0:06

John Wayne needed to make a movie

0:09

any movie really that's

0:11

what it come to for the Duke back

0:13

in 1954.

0:18

It

0:18

spent the past 2 decades building

0:21

his brand in Westerns going

0:24

from a little use bit player to the

0:26

biggest star of the 50's a

0:28

living breathing avatar of American

0:31

values. Some of those movies were

0:33

good. Some were not. I

0:36

return the horse. But let

0:38

the fate of its writer be a warning

0:41

to anyone who attempts

0:43

to enter the Sally and mine signed

0:46

the fan.

0:49

But they all seem to send the same

0:51

message. If you had a flag

0:53

to salute a war to fight or Native

0:56

American to kill Wayne was your

0:58

man.

0:59

Most people believe that he actually was

1:01

a cowboy because he played a cowboy

1:05

or a gunslinger or an outlaw or just a

1:08

Western hero over and over in at least 100

1:10

movies.

1:11

That's Ryan who do Willie Gantt. He

1:14

wrote Killing John Wayne the

1:17

book on the Duke's death. And

1:19

he's going to walk us through this unbelievable

1:22

story.

1:23

So he really wore this image and wore

1:25

the costuming and everywhere he went he would

1:27

have a hat and boots. And so people

1:30

definitely projected that image

1:32

onto him. And

1:34

they weren't alone. Wayne

1:36

bought into his own mythology lock

1:38

stock and barrel. He wasn't just

1:40

playing these characters. He really believed

1:43

this stuff that the West was

1:45

one not stolen.

1:47

But in the mid 50's something

1:49

had changed after two decades

1:52

of bloody battles on screen

1:54

and nonstop ascent. John

1:57

Wayne's schedule had come to a stand.

1:59

still. He still had his revolver

2:02

at the ready, but he needed a movie

2:04

to make.

2:06

Howard Hughes, the uber-wealthy playboy

2:09

and eccentric head of RKO Pictures, had blackmailed

2:13

Wayne into a three-picture deal,

2:16

refusing to release one of the stars

2:18

movies until he signed on the dotted

2:20

line. Now a half decade

2:22

later, Wayne was ready to shoot

2:24

just about anything to get his freedom back,

2:27

and in a sense that's exactly

2:29

what he did. One legend has

2:32

it he picked a script out of a trash

2:34

can in the RKO offices

2:36

and signed up sight unseen.

2:39

John Wayne

2:41

fished it out, he saw there was a script,

2:43

he flipped through it for a couple of minutes and

2:45

said, hmm, how about this?

2:49

The film was The Conqueror. The

2:52

concept was terrible.

2:54

The Duke would star as Genghis

2:57

Khan, the brutal warlord

2:59

who'd raped and pillaged his way across

3:02

multiple continents.

3:04

Not ideal casting for

3:06

the all-American movie star, but Wayne

3:08

was excited to shake up his

3:11

image. At least he was excited

3:13

for now.

3:15

The team behind the project was a who's

3:18

who a people Wayne shouldn't have been

3:20

working with. Oscar Millard,

3:22

the writer, knew next to nothing

3:25

about the Mongol emperor. Right

3:27

before the meeting, the legend goes he

3:29

was looking through an encyclopedia just

3:32

to bring himself to speed on

3:34

what the subject matter was and what

3:36

they were looking for. Still managed

3:38

to get the job and didn't do

3:41

much research after that.

3:43

Dick Powell, the director, knew next to

3:45

nothing about directing. He

3:47

was an actor, an old song and dance

3:49

man really, who directed a total

3:51

of one movie at that point. A

3:54

low budget thriller called Split Second

3:57

about a nuclear test disaster.

3:59

Mark irony of that will become

4:01

apparent very soon.

4:11

Now Powell had to oversee a huge sword

4:14

and sandal epic, one of the biggest

4:16

movies RKO had ever produced.

4:19

So a lot of people are saying that he's not equipped

4:21

and he doesn't have the experience to pull it all together.

4:24

Maybe someone should have listened to,

4:27

quote, a lot of people. But

4:30

most were just happy to have a job as

4:32

the industry hit tough times. And

4:34

so they all convinced themselves this

4:36

was actually the perfect John Wayne

4:39

movie. I mean, it checked

4:41

all the boxes, a conquering

4:43

alpha male on horseback,

4:46

swooping to kill some natives and take

4:48

their land,

4:49

a real Chinese

4:51

Western, as they took to calling it. Wayne

4:55

signed on, the money was lined up and

4:58

it was all coming together.

4:59

So in the spring of 1954, everyone's

5:02

in a mad frenzy doing the costumes

5:05

and the set design.

5:06

Sets that were a mishmash of different

5:08

regions and time periods, costumes

5:11

that prioritize cleavage over

5:13

credibility.

5:14

They wanted to actually go to Mongolia

5:17

to film this movie.

5:18

A lot of movies hadn't

5:20

been shot outside of

5:23

the US at this point in time. It was only just starting

5:25

to happen. So they were worried about

5:27

that. And then they decide, okay, it's gonna be too

5:29

expensive. So then they look in Death Valley, it's

5:31

gonna be too remote and too hot. So

5:33

when they're going over Utah,

5:36

they think, oh, this actually looks like a good

5:38

stand-in for the Gobi Desert.

5:40

They decided to shoot in an area

5:42

known as Snow Canyon with

5:44

its red sandstone formations.

5:46

It was a perfect match for

5:48

Mongolia. What's that? It in

5:51

no way resembles Mongolia.

5:54

Well, just go with it. They were in a

5:56

hurry and so were we. And

5:58

so mere weeks after. After green-lighting

6:00

the picture, they had their star,

6:03

they had their set, and they were ready

6:05

to

6:06

roll film. But

6:08

what they didn't know, couldn't know,

6:11

was that by picking that script out

6:13

of the trash, the Duke had

6:15

begun a deadly domino

6:17

effect. Because

6:19

The Conqueror wasn't just a lousy

6:22

movie, it was perhaps the deadliest

6:24

in Hollywood history.

6:27

They were about to shoot downwind

6:30

from a nuclear testing site, and

6:32

watch their cast and crew die

6:34

one by one.

6:39

I'm Adam McKay, and this is Death

6:41

on the Lot. Tonight, the fall

6:43

of the studio system, the rise

6:46

of the nuclear age, and the lives

6:48

caught in the fallout. This

6:51

is episode 8, the bomb

6:53

that killed John Wayne.

7:00

Hey there, this grating

7:02

voice is Chris Clemens here to tell you

7:04

about my podcast Unhinged with Chris

7:06

Clemens. On Unhinged, we dive into

7:08

pop culture news, listeners call in,

7:10

I even settle some of their debates, such as, my

7:12

boyfriend thinks he doesn't need to wash his legs, to

7:15

which I say, break up. I

7:17

mean, when I say it's unhinged, babe, I

7:19

mean it's unhinged. So if you need a little break

7:21

from the world and want to laugh, come hang out

7:23

with us on Unhinged with Chris Clemens. Alrighty,

7:26

I will let you get back to the episode that you actually wanted

7:28

to listen to.

7:33

Somewhere between Vegas and Salt

7:35

Lake City on a long, lonely

7:37

strip of US Interstate 91

7:40

lies St. George, Utah.

7:43

In the spring of 1954, it

7:46

was nothing more than a sleepy desert

7:48

oasis, a small-town

7:51

dream for the largely Mormon population,

7:54

surrounded by ranches, Native American

7:57

tribes, and a government testing

7:59

site

7:59

about 137 miles upwind.

