CONELRAD Adjacent

WARNING RED: Maryland’s Civil Defense Movie

2012-01-16T11:09:00.001-08:00

“My shelter was just finished a couple of days ago. I thought people would laugh, so I kept it quiet.”

--Mrs. Gray, dowager / civil defense savior in the short film Warning Red

Warning Red (1956) portrays the atomic odyssey of suburbanite Martin Dale who, while on his way home from buying some ice cream, sees the bright flash of the Bomb. Once he gets up from the rubble and puts on his charred fedora, the thirteen-minute film moves forward with its agenda to convey all of the clichéd civil defense lessons about remaining in one’s shelter, avoiding contaminated food and staying tuned to CONELRAD. Of course, Mr. Dale ignores most of these rules (“It’s my life I’m risking, I don’t care!” he declares at one point to a tired survivor) by running through the fallout and fire-filled streets trying to find his family.

During Dale’s journey—that seems to take less than five minutes of dramatic time—he encounters a stunned family sitting at a table by candlelight, a man cooking milk on an open fire and a psychotic woman trying to give her baby away. He finds his beloved wife, Karen, and son, Davey, when his older neighbor, Mrs. Gray, appears out of nowhere and leads him and his radioactive clothes into her secret (and giant) bomb shelter. There the Dale family is happily reunited while Mrs. Gray cradles the crazy woman’s infant.

The official coda to the movie is that “You will have a greater chance of survival in an enemy attack or natural disaster if you know what to do…To learn how you can best protect yourself and your family in such an emergency, contact your nearest Civil Defense Office.” The unofficial coda to the movie is that these civil defense-loving survivors will soon be eating ice cream again (even if the scoop girl who so brazenly ignored the CONELRAD alert in the first minutes of the film is probably dead).

Although the very entertaining Warning Red was nationally distributed through the auspices of the Federal Civil Defense Administration (FCDA), it is a Maryland movie at its core. The production was filmed at the National Civil Defense Training Center in Olney and its cast—including lead Joseph Cunningham (as Martin Dale)—was made up of local actors from the Sandy Spring Theatre Group. When the movie was completed and ready to screen, it was feted with a Silver Spring premiere and the following press coverage in the Montgomery County Sentinel:

CD Movie Made in Olney

Warning Red Stars Local Talent, Sites

Twenty Sandy Spring area residents will get a chance to see how they look in the movies tomorrow evening, when “Warning Red,” a Civil Defense Administration motion picture filmed in Montgomery County, has its national premiere at the Viers Mill Theater.

Most of the sequences in “Warning Red” were made at the Olney CD facility and the majority of the cast are members of the Sandy Spring Group, all amateur actors.

The premiere of the film at 8:30 tomorrow evening will have a dash of Hollywood—floodlights bathing the front of the theater, officials of local and Washington Civil Defense offices and the Sherwood High School band.

Joseph Cunningham, a Washington businessman who lives with his wife and three children at Spencerville, stars in the movie.

He appears as a typical suburban homeowner, searching for his family among the flames, smoke and debris that follow an enemy air attack. The film illustrates the things one should do and not do in such a situation.

Other members of the cast include Mrs. James Anderson, Phillip Boyd Martin, Mrs. Mildred Dowd, Mrs. Mary Reading Miller, Fred Joiner, James Sanders, Robert Miller, Rev. David L. Watterworth, Mrs. Marion Sanders, Melvin Scheidt, Mrs. Julia Bailey, Bonnie Bonifant, Elizabeth Cunningham, Richard Cunningham, Elizabeth Anderson, Sam Bailey, Bill Bailey, Sari Hines and Alan Johnston.

“Warning Red” was directed by Nicholas Webster of Manassas, Va., who has won several Hollywood awards for his direction of documentary films.

It was produced for the Civil Defense Administration by Phillip [sic] Martin, of Norwood Studios. Mr. Martin is a former associate producer and film editor for several major Hollywood studios. He won an Academy Award in 1947 for the year’s best short subject, “The House I Live In.”

F. William Hart was assistant producer, and the script was by Kirby Hawkes. The motion picture was produced with the facilities of Capital Film Studios of Washington.

Source: Montgomery County Sentinel, page C8, January 19, 1956

While most of the talent behind Warning Red faded into obscurity, the film’s auteur, Nicholas Webster (1912-2006), went on to launch the career of Pia Zadora by helming 1964’s Santa Claus Conquers the Martians. The director revisited the Red Planet in 1968 with Mission Mars without the assistance of Kris Kringle or Ms. Zadora. Webster spent most of the rest of his career working in episodic television including directing several episodes of the cult series The New People.

CONELRAD would love to talk to any of the surviving cast and crew members of Warning Red or their family members. If you fit this description, please contact us. If we hear from anyone, we will update this post.

WARNING RED
Norwood Studios Presents
A Webster-Martin Production

Starring Joseph Cunningham as Martin Dale
Director: Nicholas Webster
Producer: Philip Martin
Assistant Producer: F. William Hart
Photographed by Bert Spielvogel
Script: Kirby Hawkes

Produced with the cooperation of The Federal Civil Defense Administration at the Capitol Film Studios
Washington, D.C.
Copyright 1956 Norwood Studios

SEARCHING FOR THE DOOMSDAY SCRIPT

2012-01-08T16:38:00.001-08:00

“For several months our staffs have been discussing the possibility of prepositioning at the Classified Location a suitable script for general broadcast immediately in the event of an emergency. We have also inquired as to the feasibility of prepositioning a recorded message which could be broadcast under specific circumstances.”

-- Excerpt from a government memorandum dated April 22, 1960

On October 21, 2011 historian and longtime friend of CONELRAD David Krugler emailed to us an intriguing and maddeningly incomplete Cold War era document. The 1960 memo with the subject line “Emergency Statements” proves that the United States government considered the use of prepositioned messages by the President for use in the event of a nuclear attack. Unfortunately, the attachment with the “prepared…text” that is so prominently called out by the document’s author is nowhere to be found.

When we asked Professor Krugler if he had the attachment he said that he did not and would have certainly copied it had he seen it in the early 2000s when he was researching his book. CONELRAD immediately hired a highly recommended researcher to go to the National Archives in College Park, Maryland to find the document.

As of this posting, the attachment has not been located in the folder or the box in which Professor Krugler originally found the memo. Our researcher is currently going through additional boxes in the Record Group, but the prospect of finding the “Doomsday Script” does not look promising. But while we are looking for this crucial part of the treasure map that may ultimately lead to the Arthur Godfrey Doomsday Tape (or, perhaps more likely, the Dwight D. Eisenhower Doomsday Tape), we thought we might as well share what we do have.

OUR PART OF THE TREASURE MAP

“Emergency Statements” is dated April 22, 1960 and was issued by Lewis E. Berry (1914-2005), Deputy Administrator of the Office of Civil and Defense Mobilization. It was rewritten by Eugene J. Quindlen (1919-1977), Assistant Director for Government Preparedness, Office of Emergency Preparedness. The intended recipient was Kenneth T. Downs (1909-1991), Assistant Director for Training, Education and Public Affairs for the Office of Civil and Defense Mobilization (OCDM). Dean Pohlenz (1920-1993), one of the signatories, was an official with OCDM. “J. Scott,” one of the cc addressees, is Jack R. Scott (1921-2008), classified location director, OCDM. The document, which resides in Record Group 396, Box 5, Folder “Federal, State and Local Plans” at the National Archives and Records Administration at College Park, Maryland, is presented below along with a transcription.

Presidential Emergency Statements: 4/22/1960 Memo

April 22 1960

Assistant Director for Training, Education and Public Affairs

Assistant Director for Plans and Opeations

Emergency Statements

For several months our staffs have been discussing the possibility of prepositioning at the Classified Location a suitable script for general broadcast immediately in the event of an emergency.

We have also inquired as to the feasibility of prepositioning a recorded message which could be broadcast under specific circumstances.

On various occasions rotating personnel to the Site have raised the matter for discussion. Mr. Heslep of the Atomic Energy Commission has prepared a possible text, the main feature of which is that it does not pretend that the President is delivering it “live.” This seems to be worth serious consideration, and I am, therefore, attaching Mr. Heslep’s material for such appropriate use as you might wish to make.

(SIGNED)

Lewis E. Berry

Attachment

352/JScott/jf/4-21-60/5447
Rewritten: 350/EJQuindlen/kes/x3235/4-22-60
cc:
Central Files – 2
Mr. Berry
Mr. Quindlen
Mr. Scott

[Note: Document is actually signed by E.J. Quindlen and Dean Pohlenz]

DOOMSDAY’S GHOSTWRITER

The man so notably mentioned in the document as the writer of the sample emergency “text” is a Richmond, Virginia native named Charter Heslep (1904-1963). Heslep, at the time of the memo, was the Chief of the Program Review and Analysis Branch of the Atomic Energy Commission’s Division of International affairs based in Germantown, Maryland. Before the doomsday scribe’s lengthy employment began with the AEC in 1949, he worked in news reporting and editing capacities for the Washington Daily News, NBC, the Mutual Broadcasting System and Congressional News Quarterly. During World War II he served as the chief radio news censor for the U.S. government. Along the way he collaborated on Admiral William D. Leahy’s memoir I Was There [V. Gollancs, 1950] and assisted in the writing of his friend Estes Kefauver’s book, 20^th Century Congress [with Jack Levin, Essential Books, 1947].

During Heslep’s long career with the AEC, he witnessed a number of atomic tests and received the strange souvenir “diplomas” presented below to prove it. In 1952 he helped execute the world’s first televised atomic detonation. And in 1955 and 1958 he coordinated press coverage for the Atoms for Peace Conferences in Geneva, Switzerland.

Heslep also had the opportunity to listen to Edward Teller privately disparage his scientific rival J. Robert Oppenheimer as Teller prepared for his role as a witness against Oppenheimer during his notorious 1954 security clearance hearings. Heslep summarized his conversation with the model for Dr. Strangelove in a memo to AEC Chairman Lewis Strauss. That correspondence is excerpted on pages 532-533 of American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer by Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin [Knopf, 2005]. In the memo, Heslep states that it will be difficult to “unfrock [Oppenheimer] in his own church” in summing up Teller’s belief that Oppenheimer still had the backing of the scientific community.

On July 29, 1963 Charter Heslep, who resided in Silver Spring, Maryland, died in a Berkeley, California hospital following a heart attack. He had been in the San Francisco Bay area on a business trip in his role as the Assistant to the Director of Public Information for the AEC. His wife, Margaret, passed away ten years later. CONELRAD was able to locate Heslep’s son, Thomas C. Heslep in Oregon, but not his daughter, Sara, who may or may not live in Florida.

Thomas told CONELRAD that he recalls his father going on an extended business trip to a presidential bunker in the mountains, but that there were “a lot of things [his father] couldn’t talk about.” The son was not surprised to hear that Heslep may have written an end-of-the-world script for President Eisenhower, but stated that he had no direct knowledge of it. When asked if he had any of his father’s papers, Thomas told us that the last remaining family records are in a safety deposit box in Chicago under his only sibling’s control. He believes that his sister Sara, whom he has not had contact with in over twenty years, is deceased and that he is trying to obtain access to the safety deposit box. If there is a doomsday script or recording, it may well be found in a Chicago bank vault, because it doesn’t appear to be anywhere else.*

* CONELRAD has contacted several different institutions that house portions of Charter Heslep’s papers (The Harry S. Truman Library, Oregon State University and the American Heritage Center at the University of Wyoming) and none contain the painfully elusive attachment to the memo featured in this post.

CONELRAD also contacted the Dwight D. Eisenhower Presidential Library where we were told by a senior archivist that they do not have any material on “Emergency Messages.”

When we asked the Department of Energy to check their AEC records on correspondence by Charter Heslep for the period in question, we were told that nothing on Heslep or the topic of prepositioned emergency messages could be found.

NOTES

CONELRAD derived its biographical information on Charter Heslep from the following sources:

Interview with Thomas C. Heslep conducted by Bill Geerhart on October 25, 2011.

“Charter Heslep, AEC Executive (Obituary),” Washington Post, July 31, 1963.

Biographical Sketch, Charter Heslep, Charter Heslep Papers, President Harry S. Truman Presidential Library Website: http://www.trumanlibrary.org/hstpaper/heslep.htm

Biographical/History Info, Charter Heslep, Charter Heslep Papers, American Heritage Center, University of Wyoming: http://uwcatalog.uwyo.edu/record=b3362610~S3

Biographical Information contained at the conclusion of “They Said It Couldn’t Be Done: The Story of the First Live Televising of an Atomic Detonation” transcript of an address by Charter Heslep on May 9, 1952: http://web.mac.com/zcleve/KlausTribute/AbombHeslep.html

Atomic “Diplomas” accessed from the Charter Heslep Papers at Oregon State University.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

CONELRAD is once again indebted to David Krugler for providing us with such a fascinating lead. If we ever find the attachment containing the Doomsday Script, he will be the first to know. And you’ll be second.

Thanks to Michael Ravnitzky for his assistance in identifying “J. Scott” in the memorandum.

A Time for Choosing: Citizen Reagan’s Viewer Mail

2011-10-27T06:17:00.000-07:00

It was forty-seven years ago today that a fading film and television actor named Ronald Reagan injected a much-needed jolt of electricity into the flailing Barry Goldwater presidential campaign. On October 27, 1964 at 9:30 P.M. Reagan appeared on the NBC television network in a pre-recorded thirty-minute address entitled “A Time for Choosing.” The speech (aka “The Speech”) launched the future president’s political career and, among conservatives, has achieved a near mythical status.

For the past year CONELRAD has been researching a comprehensive history of this famous broadcast. And while we are not quite ready to post a completed article, we thought we would observe the occasion of this anniversary by sharing some of the reactions that the Great Communicator received in the days after his televised pitch for the Republican nominee first aired nationally.

