And we’re singin'
this refrain ♪
1501
01:17:21,219 --> 01:17:24,139
NARRATOR:On the night of January,
the 22nd, 1971,
1502
01:17:24,222 --> 01:17:27,893
Susan Hayward awoke to a fire
and a smoke-filled apartment.
1503
01:17:27,976 --> 01:17:30,354
She had fallen asleep
with a cigarette in her hand
1504
01:17:30,437 --> 01:17:32,522
and a vodka bottle nearby.
1505
01:17:32,606 --> 01:17:35,192
She barely escaped
with her life.
1506
01:17:35,275 --> 01:17:36,943
Now absent from the big
and small screen
1507
01:17:37,027 --> 01:17:38,403
for several years,
1508
01:17:38,487 --> 01:17:41,198
she underwent a hysterectomy
to remove tumors
1509
01:17:41,281 --> 01:17:42,741
from her uterus.
1510
01:17:42,824 --> 01:17:44,826
And then more tumors
were discovered
1511
01:17:44,910 --> 01:17:47,329
in her vocal cords and brain.
1512
01:17:47,412 --> 01:17:49,122
Too frail and ill to work,
1513
01:17:49,206 --> 01:17:52,292
Susan Hayward bravely made
her last public appearance
1514
01:17:52,376 --> 01:17:54,920
at the 1974 Academy Awards.
1515
01:17:57,005 --> 01:18:01,176
Those nominated for the
best performance by an actress.
1516
01:18:02,219 --> 01:18:04,930
I watched it and I found out later
1517
01:18:05,013 --> 01:18:08,892
that after she had made
the presentation, uh,
1518
01:18:08,975 --> 01:18:12,646
she had a seizure backstage
and had immediately had--
1519
01:18:12,729 --> 01:18:14,648
had to go to the hospital.
1520
01:18:15,982 --> 01:18:17,984
I got a call from her accountant
1521
01:18:18,068 --> 01:18:19,277
and he had talked
to my brother,
1522
01:18:19,361 --> 01:18:20,487
and then he called me
and he said,
1523
01:18:20,570 --> 01:18:23,407
“Tim, uh, your mom's
got a problem.
1524
01:18:23,490 --> 01:18:29,037
She's got about $60,000
worth of unpaid bills
1525
01:18:29,121 --> 01:18:31,456
sitting on her desk
and she can't--
1526
01:18:31,540 --> 01:18:34,876
She's no longer capable of--
of opening up her checkbook
1527
01:18:34,960 --> 01:18:36,294
and-- and writing checks.”
1528
01:18:36,378 --> 01:18:37,712
I said, “What is going on?”
1529
01:18:37,796 --> 01:18:38,505
And he said,
1530
01:18:38,588 --> 01:18:41,425
“Your mother's in Cedars
of Lebanon Hospital,
1531
01:18:41,508 --> 01:18:44,261
and they're giving her
two weeks to live.”
1532
01:18:44,344 --> 01:18:47,013
She had, uh, adenocarcinoma,
1533
01:18:47,097 --> 01:18:50,225
uh, metastatic brain cancer
with multiple tumors.
1534
01:18:50,308 --> 01:18:53,395
They were all over the place
in-- in her brain.
1535
01:18:53,478 --> 01:18:57,149
I mean, that-- that just got
dropped on me like a bombshell.
1536
01:18:57,232 --> 01:18:59,985
And uh,
you know the next thing I know,
1537
01:19:00,068 --> 01:19:03,864
I'm-- I’m with my brother, uh,
walking in--
1538
01:19:03,947 --> 01:19:08,243
into this hospital room
and my mother's in this bed
1539
01:19:08,326 --> 01:19:10,704
and she doesn't recognize
either one of us.
1540
01:19:12,789 --> 01:19:16,960
She had an aneurysm of the aorta
and it just blew up.
1541
01:19:17,043 --> 01:19:19,296
And her death was
almost instantaneous.
1542
01:19:28,388 --> 01:19:29,764
I think this is probably
the first time
1543
01:19:29,848 --> 01:19:32,559
I've ever really discussed
at any--
1544
01:19:32,642 --> 01:19:34,644
at any length and depth
1545
01:19:34,728 --> 01:19:36,980
about what
my mother experienced.
1546
01:19:37,063 --> 01:19:41,109
I mean, her brain cancer
was horrific.
1547
01:19:41,193 --> 01:19:43,236
It was absolutely horrific.
1548
01:19:53,455 --> 01:19:54,706
Mr. Shatner--
1549
01:19:54,789 --> 01:19:57,083
Ranchers testified they have lost thousands of sheep in Utah
1550
01:19:57,167 --> 01:19:58,627
to radioactive fallout.
1551
01:19:58,710 --> 01:20:00,670
But they charged
the Atomic Energy Commission
1552
01:20:00,754 --> 01:20:02,672
refused to admit it.
1553
01:20:02,756 --> 01:20:03,340
He said,
1554
01:20:03,423 --> 01:20:05,467
“Jack, the easiest thing
we could do
1555
01:20:05,550 --> 01:20:07,844
would be to pay for these sheep.
1556
01:20:07,928 --> 01:20:11,848
But if we paid for 'em,
every woman that got pregnant
1557
01:20:11,932 --> 01:20:14,184
and every woman that didn't
would sue us.”
1558
01:20:15,060 --> 01:20:16,937
NARRATOR:Newly declassified documents
and minutes
1559
01:20:17,020 --> 01:20:18,647
from the Atomic Energy
Commission meetings
1560
01:20:18,730 --> 01:20:20,065
during the 1950s
1561
01:20:20,148 --> 01:20:22,817
warranted congressional
hearings in 1979,
1562
01:20:22,901 --> 01:20:24,319
due to pressures
from the citizens
1563
01:20:24,402 --> 01:20:25,779
of Southern Utah.
1564
01:20:26,738 --> 01:20:28,698
Chaired by
Senator Edward Kennedy,
1565
01:20:28,782 --> 01:20:30,450
the hearing exposed a government
1566
01:20:30,534 --> 01:20:31,952
that was indifferent
and callous
1567
01:20:32,035 --> 01:20:34,538
towards its own citizens.
1568
01:20:34,621 --> 01:20:36,373
Documents show that
the US government
1569
01:20:36,456 --> 01:20:39,751
covered up the known dangers
of fallout path of atomic bombs.
1570
01:20:41,461 --> 01:20:45,840
If you read the minutes of The Atomic Energy Commission,
1571
01:20:45,924 --> 01:20:50,095
from the very beginning,
they knew it wasn't safe.
1572
01:20:50,178 --> 01:20:51,429
And they would have arguments.
1573
01:20:51,513 --> 01:20:54,432
I mean those minutes
read like high drama.
1574
01:20:54,516 --> 01:20:57,102
There would be a commissioner
who said, “Sheep are dying,
1575
01:20:57,185 --> 01:20:58,603
people are starting
to get sick”,
1576
01:20:58,687 --> 01:21:02,983
and there was one commissioner,
who just shouted at him.
1577
01:21:03,066 --> 01:21:05,986
“People have got
to live with the facts of life.”
1578
01:21:06,069 --> 01:21:09,906
And parts of the facts of life
are fallout.
1579
01:21:09,990 --> 01:21:10,991
Commissioner Murray,
1580
01:21:11,074 --> 01:21:13,743
we must not let anything
interfere
1581
01:21:13,827 --> 01:21:16,037
with this series of tests.
1582
01:21:16,121 --> 01:21:17,581
- Nothing.
- “Nothing.”
1583
01:21:29,467 --> 01:21:31,052
I thought she was dead.
1584
01:21:32,971 --> 01:21:34,139
Not hardly.
1585
01:21:34,681 --> 01:21:36,808
NARRATOR:For his final film The Shootist,
1586
01:21:36,891 --> 01:21:39,269
Wayne portrayed a man
dying of cancer.
