The Curse of "The Conqueror"

[Kimmer]

The 1956 film "The Conqueror" can certainly be classified as a disaster film, but not for the reasons usually associated with that genre.

Howard Hughes produced this film and hired Dick Powell to direct it.

John Wayne and Susan Hayward were given the roles of "Genghis Khan" and his bride.

The movie was filmed in Utah's desert, with the temperature reaching over 110 degrees.

The cast and crew had no way of knowing that, in 1953, 11 atomic bombs had been tested in an area less than 3 hours from the set. The desert area film set was covered with fallout from the bombs. When they returned to Hollywood for retakes, they couldn't escape the fallout as truckloads of dirt had been brought in to be used in the retakes.

The results proved to be horrifying. There were slightly more than 200 members of the cast and crew. Over 90 of them developed cancer and almost 50 of them died from it. (this is way more than average)

The famous victims:

Dick Powell--died of stomach cancer at the age of 58
John Wayne--died of lung and stomach cancer at the age of 72
Susan Hayward--died of brain tumors at the age of 56
Agnes Moorehead--died of lung cancer at the age of 73
Pedro Armendariz--committed suicide at the age of 51 after learning that his kidney cancer had spread

[Midge]

Kimmer, that's very sad. In the early 1950's, no one knew how dangerous atomic testing was. Instead, people were enthralled by the idea of nuclear power. It was the biggest, baddest display of physical power ever created by humans. Entire families would actually drive to the Nevada desert so they could watch the blasts, thinking of them as a form of entertainment, like light shows or fireworks displays. There was even a fad in the '50's for naming consumer goods, foods, even restaurants "Atomic" this or "Atomic" that. (I wonder if they still make Atomic ice pops.) There's an interesting documentary on this era called Atomic Cafe which I highly recommend, if you can find it.

[Larry's 66 Diner]

What a very interesting bit of trivia, Kimmer! I never knew about that! And Midge, have you seen if Amazon.com perhaps has this documentary? Tomorrow, if I remember, I will check for that on Amazon.

[Midge]

No, Larry, I haven't checked Amazon yet, but it shouldn't be very hard to find.

[kelly]

I think that movie was cursed I watching documentary on John Wayne on PBS few years ago they have scientist who claim that Wayne cancer was first they saw come from nuke expermient they don't know how treated him so sad

[Midge]

A lot of the stars smoked cigarettes, which would probably have been a contributing factor. I believe both Wayne and Hayward had been a smokers, and probably some of the others, too. People who don't smoke also get cancer, but smoking guarantees that you are at high risk for this disease as well as many others. If the smokers who worked on The Conqueror were also exposed to repeated doses of radioactivity, this would have put their risk way up in the stratosphere.

[kelly]

Yeah I understand Susan and John were smokers but what I saying that people who treated the Duke told documentary makers that they never seen that cancer before in when John Wayne was diagogsis I think your theory of of him being smoker that true and also radioactiveity probably cause his cancer to mutanted

[Midge]

I agree, Kelly. Radiation was the main culprit, and smoking was just a contributing factor. Cancer is such a complex disease that there's no simple answer to why it happens or why some people get it and others don't.

[gina1975]

While I was at my cleaning job last week, the people I clean for was watching a program about this exact topic. I think that it was on the Discovery Channel or TLC. They tested the soil and even one of the dresses from the film but I was in and out of ear shot so I didn't get to hear what the findings were. I am hoping that it will be on again so I can catch what they found.

This is almost like the situation with Michael J. Fox. The first Television show he worked on in his native Canada has had nearly ALL its cast diagnosed with Parkinson's disease. It has brought up the question of the the possibility that Parkinson's could also be environmental as well as biological.

[Midge]

Wow, Gina, I didn't know that about the cast of Fox's Canadian show all developing PD. If true, that's really interesting. That Discovery program about The Conqueror sounds interesting, too. I hope it is repeated sometime so that we can all find out what the test results were. I have a vague memory of reading that the soil and dress showed evidence of abnormally high levels of radiation exposure, but I don't remember where I saw that.

[Hedvig]

I had heard about this before, it's strange to think Dick Powell died that way - he is the only one of these actors I am familiar with, so his is the face I picture in my mind. It's such a sad, creepy thing.