8:04

Now, it was suddenly home to

8:07

the cast and crew of The Conqueror

8:10

and the biggest movie star in

8:12

the world.

8:14

Wayne

8:14

co-star Susan Hayward

8:17

and the principal cast had flown in

8:19

by charter plane and nearly

8:21

botched the landing thanks to 55 mile

8:24

per hour winds. It was an inauspicious

8:27

start. To make the remote location

8:30

work, the entire town was

8:32

basically commandeered. The

8:34

local high school was turned into a costume

8:37

shop. The Boy Scouts donated

8:39

chairs just so everyone had a place to

8:41

sit. So John Wayne is living in

8:43

someone's house

8:44

who decided to vacation during the summer.

8:46

Another person actually left to give

8:49

up their home for Susan Hayward to reside

8:51

in during the summer. That's Ryan

8:53

Oudawilligan. The cast

8:56

and crew are co-mingling with all

8:58

the people who reside in this town are

9:00

eating at the local restaurants, becoming friends,

9:03

even playing baseball games

9:05

with them. And at least at

9:07

first, it was a delightful time. And

9:10

so it becomes this very sweet,

9:13

happy

9:14

time to begin with because even

9:17

in John Wayne's words, he thought that this town

9:19

represented all the American small town

9:21

ideals that you see in movies

9:25

like classic movies that John

9:27

Wayne would make.

9:29

The problem started once the cast and crew

9:31

made the trek up the bumpy, half-constructed

9:34

road to Snow Canyon in a fleet

9:37

of borrowed school buses. For

9:39

one, everything, every costume, every

9:41

wig, every crack and crevice,

9:44

even the food they were eating was

9:46

covered in sand. There's a lot

9:48

of wind, high winds that

9:50

are

9:52

topping all of the food with this dust

9:54

and it's going into people's mouths and teeth.

9:56

They nicknamed it Utahn Chili

9:59

Powder.

9:59

because it was on everything. On the

10:02

rare days when the wind wasn't whipping

10:04

through the set, they used giant

10:06

fans to blow the sand back up so

10:09

the shots would match.

10:10

There was no escape. It's

10:13

also very hot because it's the summer, so they're dealing

10:15

with 120-degree Fahrenheit temperatures. There

10:18

was no shade in sight, so they

10:21

all stood out in the baking sun

10:23

for hours at a time.

10:25

Sunscreen was still a fairly new

10:27

concept in the States and hadn't

10:30

made its way to the edge of the hot Mojave

10:32

Desert. These folks were cooking

10:35

in their heavy fur costumes. People

10:37

began fainting and vomiting

10:39

from heat stroke,

10:41

and when they went to drink water, things

10:43

just got worse.

10:45

They have to construct everything, so there's

10:47

a well that they dig for cast

10:50

and crew to have water. But

10:52

when it did rain, the well would overflow

10:54

and delay production.

10:56

But

10:56

of course, the water is mixing with all of

10:59

the

11:00

sand and all

11:02

of the dust, and it's very

11:05

rough conditions. Understaffed

11:08

and stretched thin, some 700 locals

11:10

from St. George were hired to work on

11:12

the shoot.

11:13

And when that wasn't enough, members

11:16

of the local Paiute Native American

11:18

tribe were brought in for basically no

11:20

money to serve as extras.

11:23

The producers figured they could pass

11:26

as Mongolians in a pinch. Delays

11:29

were constant, budgets reworked

11:31

and tossed. Somehow this movie,

11:33

the one with mud water and crunchy craft

11:36

services, was already one of

11:38

the most expensive in RKO's

11:40

history. And that was a big

11:43

problem.

11:43

This thing now had

11:45

to be a hit, or the whole studio

11:48

could go under.

11:51

So how did it happen? How did RKO,

11:54

one of the original big five studios,

11:57

the home of King Kong, Citizen Kane,

11:59

It's a Wonderful Life. How did it

12:02

sink so low? Two

12:04

words, Howard Hughes.

12:07

Here's another record flight round the world,

12:09

made in a two engine Lockheed monoplane by

12:12

millionaire Howard Hughes.

12:15

Howard Hughes has to be the most interesting

12:18

figure who's ever lived. I

12:20

know talking to a lot of people lately,

12:23

there's some parallels that they've been drawing

12:25

between himself and

12:27

Elon Musk. However, I think

12:31

Howard just wins for pure

12:34

insanity and boldness and

12:36

he has his fingers in so many pies.

12:39

He flew

12:39

across the Atlantic to the French capital in

12:42

the record time of 16 hours, 35 minutes. The

12:45

wealthy playboy had bought RKO

12:48

on a whim in 1948. It

12:50

was a chance to play Hollywood heavy

12:52

weight and make movies about his twin

12:54

obsessions, high flying planes

12:57

and low cut dresses. A

13:00

lot of the reason why he was

13:02

in Hollywood in the first place was to meet

13:05

young starlets and he would

13:07

promise them a career or give them money,

13:10

give them a home, give

13:12

them acting lessons and exchange

13:15

for

13:15

basically seducing them, basically sexual

13:18

favors and he did this repeatedly.

13:21

One actress, Terry Moore, refused

13:24

to sleep with Hughes unless they were married.

13:26

So he held a wedding on a boat

13:29

in international waters. She

13:31

was 19, he was 43. He

13:34

took her virginity,

13:35

then destroyed the log books.

13:38

But it turns out there's more to running

13:40

a studio than just seducing starlets.

13:43

Just a week before his deal for RKO

13:46

closed, a Supreme Court ruling created

13:48

a new legal standard that would in

13:50

time force the studios, all

13:53

studios, to sell off their biggest

13:56

money maker,

13:57

the movie theaters. It was called the

13:59

Paramount Decorations. And in many ways

14:01

it was the beginning of the end of old

14:03

Hollywood. Well, RKO, ever

14:06

since Howard Hughes took over in 1948,

14:09

just continuously lost money.

14:12

Every single year, everything was flopping,

14:14

they had little success. Not wanting

14:16

to have his hand forced, Hughes immediately

14:19

started selling. First, the movie theaters,

14:21

then everything else.

14:23

If it wasn't nailed down, it was sold

14:26

or fired. He cut large swaths

14:28

of the studio's workforce and then

14:30

hung over the shoulder of the few remaining

14:33

employees, trying to learn each

14:35

of their trades for himself.

14:37

Not that he ever stepped foot on the studio

14:39

lot, his fear of germs kept

14:41

him far away.

14:43

Howard Hughes really ran RKO into the ground

14:45

because of his

14:48

mental deterioration. So when

14:50

you see the output in that

14:53

five, six year span, really

14:55

his attention to detail is not

14:58

going into quality, it's going to the

15:01

strange interests that he had.

15:05

And he would throw

15:07

all sorts of money and resources to

15:09

make these films at any cost

15:12

and any length so productions would drag

15:15

on for months at a time. And

15:18

sometimes he would just cancel productions almost

15:20

out of spite or just a

15:22

change of heart.

15:24

By the mid 1950s,

15:26

the Conqueror was one of the few RKO

15:29

movies actually shooting. And

15:32

that meant that Hughes was paying attention,

15:34

never a good thing. One

15:36

day he'd call up Powell, the director,

15:38

screaming about the skyrocketing budget. The

15:41

next, he'd have some brilliant idea.

15:45

Strange nitpicky notes, so

15:48

he would say, hmm,

15:48

the scene I think needs a bear.