1587
01:21:39,352 --> 01:21:41,146
He comes home
to settle scores.
1588
01:21:42,939 --> 01:21:45,650
Shooting took place
in Carson City, Nevada,
1589
01:21:45,734 --> 01:21:48,153
which was at the opposite end
of the testing site
1590
01:21:48,236 --> 01:21:50,697
where the wind blew
towards St. George, Utah.
1591
01:21:50,780 --> 01:21:52,032
And where he filmed
The Conqueror
1592
01:21:52,115 --> 01:21:53,867
20 years earlier.
1593
01:21:54,200 --> 01:21:56,536
The story is about an aging gunman
1594
01:21:56,620 --> 01:21:58,913
who's trying to hole up
1595
01:21:58,997 --> 01:22:02,292
and die quietly from
a particularly vicious cancer.
1596
01:22:02,375 --> 01:22:04,210
You have a cancer.
1597
01:22:04,294 --> 01:22:05,503
Advanced.
1598
01:22:05,587 --> 01:22:06,838
How much time do I have?
1599
01:22:06,921 --> 01:22:07,922
Two months.
1600
01:22:08,006 --> 01:22:09,132
Six weeks.
1601
01:22:09,215 --> 01:22:10,467
There's no way to tell.
1602
01:22:10,550 --> 01:22:13,511
The character, in trying to do the right thing,
1603
01:22:13,595 --> 01:22:16,681
decided if he gets killed,
it's not such a bad thing.
1604
01:22:16,765 --> 01:22:18,683
Going out in a blaze of glory
1605
01:22:18,767 --> 01:22:20,727
is better than going out
with cancer.
1606
01:22:20,810 --> 01:22:24,773
And I'm-- I’m pretty darn sure
that that's correct.
1607
01:22:24,856 --> 01:22:25,649
That that is the way
1608
01:22:25,732 --> 01:22:29,069
John Wayne would have enjoyed
going out.
1609
01:22:29,152 --> 01:22:33,948
I would not die at death
like I just described.
1610
01:22:34,032 --> 01:22:35,617
Not if I had your courage.
1611
01:22:36,785 --> 01:22:39,162
It's the finest performance he ever gave as an actor.
1612
01:22:39,245 --> 01:22:40,538
He's a human being.
1613
01:22:40,622 --> 01:22:42,248
He's not a cardboard cutout.
1614
01:22:42,332 --> 01:22:44,709
Uh, it was a hard film for me
to look at for a long time,
1615
01:22:44,793 --> 01:22:46,836
because it was so close
to reality,
1616
01:22:46,920 --> 01:22:49,214
but um, he does a great job.
1617
01:22:50,131 --> 01:22:53,218
Ladies and gentlemen,
Mr. John Wayne.
1618
01:22:55,595 --> 01:22:56,721
That was rough, yeah.
1619
01:22:56,805 --> 01:22:58,431
He had um,
lost a lot of weight
1620
01:22:58,515 --> 01:22:59,849
and was in pretty bad shape.
1621
01:22:59,933 --> 01:23:03,478
He had a tuxedo,
but he had another suit,
1622
01:23:03,561 --> 01:23:05,814
one of his other suits
underneath the tuxedo,
1623
01:23:05,897 --> 01:23:07,982
so that--
so it wouldn't hang on him.
1624
01:23:08,066 --> 01:23:09,943
He actually wore a complete
other suit of clothes
1625
01:23:10,026 --> 01:23:11,861
underneath it.
1626
01:23:11,945 --> 01:23:13,697
Pretty-- pretty remarkable.
1627
01:23:15,824 --> 01:23:17,951
I was in uh, Westwood.
1628
01:23:18,034 --> 01:23:19,077
It was the same day
1629
01:23:19,160 --> 01:23:21,079
that he had to go
into the hospital,
1630
01:23:21,162 --> 01:23:23,164
UCLA Medical Center.
1631
01:23:23,248 --> 01:23:24,249
I saw him on the street.
1632
01:23:24,332 --> 01:23:27,043
And I walked up to him
and I introduced myself.
1633
01:23:27,127 --> 01:23:27,877
And I said,
1634
01:23:27,961 --> 01:23:29,212
“That you won't-- probably
won't remember this,
1635
01:23:29,295 --> 01:23:31,923
but you gave me a picture
of yourself
1636
01:23:32,006 --> 01:23:34,384
and signed it, you know,
‘Put beef steak on your eye.’”
1637
01:23:34,467 --> 01:23:35,343
And he goes,
1638
01:23:35,427 --> 01:23:37,345
“You're-- you’re one of
Susan's boys, aren't you?”
1639
01:23:37,429 --> 01:23:38,638
I said, “Yeah.”
1640
01:23:38,722 --> 01:23:39,973
And so we-- we chatted,
1641
01:23:40,056 --> 01:23:41,599
you know,
for a while on the street.
1642
01:23:41,683 --> 01:23:42,350
And he said,
1643
01:23:42,434 --> 01:23:44,144
“I've gotta go
into the hospital today.”
1644
01:23:44,227 --> 01:23:46,354
This was after my mother
had passed away.
1645
01:23:46,438 --> 01:23:47,772
And uh, I said,
1646
01:23:47,856 --> 01:23:50,066
“You know, best of luck
to you, Mr. Wayne.”
1647
01:23:50,150 --> 01:23:52,235
And then that was it.
1648
01:23:52,318 --> 01:23:58,283
Cancer returned unfortunately
to John Wayne's life in 1979
1649
01:23:58,366 --> 01:24:01,494
and he was diagnosed
with stomach cancer.
1650
01:24:01,578 --> 01:24:03,496
By the time they figured out what he had,
1651
01:24:03,580 --> 01:24:06,416
it was really pretty far gone.
1652
01:24:06,499 --> 01:24:09,961
And he was in the hospital
for six weeks.
1653
01:24:10,045 --> 01:24:12,797
And he was slowly dying.
1654
01:24:12,881 --> 01:24:13,923
He was dying,
1655
01:24:14,007 --> 01:24:16,342
but you would never know
that from this man.
1656
01:24:16,426 --> 01:24:17,886
He had bedsores the size
of my palm
1657
01:24:17,969 --> 01:24:19,095
that just ate right
through his skin,
1658
01:24:19,179 --> 01:24:20,221
separating flesh.
1659
01:24:20,305 --> 01:24:21,681
You couldn't-- couldn't heal it.
1660
01:24:21,765 --> 01:24:22,974
He was just in total pain.
1661
01:24:23,057 --> 01:24:25,977
And never complained about
any of this stuff.
1662
01:24:26,060 --> 01:24:28,188
But he keep--
keep going on, you know.
1663
01:24:28,271 --> 01:24:29,397
And my brothers and sisters
and I thought,
1664
01:24:29,481 --> 01:24:32,025
“You know, this guy is uh,
bulletproof.”
1665
01:24:32,108 --> 01:24:34,110
He just willed himself
to wake up
1666
01:24:34,194 --> 01:24:35,904
and say goodbye to his kids.
1667
01:24:35,987 --> 01:24:39,491
And then-- and then he um,
he left.
1668
01:24:39,574 --> 01:24:40,617
He went.
1669
01:24:40,700 --> 01:24:46,247
♪ Flied away ♪
1670
01:24:47,665 --> 01:24:59,761
♪ Flied away ♪
1671
01:25:14,776 --> 01:25:16,569
I was assigned by People Magazine
1672
01:25:16,653 --> 01:25:19,197
to photograph Irma Thomas,
1673
01:25:19,280 --> 01:25:22,826
because of the leukemia rate
in St. George, Utah.
1674
01:25:22,909 --> 01:25:26,204
Irma was extremely committed
to her vision
1675
01:25:26,287 --> 01:25:29,707
and to explain to the world
what this--
1676
01:25:29,791 --> 01:25:31,292
what had happened
in St. George.