What follows are a few selected telegrams that CONELRAD obtained from the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum. Out of what was purported to be thousands of such responses, only a few dozen were preserved. Of these, all are gushingly admiring (Evidently, the Democrats who might have been inspired to write complaint letters were watching Petticoat Junction on the other channel).

We thought we would start our presentation with multi-Academy Award-winning film director John Ford’s succinct rave for Citizen Reagan’s speech:

Next is conservative icon Phyllis Schlafly’s sister-in-law, Eleanor Schlafly:

Dean Burch, the Goldwater loyalist who was installed as the Chairman of the Republican National Committee after the Arizona senator won the GOP nomination, weighed in with this praise:

Burch, it appears, was the only member of the so-called Arizona Mafia to thank Reagan for his speech. Other members of the inner circle, namely Denison Kitchel and William J. Baroody, actively tried to stop A Time for Choosing from airing. The motives ascribed to them for this action vary, but most accounts cite their nervousness over Reagan’s remarks on Social Security.

The next telegram comes from F. Clifton White, the architect of Goldwater’s stunning nomination victory. White, who had wanted to become RNC Chairman, found himself inexplicably marginalized during the general election campaign.

We chose this next missive because we liked the writer’s expression “Uncle Goldie.”

And we decided to conclude our sampling with Ms. Wilma Batz of Peoria, Illinois who somehow channeled the improbable future and asked: “…I know you’re an actor but are you running for president?”

It took a while for Reagan to fulfill Ms. Batz’s prophecy, but a little over a year later, on January 4, 1966, the Gipper was back on television announcing his candidacy for the Republican nomination for governor of California.

SOURCE

Ronald Reagan Governor's Papers:
1966 Campaign
Box C35
Folder "66: 'The Speech' 1964 (Telegrams in Response)" 1
Folder "66: 'The Speech' 1964 (Telegrams in Response)" 2
Folder "66: 'The Speech' 1964 (Telegrams in Response)" 3
Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum

A PRIEST, A RABBI AND A MINISTER WALK INTO MOUNT WEATHER…

2011-10-23T10:30:00.001-07:00

The Continuity of Government planners were not stupid. In addition to stocking the “Classified Facility” (Mount Weather [1]) with food, water and every other imaginable accoutrement necessary for surviving a nuclear war, they recognized the need for a full compliment of clergy.

Mount Weather Needs Clergy: 10/21/1960

This fascinating document[2] from the director of the Office of Civil and Defense Mobilization, Leo A. Hoegh (1908-2000), dated October 21, 1960 requests that a priest, rabbi and minister be assigned to Mount Weather in a time of crisis. The bureaucratic language of the missive avoids reference to why clergy would be needed, but the author does note that civilian religious professionals might be otherwise occupied during an emergency. These particular men of God would also be difficult to vet for entrance to the super-bunker. Or, as Hoegh puts it: “The security problems involved in bringing in civilians, as you know, are considerable.”

The solution was to ask the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Manpower, Personnel and Reserve, Charles G. Finucane (1905-1983), for “chaplains from either the Regular or Reserve Corps” of the U.S. military. Hoegh sums up his letter with the data-supported spiritual requirements: “Surveys of the emergency population at the Classified Location indicate that one Protestant, one Jewish and one Catholic clergyman would meet our needs.”

Evidently, Mr. Hoegh’s clergy requisition went directly to the circular file, because more than two years later, the chaplain gap was still an issue of concern in Mount Weather correspondence.[3] We can only pray that Mount Weather now has the religious staff it needs, but it will be up to future historians to find out.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

CONELRAD would like to thank historian and author David Krugler for thinking of us when he came across this document in his research files.

[1] The evidence that the document is referring to Mount Weather is the fact that the Classified Location’s Chief, J. Leo Bourassa (1917-2000), is one of the co-signatories. For more on Bourassa and his role at Mount Weather see Ted Gup’s August 10, 1992 Time magazine cover story, “The Doomsday Blueprints.”

[2] Letter to Charles C. Finucane from Leo A. Hoegh RE: Chaplain Service for the Classified Location. October 21, 1960. U.S. National Archives, Records Group 396, Records of the Office of Emergency Preparedness, Selected OCDM Files, 1959-1960.

[3] See Memorandum to Colonel Justice J.M. Chambers from Robert Y. Phillips RE: “Special Facility Preparedness,” November 29, 1962, U.S. National Archives, Records Group 396, Declassified P95 Records, Accession 66A03, Box 6, Folder “Special Facilities Branch.”

Cuban Missile Crisis Recovered Memories: LBJ’S Helicopter Pick-Up Points

2011-10-18T20:37:00.001-07:00

Shortly after the dark storm of the Cuban Missile Crisis had passed, government emergency planners put together a document that detailed the many different places where Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson could catch a helicopter ride to an undisclosed bunker. Some of these locations are predictable (the parking lot of the CIA) and others are more interesting (the athletic field of Wilson High School—go Tigers!).

The Cuban Missile Crisis has always been about the Kennedys, so it is nice to be able to present at least one strange recovered memory in this series about LBJ.

SOURCE

“Helicopter Pickup Points in the Event of an Emergency Evacuation of the Vice President,” November 1, 1962, Vice President Security File, Box 5, Emergency Evacuation Instructions Folder, Lyndon Baines Johnson Presidential Library.

Cuban Missile Crisis Recovered Memories: Random Weirdness

2011-10-16T12:50:00.001-07:00

“When the American people elected Kennedy they made a good choice. Nixon might have been a good president, too, but Kennedy proved that he was. If Kennedy wasn’t killed he might have become the greatest president ever. He also might have started a atomic war and destroyed the world.”

--Excerpt from a letter written by John Compton, eighth grade[1]

“Grab your balls…”

--President John F. Kennedy to press secretary Pierre Salinger regarding news of the Cuban Missile Crisis[2]

We have decided to wrap up our series on “Cuban Missile Crisis Recovered Memories” with some random news snapshots and oddities that caught our attention while reading about the crisis on microfilm, in history books and on the web. We may have more posts on this subject in the future but, for now, this is our fond farewell to that magical period when the end seemed so very close.

We begin with an advertisement from page G9 of the October 28, 1962 edition of the Los Angeles Times. The sales team for the Palley’s chain could not resist offering reduced prices on civil defense equipment “in these critical times.”

One of the choices facing local civil defense authorities during the Cuban Missile Crisis was whether or not to test air raid sirens. In Los Angeles, CD officials (at first, anyway) saw no reason to deviate from their normal schedule. Newspapers advised readers not to “panic.”

As the fears over Cuba mounted, California state CD authorities thought better of the notion of testing sirens during an international crisis and requested a moratorium. But there were a few overzealous cities that decided to keep to their monthly schedule regardless of the world situation…

In Los Angeles area supermarkets, a two-day wave of “panic buying” was touched off by a civil defense official’s call for Angelenos to stock up.

Los Angeles residents like Mrs. Woronovich of Baldwin Hills took heed of the advisory and spent a whopping $55.85.

Meanwhile, in Houston, Texas, a customer spent $600 on groceries and headed straight for his fallout shelter.

In Bakersfield, California, worried consumers were adding firearms to their shopping carts…

Others prayed…

Protesters took both sides of the issue…

In some cases, activists simply got tired and went home…

Parents were worried about what would happen to their kids if an attack happened…

And Los Angeles County was only too happy to oblige with civil defense literature…

Even the travel industry was concerned about the Cuban Crisis…

As reported in the November 8, 1962 issue of Jet magazine (page 10), panic over the Cuban situation was so great that it led to a declaration by New Orleans Civilian Defense Director Col. Charles W. Erdman that public fallout shelters would be open to everyone, even “negroes.”

Miamians, arguably the ones most likely to be incinerated, were told to remain calm and treat the imminent threat of atomic attack as they would a hurricane.

Cubans, meanwhile, were told that an American invasion would fail (and with ninety tactical nuclear weapons ready to repel the United States military, this headline has the retroactive ring of truth).

One woman was so frazzled by the Cuban crisis that she evacuated her city without her children. She realized that they were missing when a military policeman directing traffic in Key West, Florida stopped her. During the course of their brief conversation in which the woman referenced her kids, the officer pointed out that he saw no children in her vehicle. “My God, I forgot them!” she exclaimed.

Perhaps it was the culmination of all the random weirdness and conflicting emotions that the Cuban Missile Crisis unleashed that led a Los Angeles woman named Marion Miller, age 59, to take an overdose of sleeping pills. The Los Angeles Herald-Examiner reported in their October 25, 1962 edition that the distraught woman wrote in a would-be suicide note that “I don’t like the appalling international situation.”

Fortunately, Marion Miller failed in her suicide attempt and so did the two superpowers that so depressed her.

RECOMMENDED READING

Michael Dobbs, One Minute to Midnight: Kennedy, Khrushchev, and Castro on the Brink of Nuclear War [New York: Knopf, 2008].

Alice L. George, Awaiting Armageddon: How Americans Faced the Cuban Missile Crisis [The University of North Carolina Press, 2003].

Aleksandr Fursenko and Timothy Naftali, One Hell of a Gamble: Khrushchev, Castro, and Kennedy, 1958-1964: The Secret History of the Cuban Missile Crisis [New York: W.W. Norton and Sons, 1997].

[1] William G. Walsh, Children Write About John F. Kennedy [Brownsville, Texas: Springman-King Publishing, 1964], p. 119.

[2] Pierre Salinger, P.S.: A Memoir [New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1995], p. 115.

Cuban Missile Crisis Recovered Memories: Meet Me at the Reno Reservoir

2011-10-15T17:21:00.001-07:00

“This memorandum shall serve as a pass for your dependents to the relocation site pending issuance of a Civil Defense Pass.”

-- Captain Tazewell Shepard, in a memo issued October 26, 1962

At the height of the Cuban Missile Crisis senior aides to President John F. Kennedy began receiving pink identification cards and packets of information instructing them on where to go in the event of an emergency. Special Assistant to the President David Powers asked at the time: “What happens to our wives and kids?” It fell to President Kennedy’s naval aide, Captain Tazewell Shepard, to address the massive morale gap of what to do with the “dependents.”[1]

The young officer responded with a plan to have the family members of select White House staff assemble in a fenced-in area at Washington’s Reno Reservoir for a motorcade ride out of the city to an undisclosed relocation site. The call to convene at the reservoir would have come in the form of a “Civil Defense Alert.”[2] Assuming that the rest of Washington (and the world) would be privy to such an alert, it is interesting to note that Captain Shepard does not include a Plan B to address the inevitable D.C. evacuation gridlock and general panic.

But, as Robert F. Kennedy (Steven Culp) says of the arrangement in the film, Thirteen Days, “Of course, that’s for morale. The missiles only take five minutes to get here.”

Transcription of Memo:

The White House
Washington 26 October 1962

FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY

MEMORANDUM FOR:
Mrs. Evelyn Lincoln

Subj: Relocation of Dependents of Personnel Involved in the White House Emergency Plan

Previously a packet has been distributed to be opened only in an emergency, which describes the location to which dependents could go at such a time. Because during a Civil Defense emergency, transportation restrictions will be set up and movements may be difficult, a more workable plan appears to be a formation of a motorcade, to move dependents in a group to a relocation site outside of the Washington area. To do this effectively, a fenced area in Northwest Washington which is considered central to the area where most dependents of White House staff members live (those living on the Washington side of the river). This area is within the fenced portion of the Reno Reservoir, with an entrance off of Belt Road, which intersects with Wisconsin Avenue a little more than a block north of Albemarle Street.

In time of a Civil Defense alert, dependents covered by this plan are instructed to proceed to this assembly area. Because a Civil Defense Pass will be required for each individual, only those covered by this memorandum may be included. You are requested to keep current the information filed with the Office of the Naval Aide as to the number and ages of your dependents.

Minimal supplies of food and water will be included in the planning, so that it will not be necessary for dependents to bring any additional equipment. Because of space limitations, they are urged not to attempt to bring personal belongings.

This memorandum shall serve as a pass for your dependents to the relocation site pending issuance of a Civil Defense Pass.

Tazewell Shepard, Jr.
Captain, U.S. Navy
Naval Aide to the President

Citation: Tazewell Shepard, “Memorandum for Mrs. Lincoln,” October 26, 1962, Presidential Office Files, Box 114, Cuba General, 10/24/62-12/31/62 folder, John F. Kennedy Presidential Library.

[1] Michael Dobbs, One Minute to Midnight: Kennedy, Khrushchev, and Castro on the Brink of Nuclear War [New York: Knopf, 2008], pp. 310-311.

[2] Tazewell Shepard, “Memorandum for Mrs. Lincoln,” October 26, 1962, Presidential Office Files, Box 114, Cuba General, 10/24/62-12/31/62 folder, John F. Kennedy Presidential Library.

Cuban Missile Crisis Recovered Memories: The Other Cuban Missile Crisis Speech

2011-10-08T13:06:00.001-07:00

President John F. Kennedy’s October 22, 1962 address to the nation on the Cuban missile crisis was a critical Cold War moment that has long since entered the realm of legend. The dramatic televised speech that announced the blockade of Castro’s Cuba was hyped in advance by the media and was seen by 50 million American viewers.[1] People stopped at appliance store windows to witness the young commander-in-chief stand up to Khruschev in glorious black and white.[2] The seminal event of Kennedy’s brief presidency has been written about and analyzed endlessly and re-staged or excerpted for television dramas and major motion pictures. Everyone who lived through those times remembers the speech and everyone else knows about it—even if it is by watching a lame miniseries like The Kennedys.