15:51

So they would bring on a bear just

15:53

on set, which would add to the cost and they would, with

15:56

this bear, just make the bear

15:59

do a

15:59

little dance. The bear was

16:01

the least of the production's problems. Wayne

16:04

was a mess. He let himself go

16:06

while waiting for the project to get going. Then,

16:09

in a rush to get back in shape

16:11

for the shoot, began taking amphetamines

16:14

by the handful. Before he knew

16:16

it, he was hooked.

16:18

John Wayne is popping what's called

16:21

Dexadrine pills, so he wanted

16:23

to get this rippling physique, and

16:25

it would suppress his appetite and make him look strong,

16:28

but it's an amphetamine, so

16:30

he is really hyper, and

16:32

he is shaking to a

16:34

point where he can't control his limbs. Like, he has

16:36

to wrap a towel around his arms because his hands

16:39

are shaking so badly.

16:41

The makeup wasn't helping his mood

16:43

either. He'd hated the yellow face

16:46

applications he had to wear to plague

16:48

and get sconed. They

16:49

use these rubber bands that they hide

16:52

to make more

16:54

of an elasticity in his eyes

16:56

to make the

16:58

pronounced slants that they wanted.

17:01

They put the fumanchu mustache,

17:04

the costume that really isn't based in

17:06

any reality, just more of a stereotype

17:10

taken from a bit of everything in

17:14

Asian costumes and architecture

17:16

and style.

17:17

He was also struggling with the more verbose

17:20

and supposedly ethnic dialogue.

17:23

Oscar Miller wrote it in this weird

17:25

dialect that's more of a Shakespearean

17:29

tone. He said he wanted to put

17:31

this arcane flourish into it, and

17:33

so he put a lot of time and energy

17:35

just making this very strange

17:38

poetic dialogue that

17:41

doesn't fit. Every line

17:43

seemed to be broken up and put back together

17:45

in some kind of random order. Instead

17:48

of, I don't doubt it,

17:50

the line became... I doubt

17:52

it not. Rolling off the tongue,

17:54

it exactly wasn't. Plan.

17:58

C's, Erga.

18:00

and bleed my strength in siege

18:02

of Wankan City.

18:05

And then, apparently John Wayne tried

18:07

to speak in a Mongolian

18:10

accent. There is no tape

18:13

of that, but he tried to do

18:15

it with an accent and realized that

18:17

wasn't going to work. One of my brothers,

18:19

Jamuga and Kesar.

18:21

One holds them captive. Strike

18:24

camp, we ride on Erga.

18:27

Realizing he was in over his head, Wayne

18:29

went back to what he knew best, telling

18:32

pal he was now going to play Khan

18:34

as a gunslinger. This is

18:37

a cowboy picture, he conveniently

18:39

decided. And it made sense,

18:41

in a way. He didn't hire

18:43

Wayne to disappear into character, to

18:46

do that dirty shirt school of acting,

18:49

as he called it. He'd spent the last 20

18:51

years playing the same part for a reason.

18:54

People liked it.

18:56

As cultural critic, Grail Marcus

18:59

wrote for the Los Angeles Times in 1979,

19:03

the Duke was a professional American.

19:06

He wears the mantle of manifest

19:08

destiny easily. Happy

19:10

to represent America to the world,

19:13

to itself, and to himself.

19:17

He plays this valiant hero,

19:20

subduing threats to

19:22

freedom and protecting American

19:25

womanhood, slaughtering

19:27

Native Americans.

19:28

That's Dr. Kristin Cobes-Dume,

19:32

the best-selling author of Jesus and

19:34

John Wayne.

19:36

He's not the only cowboy hero of this

19:38

time, but if you look at his

19:41

movies, he is able,

19:43

more than anybody else, to

19:46

kind of fuse this cowboy

19:48

heroism with a

19:51

more modern military

19:54

heroism. And you can see

19:56

the same traits celebrated

19:58

and the same violence done.

19:59

Justified before I'm through with you.

20:02

You're gonna move like one man and think like

20:04

one man If you don't you'll be dead.

20:07

He became a Big star

20:09

during the Second World War because

20:11

his politics really he didn't

20:14

fight in the Second World War himself But

20:16

he encouraged a lot of people to

20:18

enlist he didn't need to fight in wars

20:21

overseas He needed to win wars

20:23

in movie theaters He did

20:25

a lot of entertaining

20:26

and then

20:28

he was the chair of

20:30

a committee to actually

20:32

stop any Left-wing

20:35

communist ideals during that

20:37

time as well. So he very much leaned

20:40

heavily into his politics

20:42

and ideologies and

20:43

this American right-wing

20:47

macho

20:49

Hero, I guess unstoppable

20:52

unflappable

20:54

tough guy He becomes

20:56

the emblematic of this kind of cowboy

20:58

hero that cowboy

21:01

hero has resonance

21:04

such wide resonance with Americans

21:07

of all stripes because of this

21:09

Cold War context.

21:09

There are a lot of wonderful

21:12

things written into our Constitution

21:15

or meant for honest decent citizens Remember

21:18

his heroic turn and big Jim McLean

21:21

as a QAC investigator beating

21:23

in commies brains

21:25

We build a case and proved any intelligent

21:27

person that these people are communists enemy

21:30

agents This threat is out there and

21:32

we need good men. We need strong men

21:34

to fight Communism

21:37

and there are good guys and there are bad guys

21:39

and we know who the good guys and the bad guys are It's

21:42

very clear and the good guys

21:44

the white guys with the gun. Right? Those are the true

21:47

heroes

21:49

But

21:49

all that was failing him now Wayne

21:52

was first attracted to Khan because of his

21:54

strength He was a leader a man's

21:56

man, but the movie star had forgotten

21:59

a key part of his

21:59

own persona. Wayne was

22:02

an all-American man, not

22:04

a clumsily written, not American

22:07

man.

22:08

So there's a lot of things going wrong on

22:10

this set and a

22:13

lot of people were not happy realizing

22:15

that it's not going to be a good movie.

22:17

I think halfway through John Wayne

22:19

with his running yellow face makeup every

22:21

day and just being covered in

22:23

sweats and sand and maybe seeing

22:26

some of the dailies just realized,

22:29

hmm, this is not going to be good. And

22:32

Wayne's conqueror co-stars? Well,

22:35

they weren't doing much better. Susan Hayward

22:37

was one of the most

22:38

popular actresses alive thanks

22:40

to movies like My Foolish Heart

22:43

and The Lusty Men. Ain't

22:45

that pretty out here in the car

22:48

to a playing post office?

22:49

Somebody's going to get real fed

22:52

up with you and beat your head in with a break handle.

22:54

Cool, you're a friend.

22:57

And yet here she was playing little more

22:59

than eye candy. One rumor has

23:01

it that Hughes cast her as revenge.

23:04

He was still bitter over the one date they

23:06

went on that didn't go as planned. And

23:08

of course, because this was the conqueror,

23:11

everything that could go wrong did.

23:14

Hayward, as often happens

23:16

on movie sets, was attacked by

23:18

a panther. Apparently, there

23:21

was a part of her costume that it was hypnotized

23:23

by. And if she didn't react

23:25

as quickly as she did, she might have been

23:27

severely injured. Another

23:29

co-star, Pedro Armaderas,

23:32

was thrown from a horse and had his

23:34

jaw broken. He had to actually go

23:36

in the hospital and get his jaw rewired,

23:38

apparently. That's not

23:40

to mention the days that production was

23:42

delayed when a stunt falcon got

23:45

sick. And I know

23:47

a lot of people who are listening to this and like,

23:49

oh, that's crazy. What a crazy movie. In

23:51

that case,

23:53

don't laugh at that. Stunt Falcons

23:55

are part of the backbone of

23:58

Hollywood. And if they're not feeling

23:59

good, you don't roll film.