1677
01:25:31,376 --> 01:25:33,127
Because no one was listening
to her,
1678
01:25:33,211 --> 01:25:34,504
and then in the middle of that,
1679
01:25:34,587 --> 01:25:38,800
she told me this great story
about how John Wayne had--
1680
01:25:38,883 --> 01:25:40,760
had made this movie
called “The Conqueror”
1681
01:25:40,844 --> 01:25:42,637
in St. George.
1682
01:25:42,720 --> 01:25:45,139
I had a very good friend,
Michael Wayne,
1683
01:25:45,223 --> 01:25:46,933
John Wayne's oldest son.
1684
01:25:47,016 --> 01:25:47,851
And I thought,
1685
01:25:47,934 --> 01:25:51,020
“This is something
I should talk to Michael about.”
1686
01:25:51,104 --> 01:25:52,856
And so I called Michael,
and I said,
1687
01:25:52,939 --> 01:25:54,732
“Did you make a movie called‘The Conqueror’,
1688
01:25:54,816 --> 01:25:55,733
Howard Hughes' movie?”
1689
01:25:55,817 --> 01:25:56,734
He said, “Yeah.
1690
01:25:56,818 --> 01:26:00,363
In fact, I got sick on the set
and Patrick was there.”
1691
01:26:00,446 --> 01:26:03,783
And I went,
“This is an amazing story.”
1692
01:26:03,867 --> 01:26:06,494
He really at that point
was very excited about it.
1693
01:26:06,578 --> 01:26:08,538
Didn't think much of the movie.
1694
01:26:08,621 --> 01:26:09,414
He couldn't quite figure out
1695
01:26:09,497 --> 01:26:11,583
why did dad was playing
a Mongolian.
1696
01:26:11,666 --> 01:26:14,043
Michael gave me all
the daily notes
1697
01:26:14,127 --> 01:26:18,006
that you have on the show
and the crew list.
1698
01:26:18,089 --> 01:26:20,967
And so we started investigating
that crew list.
1699
01:26:21,050 --> 01:26:25,263
We systematically went down
from the director of photography
1700
01:26:25,346 --> 01:26:27,098
to the different departments
1701
01:26:27,181 --> 01:26:29,517
and we went one by one,
you know,
1702
01:26:29,601 --> 01:26:32,770
to see who had contracted
cancer at this point.
1703
01:26:32,854 --> 01:26:34,647
And it basically hit me
like a ton of bricks.
1704
01:26:35,815 --> 01:26:38,109
We had to really get
more information
1705
01:26:38,192 --> 01:26:39,819
and that's why we went
to Washington,
1706
01:26:39,903 --> 01:26:41,613
you know,
to see what we could get.
1707
01:26:41,696 --> 01:26:45,033
And the Atomic Energy Commission
didn't wanna talk to us.
1708
01:26:45,116 --> 01:26:47,076
They just slammed the door
in our face.
1709
01:26:47,160 --> 01:26:51,205
It was a cover-up
and we had hit a brick wall.
1710
01:26:51,289 --> 01:26:54,876
My partner on-- on the story
was Karen Jackovich
1711
01:26:54,959 --> 01:26:56,628
and we decided that,
1712
01:26:56,711 --> 01:26:59,172
we should go to
the Freedom of Information Act
1713
01:26:59,255 --> 01:27:01,007
and they cooperated
a little bit,
1714
01:27:01,090 --> 01:27:03,593
so we figured
we had enough information
1715
01:27:03,676 --> 01:27:05,136
to go to bed with it.
1716
01:27:06,220 --> 01:27:08,514
NARRATOR:A few months
after Wayne's death,
1717
01:27:08,598 --> 01:27:11,184
a People Magazine article linked
the deaths of the cast
1718
01:27:11,267 --> 01:27:12,477
and crew of The Conqueror
1719
01:27:12,560 --> 01:27:14,771
to the atomic tests
and the radiation
1720
01:27:14,854 --> 01:27:16,981
that envelops St. George.
1721
01:27:18,441 --> 01:27:21,194
There was a general awareness by everyone,
1722
01:27:21,277 --> 01:27:24,155
that it may have been more
than just, you know uh,
1723
01:27:24,238 --> 01:27:26,366
coincidence that uh,
1724
01:27:26,449 --> 01:27:29,202
all of our uh, parents,
our relatives,
1725
01:27:29,285 --> 01:27:32,413
uh, had come down with cancer.
1726
01:27:32,497 --> 01:27:34,540
I mean the numbers are--
are pretty high.
1727
01:27:34,624 --> 01:27:37,126
What were the implications of this fallout?
1728
01:27:37,210 --> 01:27:39,629
A reasonable-thinking person
would have
1729
01:27:39,712 --> 01:27:43,174
to assume that it had some
effect on what happens
1730
01:27:43,257 --> 01:27:45,635
to these people's lives.
1731
01:27:45,718 --> 01:27:47,512
Including your father?
1732
01:27:47,595 --> 01:27:50,014
Well, yeah, my father
was there, sure.
1733
01:27:50,098 --> 01:27:53,810
The People Magazine article
that came out was huge.
1734
01:27:53,893 --> 01:27:55,353
And I always loved the line
in there,
1735
01:27:55,436 --> 01:27:56,312
the official who said,
1736
01:27:56,396 --> 01:27:59,232
“Oh my God,
I hope we didn't John Wayne.”
1737
01:27:59,315 --> 01:28:01,526
You know, they didn't care
about all the other people
1738
01:28:01,609 --> 01:28:03,403
who had been killed
all those years before,
1739
01:28:03,486 --> 01:28:06,864
but they didn't want it
to have been John Wayne.
1740
01:28:06,948 --> 01:28:12,120
It was the first time
I'd ever heard that our cancer
1741
01:28:12,203 --> 01:28:16,040
and John Wayne's cancer
might be tied together.
1742
01:28:16,124 --> 01:28:19,335
I remember we were
in this pitch Cold War,
1743
01:28:19,419 --> 01:28:22,380
so uranium was at a--
a premium, you know,
1744
01:28:22,463 --> 01:28:24,632
and everybody was you know,
“We're gonna get rich.”
1745
01:28:24,716 --> 01:28:26,509
And we had Geiger counters
on the set
1746
01:28:26,592 --> 01:28:29,262
and we turned
these Geiger counters on,
1747
01:28:29,345 --> 01:28:30,680
and they would rattle like,
1748
01:28:30,763 --> 01:28:33,016
we're standing
on a uranium deposit.
1749
01:28:33,099 --> 01:28:34,017
And we were so excited.
1750
01:28:34,100 --> 01:28:36,394
We thought we're gonna find
the richest uranium
1751
01:28:36,477 --> 01:28:37,812
or whatever it be.
1752
01:28:37,895 --> 01:28:38,771
We come to find out later
1753
01:28:38,855 --> 01:28:42,233
that that was fallout from tests
that were going on up north.
1754
01:28:42,317 --> 01:28:44,068
And the wind would blow
all of this, uh,
1755
01:28:44,152 --> 01:28:45,987
radioactive fallout down here.
1756
01:28:46,070 --> 01:28:48,531
I was glad that they--
1757
01:28:48,614 --> 01:28:51,492
and grateful that they had tied
that together.
1758
01:28:51,576 --> 01:28:53,494
Because that catapulted us
1759
01:28:53,578 --> 01:28:56,456
into more
of a national spotlight.
1760
01:28:56,539 --> 01:28:58,416
The story seemed to hit a nerve
1761
01:28:58,499 --> 01:29:00,752
within the media that,
you know,
1762
01:29:00,835 --> 01:29:02,754
“Did America kill John Wayne?”
1763
01:29:02,837 --> 01:29:06,883
If it took John Wayne to get things rolling
1764
01:29:06,966 --> 01:29:10,303
and noticed, then I'll be it.
1765
01:29:10,386 --> 01:29:14,974
We'd all flown up to um, Utah
to uh,
1766
01:29:15,058 --> 01:29:17,060
scout a location for the film.