Not nearly as well known is another televised address on the “Cuban Crisis” that occurred a few days later by Kennedy’s vanquished Republican rival for the White House in 1960, Richard M. Nixon. Two years after his razor-thin defeat for the highest office in the land, the former Vice President was locked in a tight campaign to unseat Democratic incumbent Edmund G. Brown as governor of California. Nixon, of course, would famously lose this race, but at the time of his speech he undoubtedly considered it a part of his grand strategy to earn a re-match with Kennedy in 1964. Governor Brown, meanwhile, was actually being briefed on the Cuban situation by the President in Washington as his opponent was taking to the airwaves.[3]

On Friday, October 26^th Nixon announced to the press that he would “interrupt his campaign” because he would have “a statement of major importance regarding Cuba.” Perhaps because the candidate, a private citizen, did not have the power to start a nuclear war, the story only made it to page 4 in the Los Angeles Times. The article added that Nixon’s address would originate from San Diego and would be broadcast throughout the state.[4] Not exactly the stuff of stop-at-the-appliance store appointment viewing.

On Saturday, October 27^th at 8:00 P.M. Nixon went up against The Roy Rogers and Dale Evans Show and something called Restless Guy to speak to the people of California.[5] In his remarks he endorsed President Kennedy’s “strong action” in the crisis, assailed Fidel Castro as a “hot blooded maniac,” dismissed the possibility of war (“Mr. Khruschev is not going risk Moscow for Havana”) and urged the rejection of a deal that would remove U.S. missiles from Turkey (a “horse for a rabbit” trade according to the veteran politician).[6]

The next day Governor Brown, back from his trip to Washington, criticized his rival’s speech as a “new turn in a spurious and reckless campaign.” He added that Nixon’s effort to win the governor’s race was “bankrupt and going downhill.” A Democratic backer of the former Vice President was kinder, stating that Nixon’s views on the crisis represented “the realistic maturity of his understanding of the Communist conspiracy at home and abroad.”[7]

Mrs. Patricia Hitt, an Orange County Republican National Committeewoman, haughtily called upon Brown to retract his remarks on Nixon, saying: “Pat Brown is obviously trying to conceal his lack of knowledge on international affairs…These comments by Mr. Brown are so much in violation of the Constitution that I suspect his words must be those given by one of his press agents.”[8]

Mrs. Hitt was no doubt shocked when her candidate lost the race to Governor Brown on November 6^thprompting the notorious “last press conference” the following day. Nixon would rise from the ashes six years later and win the White House, but his Cuba speech remains nearly forgotten. CONELRAD is still waiting to hear back from the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum to see if they have a transcript or film of the television special. We will update this post if we are ever able to find more on Richard Nixon’s Cuban Missile Crisis Moment.

[1] Alice L. George, Awaiting Armageddon: How Americans Faced the Cuban Missile Crisis [Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2003], p.93.

[2] Paul Weeks, “Street Crowd Here Listens to President,” Los Angeles Times, October 23, 1962, p. 1.

[3] “Brown Assails Nixon’s TV Talk on Cuba,” Los Angeles Times, October 29, 1962, p.3.

[4] Carl Greenberg, “Nixon to Make Special TV Talk on Cuba Crisis,” Los Angeles Times, October 27, 1962, p. 4.

[5] “Saturday’s TV Programs,” Los Angeles Times, October 27, 1962, p. B5.

[6] “Nixon Endorses Kennedy’s Actions,” New York Times, October 28, 1962.

[7] “Brown Assails Nixon’s TV Talk on Cuba,” Los Angeles Times, October 29, 1962, p.3.

[8] Ibid.

Cuban Missile Crisis Recovered Memories: Programming the Apocalypse

2011-10-07T22:27:00.001-07:00

Of course, very few moments in television history can rival President John F. Kennedy’s October 22, 1962 address to the nation on the Cuban missile crisis for suspense and drama. Indeed, so much has been written about the young president’s historic speech on the blockade of Castro’s island that we have chosen to focus instead on more trivial matters here (although, our next installment will concern an interesting and comical unintended consequence of Kennedy’s famous broadcast).

In preparing this series of posts on the recovered memories of the Cuban missile crisis, we got to wondering what was on television and radio during this panicky period. We decided to limit our review to the Los Angeles area since it is where CONELRAD is based and it is where the microfilm of L.A.’s wonderful newspaper past resides.

It should come as no surprise that this end times programming ran the gamut from the boring (KABC had U.N. Ambassador Adlai Stevenson answering letters and telegrams on the crisis) to the frightening (a “what to do if” special entitled “Civil Defense and Common Sense” that was broadcast on radio station KLAC) to the wildly inappropriate: on October 26, 1962 KTTV, channel 11 broadcast the atom bomb / love story Above and Beyond.

KTTV was not content to simply run this 1952 celebration of the Bomb starring Robert Taylor as the Enola Gay’s stalwart pilot Paul Tibbetts and Eleanor Parker as his long-suffering wife, Lucey (the producers of the film put such little thought into her character that they misspelled her first name). No, they advertised it in large print ads such as the one seen below.

Was Above and Beyond chosen for its potential appeal to the General Curtis LeMay audience (who wouldn’t have had much use for watching Adlai read telegrams from worried peaceniks)? Or was it broadcast because it had been scheduled for months and the TV sales department had already placed the ads?

Probably the latter.

Cuban Missile Crisis Recovered Memories: Los Angeles Fallout Shelter Options

2011-10-05T21:47:00.001-07:00

On October 24, 1962, at the height of the Cuban missile crisis, the Los Angeles Herald-Examiner reported that “hundreds of worried citizens were calling police today asking the location of public fall-out shelters, fearful of a Russian nuclear attack.” The very next day city officials obliged panicked Angelenos with a list of the 300 shelters that they could choose to die in should the opportunity arise.

If CONELRAD (and the Internet) had been around during this watershed Cold War moment, we would have advised our readers to form a line outside the Desilu Studios fallout shelter at 780 N. Gower (capacity 61, so get there early). Who wouldn’t want to share the end of the world with Lucy? Even if Ms. Ball didn’t show up, a Hollywood studio shelter (with the possibility of a character actor or two showing up) would have to be better than the Lincoln Heights City Jail (capacity 15,436).

But, in the end, fallout shelters (particularly L.A. fallout shelters) were less than ready for their brink-of-the-apocalypse close-up. Indeed, on October 28^th, as the crisis was winding down, the Herald-Examiner reported that only two of the city’s 307 fallout shelters were stocked, albeit unevenly.

The two existing “stocked” shelters included the Eighth and Figueroa building and the Subway Terminal building at 417 S. Hill St.

Neither shelter had any provisions for sleeping accommodations, but enough tinned biscuits and sanitary kits were there to supply subsistence for 10,000 persons in the Subway Terminal building and 800 more in the Eighth and Figueroa building. But there was no water.

The ropes of 7-1/2 gallon water tanks in each shelter were impressive, but empty. Also, it was noted, the narrow street entrance to the Subway Terminal Shelter was padlocked.

Despite this rather dubious evidence of preparedness, Gov. Edmund G. Brown, State Disaster Director Alan Jonas, and Regional Disaster Administrator Charles Manfred all issued identical statements, apparently intended to reassure a jittery public. They said: “We have had no instructions from Washington to move beyond our present state of readiness, but we are prepared to do so if necessary.”

With quotes like these is it any wonder that “newsmen roared with laughter and derision” when Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara mentioned civil defense as a protection against nuclear missiles at a Pentagon press conference on October 25, 1962?[1]

REFERENCES

“L.A. Excited Over Fall-Out Shelters,” Los Angeles Herald-Examiner, October 24, 1962.

“Fallout Shelter Locations Told By L.A. Officials,” Los Angeles Herald-Examiner, October 25, 1962.

“Civil Defense Lag Revealed,” Los Angeles Herald-Examiner, October 28, 1962.

[1] “Pentagon Issues Shelter Report,” New York Times, October 26, 1962

Mount Weather: A Random and Incomplete Oral History

2011-09-25T13:32:00.001-07:00

“They’re doing some pretty scary things up on the Mountain.”

-- Quote from a source of a 2001 Washington Post article on the government relocation site, Mount Weather[1]

“I’ll be glad to tell you all about it, but I’d have to kill you afterward.”

-- FEMA spokesman, Bob Blair, to investigative reporter, Ted Gup, in 1991[2]

Unlike the declassified congressional bunker at the Greenbrier Hotel in White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia, there are no public tours through the top secret Mount Weather. Indeed, this massive Cold War-era “Special Facility” located near Berryville, Virginia continues to stand at the ready to shield the President of the United States, the Supreme Court Justices and hundreds of other VIPs in the event of a national emergency.

Since at least 1962 (when authors Fletcher Nebel and Charles W. Bailey II described a presidential refuge called Mount Thunder in their political thriller Seven Days in May), the public has imagined what this super bunker must look like. Mount Weather has proven to be such an irresistible and mysterious symbol of secrecy over the years that it has served as the location of dramatic scenes in fictional entertainments like the last episode of The X-Files, the 2002 motion picture The Sum of All Fears and the 2008 remake of The Day the Earth Stood Still.

But what is the real Mount Weather story? Could it possibly live up to its legend? CONELRAD has assembled the following oral history from the limited published accounts available regarding the site. We hope that this post may inspire retired FEMA staff, government officials and journalists to come forward with their own eyewitness accounts. If we receive any additional information we will publish an update.

THE QUOTES

“That was some rough, tough, dirty work… It was amazing the way they could drive a straight line through solid rock.”

--Gilbert Fowler, foreman of one of three 40-man U.S. Bureau of Mines shifts that worked around the clock for three years to expand the Mount Weather mine into a state of the art continuity of government facility. Fowler worked with one of the architects of the top secret project, Paul Russell. Mount Weather was completed in 1958.[3]

“It’s kind of mind-boggling. Dr. Strangelove is one of my favorite movies, and you can fantasize about that site in similar ways. It’s otherworldly—just the size and weight and massiveness of the doors. It’s a mini-city—like a space station.”

-- Buford Macklin, who was once the emergency coordinator of the Department of Housing and Urban Development[4]

“It’s austere. Believe me. I’ve been there. The secretary of commerce has a small cubicle. He wouldn’t have to share a bed. Everybody else would.”

-- Richard Pidgeon, who was once the emergency coordinator of the Department of Commerce[5]

“Mount Weather could hold two, even three times as many people as there were bunks—several thousand in all. Only the President, Cabinet Secretaries and Supreme Court Justices had private quarters. Eisenhower had family pictures on his desk. A therapeutic mattress was installed for [President John F.] Kennedy’s bad back. For those who could not cope with the stress, the facility had sedatives as well as a padded isolation cell, complete with an observation window. One official dubbed it ‘the rubber room’ and said there were straightjackets on pegs outside the door… So complete is the site’s inventory that it now includes birth-control pills—not because of any anticipated sexual activity but so that female officials would not have to interrupt their pill-taking schedule.”

-- Ted Gup in Time magazine, 1992[6]

“That was a station up in northern Virginia that had good, firm underground rock that we could operate from that would give us a reasonable amount of security for detonations… Originally, the thing started as a Bureau of Mines mine for testing, for testing their mining equipment. And then, we took it over in 1955. And we then converted it into an underground installation having hard communications capability.”

-- J. Leo Bourassa, who ran Mount Weather from 1958 to 1968[7]

First of all, as important as the site was to what we wanted to do, we had to protect it, not make it a target or an invitation. Now, I don't say that the Russians didn't know it was there, but why alert all the other infiltrators that could come in and give you some hard times?

-- J. Leo Bourassa[8]

“Radiation or not, throw them the hell out. I don’t give a damn what the radiation count is.”

-- J. Leo Bourassa on handling saboteurs and troublemakers in a post-attack environment at Mount Weather[9]

“He [Mount Weather site director, J. Leo Bourassa] had that job during the hottest years of the Cold War, from 1958 to 1968. If the need arose, said recently, he would have kept out the president’s wife—Mamie Eisenhower or Lady Bird Johnson or Jacqueline Kennedy – because they didn’t have passes. The ground rules, written by President Dwight D. Eisenhower, stated: no spouses allowed. Emotions would be running high, and everyone would have to be treated equally, Bourassa said, to prevent revolt.”

-- Patrick K. Lackey, in a 1992 article on J. Leo Bourassa[10]

“Automatic weapons were stored at the site, and Bourassa says he would have implemented a shoot-to-kill order to prevent anyone not on the site’s roster—even family members of officials or locals—from gaining access.”

-- Ted Gup in Time magazine, 1992[11]

“I expect your people to save our government. You know damned well I’ll be there as soon as I can.”

-- President Dwight D. Eisenhower to J. Leo Bourassa[12]

“I never took it very seriously. It was an unrealistic thing, it seemed to me, that we’d all pick up at the ringing of a bell and run for the hills leaving our families behind.”

-- Alexis Johnson, Deputy Under Secretary of State, during the Cuban Missile Crisis[13]

“That facility could have accommodated thousands of people. They would have rotated the bunks. They would have been working very long shifts. There was a crematorium to dispose of bodies, people that had been killed from either blast burns or radiation. It was a remarkably sophisticated and complete facility, and one of several around the country.”

-- Ted Gup on Larry King Live in 1992[14]

“The plane crashed about one and one-half miles from an underground complex that reportedly is designed to serve as a headquarters for high government officials in the event of a nuclear war. A Federal spokesman acknowledged only that the facility was operated by the little known Office of Preparedness, whose responsibilities, he said, include ‘continuity of government in a time of national disaster.’”

-- New York Times report on a TWA airline crash that brought unwelcome attention to Mount Weather[15]

“The installation is kept in a constant state of readiness to perform its mission in the event of an emergency that requires the relocation of key Government officials. These employees are required to have top secret clearance, to reside within an hour’s ride of the Special Facility, and to be available 24 hours a day to report for duty at the Special Facility in the event of an emergency.

Because of the remote location of the Special Facility, as well as its top secret classification, the employees assigned there are not able to use public transportation to travel between their homes and their jobs. Therefore, for many years a bus transportation service, at reasonable rates of fare to the employees, has been operated by the Government between the Special Facility and the nearby communities where the employees reside. The buses remain nightly at pre-designated community rendezvous points to ensure transportation for employees to the Special Facility in the event of after-duty-hour recall.”

-- FEMA request for funding for Mount Weather operations, 1981[16]

“The entrance is such that if they were to pop a nuke, it would withstand whatever they popped.”