24:04

Anyway, morale quickly plummeted

24:07

faster than a sick falcon. Everyone

24:11

started to realize they were working on

24:13

a dud. Wayne popped his

24:15

pills to get through the day. Hayward drank,

24:18

which wasn't easy in the middle of a dry

24:20

Mormon town. She's turning

24:22

to alcohol to cope and actually

24:25

let her to go to John Wayne,

24:27

who is just getting newly married at this

24:29

point in time to the

24:31

house that he was staying in and challenging

24:34

his wife to be to a fight because she

24:36

wanted him. She apparently loved

24:38

John Wayne and wanted

24:40

to actually fight for him. By the

24:42

time the shoot ended, everyone was

24:44

ready to move on, go home. They

24:47

were excited to get out of that

24:49

irradiated desert.

24:51

Oh,

24:52

I mentioned that part, right?

24:55

Well, yeah, see, this whole

24:58

time amidst the heat stroke

25:00

and the pills and the bad

25:02

sand covered dinners, they'd

25:05

also been shooting in a nuclear

25:08

fallout zone.

25:09

For those people who don't know that much about

25:12

movie making, that's not

25:14

ideal. The cast

25:17

and crew had heard chatter about nuclear

25:19

fallout when they first arrived in

25:21

St. locals were still

25:23

talking about the tests that had taken

25:26

place just the year before.

25:28

Very quickly, just in friendly

25:30

banter, did they say, ah,

25:31

we had some fallout

25:33

come down this way. We're actually nearby the tests

25:36

and we were encouraged to go watch. And the

25:39

cast and crew are taken aback

25:41

by this. It's something that they did

25:44

not really take into account when

25:46

they did the location scout.

25:49

Director Dick Powell stopped everything.

25:51

A

25:52

call goes over to Howard Hughes, who,

25:54

by the way, never does step foot in

25:56

Utah or during the

25:59

entire film.

25:59

filming of the movie, he's not involved. He just

26:02

does everything from his office. And

26:04

he calls the Atomic Energy Commission,

26:06

says, is it safe? They say yes. So

26:08

he reports back to the cast and crew

26:11

who are still a little unnerved.

26:13

The crew thought Powell was in over

26:16

his head and that Hughes was

26:18

playing crazy. And so it fell

26:20

to John Wayne in full Genghis

26:23

Khan regalia to get up

26:25

and make a rah rah speech that

26:28

it would be un-American to not

26:29

trust the government. If the AEC

26:33

said they were safe then by God

26:35

they were. And

26:37

just to assure them that everything was okay,

26:39

Wayne brought a Geiger counter to set.

26:42

This was a hand-held device that, well,

26:45

basically detects nuclear

26:47

radiation. And Wayne was

26:49

positive. It would quiet everyone's

26:52

fears. So he trudged

26:54

up to the top of a nearby bluff

26:57

and turned it on.

27:00

So he starts to wave it in the sand and

27:02

this thing goes ballistic. It's beeping

27:04

and making all sorts of noise. The

27:06

Geiger counter went wild.

27:09

And John Wayne's response is, hmm, this

27:12

thing must be broken.

27:14

And who could blame him? Where did

27:16

that Geiger counter get off? Disagreeing

27:18

with the good old U.S. of A. Didn't

27:21

it know they had a movie to make? And

27:23

so in the shadow of one bomb the

27:26

cast and crew got to work on

27:28

making another.

27:37

Nothing like spending a day at the beach with

27:39

Tim Horton's new summer drinks. The

27:42

stand in my toes as I sip on a creamy

27:44

coconut ice cap.

27:45

Or the wind in my air and

27:47

a watermelon Tim's Boost energy infusion

27:50

in my hand. Welcome to Tim Horton's.

27:52

What can I get you? Oh, sorry.

27:53

I love it. With even more options

27:56

to choose from, our new summer drink lineup will

27:58

keep you cool all season. Say you're

28:00

spending the day at the beach or just dreaming

28:02

of it. It's time for Tim's. Limited time,

28:04

US only. Hey there, it's me,

28:06

Jesse Tyler Ferguson, that red-headed

28:09

actor from Modern Family. I

28:11

have a podcast. It's combining a couple

28:13

of my favorite things, talking and food.

28:15

Please join me as I dine with the biggest

28:18

names in entertainment, people like Julie Bowen,

28:20

Kristen Bell, Fred Armisen, and

28:23

so many more. It's called Dinners on

28:25

Me, and you're invited. Am

28:27

I saying a chocolate souffle is gonna get me to reveal all

28:29

of my secrets? Yeah, I am. Listen

28:32

now wherever you get your podcasts.

28:37

The greatest secret

28:40

of the war comes into the open. From

28:42

hidden factories over the nation,

28:44

under heavy army protection, the

28:46

first atomic bomb was assembled. On

28:49

the New Mexico desert, Allied scientists

28:51

unleashed its stupendous power.

28:53

On July 16, 1945, at 5.30 a.m., the

28:59

world shifted on its axis.

29:03

A nuclear device was successfully

29:05

detonated for the first time at

29:08

the Alamogordo bombing range

29:10

in New Mexico as part of the

29:13

top-secret Manhattan Project.

29:15

The atomic age was born.

29:18

This was the end result of $2 billion

29:21

spent on research and production of

29:23

years of feverish labor to harness

29:25

atomic power ahead of the enemy. Following

29:28

the blast,

29:28

Senator Brian McMahon of Connecticut

29:31

called it, quote, "'The most important

29:34

thing in history "'since the birth

29:36

of Jesus Christ.'"

29:39

And now that they had it, it was time to

29:41

use it. Little boy and fat man

29:43

were dropped on the Japanese cities of

29:45

Hiroshima and Nagasaki in

29:48

August 1945, killing

29:51

hundreds of thousands of civilians.

29:54

The Second World War would end

29:56

within days.

29:59

In war.

29:59

atomic power can level an entire

30:02

nation in a few days. In

30:04

peace, this incredible energy

30:07

opens limitless horizons.

30:10

It was a lot of money

30:13

and years spent toiling over this

30:16

technology and so when they finally

30:18

had it and could use it to

30:21

win wars to threaten people and then get

30:24

wind that the Soviet Union was

30:26

also developing the same kind of technology

30:29

and you get the start of the Cold

30:31

War era, you get the

30:33

United States really ramping up

30:35

what they want to do as far as nuclear testing

30:38

goes and where they want to do it. The

30:40

new mission was to build better, bigger

30:43

bombs than the commies and to do it

30:45

faster. The

30:47

South Pacific recently freed from

30:49

the Japanese threat was deemed the

30:52

perfect place to test these weapons

30:54

far away from more inhabited areas.

30:58

So those early nuclear

31:01

tests are happening in the Pacific

31:04

Islands particularly Bikini

31:06

Atoll and there isn't a lot of

31:08

sympathy for islanders

31:11

and people who are living there. There really

31:14

is no warning. When

31:16

we look at, I believe

31:18

it was maybe about six or seven years

31:21

after that was the first major study and look

31:23

that these indigenous people,

31:25

the Pacific Islanders were developing

31:27

rashes and cancers and throwing

31:30

up and having stillborn babies.