1767
01:29:17,143 --> 01:29:20,146
And nobody ever told
anybody that,
1768
01:29:20,229 --> 01:29:22,023
there was any radiation
up there.
1769
01:29:22,106 --> 01:29:24,776
Or that anything
had been tested.
1770
01:29:24,859 --> 01:29:30,281
And so, um, they--
we spent months in that area,
1771
01:29:30,364 --> 01:29:33,117
and there were dust storms.
1772
01:29:33,201 --> 01:29:35,995
Horrible dust storms
and we had to wear masks
1773
01:29:36,079 --> 01:29:37,830
a good lot of the time.
1774
01:29:37,914 --> 01:29:38,831
Yeah.
1775
01:29:38,915 --> 01:29:41,667
And a lot of the crew, as you said,
1776
01:29:41,751 --> 01:29:43,252
- have died of cancer.
-Mm-hmm.
1777
01:29:43,336 --> 01:29:44,670
And a lot of the stars
in the film.
1778
01:29:44,754 --> 01:29:45,755
You’re expectation’s a lot people?
1779
01:29:45,838 --> 01:29:46,297
Yes.
1780
01:29:46,380 --> 01:29:49,384
Now, this is just horrifying.
1781
01:29:49,467 --> 01:29:51,427
Well, did John Wayne really die,
1782
01:29:51,511 --> 01:29:53,721
because of
the excessive exposure
1783
01:29:53,805 --> 01:29:57,391
to radioactive fallout
while on location?
1784
01:29:57,475 --> 01:30:00,019
When he was uh,
very well known
1785
01:30:00,103 --> 01:30:04,941
even at that time
to be a very heavy smoker,
1786
01:30:05,024 --> 01:30:09,195
as were some of the other cast
and crew members.
1787
01:30:09,278 --> 01:30:11,114
How does one determine that?
1788
01:30:11,948 --> 01:30:14,659
NARRATOR:Five years before he died,
John Wayne gave an interview
1789
01:30:14,742 --> 01:30:16,828
to biographer, Michael Munn,
1790
01:30:16,911 --> 01:30:18,037
where he discussed
the connection
1791
01:30:18,121 --> 01:30:20,498
between The Conquerorand cancer.
1792
01:30:20,581 --> 01:30:24,252
True to his patriotic roots,
he denied a connection.
1793
01:30:24,335 --> 01:30:26,921
“All I can tell you
is that I smoked,
1794
01:30:27,004 --> 01:30:28,339
so did Dick Powell,
1795
01:30:28,422 --> 01:30:29,966
so did Susan Hayward,
1796
01:30:30,049 --> 01:30:31,467
so did Pedro.
1797
01:30:31,551 --> 01:30:33,427
And I guess you can say that
in those days,
1798
01:30:33,511 --> 01:30:36,180
at least 50%
of the population smoked.
1799
01:30:38,099 --> 01:30:39,809
As for developing
nuclear weapons,
1800
01:30:39,892 --> 01:30:41,102
we had to.
1801
01:30:41,185 --> 01:30:43,729
Russia had developed
its own atom bomb
1802
01:30:43,813 --> 01:30:45,231
and when Stalin was alive,
1803
01:30:45,314 --> 01:30:47,608
he was mad enough
to threaten the world.
1804
01:30:49,068 --> 01:30:50,653
As for The Conqueror,
1805
01:30:50,736 --> 01:30:53,781
the lesson of that film is
don't make an ass of yourself
1806
01:30:53,865 --> 01:30:56,451
trying to play a part that
you aren't suited for.”
1807
01:31:01,289 --> 01:31:02,248
In recent years,
1808
01:31:02,331 --> 01:31:05,460
there has been growing concern
that cases of cancer occurring
1809
01:31:05,543 --> 01:31:07,128
in the state of Utah,
1810
01:31:07,211 --> 01:31:08,963
may be related
to the nuclear tests
1811
01:31:09,046 --> 01:31:12,592
in the neighboring state
of Nevada in the ‘50s and ‘60s.
1812
01:31:12,675 --> 01:31:14,552
Today,
a major scientific attempt
1813
01:31:14,635 --> 01:31:17,513
to study the possible cause
and effect relationship
1814
01:31:17,597 --> 01:31:20,057
is published in the New England
Journal of Medicine.
1815
01:31:20,141 --> 01:31:22,685
The study finds that
the leukemia rate for children
1816
01:31:22,768 --> 01:31:25,438
living in areas which received
heavy fallout
1817
01:31:25,521 --> 01:31:26,814
was two in one half times
1818
01:31:26,898 --> 01:31:29,192
the rate for children
not exposed.
1819
01:31:29,275 --> 01:31:32,945
Dr. Lyon, you are 80% convinced based on your study,
1820
01:31:33,029 --> 01:31:34,488
that there is a link
between leukemia
1821
01:31:34,572 --> 01:31:36,115
and the children,
and the atomic test.
1822
01:31:36,199 --> 01:31:38,201
Is that correct, sir?
1823
01:31:38,284 --> 01:31:40,912
I'd say
that's a correct statement.
1824
01:31:40,995 --> 01:31:43,873
What keeps you from being
100% sure?
1825
01:31:43,956 --> 01:31:46,292
The nature of epidemiologic
research
1826
01:31:46,375 --> 01:31:48,377
which makes it hard for us,
1827
01:31:48,461 --> 01:31:49,587
particularly
in a case like this,
1828
01:31:49,670 --> 01:31:50,463
where we would--
1829
01:31:50,546 --> 01:31:53,507
did not have precise follow-up
of all the individuals
1830
01:31:53,591 --> 01:31:56,260
in the study, uh,
to know whether this--
1831
01:31:56,344 --> 01:31:57,553
this occurred,
1832
01:31:57,637 --> 01:32:00,765
because of the radiation
or was some other chance factor.
1833
01:32:00,848 --> 01:32:04,518
Did not study any possible link
involving adults?
1834
01:32:04,602 --> 01:32:05,603
Is that correct?
1835
01:32:05,686 --> 01:32:06,270
That's correct.
1836
01:32:06,354 --> 01:32:07,104
And we didn't do that,
1837
01:32:07,188 --> 01:32:09,649
because we simply
don't have a group of people,
1838
01:32:09,732 --> 01:32:12,443
uh, of adults in the state
of Utah, who are not exposed.
1839
01:32:13,402 --> 01:32:15,321
A lot of times we forget
1840
01:32:15,404 --> 01:32:18,908
that every girl is born
with every egg
1841
01:32:18,991 --> 01:32:21,285
she's ever gonna have.
1842
01:32:21,369 --> 01:32:24,288
A radiation exposure
to a woman who is pregnant
1843
01:32:24,372 --> 01:32:27,833
has the potential
to impact the woman
1844
01:32:27,917 --> 01:32:29,794
who is pregnant,
1845
01:32:29,877 --> 01:32:33,005
her fetus or embryo,
1846
01:32:33,089 --> 01:32:37,176
and if it's a fetus
with fully-formed ovaries
1847
01:32:37,260 --> 01:32:42,098
then the ova that will become
that woman's grandchildren.
1848
01:32:45,142 --> 01:32:48,437
Our youngest child, Bethany, was just
1849
01:32:48,521 --> 01:32:51,148
a beautiful, delightful child.
1850
01:32:51,232 --> 01:32:53,567
The minute she was born,
1851
01:32:53,651 --> 01:32:57,196
I just couldn't get enough
of this child.
1852
01:32:57,280 --> 01:33:02,785
I loved everything about her.
1853
01:33:02,868 --> 01:33:10,376
Bethany started to complain
that her legs hurt
1854
01:33:10,459 --> 01:33:13,754
and she didn't wanna play.
1855
01:33:13,838 --> 01:33:17,758
She was lethargic
and the doctor said to me,
1856
01:33:17,842 --> 01:33:21,762
“I can promise you nothing's
wrong with this child.