-- Julius W. Becton, Jr., former FEMA director, on what has been described as a five ft. thick, ten ft. high and twenty ft. wide solid steel door that serves as the gateway to the Mount Weather bunker.[17]

“I wanted to disperse a little of the mystery, here. I was at Mount Weather twice - once with President Eisenhower, once with President Johnson. The only mystic part of it, we were all supposed to leave our families in the event of a nuclear attack on Washington. Nobody would have done that. But hundreds of people knew when we went along with the Presidents.”

-- Bob Clark, ABC News, calling in to Larry King Live, 1992[18]

“The person described on this card has essential emergency duties with the Federal Government. Request full assistance and unrestricted movement be afforded the person to whom this card is issued.”

-- Text on identification card carried by a person with access to Mount Weather[19]

“Our program started in 1954. Wouldn’t it be prudent to assume that the Russians have found out where these facilities are and have targeted them? With modern weapons, they can dig out anything they want… Mount Weather still has lots of utility for a situation less than a nuclear war. Its capital costs are amortized, and the operating costs of a place like that are pretty cheap. And it might survive an attack. Do you scrap something like that? Maybe at some point, when you have sufficient alternatives, you close it.”

-- John Policastro, FEMA Division of Continuity of Government Planning to author Edward Zuckerman for the 1984 book, The Day After World War III[20]

“Only once did the facility go on full alert—on November 9, 1965, when a power failure darkened much of the Northeast. [Site director, J. Leo] Bourassa says he feared at the time that it was the result of a surgical nuclear strike. His order: ‘Report to base at once.’ The site’s fleet of buses was dispatched to round up the 200-plus employees who lived in the area. Up until then, officials had feared that the staff would not report in because their family members would be sheltered. But that day, more than 80% of the staff answered the call. Bourassa also put the facility on a high state of readiness following [President John F.] Kennedy’s assassination. Surprisingly, Mount Weather was not put on alert during the Cuban missile crisis, though the situation was monitored closely.”

-- Ted Gup in Time magazine, 1992[21]

CONCLUSION

Since the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, the Mountain has no doubt received more visitors than it ever did during the Cold War. If you, dear reader, have been fortunate enough to actually see the inside of this monument to Strangelovian fantasy, please drop us a line here. Your anonymity is guaranteed.

ADDITIONAL MOUNT WEATHER POSTS BY CONELRAD

MAKE MINE A TRIPLE: The Inside World of Bunker Nightlife

MOUNT WEATHER DOCUMENTS: Before and After the Cuban Missile Crisis

[1] Eugene Scheel, “From the Mysterious to the Mundane, ‘The Mountain’ Has Weathered It All,” Washington Post, p. T-03, October 7, 2001.

[2] Ted Gup, “Doomsday Hideaway,” Time magazine, p. 26, December 9, 1991.

[3] Ibid. p. 28.

[4] Edward Zuckerman, The Day After World War III [New York: Viking Press, 1984], p. 223.

[5] Ibid.

[6] Ted Gup, “The Doomsday Blueprints,” p. 35, August 10, 1992.

[7] Larry King Live Transcript, CNN, August 10, 1992.

[8] Ibid.

[9] Ted Gup, “The Doomsday Blueprints,” p. 35, August 10, 1992.

[10] Patrick K. Lackey, “Underground Life” He Kept a Vital Bomb Shelter – and Kept it a Secret,” the Virginian-Pilot, p. A1, December 26, 1992.

[11] Ted Gup, “The Doomsday Blueprints,” p. 35, August 10, 1992.

[12] Ibid.

[13] Ted Gup, “Doomsday Hideaway,” Time magazine, p. 29, December 9, 1991.

[14] Larry King Live transcript.

[15] Associated Press, “All 92 On Board Killed When Jetliner Crashes…,” New York Times, P.1, December 2, 1974.

[16] Edward Zuckerman, The Day After World War III [New York: Viking Press, 1984], p. 224.

[17] Ted Gup, “Doomsday Hideaway,” Time magazine, p. 26, December 9, 1991.

[18] Larry King Live Transcript.

[19] Ted Gup, “The Doomsday Blueprints,” p. 39, August 10, 1992.

[20] Edward Zuckerman, The Day After World War III [New York: Viking Press, 1984], p. 223.

[21] Ted Gup, “The Doomsday Blueprints,” p. 36, August 10, 1992.

MAKE MINE A TRIPLE: The Inside World of Bunker Nightlife

2011-09-18T16:32:00.001-07:00

“Use of alcoholic beverages on the property [is prohibited] except,

(1) In the Balloon Shed Lounge at Mt. Weather and in other locations that the Administrator or the Mt. Weather Executive Director authorizes in writing…”

- Excerpt from the U.S. government document, “Conduct at the Mt. Weather Emergency Assistance Center and at the National Emergency Training Center,” p. 145

INTRODUCTION

It has been written that director Stanley Kubrick’s decision to translate Peter George’s dramatic Cold War thriller novel Red Alert into the wildly satirical Dr. Strangelove occurred during a late night writing session when the filmmaker wondered aloud what exactly the War Room did for take-out food. Did they order pizza? Did they send a runner out to the local diner? This curiosity eventually led the script to be restructured into a comedy.[i] Indeed, the notorious deleted pie fight sequence that was to be the original ending to the film is undoubtedly an outgrowth of the absurdist notion that World War III could be catered. It was Kubrick’s long ago fascination with the trivial aspects of nuclear war that prompted CONELRAD to post an inquiry about the Balloon Shed Lounge (the facility mentioned in bright green in the government document excerpt above) on a respected Cold War Internet discussion group back in 2004. To our surprise, we received a reply almost immediately. Due to a number of factors including editorial backlog and general laziness, we are just now getting around to posting our interview with the gentleman who agreed to share his intimate knowledge of bunker watering holes and cafeterias.

Our source, who still holds a government security clearance, did not wish to be identified, but CONELRAD is satisfied that this person is legitimate. We cannot reveal how we vetted him as it might tend to compromise his identity, so our readers will just have to trust us on this one. For the purposes of this interview, we will refer to him as “Deep Mug.”

CONELRAD: You have been to The Granite Cove and The Balloon Shed Lounge, the cafes that serve Site R and Mount Weather respectively. Do you know anything about the history of these establishments? In other words, how long they have been in existence at these sites? Do you know if they date back to the Cold War?

DEEP MUG: Granite Cove or some predecessor has existed since Site R opened. It is the only place to eat inside the mountain, besides a couple of really crappy vending machines. You eat there, or you don't eat unless you bring your own. I'm not sure how long The Balloon Shed has been around but it is not a new facility. My guess would be that it or a predecessor dates back to the Sixties.

Location of The Balloon Shed Bar at Mount Weather

CONELRAD: Were you surprised that these facilities had names - as opposed to the typical government-issue cafeterias.

DEEP MUG: Granite Cove isn't a surprise. The Army gives it's mess halls names these days, to give them a little more character. The Balloon Shed is actually not a cafeteria. It is merely a pretty small bar on the first floor of one of the buildings at Mt. Weather. There is a pretty large cafeteria that occupies most of the second floor of the same building. It doesn't have a name.

CONELRAD: Did you or anyone you know ever visit the cafeteria at the Greenbrier congressional bunker in White Sulphur Springs, W. VA?

DEEP MUG: Sorry, can't help you there. You know as much as I do.

CONELRAD: Does the Granite Cove and the Balloon Shed have distinctive signage advertising its presence at the sites or is it pretty conservative? Could you describe?

DEEP MUG: Both have signs. Granite Cove is pretty straightforward conservative but they may have jazzed it up since I was there 10 years ago. Balloon Shed has a nice sign with, well, A BALLOON that looks like it was done by a woodworker. The name "Balloon Shed" hints back to Mt. Weather's origins as a weather station in the early 1900s.

CONELRAD: Do both establishments serve alcohol?

DEEP MUG: No alcohol at Granite Cove, it's just an Army mess hall. The Balloon Shed is a bar...though I think they have bar snacks like popcorn.

CONELRAD: Do they have Happy Hours?

DEEP MUG: Balloon Shed doesn't really have happy hours per se. In fact, it normally isn't open without prior arrangement.

CONELRAD: Are there any uniquely named drinks such as an Atomic Cocktail; or do they just serve beer and wine?

DEEP MUG: Alas, it's just beer and wine...and often pretty ordinary beer and wine at that! No microbrews or fancy varietals. The wine is likely to come from a box.

CONELRAD: Have you ever seen anyone get hammered?

DEEP MUG: Oh, yeah! For several years (until 9/11), FEMA actually held a number of training classes for local and state emergency response personnel out at Mt. Weather. It was a program to take some of the burden off their training center in Emmitsburg, MD. I attended several of these and saw plenty of cops and firemen get pretty hammered. Hell, there's nothing else to do after hours and no place else to really go. The nice thing is that they run a bus service back to the dorms, so you can get as hammered as you like and not worry about driving.

CONELRAD: Do they have Marines serve as bouncers?

DEEP MUG: No bouncers, but if you get out of line at Mt. Weather then you deal with the Mt. Weather security police. They are civilians, but they have NO sense of humor with outsiders, especially these days.

CONELRAD: Are there any uniquely named dishes like a Heart Healthy Cheney Burger or a Rumsfeld Ham Sandwich?

DEEP MUG: You forgot the Senator Robert Byrd "pork" chop! Very normal cafeteria food. Typical colorless government approach.

CONELRAD: Are there juke boxes? If so, what kind of music?

DEEP MUG: Balloon Shed did have a juke box as I recall, with a mix of classic rock and some country. It may or may not still be there.

CONELRAD: Do these establishments have air hockey, pinball machines or Saturday night turtle races?

DEEP MUG: There are pool tables, ping pong and a foosball table, I think, just outside the Balloon Shed. Even if the bar isn't open, the pool tables etc. are available for use 24/7.

CONELRAD: Are there any decorations that adorn these cafes or are they pretty Spartan? Are there pictures of the President? Describe the rooms if you could.

DEEP MUG: The Balloon Shed has some very cool old photos of the weather testing/measurement activities at Mt. Weather in the 1900s to the 30s, including pictures of the weather balloons and the "balloon shed" for which the place is named. It is a small, small bar...not much bigger than a bar one might build in a home basement. The bar seats maybe 8-10 folks, with a couple of small tables holding another 10-15. Granite Cove is a big, open room with a bunch of tables for the military folks. It is carpeted, with white walls and a rather ordinary drop ceiling. It can seat probably 200 or more people at a time. Don't remember any pictures...if there were any, they would have looked like something stolen from a Holiday Inn.

CONELRAD: Is the wait-staff at these establishments armed and friendly or just armed?

DEEP MUG: The cafeteria staff at Site R are all civilians, most of them local residents who've been working there for years...or whose family has worked there for years. They were a pretty good bunch, took good care of the soldiers working in Site R. Same story for the cafeteria staff at Mt. Weather, though they use contractors down there now. The Balloon Shed is operated on an "as needed" basis by something called the Midway Recreation Association. Basically, I think it's a group of Mt. Weather employees/family members. When I was there, you made prior arrangements, shelled out $50 and they would staff the place with a bartender. For some reason, I think they have to operate it that way since these activities aren't directly funded with tax $$$ (seriously!). The bar at the FEMA Training Center in Emmitsburg is operated by the "National Emergency Training Center Recreation Association" and you have to pay $1 for a two-week "membership card" if you're a student up there. I think staff members are automatically members.

CONELRAD: Would both of these establishments be in operation during a crisis in which the facility would be completely locked down?

DEEP MUG: Granite Cove would definitely operate since they feed the Site R staff. I have a sneaking suspicion that The Balloon Shed would also be available! The scary thing at Site R is that when the fresh food runs out, you're probably going to be stuck eating Army MREs. Yecch! What a way to ride out the end of the world.

CONELRAD: When you dine/drink at these establishments what is the mood? Is it slightly eerie? Does the topic of conversation usually keep coming back to apocalyptic themes?

DEEP MUG: Pretty subdued for the most part. Granite Cove is just a place to get a bite to eat and get back to your post. Again, it's an Army mess hall so you have plenty of horny young soldiers talking about what they did last night, what they'll do when their shift ends, who just got a new motorcycle, who's girlfriend/boyfriend dumped them and is now free, how the officers and sergeants are all idiots, etc. When I was at the Balloon Shed, I was there as part of a civilian training course. Most of the time, we just knocked back a few beers and told a lot of lies like most men do in bars. Not too many women attended those courses, and when they did they usually stayed away from The Balloon Shed. There's really not much talk about the apocalyptic stuff. Those who "are in the know" don't talk much for security reasons. Visiting students don't get anywhere near the classified (read: underground) portions of Mt. Weather so they don't have much to say. After a day or so, the novelty of being stuck on a mountain in the middle of nowhere wears off!

CONELRAD: If the Balloon Shed and the Granite Cove were to be rated in one of these guides like Zagat or AAA, what rating would you give them on a scale of 1 to five mushroom clouds (1 being lowest, five being highest or "most explosively wonderful").

DEEP MUG: The Balloon Shed gets a "3" for atmosphere, but it is very inconsistent. I've been there and had a great time, and been there and was bored to tears. It pales in comparison to the bar at FEMA's Emmitsburg training center, which definitely rates a "5" and is named "The Command Post." Granite Cove gets a "2" for atmosphere but a "4" for food. Again, the service is generally strong but the entrees are inconsistent. Dessert is usually good though not exotic.

CONELRAD: What is the strangest/funniest/most surprising thing that you have witnessed at one of these establishments? Have you ever heard any good anecdotes about wild evenings at these establishments?

DEEP MUG: I never saw anything all that interesting at The Balloon Shed. The security requirements do throw a pall over the place. There are probably some FEMA staffers with good stories but they officially discourage that sort of behavior.

CONELRAD: What are the best and worst food items? Do these places serve breakfast?