31:32

It was really a gruesome sight to behold.

31:36

The South Pacific was becoming a problem

31:38

for the US government and not

31:41

just because of all those people getting

31:43

sick and dying.

31:45

It was very costly,

31:47

it was hard to predict weather patterns.

31:50

That's Kim Stringfellow, artist,

31:52

educator and writer. He also

31:54

had to the cost of bringing

31:58

equipment, military

32:01

into the Pacific and these remote areas,

32:03

there was a lot of different aspects

32:05

that they wanted to really

32:08

have it closer to home.

32:09

They actually tried to go to the Calapagos

32:12

Islands, which is a head

32:14

scratcher looking back like that would have been

32:17

just a nuclear nightmare.

32:20

They settled on Nevada, thanks

32:23

to its remote surface and sparsely

32:25

populated land. As one federal

32:27

agency put it, the Mormons and Native

32:29

Americans who lived in the area were

32:32

quote, a low use segment

32:34

of the population.

32:36

It was so underpopulated

32:39

and

32:40

there's always been this idea that our

32:43

desert regions are wastelands. It

32:45

was like, this is the perfect place to blow

32:47

up stuff.

32:51

The hope was that the normal southerly

32:53

winds would blow fallout away

32:56

from the more densely populated areas. And

33:00

so in 1951, the government moved

33:02

in, ignoring a treaty, taking

33:05

over large swaths of Shoshone tribal

33:07

land. They built a town

33:10

from scratch to house personnel

33:12

with a post office church, even

33:14

a movie theater. And they got

33:17

to testing nukes.

33:19

Historic testing began in 1951 in Nevada. And

33:26

Upshot Nothole was a series of 11

33:29

tests that happened

33:32

between March and June of 1953.

33:38

And it was considered

33:41

to be one of the most

33:44

deadly series of atomic

33:46

tests throughout that

33:48

period because of the amount of

33:51

radioactive elements

33:54

and material. It's

33:55

a very odd series of tests.

33:58

Like they have a model.

33:59

and they wanted to see if it could withstand

34:02

a nuclear bomb and they had all these different mannequins

34:05

with JC penny clothing and actual belongings

34:08

that people would have in their household

34:10

just to see what effects it would have.

34:12

They were trying to open up safes with

34:14

nuclear bombs. Like it really is

34:17

a very odd series of tests.

34:19

For the culture at large there was in

34:21

a way something new and almost

34:23

fun about all

34:25

of this.

34:32

Yikes! The early 1950s atomic

34:35

fever hit hard,

34:38

especially in nearby Las

34:40

Vegas. The city was

34:50

trying to avoid any

34:52

post-war economic downturns

34:55

and now it saw a way to get some butts

34:57

in the seats.

34:59

Nuclear bombs blasting off in the

35:01

desert, their mushroom clouds visible

35:03

from the strip, became the perfect

35:05

show for Sin City.

35:08

They're coming to Las Vegas to feel

35:10

the rumbles that are happening

35:13

because the casinos are shaking and everything

35:15

is new and exciting. Parties

35:19

were organized around the explosions

35:21

which went off like clockwork every

35:24

three weeks for nearly 12 years.

35:27

Revelers gathered to watch the unholy

35:30

site before going back for

35:32

more cocktails and cards.

35:36

So there's atomic themed cocktails

35:38

and atomic themed beauty

35:41

pageants and people are

35:44

actually invited to the desert

35:46

to watch these nuclear tests unfold

35:48

because it's American history

35:51

actually happening in the present.

36:01

I'll

36:08

watch the guided missiles while

36:10

the old FBI

36:12

watches me."

36:14

In many ways, Vega's built its

36:17

bones in part on the

36:19

back of atomic tourism.

36:27

It was much the same just over the border.

36:30

In St. George, Utah, no one blinked

36:32

an eye when there was a flash in the pre-dawn

36:35

sky.

36:36

Why would they? The American

36:38

government had promised over

36:40

and over again that this was perfectly

36:42

safe. They were told to just

36:45

leave their car windows open so

36:47

they wouldn't break from the blasts. Because

36:50

he even did tactical training near the

36:52

tests, sometimes as close as

36:54

two miles away.

36:56

At the end of the day, a very high-tech

36:58

device called a broom. Yep,

37:02

a regular ordinary broom was

37:04

used to clean them off.

37:09

And so, on

37:11

May 19, 1953, no one was really

37:14

ready for what was coming their way. Only

37:16

that morning, the AEC had

37:19

detonated a bomb codenamed Harry.

37:22

But something had gone wrong. The

37:24

bomb released 20 kilotons

37:27

over the recommended yield, which

37:29

was quickly caught up in the winds. Winds

37:32

that had unexpectedly shifted to the

37:34

east.

37:36

When it finally made it over to St. George,

37:39

this radioactive cloud, which is

37:41

strangely their pink in color. That's

37:44

the way they've been described. They're quite beautiful.

37:47

So I'm sure people just went outside to

37:49

see it.

37:57

opening

38:00

their mouths to taste it and

38:02

to sweep it and roll in it. One

38:05

expert said if it had rained

38:07

that day, half

38:09

of St. George would have succumbed

38:12

to radiation sickness and

38:14

death. It was that bad.

38:16

And St. George wasn't the only

38:19

place the radioactive debris and dust

38:21

were falling. And it's collecting

38:24

in this area and then particularly in

38:27

what is now a state park,

38:30

then known as Snow Canyon.

38:33

You remember the name Snow Canyon, right?

38:36

And so that's where the film

38:38

would actually be shot primarily. But

38:41

in that point in time, it's this barren

38:43

desert land where a lot of this

38:45

fallout is collecting and then mixing in with the soil.

38:49

Almost immediately, AEC

38:51

officials started downplaying the contamination,

38:54

telling their field safety monitors

38:56

that radioactive fallout from Harry

38:59

was well within the limits of safety.

39:02

So when sheep start dying

39:04

around St. George, Utah, and

39:06

people are getting sick and people are just kind

39:09

of fearful for their life and curious, well,

39:11

should we be alarmed? Should we be worried?

39:14

The AEC says no, no,

39:17

no worries at all. It's completely

39:19

fine. You don't have to worry about it. There's

39:21

no issues or health

39:23

side effects. But the locals grew

39:25

suspicious anyway.

39:26

They were washing cars and

39:31

people started to notice, you know, even

39:33

car paint being bubbling

39:36

up or something. Some

39:38

people who had been outdoors

39:42

started to immediately lose hair. Of

39:44

course, you get very ill.

39:46

You get sick physically.

39:50

Maybe your fingernails, toenails

39:52

fall off. You know, it's just

39:54

general malaise.

40:00

public relations disaster. The AEC produced

40:02

a newsreel featuring the people

40:04

of Saint George,

40:06

assuring everything was AOK. It's pre

40:09

dawn 5 in the morning. Pretty

40:13

deserted at this hour. A newsreel

40:15

full of folks who would grow

40:18

sick and die over the next few

40:20

years and decades. Since

40:22

the rest of the town was sound asleep,

40:26

only our night owl sought to

40:29

die. An atomic bomb

40:31

at the Nevada test site 140 miles to the

40:36

west. It basically was just,

40:38

you know, this dumb down. Propaganda

40:42

film of like

40:44

no need to worry. It's

40:47

everything's OK. Ladies and

40:48

gentlemen, we interrupt

40:50

this program to bring you important news

40:53

due to a change in wind

40:56

direction. The AEC from this morning's atomic detonation

40:59

is drifting in the direction

41:02

of Saint George. It is suggested that

41:04

everyone remain indoors for one hour or until

41:08

further notice. There is no danger.