1857
01:33:21,846 --> 01:33:23,889
She's just constipated.”
1858
01:33:23,973 --> 01:33:25,224
And so, I just--
1859
01:33:25,308 --> 01:33:28,769
My mom and I just packed her up
in the middle of the night,
1860
01:33:28,853 --> 01:33:31,230
and took her to the ER,
1861
01:33:31,314 --> 01:33:33,274
and they started
to do some tests.
1862
01:33:33,357 --> 01:33:37,069
And I was down in the library
1863
01:33:37,153 --> 01:33:39,864
and they called me back
to her room.
1864
01:33:41,032 --> 01:33:44,785
And when I hit the end
of the floor,
1865
01:33:44,869 --> 01:33:49,874
I could see these doctors
lined up outside of her room
1866
01:33:49,957 --> 01:33:54,920
and it was just like I was being
sucked down a hollow.
1867
01:33:55,004 --> 01:33:58,799
There were just lined up
to talk to me.
1868
01:33:58,883 --> 01:34:02,261
And I just up curled up on--
on her bed,
1869
01:34:02,345 --> 01:34:06,015
‘cause she wasn't back yet,
and put a pillow over my head,
1870
01:34:06,098 --> 01:34:08,017
and I just said, “I don't--
I-- I can't.
1871
01:34:08,100 --> 01:34:10,186
I don't wanna hear it,
I don't wanna hear it.”
1872
01:34:11,979 --> 01:34:16,400
She had neuroblastoma
stage four.
1873
01:34:16,484 --> 01:34:19,487
I was devastated,
1874
01:34:19,570 --> 01:34:22,573
‘cause I knew it meant
that she would die.
1875
01:34:26,535 --> 01:34:30,164
She had a tumor the size
of an orange
1876
01:34:30,247 --> 01:34:35,419
in her little tiny tummy
and a nine-hour surgery,
1877
01:34:35,503 --> 01:34:40,257
and seven hours of radiation,
and was off-treatment
1878
01:34:40,341 --> 01:34:43,427
making medical history.
1879
01:34:43,511 --> 01:34:46,263
And she was gonna get to go
back to school.
1880
01:34:48,432 --> 01:34:53,687
And then she got sick again.
1881
01:34:55,439 --> 01:34:57,525
We went to Salt Lake
1882
01:34:57,608 --> 01:35:03,406
and found out she had
acute monoblastic leukemia.
1883
01:35:03,489 --> 01:35:06,033
But at the same time,
my sister was really sick.
1884
01:35:06,117 --> 01:35:09,662
She had melanoma that had
spread everywhere.
1885
01:35:09,745 --> 01:35:11,789
And so Bethany
and I went to the hospital
1886
01:35:11,872 --> 01:35:15,501
and said goodbye to Cathy,
and we went to Salt Lake
1887
01:35:15,584 --> 01:35:17,962
and they wanted to start chemo.
1888
01:35:18,045 --> 01:35:19,046
And I said,
1889
01:35:19,130 --> 01:35:23,926
“Well, we need to go home first
and then we'll come back.”
1890
01:35:24,009 --> 01:35:25,719
Got home about 2:00
in the morning,
1891
01:35:25,803 --> 01:35:28,180
and the hospital called
about five minutes
1892
01:35:28,264 --> 01:35:31,767
after I got home and said,
Cathy was in a coma.
1893
01:35:34,937 --> 01:35:38,649
So, I went to the hospital
1894
01:35:38,732 --> 01:35:40,609
and I just crawled on the bed
with Cathy,
1895
01:35:40,693 --> 01:35:41,318
and I just said,
1896
01:35:41,402 --> 01:35:44,780
“Right, you're just gonna have
to come
1897
01:35:44,864 --> 01:35:46,699
and take Bethany with you,
1898
01:35:46,782 --> 01:35:50,703
because I just can't let her go
by herself.
1899
01:35:51,620 --> 01:35:54,081
You're gonna have to be there
with her.”
1900
01:35:56,709 --> 01:35:58,794
Cathy died.
1901
01:36:01,130 --> 01:36:03,757
Without ever even making a move.
1902
01:36:05,718 --> 01:36:11,765
Bethany spent a month
on chemotherapy
1903
01:36:11,849 --> 01:36:15,519
and she died a month later.
1904
01:36:15,603 --> 01:36:18,522
She was 6.
1905
01:36:18,606 --> 01:36:21,859
The night before she died,
she said to me,
1906
01:36:21,942 --> 01:36:28,908
“Oh mom, there's Aunt Cathy
dancing on the table.”
1907
01:36:28,991 --> 01:36:32,286
So, I knew Cathy had come
to take her.
1908
01:36:41,504 --> 01:36:46,217
I was secretary
to Mayor James G. Larkin.
1909
01:36:46,300 --> 01:36:47,968
In 1978,
1910
01:36:48,052 --> 01:36:53,807
the Atomic Energy Commission
invited the mayor of St. George
1911
01:36:53,891 --> 01:36:58,395
to bring a bus full of people
to the Nevada test site.
1912
01:36:58,479 --> 01:37:01,815
I had the opportunity
to go out there.
1913
01:37:01,899 --> 01:37:04,860
An arts magazine I was freelancing for
1914
01:37:04,944 --> 01:37:05,736
called me and said,
1915
01:37:05,819 --> 01:37:08,322
“There's a photojournalist
coming to town
1916
01:37:08,405 --> 01:37:09,907
who's been photographing
1917
01:37:09,990 --> 01:37:12,326
and taking histories
of downwinders.
1918
01:37:12,409 --> 01:37:14,119
And we want you
to do a piece.”
1919
01:37:14,203 --> 01:37:18,707
So, I spent time with her
and she would tell--
1920
01:37:18,791 --> 01:37:21,168
She started telling me
about all the diseases
1921
01:37:21,252 --> 01:37:23,546
that were caused
by fallout exposure.
1922
01:37:23,629 --> 01:37:27,675
And she ticked them off
and she got to thyroid cancer.
1923
01:37:27,758 --> 01:37:31,637
And I just stopped and said,
“Oh, I had thyroid cancer.”
1924
01:37:31,720 --> 01:37:35,015
Redbook Magazine had-- had done
an article
1925
01:37:35,099 --> 01:37:39,937
while Bethany was um,
on treatment.
1926
01:37:40,020 --> 01:37:42,606
And I was invited
1927
01:37:42,690 --> 01:37:46,527
to the first radiation victims
conference in New York.
1928
01:37:46,610 --> 01:37:51,323
I had no clue that these things
were going on.
1929
01:37:51,407 --> 01:37:52,908
We stayed one night.
1930
01:37:52,992 --> 01:37:56,537
They put us up
at a very nice hotel
1931
01:37:56,620 --> 01:38:01,166
and that night they fed us steak
and lobster.
1932
01:38:01,250 --> 01:38:01,834
Then I thought,
1933
01:38:01,917 --> 01:38:03,252
“Well, why would
they feed us that?
1934
01:38:03,335 --> 01:38:05,254
They could have given us
hot dogs and hamburgers
1935
01:38:05,337 --> 01:38:06,839
and we would've been fine.”
1936
01:38:06,922 --> 01:38:08,215
That's when she started
questioning me.
1937
01:38:08,299 --> 01:38:09,466
She's like, “Well, when?”
1938
01:38:09,550 --> 01:38:11,677
And I told her.
“Well, where'd you grow up?”
1939
01:38:11,760 --> 01:38:12,595
I said, “Salt Lake.”
1940
01:38:12,678 --> 01:38:13,596
“Did you drink milk?”
1941
01:38:13,679 --> 01:38:14,346
I said, “Oh yeah,
1942
01:38:14,430 --> 01:38:17,099
and sometimes we'd go
to my grandfather's
1943
01:38:17,182 --> 01:38:18,601
and we'd drink it straight
from the cow.”