DEEP MUG: The best food is usually on the short order lines--burgers, grilled cheese, etc. Breakfast at Granite Cove is always great. The military does breakfast right. The worst food items are usually the same worst items from a typical college cafeteria--mystery meat, soggy fries, over-steamed vegetables. Granite Cove used to serve a midnight meal since there were folks inside the mountain 24 hours a day. The quality of midnight chow ranged from exceptional to inedible...often swinging from one extreme to the other in a single day.

CONELRAD: Tell us about the gift shops at these facilities. What kind of stuff can you buy?

DEEP MUG: No gift shop at Site R, but Mt. Weather has a pretty nice one. You can buy hats, sweatshirts, coffee mugs, polo shirts adorned with either a Mt. Weather logo or the Department of Homeland Security logo. They are also selling off their stock of goodies with the old FEMA logo, which was "retired" by DHS...though they allowed FEMA to keep its name. Strange marriage!

CONELRAD: Final question: What happens after last call? Do people stumble back to their bunk beds?

DEEP MUG: No sleep at Site R....its back to duty. When last call hits at Balloon Shed, everyone piles on the bus and gets dropped back at their dorm. BORING!, but few visitors to Mt. Weather have cars so there aren't many options. At the more lively civilian classes I attended, we usually kept the party going down in the small lounges that are found in each of the Mt. Weather dorm buildings. OFFICIALLY, you're not permitted to bring alcohol onto the site. However, there were plenty of ways around that before things got extra-super tight after 9/11. The housekeeping staff usually didn't say anything about all the empties in the trash can as long as you didn't trash the dorm. It was also prudent to keep a slight lid on the dorm parties so that a roving security patrol didn't get curious and decide to stop in.

The preceding interview was conducted by Bill Geerhart via email on August 4, 2004. Photographs of the cafeteria sign, empty cafeteria and bunk beds are from the congressional bunker at the Greenbrier Hotel. These photos were taken by Bill Geerhart in 1998.

CONELRAD would like to thank Deep Mug for his willingness to answer our questions and we hope that he is reading this now on the Balloon Shed wi-fi.

[i] Vincent Lobrutto, Stanley Kubrick: A Biography ( De Capo Press, 1999), p. 228

MOUNT WEATHER DOCUMENTS: Before and After the Cuban Missile Crisis

2011-09-05T19:12:00.001-07:00

“No cleaning or pressing facilities are available”

--Excerpt from “Interim Standing Operating Procedures for Emergency Use of the Classified Location” (1962)[1]

“…we have the capability of producing special entertainment ‘shows’ and releasing them over our own closed circuit Channel 2…”

--Excerpt from “Special Facilities Preparedness” (1962)[2]

INTRODUCTION

As regular readers of this blog are all too aware CONELRAD has spent much of its twelve year existence trying to unearth documents related to Mount Weather (aka High Point, aka the Special Facility, aka the Classified Location, aka the Protected Facility) - the massive underground government bunker located forty-eight miles west of Washington, D.C. This never ending quest is in service of our ultimate goal of finding and publishing the Arthur Godfrey Doomsday Message, a tape or film that the famed broadcaster reportedly recorded in the 1950s to be played in the event of a nuclear war. This recording, along with one by President Dwight D. Eisenhower, is said to have been stored in a vault at Mount Weather for years.

In June we posted a heavily redacted memo from 1957 entitled “Functions to be Performed at High Point” that was, to put it mildly, something of a letdown. The aforementioned document had nothing to do with the popular personality’s end-of-the-world tape and added very little to the knowledge base of the mysterious super shelter (thanks to all those black splotches). While the documents presented in this post may have only passing relevance to the search for the Godfrey message, they are completely uncensored and highly entertaining.

Before we proceed, we would like to thank historian David Krugler for sharing these textual gems with us. If you have not read Professor Krugler’s book This Is Only A Test: How Washington D.C. Prepared for Nuclear War, you should because it is perhaps the best history of early Cold War Continuity of Government planning available.

Interim Standing Operating Procedures for Emergency Use of the Classified Location

A month before the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962, Mount Weather, the crown jewel of the Federal Relocation Arc, received a timely and thorough paperwork update. The declassified fifteen-page “Interim Standing Operating Procedures for Emergency Use of the Classified Location” reads like the driest of employee handbooks, but it is quite informative. And because the document is describing a Strangelovian World War III refuge complete with its own censorship department, it transcends its original purpose to become a grand work of unintentional humor.

“Interim Standing Operating Procedures” begins with the basics such as definitions, roles, responsibilities, capabilities, etc. and then goes on to detail the available television and radio resources (of particular interest because the Godfrey message would presumably require a delivery system) beginning on page 9:

“Television and radio broadcasting studios are available for authorized programs. From these studios programs can be transmitted over a ‘closed circuit’ system (Channel 2) which confines the broadcast to the OEP Classified Location, or programs can be transmitted nationwide through hookup with the commercial networks. The television studio has the necessary facilities for broadcasting 16mm film and 35mm slides. Television programs may also be tape recorded while in progress and released at a later time.”

It is on page ten that the real fun begins with Section VII A.: Procedures Governing Entry. This section states that only “emergency assignees to the Classified Location with Top Secret Clearance” will be admitted. Those with “permanent passes” (Arthur Godfrey?) will be admitted immediately and those with temporary passes will be held for additional screening in “Building 403.” “All others will be granted admission only on authority of the Chief, Special Facility, or those authorized to act in his stead.” In other words, at the time of the missile crisis, J. Leo Bourassa (who ran Mount Weather from its opening in 1958 until 1968 and who died in 2000) must have been a very popular man.[3]

In the event that an unruly GS-7, townie or even a desperate First Lady (Bourassa stated in a 1992 interview that government spouses—even Mamie, Jackie and Lady Bird—were not welcome in the Special Facility[4]) tried to breach the perimeter, the document explains that there are “intrusion detection devices and armed guards” to prevent “unauthorized entry.”

Section VIII A announces that the cafeteria is “located in Building 15” and that the hours of operation “will be announced at the time of the emergency.” The congressional bunker underneath the Greenbrier Hotel, by contrast, had its hours posted in advance of the “emergency.”

Section VIII C cautions that dormitory space is “very limited” and that “luggage must be kept to a minimum.” The anonymous author also warns that “no cleaning or pressing facilities are available.” But, on the plus side, in the very next section it is noted that “the facility provides substantial protection from blast effects and practically total protection against other weapons effects.”

With regard to “Recreation” Section VIII F states that “very limited recreation areas are located in Building 17 of the Protected Facility and in such other areas as might from time to time be available.” This situation is greatly improved upon in Document 2.

Special Facilities Preparedness: November 29, 1962

A little over a month after the Cuban Missile Crisis, Robert Y. Phillips, Director, Government Readiness Office, wrote this memorandum to Colonel Justice M. Chambers, Deputy Director, Office of Emergency Planning.[5] The missile scare had clearly placed a renewed emphasis on the services Mount Weather should be able to provide its occupants for a prolonged stay.

After some old business regarding the leveraging of the Marine Corps Schools, Quantico[6] (this section is notable in that it actually names the Chief of the Special Facility, “Mr. Bourassa,” but does not identify his role) and the lack of “Chaplains” assigned to Mount Weather, Phillips launches into a detailed description of the new recreational amenities at the site. In addition to the horseshoes, golf driving range (indoor) and barbells (2 sets), etc., Phillips points out that the Special Facility is equipped to offer “organized calisthenics” and can also produce “special entertainment ‘shows’” for broadcast over “closed circuit Channel 2 (TV).”

The next section of the document announces that “there are six individuals among personnel now assigned to the Special Facility who have barbering skills” and that “three barber kits have been obtained.”

Phillips wraps up his memo with the matter-of-fact announcements of separate “detention rooms” being “readied” for men and women and the installation of washers and dryers. Were the detention rooms the result of a “lesson learned” from the emotional stress of the Cuban Missile Crisis? And if Mount Weather was even activated during the crisis was it, as Robert F. Kennedy (Steven Culp) suggests in Thirteen Days (2000), used primarily as a tool “for morale”?[7]

We do not know, but we look forward to finding and sharing more declassified Mount Weather documents and, someday, the Arthur Godfrey Doomsday Message.

RECOMMENDED READING

If this post has piqued your interest in Mount Weather and Continuity of Government, CONELRAD recommends the following reading material:

Fred Kaplan, The Wizards of Armageddon (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1983)

Edward Zuckerman, The Day After World War III (New York: Viking, 1984).

Ted Gup, “Doomsday Hideway,” Time, pp. 26-29, December 9, 1991.

Ted Gup, “The Ultimate Congressional Hideaway,” Washington Post, May 31, 1992.

Ted Gup, “The Doomsday Blueprints,” Time, pp. 32-39, August 10, 1992.

David Krugler, This is Not a Test: How Washington DC Prepared for Nuclear War (New York: Palgrave, 2006).

Michael Dobbs, One Minute to Midnight: Kennedy, Khrushchev, and Castro on the Brink of Nuclear War (New York: Knopf, 2008).

[1] “Interim Standing Operating Procedures for Emergency Use of the Classified Location,” effective September 14, 1962, U.S. National Archives, Records Group 396, Declassified P 95 Records, Accession 66A03, Box 6, Folder “Special Facilities Branch.”

[2] Memorandum to Colonel J. M. Chambers from Robert Y. Phillips RE: “Special Facilities Preparedness,” November 29, 1962, U.S. National Archives, Records Group 396, Declassified P 95 Records, Accession 66A03, Box 6, Folder “Special Facilities Branch.”

[3] Patrick K. Lackey, “Underground Life: He Kept a Vital Bomb Shelter – and Kept it Secret,” Virginia Pilot, A-1, December 26, 1992. Note: On December 9, 2010, CONELRAD’s Bill Geerhart spoke with Bourassa’s daughter, Pam Bourassa, who stated that her father never mentioned a pre-recorded “Doomsday” message by Arthur Godfrey or anyone else. However, she stated that her father rarely spoke about his Mount Weather role.

[4] Ibid.

[5] For Chambers’ connection to Godfrey see Sidney Lohman, “News of TV and Radio,” New York Times, April 27, 1952. Both appeared in an April 29, 1952 civil defense special entitled “It Can Happen Here.”

[6] Letter from David M. Shoup to Edward M. McDermott RE: Emergency Capability of Marine Corps Schools, Quantico, Virginia, U.S. National Archives, Records Group 396, Declassified P 95 Records, Accession 66A03, Box 6, Folder “Special Facilities Branch.”

[7] Michael Dobbs’s definitive Cuban Missile Crisis history, One Minute to Midnight (New York: Knopf, 2008), pp. 310-311, describes the civil defense preparations for senior White House staff during the crisis. His reporting suggests that Mount Weather was on high alert if not fully activated. Specifically, Dobbs writes: “Over the last few days, the staff had been receiving packages of instructions telling them what to do and where to go in an emergency. Top aides…received pink identification cards, which meant they would accompany the president to an underground bunker…”

SHELTER 104: AN APPRECIATION WITH INSIGHTS FROM THE DIRECTOR

2011-07-24T16:11:00.001-07:00

“That stranger, Pete McCann—funny that none of the adults know him—he’s made a lot of records. He gave a folk singing concert at school just last night. He’s been way out all day. I suspect he’s going to be trouble.”

--Jeannie Howard to her Fallout Shelter Diary in the civil defense film Public Shelter Living: The Story of Shelter 104 (1964)

“The Use of This Film is Limited To Case Study Instruction Under the Guidance Of A Trained Shelter Management Instructor.”

--Disclaimer at the beginning of Public Shelter Living: The Story of Shelter 104 (1964)

“This was a job and that was just about the end of it. The Army was never very good about telling you the why…”

--James R. Hartzer, the director and producer of Public Shelter Living: The Story of Shelter 104 (1964)

PART I: THE FILM

As a result of the National Fallout Shelter Survey and Marking Program that began in 1961, a new subgenre of American civil defense educational film was born—the Public Shelter Occupancy movie. Examples of this cinematic form include Information Program Within Public Shelters (1963), Occupying a Public Shelter (1965) and the movie to be examined in this post, Public Shelter Living: The Story of Shelter 104 (1964).

Of the three works, Shelter 104 is the most interesting because of the unique and bizarre (for a government training film) counter-cultural conceit of the story. Specifically, the anonymous screenwriter decided to inject a cynical, folk-singing beatnik into the standard issue mix of worried-yet-obedient shelterites. Regardless of the fact that this malcontent will ultimately be converted to the pro-survival cause, his negative, slang-slinging presence is what makes this movie a genuine classic.

“Pete McCann,” who appears approximately ten minutes into the half-hour film (the shelter manager permits his belated, post-attack entry after a police officer explains, “I found this character in the street getting drunk’) wastes little time in belittling the earnest efficiency of the tie-wearing shelter management team:

Contemplating your errors, friends? You know, the fact is, you made a stinking mess out of everything. And now we’re all going to die down here in this black little hole.

But McCann’s scorn is not targeted solely at the establishment elders – he shoots his nihilistic daggers at everyone, including a perky blonde college student named Jeannie Howard. Jeannie, who keeps a chatty diary that remarks on how the rations of survival biscuits and orange drink help “say goodbye to extra weight the shelter way,” is the optimistic counterbalance to the dark and brooding McCann.

The viewer knows from the start that it is only a matter of time before Jeannie’s peppiness carries the day, but it is the conflict between these two polar opposites that keeps us watching. When Jeannie observes McCann sulking (or withdrawing from heroin?), the following dialogue ensues:

Jeannie: The world didn’t end this morning, Mr. McCann. It’s still here.

McCann: Now, it’s not really a world we can live in, is it?

Jeannie: We really don’t know about that, do we? I mean who can say?

McCann: Don’t give me a lecture on the survival of the species, little girl. The species is a flop. And whether it all goes up in one grand whoosh or carries on for another week or drags on for a month… [McCann’s diatribe is interrupted by another shelter dweller who yells at him to “shut up.”]