41:12

Elmer Pickett, a local hardware store

41:15

owner and part time mortician,

41:17

was one of the locals who appeared in the

41:19

film. In the years that followed,

41:22

he had a front row seat to his town's

41:27

house.

41:27

He had nine family members die

41:30

of cancers, which was completely

41:32

unheard of. And he, as an

41:35

undertaker, had so

41:37

many children with leukemia.

41:40

And they knew, like, you know, when

41:42

you've been doing this for

41:44

years and you're only seeing certain

41:46

types of deaths and suddenly you're

41:49

seeing this influx of all

41:51

these people dying of cancer, you know

41:54

that's what happens when you get

41:56

your hands on your hands. And as the people at Saint

41:59

George It's unnatural that some of them

42:01

had questions about atomic tests. Questions

42:04

like, why do we have to test

42:06

bombs?

42:06

And to read his story,

42:09

you know, is heartbreaking.

42:12

A very patriotic individual who

42:15

feels duped by his government.

42:17

We have no choice. To

42:20

fall behind any other nation in atomic progress

42:23

is a national risk.

42:26

So the test continued and

42:28

so did the lies.

42:29

It's been documented that the

42:32

federal government

42:34

considered the entire region,

42:36

you know, east

42:38

of the test site in

42:40

these rural areas is kind of a throwaway

42:44

population.

42:46

And if people would

42:48

ask, they would be told, you know, you're

42:51

not a patriot.

42:52

How did they feel about the indigenous

42:55

communities? They

43:02

didn't give a damn.

43:08

And it was right around this time as

43:10

the tides turned and nuclear hope

43:12

turned into horror, that

43:14

Hollywood came calling for production

43:17

space out in that contaminated

43:20

desert.

43:22

They had a movie to make after all. And

43:24

no one once bothered to mention

43:27

all that fallout.

43:38

From Othertone and Sony Music Entertainment, introducing

43:41

Drake Da Maniac's Unshackled History. A

43:44

brand new podcast from board certified

43:46

white people biologist and dean of Black Twitter's

43:48

history department, Michael Harriot.

43:51

I'm Michael Harriot. You

43:54

might know me from the phrase invited to the cookout

43:57

or as the author of Black AF

43:59

Now, every

44:02

week I'm gonna unwind-wash American history

44:04

for you. I'll use music,

44:07

research from Black historians, and

44:09

a slate of celebrity guests to give you

44:12

a true version of the history you

44:14

think you know.

44:15

Before consuming Draped Maniac's unshackled history, please

44:17

note that listening to this podcast while watching Fox News

44:20

may cause you to throw up in your mouth. Do not take Draped

44:22

Maniacs if you've ever messed around without finding out. If

44:24

you believe third graders are learning critical race theory, Draped

44:27

Maniacs may not be for you.

44:28

Draped Maniacs is available

44:30

on Apple Podcasts, Spotify,

44:33

Amazon Music, and from wherever you get

44:35

your podcasts.

44:39

After 13 weeks of production

44:42

out in the desert, everyone welcomed

44:44

returning to the safe confines of

44:47

the RKO backlot for

44:49

a few last scenes.

44:51

But Howard Hughes was unhappy

44:53

with the footage, and he was the boss.

44:56

He ordered them to reshoot large

44:58

swaths of the film, and

45:00

wanting it to match, he

45:03

had 60 tons of red

45:05

sand trucked in from Snow

45:07

Canyon.

45:09

The same sand that had made Wayne's

45:11

Geiger counter go wild just a

45:13

few months earlier. No one to this

45:15

day knows where the sand went. Some

45:17

people think it went back to where Snow

45:20

Canyon is, and some

45:22

people think that they just swept

45:24

it out of the studio and put

45:26

it down the drain or put it somewhere

45:29

in the local dump in Los Angeles.

45:33

As Hughes endlessly tinkered with

45:35

the edit months slipped by, the

45:38

movie's budget grew to purportedly $6 million,

45:41

making it one of the most expensive

45:43

movies in history. Finally,

45:47

desperately over leveraged and underwhelmed,

45:50

Hughes sold RKO. He

45:52

was done playing the movie Mogul. Howard

45:56

Hughes just decides, I can't

45:58

do anything with the studio.

45:59

have to make money and people are

46:02

taking him to court. There's all these different actors

46:05

who are suing him for a breach

46:07

of contract

46:07

and so he

46:09

just wants to leave and that's what he does.

46:13

And so by early 1956, the new owners of RKO,

46:18

movie making savants straight

46:21

from the general tire and rubber company,

46:24

rushed to get the only releasable movie

46:26

they had into theaters.

46:30

It had been almost two years

46:32

since the picture had wrapped.

46:37

Temujin, under his heel, the

46:39

cowering nations, in his arms the

46:41

unconquered woman. He took what

46:43

he wanted when he wanted it. On

46:45

February 2nd, 1956, the conqueror premiered in London

46:51

before going on a road show of premieres

46:53

around the world. Your hatred will

46:55

kindle into love. The critics hated

46:58

it. Before that day dawns, Mongol, the

47:01

vultures will feast it on your heart.

47:03

Time Magazine wrote, Wayne

47:05

portrays the great conqueror as

47:08

a sort of cross between a square-shooting

47:10

sheriff and a Mongolian

47:12

idiot. You do well, Kulik, for

47:14

while I have fingers to grasp a sword

47:17

and eyes to see, your

47:19

treacherous head is not safe on your shoulders,

47:23

nor your daughter in her bed. Unfortunately

47:27

for RKO, 1956, was a huge year for movies, hit

47:33

after hit

47:33

was released, from giant to

47:35

the king and I, all building

47:38

up to the Ten Commandments,

47:40

which was the true epic the conqueror

47:43

aspired to be. The

47:44

conqueror does quite well, actually,

47:47

but not enough to make its money back. And

47:50

that really puts the

47:52

nail in the coffin of RKO.

47:55

The old studio system was dying,

47:57

and RKO was its first

47:59

corpse.

48:01

When RKO does wrap

48:03

and it closes, and that's a big

48:05

deal because this is one of the big five

48:07

studios, one of the long-standing film

48:09

studios actually closing, going bankrupt,

48:12

not surviving and being really the

48:15

first leaning domino

48:18

in the studio system's final

48:20

era. It really marks the end of

48:22

the Hollywood Golden Age.

48:24

But there were

48:26

still a few highs to come for the

48:28

cast at least before their good luck

48:31

ran out. Heyward managed

48:33

to win an Oscar for

48:35

I Want to Live in 1959. With

48:38

the

48:46

conqueror in the can, Wayne

48:48

kicked his amphetamine habit and

48:50

went on to make The Searchers with director

48:53

John Fore, perhaps Wayne's

48:55

greatest movie. She

48:57

was wearing that blue dress. What you saw wasn't

49:00

Lucy. Oh, but it was, I

49:02

tell you. What you saw was a buck. I

49:05

found Lucy back in the canyon.

49:09

More than any of his other films, it grappled

49:12

with his place as the American white

49:14

hero born to kill Native

49:16

Americans. It picked apart his

49:19

Manifest Destiny image without

49:21

the star even realizing it.