1944
01:38:18,684 --> 01:38:19,727
And she just kind of stopped.
1945
01:38:19,810 --> 01:38:23,230
And she said,
“I wanna interview you.
1946
01:38:23,314 --> 01:38:25,482
You got thyroid cancer
from testing.”
1947
01:38:25,899 --> 01:38:28,319
When we got out to the test site,
1948
01:38:28,402 --> 01:38:30,154
it was barren desert.
1949
01:38:30,237 --> 01:38:33,574
But there were many, many
huge craters.
1950
01:38:33,657 --> 01:38:37,870
Way bigger
than I had ever imagined.
1951
01:38:37,953 --> 01:38:40,623
But the whole time,
they were convincing us
1952
01:38:40,706 --> 01:38:42,875
about how important the work
was out there,
1953
01:38:42,958 --> 01:38:45,711
how safe it was,
how good it was.
1954
01:38:45,794 --> 01:38:48,631
And I look back at it now
and it was just a PR program,
1955
01:38:48,714 --> 01:38:50,299
where just they tried
to shut us up.
1956
01:38:50,382 --> 01:38:51,300
“No, no, no, no.
1957
01:38:51,383 --> 01:38:54,428
I grew up in Salt Lake,
not Southern Utah.”
1958
01:38:54,511 --> 01:38:56,680
And she said,
“You people are so naive.
1959
01:38:56,764 --> 01:38:59,433
You think it stopped
at borders of counties
1960
01:38:59,516 --> 01:39:00,768
and states.”
1961
01:39:00,851 --> 01:39:04,313
And that's when she showed me
the map by Richard Miller
1962
01:39:04,396 --> 01:39:06,940
of everywhere that fallout
had gone.
1963
01:39:07,024 --> 01:39:10,110
And it was like being punched
in the gut.
1964
01:39:10,194 --> 01:39:12,738
And I thought, “Oh my God.
1965
01:39:12,821 --> 01:39:15,115
I'm-- I'm one of them.
1966
01:39:15,199 --> 01:39:16,492
I'm a downwinder.”
1967
01:39:16,575 --> 01:39:20,788
One of our congressman,
Jim Hansen,
1968
01:39:20,871 --> 01:39:23,624
when I sat down
and talked to him,
1969
01:39:23,707 --> 01:39:27,378
he had the audacity
to say to me,
1970
01:39:27,461 --> 01:39:32,383
“Sometimes small sacrifices
have to be made.”
1971
01:39:32,466 --> 01:39:36,845
And he knew the minute
he'd said it what he'd said.
1972
01:39:36,929 --> 01:39:38,555
And I'm going, “The sac--
1973
01:39:38,639 --> 01:39:42,267
the small sacrifice you're
asking is my daughter.
1974
01:39:42,351 --> 01:39:45,646
And it wasn't your sacrifice
to make.”
1975
01:39:46,063 --> 01:39:49,358
All of the people in St. George that were leaders,
1976
01:39:49,441 --> 01:39:52,069
they all knew that we were
gonna go out there
1977
01:39:52,152 --> 01:39:53,987
and be wined and dined,
1978
01:39:54,071 --> 01:40:00,369
and fed a bunch of garbage
to try to get us to be quiet.
1979
01:40:00,452 --> 01:40:01,704
And it did the opposite.
1980
01:40:01,787 --> 01:40:05,082
I am going to shout it
from the rooftops.
1981
01:40:05,165 --> 01:40:09,378
I'm not going
to be silent anymore.
1982
01:40:10,337 --> 01:40:14,717
Then we got organized.
1983
01:40:14,800 --> 01:40:16,802
You and your family must take cover.
1984
01:40:25,394 --> 01:40:27,438
Mr. Udall,
what is the basis of the claims
1985
01:40:27,521 --> 01:40:28,856
your clients are making?
1986
01:40:28,939 --> 01:40:31,650
Uh, their claims are based
on the fact that they were
1987
01:40:31,734 --> 01:40:32,735
US citizens.
1988
01:40:35,404 --> 01:40:37,114
Who were not warned
1989
01:40:37,197 --> 01:40:38,949
about what the government
was doing.
1990
01:40:39,032 --> 01:40:40,659
And that it was dangerous
to them
1991
01:40:40,743 --> 01:40:42,870
and this was inflicted
upon them.
1992
01:40:43,787 --> 01:40:44,788
The sub committee says
1993
01:40:44,872 --> 01:40:46,749
Congress should pass
a special law.
1994
01:40:48,417 --> 01:40:50,669
Warren Hatch finally came to me and said,
1995
01:40:50,753 --> 01:40:53,046
“So what's your wishlist?”
1996
01:40:53,130 --> 01:40:55,048
I said, “Very good.
1997
01:40:55,132 --> 01:40:56,300
It's about time.”
1998
01:40:57,217 --> 01:41:01,096
NARRATOR:In 1991,
the US Congress finally passed
1999
01:41:01,180 --> 01:41:04,975
the Radiation Exposure
Compensation Act,
2000
01:41:05,058 --> 01:41:07,186
also known as RECA.
2001
01:41:07,269 --> 01:41:08,979
Today, the House
of Representatives
2002
01:41:09,062 --> 01:41:11,273
restores our nation's honor
2003
01:41:11,356 --> 01:41:12,983
by holding
the American government
2004
01:41:13,067 --> 01:41:16,028
responsible
for Cold War abuses,
2005
01:41:16,111 --> 01:41:18,614
which stained
our collective consciences
2006
01:41:18,697 --> 01:41:21,116
by causing death
and injury to its own people.
2007
01:41:25,120 --> 01:41:28,457
♪ Looking for the black gas ♪
2008
01:41:28,540 --> 01:41:31,043
♪ Switch up your seal ♪
2009
01:41:31,126 --> 01:41:33,295
NARRATOR:The bill would provide
tiered compensation
2010
01:41:33,378 --> 01:41:35,923
for individuals affected
by nuclear testing
2011
01:41:36,006 --> 01:41:37,466
from onsite workers
2012
01:41:37,549 --> 01:41:40,177
to those living
in downwind communities.
2013
01:41:40,260 --> 01:41:41,929
The areas covered by the bill
are limited
2014
01:41:42,012 --> 01:41:43,972
to just 22 counties.
2015
01:41:45,182 --> 01:41:47,059
Also listed are the diseases
2016
01:41:47,142 --> 01:41:50,646
that would qualify a candidate
for payment.
2017
01:41:50,729 --> 01:41:54,441
The compensation is capped
at $50,000.
2018
01:41:54,525 --> 01:41:57,110
No children
or grandchildren are eligible.
2019
01:41:59,071 --> 01:42:01,824
The downwinder community
are lobbying Congress
2020
01:42:01,907 --> 01:42:03,200
to expand the bill,
2021
01:42:03,283 --> 01:42:06,537
both geographically
and generationally.
2022
01:42:06,620 --> 01:42:11,583
And they don't recognize
any second generation cancers.
2023
01:42:11,667 --> 01:42:14,920
I would like to amend the bill.
2024
01:42:15,003 --> 01:42:17,798
People got $50,000.
2025
01:42:17,881 --> 01:42:19,925
So, is that
what a human life's worth?
2026
01:42:20,008 --> 01:42:22,427
$50,000.
2027
01:42:22,511 --> 01:42:24,388
It doesn't cover your chemo.
2028
01:42:24,471 --> 01:42:27,558
I filed seven times
for my dad's compensation
2029
01:42:27,641 --> 01:42:29,560
for my mother to get that.
2030
01:42:29,643 --> 01:42:33,522
They said you can't prove
that your dad lived
2031
01:42:33,605 --> 01:42:35,774
in Southern Utah.
2032
01:42:35,858 --> 01:42:38,443
I went through the downwinder
questioning period
2033
01:42:38,527 --> 01:42:42,406
and so forth,
and ended up collecting $50,000.