A little later, when Jeannie tries to give McCann a reality check after he complains about his guitar being stolen the previous evening, he makes a fist and says:

You know, you’re a regular little Salvationist, aren’t you? You’re all fitted up with your power of positive thinking.

But the indefatigably sunny Jeannie won’t give up and conspires with a young orphan boy named Jeff to present McCann with a makeshift guitar (and a plea to entertain their fellow survivors). Before throwing the instrument across the shelter, the beatnik sneers and says “The whole world is going down the drain and we want a little music.”

McCann’s black cloud rubs other people in the shelter the wrong way, too. In one heated moment a shelter resident points at the morose folkie and declares “I’ll tell you what’s spoiling the atmosphere around here – him! – and I think we ought to send him for a little walk.”

McCann’s turning point comes when he realizes—with Jeannie’s help (she’s the daughter of a doctor who may or may not have been atomized in a neighboring town)—that he isn’t dying of radiation poisoning, but is merely suffering from a reoccurrence of his allergies (the out-of-it beatnik laughs as he remembers he offered his bottle of Benadryl to the shelter manager upon his drunken entry several days before).

Jeannie wastes no time in unloading on the suddenly relieved and life-loving McCann:

There’s something I want to tell you. You’re a liar—to yourself and everyone in here. You don’t want to die any more than we do. The way you’ve been carrying on with your superior attitude and phony cynicism. But when the chips are down, when you thought you were sick with something you could put your finger on – like a germ or scarlet fever, not something invisible and mysterious like radiation, you dearly want to live, don’t you?

After McCann slightly nods, the co-ed concludes her emotional speech:

Well fine. I suppose that makes you a member of the human race, after all. And since you’re in the club, Mr. McCann, and really don’t want to leave us just yet, the least you can do is pay your due.

The film concludes with a now smiling Pete McCann strumming the reconstructed, but somehow longer-necked guitar that he had destroyed earlier. The wildly appreciative shelter audience appears to dig the pro-survival message of McCann’s presumably new folk composition. The unlikely lyrics—“No more fears and no more talk of dying / we’re going to spread the word…”—fade out over the Department of Defense and Army Pictorial Center end titles.

PART II: THE MAN WHO MADE SHELTER 104

When CONELRAD first saw the civil defense masterpiece described above we wanted to try and track down the actor who had played the role of Pete McCann with such surly finesse. We are still looking for the elusive Fallout Shelter beatnik, but we did manage to locate the man who directed and produced Shelter 104 —James R. Hartzer.

Hartzer, now in his seventies, confessed to being “stunned” about our inquiry, but was more than happy to discuss what was, in fact, his very first movie. The retired filmmaker and businessman explained to CONELRAD’s Bill Geerhart that he knew from his early teenage years that he wanted to work in television. “I knew I was going to New York to direct television.” And, to that end, the young man spent his college summers pushing a broom as a custodian at Chicago’s WGN-TV (it was close as he could get). After graduating from DePauw University in Indiana in 1959 and after some graduate work at Michigan State, Hartzer bluffed his way out of a possible forward position in Vietnam and into a slot with the Army Pictorial Center in Astoria, Long Island City, Queens, New York. It was where he was meant to be.[1]

Hartzer recalled that it was literally his first day on the job in late 1963 when a superior called out to the assembled workforce: “Does anyone here know how to switch [cameras]?” The aspiring young director brashly volunteered and offered that he had “worked at WGN.” By omitting the janitorial nature of his position at the station, Hartzer had satisfied the higher-ups that he knew what he was doing. He was immediately handed the screenplay for Public Shelter Living: The Story of Shelter 104 and ordered to shoot it.

“I’m sorry to say, I don’t remember who wrote the script,” Hartzer told CONELRAD, but added that he did not change it. “I thought it was very good and whoever wrote it had done a great job on it.” With regard to the folk song that concludes the film, Hartzer allowed that the lyrics may not have been in the screenplay and that the tune may have been recorded later.

The set for Shelter 104 had already been built, so Hartzer concentrated on casting the movie. The Army Pictorial Center had a casting department that arranged auditions based on the criteria producers provided to them. According to Hartzer, officers would frequently attend these try-outs and occasionally attempt to dissuade him from choosing a particular actor. Hartzer stated that he always stuck to his guns and went with the performer he thought could best carry off a role. With regard to Pete McCann, the star character of Shelter 104, Hartzer could not remember the actor’s name, but agreed that he brought a memorable intensity to the part.

When asked about whether he looked to any outside inspiration for creating the fearful, claustrophobic mood of shelter life for his movie, Hartzer said that he had the 1959 movie version of The Diary of Anne Frank in mind.

The young director was aware of the controversy surrounding civil defense at the time he was preparing to film Shelter 104, but he was agnostic about its efficacy. As Hartzer explained in his interview, any opinion he might have held on the issue would not have mattered much. “This was a job and that was just about the end of it. The Army was never very good about telling you the why. We shot the film in a week or two television style and it was converted to 16mm (Kinescope).”

Hartzer edited the film with a skilled professional named “Jerry” who later went to Hollywood to work on major studio motion pictures.[2] On the afternoon of November 22, 1963 Hartzer and Jerry took a short break from their work when President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, Texas. A few hours later, they were told by the Army to get back to work. When it was all over and the film was in the can, Hartzer remembered that “I was just pleased to get though it.”

The director worked on many other training films during his stint in the service and it wasn’t until his superiors were trying to get him to reenlist that he paused to think back to his first project. “Whatever happened to that film?” he asked of one of the people lobbying him to re-up. It was at this point that Hartzer discovered the surprising fate of Shelter 104. “Once these training films were completed,” Hartzer explained to CONELRAD, “they were sent down to Washington. Some colonel liked it and had it submitted at Cannes.”

Representatives of the Cannes Film Festival did not reply to CONELRAD’s request for additional details, but in the 1967-1968 edition of the Directors Guild of America Directory, the entry for James R. Hartzer states that the film was submitted to Cannes in 1964.

James R. Hartzer went on to work on numerous other film and video projects as a civilian, mainly in an executive capacity, but he still has a 16mm copy of Shelter 104 in his Connecticut home. He has not watched it since it was completed nearly a half century ago, but he told CONELRAD that it still occupies a special place in his heart.

APPENDIX: GOVERNOR DERWOOD O. AMBACHER’S POST-ATTACK RADIO ADDRESS

Just before Pete McCann’s dramatic entrance into the shelter, the shelter occupants are listening to a radio address by their fictional governor. The following is the text.

Radio Announcer: Attention please. This is state civil defense headquarters. Stand by for an important broadcast. The next voice you hear will be that of the honorable Derwood O. Ambacher, governor of our state.

Governor Ambacher: My fellow Americans: Those of you who hear my voice already know that this nation has been attacked with nuclear weapons. At this time, we cannot estimate the extent of damage already done. I have been in contact with…

At this point a banging on the shelter door is heard and the action shifts away from the radio, but it is also made clear that Ambacher’s address has terminated for some unknown reason.

CREDITS (Incomplete)

Public Shelter Living: The Story of Shelter 104
DoD CD 20-217
Army Pictorial Center in Cooperation with Staff College Office of Civil Defense
30 Minutes
Black and White
Director / Producer: James R. Hartzer
Written by: Unknown
Edited by: Jerry (surname unknown)

CAST (Incomplete)

Pete McCann: Unknown
Jeannie Howard: Unknown
Mrs. Howard: Unknown
Bob Hassler: Unknown
Mr. Pitts: Unknown
Jeff: Unknown
Police Officer: Unknown
Mrs. Starr: Unknown
Mrs. Sugarhouse: Unknown
Herb, Shelter Manager Assistant: Unknown
Mr. Brewer: Unknown
Annoyed Young Male Shelterite: Unknown
Radio Announcer (Voice Only): Unknown
Governor Derwood O. Ambacher (Voice Only): Unknown

REFERENCES

Interview with James R. Hartzer conducted over the telephone by Bill Geerhart on July 2, 2011.

Directors Guild of America, Directory of Members, 1967-1968, pp. 129-130

ADDITIONAL READING

Public Shelter Living: The Story of Shelter 104 was used as part of an unusual shelter occupancy study in 1965. To read more about it, see our Survival Vérité post.

[1] Having completed his education, Hartzer decided to enlist and get Army-financed film training with the Signal Corps. His other option (in 1963) was to be drafted into military service.

[2] CONELRAD reached out to the Army Pictorial Center history website for assistance in identifying “Jerry” and they have graciously posted a “Help” item on their front page.

SURVIVAL VÉRITÉ: A Fallout Shelter Test with a Twist

2011-07-17T12:22:00.001-07:00

“Let me in! Let me in! I’m dying! God-damned Communists!”

-- Excerpt from Helen Parr Fleming’s 1965 article “The Unprepared”

Over the years CONELRAD has read numerous newspaper and magazine accounts of the public fallout shelter tests that seemed to be in vogue in the early 1960s. Most of these “experiments” were carried out by local civil defense authorities as a means to boost public awareness about Cold War survival. Of course, because these tests lacked the essential element of genuine panic that would accompany a nuclear war, they were predictable affairs with predictably boring media coverage.

But in the summer of 1965, the Pleasants County (West Virginia) Civil Defense Council tried something a little different. Doug Taylor and Arthur Boggs, the men who organized what could have been just another routine shelter occupancy exercise, decided to throw some post-attack realism into the mix. Fortunately for history, writer Helen Parr Fleming (1916-2000) was around to witness the strangeness that ensued. Her remarkable first-person narrative, “The Unprepared,” was published in the September 26, 1965 edition of the Charleston, West Virginia Sunday Gazette-Mail newspaper.[1]

Ms. Fleming (pictured above) begins her story by recounting how she was invited to participate in the shelter study via mail (69 other county residents also answered the call to service) and what happened next:

Several days after I accepted, I received further instructions. “Arrive at the St. Mary’s Graded School – which was to be our fallout shelter – between 7:20 and 7:45 a.m. with or without breakfast. Wear old clothes. No radios. Bring a musical instrument if I played one, books, magazines or playing cards.” The instructions ended there.

With a sense of adventure and visions of sweet rolls and coffee at the shelter flitting through my mind, I dressed in slim-jims and a woolen sweater and packed my purse.
Chlorophyll chewing gum – a tooth brush would be sissy – playing cards, new shorthand pad, eight of the dullest pencils in town, three copies of the New Yorker, Polaroid camera, headache pills, lipstick, comb and nose tissues.

Looking more like a war correspondent than a civilian, I reported to St. Mary’s Graded School – and was plunged into one of the most chaotic days of my life. As events permitted, I took minute-by-minute notes with my dull little pencils, completely filling my shorthand pad from front to back and back to front again.

The realism referenced above comes first in the dire loud speaker notifications (“Your attention, please! Missile attack will be in the next 30 minutes. Do not attempt to leave your shelter!) and later in the form of a wounded shelter-ite. Fleming, distracted from her bridge game, describes the sight:

They are carrying someone in. He is supposed to be a casualty. Ugh! There is blood all over his leg. Do they have to make it so real? They have laid him on the floor and are trying to give him first aid. Apparently, we don’t have much by way of first aid supplies. The “casualty” is screaming and I have a strange feeling in my stomach. Someone says his name is John Walton. Don Snyder is checking him for radiation with a Geiger counter. I feel so useless.”

The ultimate example of survival vérité occurs later still as Fleming is describing the bureaucratic necessities of shelter management:

…We need a deputy for operations. Don [Snyder] starts to read off the duties, but there is a commotion at the door. The guard is grapping with someone. A hand and leg appears. The hand is bloody. A man is screaming:
“Let me in! Let me in! I’m dying! God-damned Communists!”
One of the men runs to help the guard. They get the hand and leg out and close the door and lean against it. There is dead silence. We are all stunned. This maniac has all of us shook up. I’m sure the same questions that are running through my mind are bothering everyone.

What if he couldn’t get to a shelter sooner? Did we treat him right? I couldn’t see his face, but those on the other side could. They say he was with radiation burns and blood was streaming from his mouth. He was grimy dirty and carrying a hatchet. The weapon was the first thing the guard saw after he had caught sight of the horribly burned face.

I feel better about the guard’s actions now. It was an evil, un-Christian decision, but there wasn’t anything else he could do. We couldn’t let a maniac in among us.

There is still silence in the shelter. Where did the man go? Had he fainted from his own hysteria, or was he dashing on to the next shelter to demand his way in? I feel like I am going to cry.

Don starts a discussion on the problem. We decide if it happens again, we will let him in and check him for radiation. I he’s too “hot,” we’ll isolate him. There are enough of us to wrest the hatchet away and throw it back outside.

The simulated ordeal of the fallout shelter residency ends for Fleming and her fellow shelterees at 6:45 p.m. with another loud speaker communication:

Your attention, please! Your attention, please! The enemy has surrendered! We have won! We have won!

Oddly, the test organizers chose to conclude the day’s events by showing the participants a civil defense movie donated by West Virginia Senator Jennings Randolph (1902-1998) that dramatizes life in a shelter. In the film, Public Shelter Living: The Story of Shelter 104, however, there is no hatchet-wielding intruder – just a jive-spouting, pessimistic beatnik.

You can read Helen Parr Fleming’s entire article here (Choose lower left-hand icon with arrow to view in full screen):
The Unprepared

You can view Public Shelter Living: The Story of Shelter 104 in its entirety here.

[1] Helen Parr Fleming, “The Unprepared,” the State Magazine section of the Sunday Gazette-Mail, pp.6m-8m.

THE GIRL IN THE KREMLIN: A CONELRAD APPRECIATION

2011-07-09T18:09:00.001-07:00

“Unquestionably the most absurd motion picture of the year is ‘The Girl in the Kremlin’ which opened yesterday at the RKO – Golden Gate.”

-- The San Francisco Chronicle, April 25, 1957

STALIN’S FETISH REVEALED!