49:24

Over the years when the conqueror came up,

49:26

Wayne would tell people the one lesson he

49:28

learned. Don't make an ass of

49:30

yourself by trying to play parts you're

49:33

not suited to. And that's how

49:35

most people talked about it at first

49:37

as a flop, a financial disaster,

49:40

if it was remembered at all.

49:42

It wasn't until 1963 that

49:45

the real worries began, that

49:48

the body count started to pile up.

49:59

of people, you know, cancer

50:02

is not in the forefront of people's minds.

50:04

It's there, it's happening, there's not much of a survival

50:07

rate, so

50:08

it's pretty much a death sentence when

50:11

you get cancer.

50:14

Following Dick Powell's death, the cast and

50:16

the crews started falling one by one.

50:19

Actor Pedro Armendariz

50:21

would be cast as a key part in

50:23

a James Bond picture from Russia

50:26

Would Love was diagnosed with

50:28

terminal cancer. He shot

50:30

the part barely able to stand before

50:32

being admitted to the hospital. Not

50:35

wanting to face a grisly death,

50:37

he smuggled a knit gun and took his

50:39

own life. Agnes

50:41

Morhat, who played Wayne's mother

50:44

in

50:44

The Conqueror, had gone on to great

50:46

fame in the subsequent years thanks to the

50:48

sitcom Bewitched. And I want

50:50

to thank you for your compliment, Darwin.

50:53

She died from uterine cancer in 1974, reportedly

50:57

saying in

51:04

her waning days, I never

51:06

should have taken that part.

51:10

She was one of the first and only

51:12

to actually recognize that hmm maybe

51:14

this nuclear fallout is to blame for

51:17

cancer.

51:18

Cinematographers, makeup artists,

51:20

sound designers, stuntmen, dozens

51:23

and dozens of cast and crew

51:25

began dying of cancer.

51:28

A tumor was found on Susan Hayward's

51:30

lung in 1972. She

51:33

attempted to press on with her career

51:35

but was quickly overtaken

51:37

by the disease.

51:38

And the winner is Glenda

51:41

Jackson. She made a final

51:44

appearance at the 1974 Oscars,

51:48

presenting an award before having

51:50

a seizure backstage. It was

51:52

her last public appearance before

51:54

her death.

51:56

And the Duke didn't escape

51:58

unscathed either.

52:00

John Wayne got cancer in 1964

52:03

right when they just started to link,

52:06

publicly link,

52:08

smoking with lung cancer and

52:10

John Wayne was a heavy smoker. He would

52:13

apparently light his next cigarette

52:15

with the one that he was currently smoking and just do

52:17

that the entire day. So it wasn't a shock

52:20

when he got the diagnosis but it was still

52:22

suspicious. He had a portion

52:24

of his lung removed and was back on

52:27

set within weeks trying to prove

52:29

he was still the unstoppable force

52:31

of American movies.

52:33

He becomes one of the first major motion

52:36

picture stars to actually make it public.

52:38

He wanted to give people hope and tell people that you

52:40

can survive, it's gonna be okay. So

52:42

he gives us huge

52:44

press releases with this big statement, this

52:46

interview and he becomes a champion

52:49

throughout the 1960s and 70s for the American

52:52

Cancer Society. That's me seven

52:55

years after surgery in true

52:57

grit because I did myself a favor

52:59

and got a checkup. It's

53:02

great to be alive.

53:07

Meanwhile

53:07

Wayne's politics continued

53:09

to drift further and further right. His

53:12

all American apple pie image

53:14

soured into something darker. Even

53:17

as he marked career highs like true

53:20

grit winning the Oscar for

53:22

his portrayal of one-eyed United

53:24

States Marshal, Rooster Cogburn.

53:28

I want to thank the members of the academy.

53:32

He was sullying his name in print.

53:35

In an interview with Playboy in 1971 he laid bare

53:39

the ugly beliefs behind his public

53:42

persona.

53:44

There's a famous 1971 Playboy interview

53:47

where he says really horrifying things

53:50

about Native Americans. They

53:52

were lazy, just wanted to take

53:54

the land from people who really needed it.

53:57

Quote, I don't feel we did wrong

53:59

in taking... this great country away from

54:01

them. There were great numbers of people

54:04

who needed new land, and the Indians

54:06

were selfishly trying to keep it for themselves.

54:10

And about African Americans saying

54:12

that the blacks simply were not responsible.

54:16

Wayne, I believe in white

54:18

supremacy until the blacks are

54:20

educated to a point of responsibility.

54:23

I don't believe in giving authority and positions

54:25

of leadership and judgment to irresponsible

54:28

people.

54:29

He called midnight cowboy perverted

54:32

and used the epsilon before extolling

54:35

the virtues of healthy, lusty

54:38

heterosexual sex.

54:40

Wayne's own cancer returned

54:42

in 1979. A checkup turned into a

54:46

nine-hour emergency surgery

54:49

when the doctor found gastric carcinoma

54:52

in his stomach

54:53

and cancer cells in

54:55

his lymph nodes. He quickly

54:57

withered away in private, except for

54:59

one last appearance of his own at

55:02

the Oscars.

55:03

Thank you, ladies and gentlemen. That's

55:08

just about the only medicine a

55:11

fella'd ever really need. He

55:14

comes out as a to a standing ovation,

55:16

but he's not the same guy. He's actually wearing

55:18

padding because he lost so much weight

55:21

just to make him look more beefy in the John Wayne

55:23

that we all know and love. And he's sweating

55:26

and he's really a different man.

55:28

And this is his fond farewell.

55:30

Every ugly, unspoken

55:32

part of his persona was finally

55:35

laid bare, just as his

55:37

time ran out. Wayne died in 1979, setting

55:40

off a race of airport schools and highways

55:47

to see what could be named after him

55:49

the quickest.

55:54

By 1980, out of 220 cast and crew members,

55:59

There was just under 100, so it was

56:02

in the 90s, of people who had gotten

56:04

cancer between 1956 and 1980, and 46

56:10

people had died because of cancer. And

56:12

most of those people were the people who

56:14

were there every day, most

56:17

of them being the stars and the

56:19

driving forces.

56:22

Howard Hughes, meanwhile, had escaped

56:24

the darkening cloud hanging over this picture,

56:27

but he was being chased by his own demons.

56:31

Out of Hollywood, the tycoon soon found

56:33

himself falling prey to his

56:35

greatest fears. He does

56:37

start to get overtaken by this

56:39

fear of germs, so in the late

56:42

1950s, that's when you get him locking himself in for

56:44

weeks in a studio, peeing in jars,

56:47

eating nothing but, I think, chocolate chip

56:49

cookies.

56:51

Only later in life did it become clear

56:53

that the compulsions related to his OCD

56:56

were the cause of so many of Hughes's

56:59

oddities. As the 70s

57:01

progressed, he devolved behind

57:03

closed doors, locked away, becoming

57:06

a prisoner to his own obsessions.

57:11

His hair would grow

57:13

down to his feet, his fingernails

57:16

would grow very, very long,

57:18

and he would waist

57:20

down to nothing. He was being injected

57:22

with all these different medications. He wasn't eating,

57:24

he was just a big fearful

57:26

mess, and because he had that money, there

57:29

would be no one to really question him and

57:32

get him the help that he needed. But even

57:34

in this debilitated state, one

57:36

thing seemed to haunt him above all

57:38

the rest.