2034
01:42:43,365 --> 01:42:48,412
Yes, it was a good amount,
but I would much rather have--
2035
01:42:48,495 --> 01:42:51,582
have my parents, you know,
still have them.
2036
01:42:51,665 --> 01:42:55,294
I am personally flabbergasted
at the fact
2037
01:42:55,377 --> 01:42:57,254
that anybody would think
2038
01:42:57,337 --> 01:43:00,924
that handing my mother a check
for $50,000
2039
01:43:01,008 --> 01:43:02,968
replaces my dad.
2040
01:43:03,051 --> 01:43:05,888
But what it does do
is it admits guilt.
2041
01:43:05,971 --> 01:43:08,473
The Radiation Exposure Compensation Act
2042
01:43:08,557 --> 01:43:10,142
was a-- a step.
2043
01:43:10,225 --> 01:43:12,436
It was an important step.
2044
01:43:12,519 --> 01:43:14,938
It never went far enough.
2045
01:43:15,314 --> 01:43:17,858
NARRATOR:A group that did not
initially benefit from RECA
2046
01:43:17,941 --> 01:43:19,318
was the Shivwit tribe.
2047
01:43:19,401 --> 01:43:22,362
We had a lot of native Americans
2048
01:43:22,446 --> 01:43:26,909
but a lot of the people
that lived here
2049
01:43:26,992 --> 01:43:28,744
didn't have any records.
2050
01:43:28,827 --> 01:43:30,579
Didn't keep records.
2051
01:43:30,662 --> 01:43:33,999
Couldn't really prove
where they were.
2052
01:43:34,082 --> 01:43:36,919
And so the compensation
was difficult to get.
2053
01:43:37,002 --> 01:43:39,671
I believe that a lot of them
got sick, uh,
2054
01:43:39,755 --> 01:43:41,214
after the movie.
2055
01:43:41,298 --> 01:43:43,759
It was difficult to find out
what happened to them.
2056
01:43:43,842 --> 01:43:46,511
We weren't able, I don't think,
to go to their tribe
2057
01:43:46,595 --> 01:43:48,347
and get the information
that we needed.
2058
01:43:49,681 --> 01:43:53,435
NARRATOR:The Harry test deposited
more radioactive fallout
2059
01:43:53,518 --> 01:43:57,689
over areas of the United States
than any other test.
2060
01:43:57,773 --> 01:43:59,608
With the largest accumulation
2061
01:43:59,691 --> 01:44:03,153
having fallen in the vicinity
of St. George, Utah.
2062
01:44:03,570 --> 01:44:05,447
The issue of fallout is--
2063
01:44:05,530 --> 01:44:09,409
is relevant today, uh,
as it's ever been.
2064
01:44:09,493 --> 01:44:12,329
Radiation can last
for tens of thousands of years.
2065
01:44:13,622 --> 01:44:17,668
The Trinity test,
the world's first atomic test
2066
01:44:17,751 --> 01:44:22,089
generated radiation
that circled the globe.
2067
01:44:22,172 --> 01:44:26,510
There was radiation detected
in milk in Chicago.
2068
01:44:26,593 --> 01:44:30,472
So, from the very beginning
of the nuclear age,
2069
01:44:30,555 --> 01:44:33,392
everyone involved was aware
that radiation moves.
2070
01:44:33,475 --> 01:44:36,186
NARRATOR:The National Cancer Institution
has determined
2071
01:44:36,269 --> 01:44:40,273
that the entire population
of the US in the 1950s
2072
01:44:40,357 --> 01:44:43,986
received on average
a dose of thyroid radiation
2073
01:44:44,069 --> 01:44:48,323
around 20 times greater than
normal background radiation.
2074
01:44:48,407 --> 01:44:50,075
Their report also states
2075
01:44:50,158 --> 01:44:53,245
that this radiation could
result in an added 10,000
2076
01:44:53,328 --> 01:44:56,665
to 75,000 cases
of thyroid cancer.
2077
01:45:08,885 --> 01:45:12,931
The vast majority of downwinders
will never know they were.
2078
01:45:13,015 --> 01:45:14,850
They'll never know.
2079
01:45:14,933 --> 01:45:18,020
Um, but there were a lot more
of ‘em
2080
01:45:18,103 --> 01:45:19,771
than anybody ever thought.
2081
01:45:21,106 --> 01:45:22,441
NARRATOR:In 1992,
2082
01:45:22,524 --> 01:45:26,486
the United States ended
a nuclear test moratorium.
2083
01:45:26,570 --> 01:45:29,531
The US Congress apologized
to the downwinders
2084
01:45:29,614 --> 01:45:31,366
on behalf of the nation.
2085
01:45:56,308 --> 01:45:59,770
Beth, your tree needs some water.
2086
01:46:02,314 --> 01:46:07,652
Bethany, I miss you everyday.
2087
01:46:09,738 --> 01:46:11,782
Every single day.
2088
01:46:21,458 --> 01:46:24,836
The whole cemetery is full
of people
2089
01:46:24,920 --> 01:46:31,051
that have lost their lives
from what our own government
2090
01:46:31,134 --> 01:46:32,302
did to us.
2091
01:46:32,385 --> 01:46:35,889
There's a lot of sorrow
and suffering that were--
2092
01:46:35,972 --> 01:46:42,395
was unnecessary right here
that didn't need to happen.
2093
01:46:42,479 --> 01:46:46,733
And we're not so naïve as
to think people don't get sick,
2094
01:46:46,817 --> 01:46:48,610
but not in the numbers.
2095
01:46:48,693 --> 01:46:52,322
And now the second generations
and the third generations
2096
01:46:52,405 --> 01:46:54,741
is not normal.
2097
01:46:54,825 --> 01:46:56,034
If something's wrong,
2098
01:46:56,118 --> 01:46:59,412
you don't just walk by
and let it happen.
2099
01:46:59,496 --> 01:47:00,413
You fix it.
2100
01:47:03,792 --> 01:47:06,253
We're losing the history
of what happened
2101
01:47:06,336 --> 01:47:07,796
at the test site.
2102
01:47:09,422 --> 01:47:12,884
We're losing the stories,
because people are dying.
2103
01:47:14,719 --> 01:47:16,847
We have to tell our stories.
2104
01:47:16,930 --> 01:47:20,058
If we don't tell our stories,
nobody's gonna care.
2105
01:47:20,142 --> 01:47:23,061
We have to talk about
what happened to us,
2106
01:47:23,145 --> 01:47:24,479
because to me,
2107
01:47:24,563 --> 01:47:27,440
story is like
the most powerful tool we have.
2108
01:47:27,524 --> 01:47:29,192
You can have all the facts
you want
2109
01:47:29,276 --> 01:47:30,318
and give them facts,
2110
01:47:30,402 --> 01:47:33,363
but it's the story that's gonna
get to them.
2111
01:47:37,117 --> 01:47:40,078
NARRATOR:Howard Hughes did not live
to see the downwinders’ fight
2112
01:47:40,162 --> 01:47:42,330
for justice prevail.
2113
01:47:42,414 --> 01:47:43,999
The great aviator died
in a flight back
2114
01:47:44,082 --> 01:47:47,169
to the United States
for medical treatment.
2115
01:47:47,252 --> 01:47:49,337
That he died while
on an airplane,
2116
01:47:49,421 --> 01:47:51,381
where he was perhaps
the happiest,
2117
01:47:51,464 --> 01:47:53,258
seems like a fitting end
2118
01:47:53,341 --> 01:47:56,595
to one of America's most
enigmatic figures.
2119
01:48:01,183 --> 01:48:03,393
HUNLUN:My son,
a miracle has been wrought!
2120
01:48:03,476 --> 01:48:04,895
You live!
2121
01:48:05,604 --> 01:48:07,939
BORTAI:I know the nature of this man.
2122
01:48:08,023 --> 01:48:10,942
No torture will persuade him
like a woman's gentleness.