The Albert Zugsmith-produced / Russell Birdwell-directed THE GIRL IN THE KREMLIN (1957) is a fascinating and bizarre entry in the hopelessly broad genre of Cold War film (and any category of motion picture study that can accommodate both FAIL-SAFE and KREMLIN must be considered, if nothing else, diverse). The film, originally titled STALIN IS ALIVE! and then THE PRIVATE SECRET DIARY OF JOSEPH STALIN and finally THE GIRL IN THE KREMLIN, is a speculative grade Z thriller that is still considerably more accomplished (and plausible) than its nearest cinematic cousin, THEY’VE SAVED HITLER’S BRAIN (1963). Instead of HITLER’s disembodied and garrulous head, the gimmick manufactured for KREMLIN was for the Russian dictator to fake his own death and to mask his identity through reconstructive facial surgery. The film’s other show-stopper was Stalin’s alleged hair-shaving fetish: The film includes two “shocking” female baldness stunts – including six minutes of the actress Natalia Daryll having her luxurious locks shorn for the titular dictator’s barely contained pleasure.

Did Stalin really have such a follicle fixation? Director Russell Birdwell, a legendary and flamboyant Hollywood publicity man whose sporadic filmmaking career was slight (KREMLIN was the last of the five minor films he directed), stated to a reporter before KREMLIN’s release that head-shaving “was one of Stalin’s methods of punishing Kremlin girls who stepped out of line.” What was Birdwell’s source for this odd, apparently new piece of historical information? The “studio research department,” revealed the journalist in his article. CONELRAD could find no corroborating citations for this important dramatic and promotional aspect of the film, so we contacted the respected Stalin scholar Simon Sebag Montefiore and asked him whether there is any truth to the supposed kink of the Russian dictator. “It is total nonsense,” was his succinct reply.

THE GIRL IN THE KREMLIN was produced over ten days in February of 1957 with a final budget of $287,300 (Ms. Daryll received $285 for her acting role plus a bonus of $300 for having her head shaved) and was first released in San Francisco on April 24, 1957, in Los Angeles on May 1^st and in New York on May 21^st. In its initial run, KREMLIN shared the bill with the science fiction movie THE DEADLY MANTIS making for one of the most awkward Cold War double features ever (it is probably fair to say that most people showed up at theaters for the giant bug and not the wooden Stalin).

The movie opens with a group of young women being led into an ornate room by Russian soldiers. In perfect English, an attractive blonde woman tells one of the soldiers to take his hands off her “sister.” The blonde’s blouse is ripped and her face is slapped, but she remains unbowed. Soon Stalin walks in and inspects the assembled women. He is played by character actor Maurice Manson as a pipe-smoking perv. Stalin chooses the blonde’s unlikely sister (Natalia Daryll as Dasha) for the afternoon’s head-shaving entertainment: “Igor, this one,” he orders.

Ms. Daryll-as-Dasha is immediately placed in a chair while Stalin tries to make uneasy small talk (“Where are you from? What kind of work do you do? Where are your parents?) while the “stylists” prepare for their mission. After Dasha responds “Siberia” to the last of the dictator’s queries, he says the following to the two white-suited minions: “Proceed” and then to Dasha: “This will make your punishment complete.”

For approximately the next five minutes the barbers toil away at Dasha’s thick mane of dark hair while Stalin and his henchmen witness the event in hushed silence. Stalin’s excitation by the forced shearing is telegraphed to the audience by his intense pipe puffing. As Dasha’s pate becomes increasingly denuded, the editing cuts in the film become more rapid and close-ups of the witnesses become tighter. Finally, Dasha is completely bald and the barbers and witnesses have exited. Stalin cautiously approaches the seemingly broken woman. As he gingerly reaches his hand out to touch her head, Dasha recoils and looks up at the startled dictator in defiance. Thus concludes one of the strangest sequences ever committed to film by a major Hollywood studio. Three decades later Demi Moore would—for a significantly higher salary—shave her own head in the far less interesting G.I. JANE.

TOTAL STALIN MAKEOVER

With the exploitation showpiece of the film out of the way, the actual plot gets underway with an almost Vaudevillian scene in which Stalin consults with his plastic surgeon. With a set-up and a line that would make veteran comedy writers green with envy, the doctor casually informs the dictator that “The mustache will have to come off.” But, on the plus side, the surgeon adds, “The cheeks will be higher, we will change the brow and the skin will be tighter, of course.” What’s not to like? After the successful surgery the doctor is shot for his trouble. His nurse Greta Grisenko (Zsa Zsa Gabor in one of two roles), however, is kept on because, as we will discover, she has a special relationship with Stalin.

As a bandaged Stalin (looking like the Invisible Man) and his historically accurate KGB chief Laventi Beria (played by Zugsmith regular Aram Katcher) look out the window at mourners in Red Square, Beria informs his leader that “You died a few hours ago of a stroke.” Actually, it was an unfortunate Stalin double who gave his life for the cause.

THE TWO ZSA ZSAs

The extreme weirdness of the opening of THE GIRL IN THE KREMLIN gives way to a slightly more traditional spy story. It seems that Stalin’s nurse, Greta Grisenko, has a twin sister, Lili (also played by Zsa Zsa Gabor), who is in West Berlin looking for her. Dressed in a black ensemble, complete with beret, Lili (sounding to the modern viewer like Ariana Huffington) explains the convoluted situation to the reluctant, square-jawed hero Steve Anderson (played by five-term Tarzan, Lex Barker) in this round of expository dialogue:

LILI: Is my sister dead?

ANDERSON: No such luck. Get this straight, Ms. Grisenko, when I take a case, I expect the client to level with me. You told me your sister was American, but didn’t tell me she worked for the big boys in the Kremlin.

LILI: Look Mr. Anderson, I came all the way from the States to find my sister. I heard about your reputation from the O.S.S. and everything. That’s why I came to you. What did you find out?

ANDERSON: You won’t like it.

In the next scene Anderson and Lili are conducting further plot advancement in the hideout of one-armed espionage agent Mischa Rimilkin (played by Jeffrey Stone). There they conclude, through some tortured logic, that Lili’s twin sister (who was kidnapped by the Russians in their childhood home of Lithuania) is Stalin’s plastic surgery nurse. And this connection leads to Rimilkin’s dramatic declaration: “Somewhere beyond Russia, Stalin is alive.”

Rather than dive straight into the hunt for the dictator-in-hiding, the filmmakers treat the viewer to some more ludicrous dialogue that reinforces the Anderson character’s roguish quality. It is excursions like these that help the film achieve its barely feature-length running time of 81 minutes. In this scene Lili and Anderson bicker at a sidewalk café. He has just informed Lili that he is in Berlin on another job – helping a U.S. congresswoman investigate vice.

LILI: What about my sister?

ANDERSON: I told you, that’s down Mischa’s alley, not mine. He’s got ideals, I’m just out to make a buck.

LILI: Look, I have all the respect for Mischa’s ideals, but he’s trying to find Stalin and I’m trying to find my sister. That’s why I need you.

ANDERSON: A nice, innocent job like this could get me plugged in the gut. No thanks. Anyway, after Mamboing with my congresswoman all night, my feet hurt.

JACOB STALIN’S BLUES

Lili, Anderson and Mischa hatch a preposterous plan to draw the made-over Stalin out into the open with publicity about his faked death. At least one radio announcer is eager to spread (and ridicule) the word:

NEWS ANNOUNCER: …Something really incredible. An item out of our scrapbook about it: A young American investigator, Steve Anderson, claims to have stumbled upon information that Joseph Stalin, late dictator of the Soviet Union, is still alive. How’s that for a laugh?

Of course, Stalin and his minions happen to be listening to the broadcast in their lair and they immediately launch into action. An angry Stalin, his face obscured by the back of his chair, issues his orders to the henchman Igor Smetka: “Now we must move before they do. You will go there now. The American knows too much.”

Smetka, eager to curry favor with his displeased leader, demonstrates the weapon he intends to use against their new enemies – a rifle disguised as an umbrella – on some stock footage of a flock of birds. Stalin is apparently unimpressed, but then the chair makes it hard to tell for sure.

Meanwhile, Anderson and Lili pose as newlyweds (ironic because both Barker and Gabor had had three marriages by the time KREMLIN was shot) on a mission to Abensburg, Germany that Mischa implausibly accompanies them on. This set-up invariably leads to some sexually charged banter when Anderson and Lili are alone in their hotel suite:

LILI: If you look away, I’m going to prepare myself for bed.

ANDERSON: Promises, promises.

Lili is seen in silhouette behind a dressing screen as she changes into a nightgown. When she emerges from behind the screen, Anderson remarks appreciatively: “You are on your honeymoon, aren’t you?”

It is on their trip to Abensburg that Anderson and Lili, through Mischa’s underground intelligence tips, meet with Jacob Stalin at an old inn. The younger Stalin character is historically accurate in that he did exist and he was captured by the Germans during World War II. However, most everything else about him was invented for the movie. Jacob Stalin is played with brooding recrimination by the character actor William Schallert (most famous for playing Patty Duke’s father on The Patty Duke Show and the bureaucrat Nilz Barris in the famous Star Trek episode “The Trouble with Tribbles”). Mr. Schallert, an Albert Zugsmith regular if ever there was one, explained the circumstance that led to his miscasting in KREMLIN to CONELRAD back in 2001 when we interviewed him for a special feature for the INVASION, USA DVD:

Zugsmith became convinced that I could do anything. He said he used to cast films – when he was getting ready to cast – he’d look and if there was a part he didn’t know how to cast he’d give it to me. So that was very flattering. I got some weird things that happened as a result of that.

Jacob Stalin provides one of the clues that lead our heroes to his estranged father’s hiding place: “If my father is alive look for him where the sun is warm. He’s an old man, bones cold.” Before they leave, however, Jacob offers the following overwrought caution that is framed awkwardly from a lit fireplace presumably to add a flourish to the foreboding:

We have a proverb in Georgia – ‘Georgians never die.’ But if my father is alive, he means to stay alive. If your story is true and my father learns of it, you know he will stop you, he will kill you. I am his son and I know that one more crime against God and man means nothing to him.

THE BRUTAL INQUISITION OF THE LASH

Through a lot of machinations including torturing (to death) the would-be assassin Igor Smetka, Anderson and Mischa learn that Stalin and his entourage are hiding out in the mountains of Greece. The heroic duo (The trio lost a member when Zsa Zsa was kidnapped by Stalin’s gang earlier) is soon sipping drinks at a bistro in the land of ouzo. There they are conveniently told by the eccentric café owner, Count Molda, that a mysterious group had seized a local monastery years before. Moments after his revelation, the eye-patched Count chortles to himself as Anderson and Mischa speed off to the monastery.

Needless to say, the heroes are quickly captured by Stalin’s goons once they breach the lair. Anderson is immediately subjected to a merciless flogging by Smetka’s enthusiastic widow, Olga (ably assisted by CONELRAD favorite Phillipa Fallon as Nina). While Anderson is being whipped within an inch of his life, Lily – in an adjacent cell – is visited by her wayward sister, Greta. It is clear their reunion is doomed when the wild-eyed Greta states “I have no sister… I have no sister, I have no memory. I only have my mission…” A hilarious catfight between the two Zsa Zsas ensues (with Natalia Daryll acting as body double for the non-close-ups) until Lili rips Greta’s headscarf off to reveal her chrome dome (which appears to be a skin cap). After a lingering stare-down in which Greta appears to be quite proud of her bald pate, she closes the cell door and leaves her sister to rot.

Before Olga and Nina can return to work their tortuous charms on Mischa, he uses his prosthetic limb as a club to overpower a guard. The heroes rescue the strung-up Lili just as she is about to be flogged by Olga.

“THIS IS A FAMILY MATTER”

The reunited trio escapes long enough to stumble upon and burn stacks of Stalin’s plundered cash. But after Mischa is gunned down and Anderson and Lili are brought before Count Molda who orders their death, Jacob Stalin emerges from the shadows with a gun. Molda exclaims: “Jacob?” and, indeed, Molda is revealed to be the cosmetically altered Stalin (Molda is also played by Maurce Manson). It is now obvious why the dictator had his plastic surgeon shot.

What would this movie be without a father-son reunion? When Anderson asks Jacob what he intends to do now that he has a revolver trained on his father, he responds with the preposterous line: “What I have to do, Mr. Anderson. This is a family matter.”

Ignoring his father’s pleas, Jacob orders him into a car and they leave the monastery with Anderson and Lili following close behind. As Jacob maneuvers the speeding vehicle around the mountainous curves in the road, the Stalins have that family chat they were always meaning to have. The situation and dialogue is so breathtakingly absurd, CONELRAD presents it here verbatim:

JOSEPH STALIN (Pleading): We may have had our differences, but we’re still father and son.

JACOB STALIN (Disgusted): Father and son. It is over.

JOSEPH STALIN: What do you mean? What’s wrong with you?

JACOB STALIN: I know you father. Some people might think you’re just an old man, a harmless political exile like (INAUDIBLE). But I know you. You have killed and killed, your wife – my mother and if you’re not stopped, you’ll go on killing. You’re not a man, you’re a machine for killing. Well, the killing’s almost over.

JOSEPH STALIN: Jacob, you’re crazy!

JACOB STALIN: You could die unpunished, you know? Who is there to bring a charge against you? Who is there to speak for the millions that you have killed?

JOSEPH STALIN: Stop the car!

JACOB STALIN: Ten million murdered. Russians cry out for justice!

At this point as the car is swerving, Stalin finds a gun in his son’s coat pocket. He retrieves it undetected by Jacob.

JACOB (CONT’D): You will never kill anyone else!

Stalin shoots his son and they then both struggle for the gun as the car swerves wildly. The vehicle goes off an embankment and crashes down a hill bursting into flames (of course).

All that is left to round out this profoundly ridiculous film is final closure for the viewer (Jacob got his, why not us?). When a grizzled townsperson walks up to Anderson and Lili who are looking down upon the wreckage of the automobile and asks what has happened, Anderson says gravely, “The devil has just gone back to hell.” The confused townsperson accepts the explanation and shambles off. Anderson and Lili begin to walk away, too, but they pause to embrace in front of a sign that reads: “Whatever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.”