57:40

One of the last acts

57:41

that he does that is very odd

57:43

when you look at this story is that he tried

57:45

to stop nuclear testing from happening.

57:48

He tried to bribe some of the government officials

57:50

actually sending his goons to

57:53

Lyndon B. Johnson and then Richard Nixon

57:56

to try and give them money to try and stop

57:58

nuclear testing.

57:59

people wouldn't be fearful.

58:02

We don't know what he was thinking, but

58:04

we know that the conqueror was never

58:06

far from his mind. Having

58:09

bought back the rights to the film, he

58:11

kept it hidden away from the public, watching

58:14

it over and over and over

58:16

again. Some said it was guilt, others

58:18

an obsession. There were rumors

58:21

he even masturbated to it. He

58:23

died in 1976, emaciated and delirious,

58:28

a haunted broken man.

58:33

In 1980, People Magazine

58:35

broke a bombshell when it reported

58:37

the death toll from the cast and

58:39

crew of The Conqueror. The kids

58:41

of Dick Powell, John Wayne and Susan

58:43

Hayward were all quoted, accusing

58:46

the government of negligence. Soon

58:48

after, a federal scientist reportedly

58:51

said, please God, don't

58:53

let us have killed John Wayne.

59:01

The atomic age

59:04

had turned very dark, very

59:06

fast, and a large anti-nuclear

59:09

movement was finally emerging.

59:11

There

59:11

is not one of us who

59:14

doesn't know that out

59:16

there, on

59:18

the sunny side of the

59:21

security blanket, this

59:23

living world of ours has

59:26

never known a single

59:28

moment of such

59:30

deadly jeopardy.

59:32

People had serious questions about

59:34

the morality of weapons of mass destruction

59:37

and the safety of nuclear power

59:39

plants.

59:41

It was the first step in a nuclear

59:43

nightmare, as far as we know at this

59:45

hour, no worse than that. But a

59:47

government official said that a breakdown in an

59:49

atomic power plant in Pennsylvania today

59:52

is probably the worst nuclear reactor

59:54

accident to date.

59:56

And the people who have gotten sick as a result

59:58

of nuclear testing fall ahead. were banding

1:00:00

together. These were the so-called

1:00:02

downwinders. And now with news

1:00:05

of John Wayne's cancer possibly

1:00:07

being linked to the Nevada testing

1:00:09

in the 1950s, this group

1:00:12

of activists from the Fallout Zone

1:00:14

saw an opportunity for justice.

1:00:18

In 1982, a group of plaintiffs

1:00:20

brought the United States to court on

1:00:23

behalf of nearly 400 cancer victims.

1:00:26

After a two-month trial, the judge

1:00:28

would rule that Fallout had killed

1:00:31

people.

1:00:32

10 people, to be precise,

1:00:34

but it was a start. Unfortunately,

1:00:37

the cast and crew of the Conqueror weren't

1:00:39

addressed in the lawsuit. We

1:00:42

don't know for certain how many people it killed,

1:00:44

but it seems clear that nuclear

1:00:46

testing reached farther and did more damage

1:00:49

than anyone was prepared to admit.

1:00:52

Physicist, author, and professor

1:00:54

Ernest Sternglass even

1:00:56

declared that one in

1:00:58

three children who died before

1:01:01

their first birthday in America in

1:01:03

the 60s died because

1:01:05

of peacetime nuclear testing.

1:01:09

In the 1980s, Utah Governor Scott

1:01:11

Matheson made it his mission to

1:01:13

help as many of the victims as possible.

1:01:16

He himself had been a child when the Fallout

1:01:19

rained down on his home state.

1:01:21

It was personal,

1:01:23

perhaps too personal. Matheson

1:01:25

died of cancer soon thereafter.

1:01:27

It's not until 1990 that

1:01:29

there is a bill that's passed

1:01:33

to actually give

1:01:36

reparations to people who

1:01:39

may or were affected

1:01:41

by nuclear contaminations.

1:01:43

The cast and crew of the Conqueror weren't addressed

1:01:45

in the lawsuit. Too much time

1:01:47

had passed.

1:01:50

Finally, a few families

1:01:52

managed to get some eager restitution,

1:01:54

but not everyone got their fair

1:01:57

share. American opportunity

1:01:59

has

1:01:59

no limits, has been known to knock

1:02:02

more than once. Remember all

1:02:04

those Native American tribes from the area?

1:02:07

The ones whose land these

1:02:09

tests were conducted on? The ones

1:02:11

who went on to see the biggest movie

1:02:13

star in the world kill their kind

1:02:16

in movie after movie.

1:02:18

Every man and woman or child wants

1:02:20

one thing more than anything else in the world. That

1:02:24

one thing is tomorrow. Well, no

1:02:26

one knows exactly how many

1:02:28

of them died from the fallout because

1:02:31

no one in power ever really

1:02:33

bothered to look.

1:02:36

This is my country and I'm gonna do good

1:02:38

for it. Just might work. I

1:02:41

guess they were just too busy watching

1:02:43

John Wayne movies.

1:02:46

Oh yeah, and there's one other thing. I

1:02:48

say it every day of my life. God

1:02:51

bless America.

1:02:55

That I love. God

1:03:00

bless America. My

1:03:05

whole tweet.

1:03:16

A famous mustache. Saturday

1:03:18

Night Live sketches. A college

1:03:20

professor who's a doge cat fan.

1:03:23

What do these three things have in common? They're

1:03:25

all part of the wild world of Jeopardy.

1:03:28

On the brand new podcast, This is Jeopardy,

1:03:31

the story of America's favorite quiz show,

1:03:33

we're taking you behind the scenes of the game that's

1:03:36

kept us guessing, laughing, and

1:03:38

cheering for more than 60 years. Hosted

1:03:40

by me, Buzzy Cohen. Find and

1:03:42

listen to episodes now wherever you get your

1:03:44

podcasts.

1:03:46

Death on the Lot is a hyper-object

1:03:48

industries and Sony music entertainment

1:03:51

production. It's executive produced

1:03:53

by Jody Avergan, Claire Slaughter,

1:03:55

Harry Nelson, and me, Adam

1:03:57

McKay. Episodes were written by... Brian

1:04:00

Steele and Hadley Mears and edited

1:04:03

by Jody Avergan. Our

1:04:05

managing producer was Jennifer Siegel

1:04:07

and talent producer was Katherine Schumacher.

1:04:10

Producers were Shane McKeon and Kendra

1:04:13

Hanna with additional production

1:04:15

support from Jordan Allen and

1:04:18

Xaeli Mahone. Consultants

1:04:20

on the show were Justin Geldzaller

1:04:23

and Sarah Mathis. Episodes

1:04:25

were fact checked by Matt Giles

1:04:28

and Tom Cote.

1:04:29

Our music is by Beacon Street

1:04:32

Studios. Episodes were mixed

1:04:34

and sound design by Joanna Catcher

1:04:37

at Nice Manners. Special

1:04:40

thanks on this episode to Professor

1:04:42

Zabier Arujo. I'm

1:04:46

your host, Adam McKay. Thanks for listening to this episode.

1:04:48

And if you're hearing this, thank you for

1:04:51

joining us for the whole season.

1:04:56

Thanks for watching. Thanks

1:04:58

for watching. And I'll see you in the next one. Bye

1:05:02

bye. Bye

1:05:04

bye. Bye bye. Bye bye. Bye

1:05:07

bye. Bye bye. Bye bye. Bye

1:05:09

bye.

1:05:14

Bye bye. Bye bye.