2123
01:48:13,195 --> 01:48:14,946
JAMUGA:Will bring sorrow between me
and him,
2124
01:48:15,030 --> 01:48:17,115
and disaster upon his people.
2125
01:48:18,533 --> 01:48:21,870
TEMUJIN:There are moments for action
then I listen to my blood.
2126
01:48:24,664 --> 01:48:27,667
NARRATOR:Several years
after Howard Hughes' death
2127
01:48:27,751 --> 01:48:31,004
and over 25 years
after it was filmed,
2128
01:48:31,087 --> 01:48:34,966
The Conqueror would finally
be re released.
2129
01:48:35,467 --> 01:48:40,180
Most would agree it was not
worth the wait.
2130
01:48:41,097 --> 01:48:43,225
I take you for a wife.
2131
01:48:43,308 --> 01:48:44,893
I think the legacy of The Conqueror,
2132
01:48:44,976 --> 01:48:48,480
if anything is,
as bad as a movie it was,
2133
01:48:48,563 --> 01:48:52,651
if it did anything,
it helped create a movement.
2134
01:48:52,734 --> 01:48:54,736
It certainly did raise
the profile
2135
01:48:54,819 --> 01:48:57,822
that something was going
on in St. George
2136
01:48:57,906 --> 01:48:59,783
and in
the surrounding community.
2137
01:48:59,866 --> 01:49:03,119
The fact that it was filmed in Utah,
2138
01:49:03,203 --> 01:49:05,538
downwind of where
this nuclear fallout came
2139
01:49:05,622 --> 01:49:07,082
from this nuclear testing,
2140
01:49:07,165 --> 01:49:09,334
that makes the movie relevant
and interesting,
2141
01:49:09,417 --> 01:49:12,128
and that backstory to that
is probably more fascinating
2142
01:49:12,212 --> 01:49:13,713
than the movie itself.
2143
01:49:13,797 --> 01:49:15,465
Coming to terms with The Conqueror
2144
01:49:15,548 --> 01:49:17,926
and the nuclear tests,
2145
01:49:18,009 --> 01:49:22,597
might remind us that some
of the nuclear dangers
2146
01:49:22,681 --> 01:49:27,644
that we were being terrified
about as little kids
2147
01:49:27,727 --> 01:49:29,312
have not entirely disappeared.
2148
01:49:33,483 --> 01:49:36,152
NARRATOR:Whatever happened
to the 60 tonnes of sand,
2149
01:49:36,236 --> 01:49:37,904
that were shipped
from Snow Canyon
2150
01:49:37,988 --> 01:49:41,157
to Studio 15 on the RKO lot?
2151
01:49:41,241 --> 01:49:42,617
Opinions differ.
2152
01:49:43,243 --> 01:49:47,163
I remember a few years back, we went over to RKO Studios
2153
01:49:47,247 --> 01:49:50,709
and there was still a big pile
of this dirt on the backlot
2154
01:49:50,792 --> 01:49:52,127
at RKO, and we went there
2155
01:49:52,210 --> 01:49:56,214
and it was still radioactive
from, you know,
2156
01:49:56,298 --> 01:49:57,507
two decades before.
2157
01:49:57,590 --> 01:49:59,718
So, it was kind of spooky
and scary.
2158
01:49:59,801 --> 01:50:01,803
Michael Wayne went with me.
2159
01:50:01,886 --> 01:50:05,974
It was the middle of the night
when we went to the back lot
2160
01:50:06,057 --> 01:50:08,059
and it was still hot.
2161
01:50:08,143 --> 01:50:09,185
I believe,
2162
01:50:09,269 --> 01:50:12,105
as the guy that went in there
with a Geiger counter,
2163
01:50:12,188 --> 01:50:12,689
that--
2164
01:50:14,065 --> 01:50:15,775
That um, it's still there.
2165
01:50:15,859 --> 01:50:17,694
Later I was told
and read that,
2166
01:50:17,777 --> 01:50:21,031
all this was removed
and brought to the Baldwin Hills
2167
01:50:21,114 --> 01:50:23,408
right over the La Ballona Creek
in Culver City
2168
01:50:23,491 --> 01:50:24,576
where it is now.
2169
01:50:24,659 --> 01:50:25,410
Where is it there?
2170
01:50:25,493 --> 01:50:25,952
We--
2171
01:50:26,036 --> 01:50:27,203
Nobody knows what the sand
is there.
2172
01:50:27,954 --> 01:50:30,040
Not only was it taken
to Culver City,
2173
01:50:30,123 --> 01:50:32,459
it was dumped out
in Simi Valley, where my uh--
2174
01:50:32,542 --> 01:50:34,377
my youngest daughter lives.
2175
01:50:34,461 --> 01:50:35,503
Where do you get rid of it?
2176
01:50:35,587 --> 01:50:37,839
I mean,
where are you gonna put it?
2177
01:50:37,922 --> 01:50:40,508
My dad's idea was how
about when those big caves
2178
01:50:40,592 --> 01:50:41,843
where you dug out the arraign?
2179
01:50:41,926 --> 01:50:44,637
How about putting the stuff
back in there?
2180
01:50:44,721 --> 01:50:45,930
Makes sense to me.
2181
01:51:50,829 --> 01:51:56,709
♪ Well, you say you got
the blues ♪
2182
01:51:56,793 --> 01:51:59,712
♪ You got holes in both
of your shoes ♪
2183
01:51:59,796 --> 01:52:00,964
♪ Yeah ♪
2184
01:52:01,047 --> 01:52:04,426
♪ You're feelin' alone
and confused ♪
2185
01:52:04,509 --> 01:52:09,347
♪ You got to keep on smilin',
just keep on smilin' ♪
2186
01:52:09,431 --> 01:52:15,145
♪ Yeah,
you're about to go insane ♪
2187
01:52:15,228 --> 01:52:20,024
♪ ‘Cause your woman's
playing games ♪
2188
01:52:20,108 --> 01:52:23,027
♪ And she said that
you're to blame, ♪
2189
01:52:23,111 --> 01:52:27,824
♪ You got to keep smilin',
just keep on smilin' ♪
2190
01:52:27,907 --> 01:52:34,664
♪ Keep on smiling
through the rain ♪
2191
01:52:34,747 --> 01:52:39,169
Laughin' at the pain ♪
2192
01:52:39,252 --> 01:52:46,634
♪ Just rollin' with the changes
till the sun comes out again ♪
2193
01:52:46,718 --> 01:52:53,433
♪ Keep on smilin'
through the rain ♪
2194
01:52:53,516 --> 01:52:57,854
♪ Laughin' at the pain ♪
2195
01:52:57,937 --> 01:53:04,944
♪ Just rollin' with the changes
and singin' this refrain ♪
2196
01:53:07,113 --> 01:53:11,534
♪ Singin' in a honky tonk cafe ♪
2197
01:53:11,618 --> 01:53:14,537
♪ Nobody's hearin'
what you play ♪
2198
01:53:14,621 --> 01:53:15,705
♪ Yeah ♪
2199
01:53:15,788 --> 01:53:19,042
♪ They're too busy drinkin'
anyway ♪
2200
01:53:19,125 --> 01:53:21,544
♪ You got to keep on smilin' ♪
2201
01:53:21,628 --> 01:53:24,047
♪ Brother, keep on smilin' ♪
2202
01:53:24,130 --> 01:53:29,594
♪ You say you found a piece
of land ♪
2203
01:53:29,677 --> 01:53:32,972
♪ Gonna change from city boy
to country man ♪
2204
01:53:33,056 --> 01:53:34,349
♪ Yeah ♪
2205
01:53:34,432 --> 01:53:37,769
♪ Try to build your life
with your hands ♪
2206
01:53:37,852 --> 01:53:40,480
♪ And just keep on smilin' ♪
2207
01:53:40,563 --> 01:53:41,397
♪ Keep on smilin' ♪
159789
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