While the Stalins remained dead on-screen and off, Lex Barker went on to have a successful career in Europe – even earning a small role in the Fellini classic LA DOLCE VITA (1960). Zsa Zsa Gabor went on to fulfill her KREMLIN promise in THE QUEEN OF OUTERSPACE (1958) and other B-films, but mostly she has remained famous for her multiple marriages (she has been married nine times – beating Lex Barker by four spouses, but, to be fair, he died in 1973) and her 1989 arrest for slapping a police officer in Beverly Hills. Natalia Daryll, the young actress who had her head shaved for the film, brought CONELRAD up to date on her entire life and career in an exclusive interview.

The reviews for THE GIRL IN THE KREMLIN were mostly cruel and dismissive when it opened across the country in April and May of 1957 (see examples under Review Excerpts below). Some reviewers recognized the fantastic strangeness of the movie, but the full oddity of the picture is perhaps best appreciated from a post-Cold War vantage point. The exploitative dementia of the promotional campaign for KREMLIN is almost as intriguing as the movie itself and CONELRAD has excerpted some of the highlights for your reading pleasure. It is a pity that Universal Studios has chosen to keep this bizarre gem locked away in their vaults. Perhaps someday a deluxe, special edition DVD will be released. In the meantime, we can only hope that a speculative bin Laden-is-still-alive movie gets the green light.

RESEARCH NOTES

CONELRAD researched the production history of THE GIRL IN THE KREMLIN at the University of Southern California Cinematic Arts Library. USC archivist Ned Comstock was extremely helpful in organizing a research visit for CONELRAD’s Bill Geerhart to study the production file. All production information (budget, production timeline, salaries) cited in the above article is derived from the studio file maintained by the library.

Director Russell Birdwell promoted his film (then titled THE SECRET DIARY OF JOSEPH STALIN) for journalist Neil Rau while it was still in production. Rau’s puff piece (“Stalin’s Shady Life”) that contained Birdwell’s unchallenged assertion that Stalin used head-shaving as a punishment technique appeared in the March 3, 1957 edition of the Los Angeles Examiner.

The Joseph Stalin scholar Simon Sebag Montefiore offered CONELRAD his terse dismissal of the alleged punitive head-shaving practice favored by the dictator (“It is total nonsense”) in a June 6, 2008 e-mail to CONELRAD’s Bill Geerhart.

For more on the historical record of Jacob Stalin, see The Rise and Fall of Stalin by Robert Payne; Simon & Schuster, New York, 1965 (pages 99-100). Jacob Stalin’s capture by German forces during World War II was also reported contemporaneously in newspapers including the Moberly Monitor-Index on July 24, 1941: “Stalin’s Son Reported Captured” (front page).

William Schallert’s comments regarding his professional relationship with producer Albert Zugsmith come from an April 1, 2001 interview conducted by Bill Geerhart that was subsequently used in the Special Features on the INVASION, USA DVD released by Synapse Films in 2002.

Natalia Daryll revealed her role as Zsa Zsa Gabor’s body double in her June 12, 2008 interview with CONELRAD’s Bill Geerhart.

REVIEW EXCERPTS

The following are extended review excerpts for THE GIRL IN THE KREMLIN:

“Unquestionably the most absurd motion picture of the year is ‘The Girl in the Kremlin’ which opened yesterday at the RKO – Golden Gate.”

-- The San Francisco Chronicle, April 25, 1957 (pg. 23); Review by Paine Knickerbocker

“Along with the Stalin death gimmick, the Albert Zugsmith production tosses in several others for the fast sell. Not the least of these is the head-shaving gimmick trick which could make the femmes cringe as they watch attractive Natalia Daryll bare her noggin under Red razors. Some should be encouraged, however, because she remains attractive, even with bare pate, thanks to feminine face and a generous supply of curves.”

“The screenplay by Gene L. Coon and Robert Hill from a story by Harry Ruskin and DeWitt Bodeen is more often than not illogical, with the hokum laid on thick.”

-- Variety, April 24, 1957; Review by Brog.

“If Joe Stalin didn’t die, Girl in the Kremlin should”

“The Girl in the Kremlin is a picture that should turn you red – with embarrassment.”

On the second half of the bill, Stalin the monster gives way to a different kind of monster – a huge, prehistoric insect shaken free from its polar prison by an earthquake. This is ‘The Deadly Mantis.’

-- The Los Angeles Examiner, May 2, 1957; Review by S.A. Desick

“The Girl in the Kremlin is one of those ‘What if…’ stories and as such it provides entertainment and stimulation beyond what is so often offered. It is novel and it is fresh. Granted it is fantastic, but it is still interesting.”

“The site of Miss Gabor with a head as nude as a baby’selbow is among the picture’s more startling sights.”

“Maurice Manson is a remarkably good Stalin…”

-- Hollywood Reporter, April 19, 1957; Review by James Powers

“On the face of it The Girl in the Kremlin doesn’t amount to much. However, it is predicted that John Q. Public won’t miss the lack of logic or the presence of heavy hokum in this exhibit. But he will be interested, in a macabre sort of way, in the side issues. Two gimmicks that J.Q.P. will goggle over are the plastic surgery bit and Stalin’s feminine head-shaving fetish. Pretty Natalia Daryll is the victim of the latter, emerging in her horrific scene with a completely bald pate. It’s a tragic, somewhat repellent sequence, yet people laughed in at least one theater yesterday.”

-- Los Angeles Times, May 2, 1957; Review by John L. Scott

Unfortunately, it appears that Pravda never reviewed THE GIRL IN THE KREMLIN…

THE GIRL IN THE KREMLIN (1957)
Universal-International Pictures, Co. Inc.
Directed by Russell Birdwell
Produced by Albert Zugsmith
Written by Gene L. Coon and Robert Hill
From a story by DeWitt Bodeen and Harry Ruskin
Starring: Lex Barker; Zsa Zsa Gabor, Jeffrey Stone, Maurice Manson, Aram Katcher with Natalia Daryll and Phillipa Fallon
Running Time: 81 min.
Widescreen Ratio: 1.85:1
Home Video Availability: Unreleased

THE REAL GIRL IN THE KREMLIN: CONELRAD’S INTERVIEW WITH NATALIA DARYLL

2011-07-09T18:07:00.001-07:00

When we first contacted Natalia Daryll – the woman whose on-screen head shaving so memorably enlivens the first act of Russell Birdwell’s B-movie THE GIRL IN THE KREMLIN – she was incredulous that anyone cared enough about the film to seek her out to talk about it. Indeed, she had not even bothered to see the movie when it was originally released in 1957. CONELRAD was also astonished to learn that Ms. Daryll had still not seen the movie as of our first call to her in late 2007—a full half-century after KREMLIN’s premiere. As soon as we were able to locate a copy of the film (it has never been officially released on home video), we sent the retired actress a DVD so that she could finally see her long ago work. CONELRAD spoke with Ms. Daryll about her cult role and her fascinating life via telephone on June 12, 2008, a few weeks after she had viewed the movie with her family and friends.

The interview follows this brief biographical introduction to Ms. Daryll.

It turns out that Natalia Daryll’s performance is one of the few authentic elements in THE GIRL IN THE KREMLIN, a motion picture that plays off of the absurd scenario that Joseph Stalin faked his own death in 1953 and had a fondness for forced shearing.[i] Indeed, Ms. Daryll is, unlike William Schallert (who was implausibly cast as Stalin’s long lost son, Jacob) and other cast members, actually Russian. As a child, she was also directly affected by the abuses of Stalin’s real-life regime.

Natalia Daryll was born Natalia Sagebarth, the third child of George and Valentina Sagebarth in Uzbekistan, Russia in 1932. Her parents were of Russian nobility and were constantly persecuted after the Revolution because they refused to become Communists. During World War II, when the Germans were retreating from Russia in 1942, the Sagebarth family left with them (they were hardly alone as many other victims of Stalin fled during this period). Their journey to Germany was a long and perilous one that involved one incident in the Black Sea that is absolutely harrowing. The Sagebarth family and other refugees were in a boat that was being tugged by a barge when Russian planes began dropping bombs all around them. “It was surreal,” Daryll recalled for CONELRAD, but she said things got even worse when the barge cut the boat loose: “Everyone started praying because there was a torpedo heading straight for us and that was like the end of us. And actually it was a miraculous saving because as the torpedo was coming towards us, with the waves that it was creating, (it) pushed us aside.”

After a one-year stint in an Austrian quarantine camp, the family continued its death-defying passage to Germany. The Sagebarths eventually settled in Erlangen, Germany, but the remaining war and post-war years were not exactly easy. They endured years of deprivation and periodic famine. Despite all odds, Daryll managed to embrace a passion for ballet dancing during this period. In 1952 the family was finally able to immigrate to Los Angeles, California. Once stateside, everyone in the family worked menial jobs to help pay back their sponsored passage to America. Natalia remembered hopping a street car to Santa Monica every morning to work in a machine shop where she washed machine parts. She later worked as a seamstress in a brassiere shop. But, incredibly, Hollywood was in this young woman’s future.

For someone who has lived through such trying times, Ms. Daryll has a warm quality to her voice and she is quick to laugh whenever she finds something funny. She also seems to have a remarkably healthy perspective on her formative years. When we commented on how horrifying her childhood sounded, she replied: “Yes, probably, but today to me it looks (in my memory) almost like a movie or a picture.”

This interview focuses primarily on Ms. Daryll’s artistic career and, in particular, her role in THE GIRL IN THE KREMLIN. However, CONELRAD felt that it was important to preface the interview with the above introduction so that our readers would be aware of the adversity that shaped Ms. Daryl’s life. The irony that she would wind up acting opposite “Stalin” (as played by Maurice Manson) on a Universal Studios soundstage is almost too bizarre to believe.

CONELRAD: Did you ever have any formal acting or performance training?

NATALIA: In Germany I was in the ballet (Editor’s Note: As explained in the preceding introduction, Natalia and her family left their native Russia in 1942 and moved to Germany).

CONELRAD: How did you and your family get out of Germany?

NATALIA: Some friends of ours sponsored us from Los Angeles, so when we came to Los Angeles, they paid for us and when we came to Los Angeles we worked it off and paid them back.

CONELRAD: And you got citizenship?

NATALIA: I got citizenship later on, yes. And from there I married and when I was married I went to San Diego and there I went into the theater. Acting and singing.

CONELRAD: How did you get trained in acting?

NATALIA: It was a kind of on-stage type of a training. It was at the Globe Theater in San Diego and from there I was hired for quite a lot of plays and after that I went to New York.

CONELRAD: And were you in off-Broadway productions in New York?

NATALIA: Well, you can call it that (laughs), yes, small theaters.

CONELRAD: Do you remember any of the plays that you were in?

NATALIA: No, I really don’t, but I have some of the publicity from the San Diego plays.

CONELRAD: So, you were very young when you were stage acting.

NATALIA: Yes, I was about twenty-something.

CONELRAD: Did you like singing in the plays?

NATALIA: The singing I actually did more than anything in Mexico. I took classes in Mexico. I was hired as a singer and as a hired singer I had a private tutor and I developed my voice.

CONELRAD: So you really got around. Russia, Germany, America, Mexico…

NATALIA: Yes, from New York I came back. I was only in New York for a year and half, something like that. I came back to Los Angeles – that’s when I had the movie (THE GIRL IN THE KREMLIN).

CONELRAD: Were you in New York with your family or did you go there on your own?

NATALIA: No, all by myself.

CONELRAD: That must have been kind of intimidating.

NATALIA: Well, yes, I tell you sometimes I had ten cents and I was deciding shall I have a cup of coffee or shall I have soup. And I made the rounds because I also modeled. And since I’m a small girl I modeled for petite types of things. It was kind of rough, but I made a living.

CONELRAD: Those are the exciting times when you are young and just starting out.

NATALIA: Of course, the times are completely different than they are today, but when you’re young you think you can conquer the world. Today I wouldn’t dare think about it.

CONELRAD: After your time in New York City, how did you come to move back to Los Angeles?

NATALIA: I don’t know, I just (decided to) come back to Los Angeles and my family.

CONELRAD: How did you come to learn about the role of Dasha in THE GIRL IN THE KREMLIN?

NATALIA: It was advertised and a friend of mine at that time kind of made me aware of it and said, ‘Why don’t you go try for it?’ I said, ‘Are you kidding? I mean movies and all that?’ And she said, ‘Go ahead and try it.’ So I went to Universal and that’s the whole thing of it. After that I got an agent.[ii]

CONELRAD: Is it true you were competing with 21 other women to get the role?

NATALIA: Yes.

CONELRAD: And how did they audition you? I mean did they look at your hair? Or what?

NATALIA: No, they just talked to us. They lined us up and picked (eliminated) two bad (not right for the role) persons and then lined us up again and talked to us. And then when they talked to us they kind of selected the few of us (these would be Daryll and the other women who are paraded before Stalin in the film).

Casting Call: Albert Zugsmith directly in front of Natalia Daryll

CONELRAD: The press materials from the time of the film’s release stated that the studio did not know that you were Russian when you were cast. Could that be true?

NATALIA: I don’t think so. I do not believe so, because my accent is better now than it was then.

CONELRAD: Right. We thought it was funny that the blonde actress who plays your sister in the film spoke with a perfect American accent.

NATALIA: (Laughs) Yes, and I spoke with a Russian accent.

CONELRAD: You were 24 years old when you got the role, correct?

NATALIA: Yes.

CONELRAD: Were your friends and family excited to hear about your getting the role?

NATALIA: No, you see my father was very much against show business because he comes from a royal family and to them at that time anyone who was on stage was a loose woman. You know, it was not acceptable. I always loved dancing, ballet, singing and all that. So when I did that in Germany I was studying with a very famous teacher in ballet. When my father realized that it was really serious with me he stopped it and he wouldn’t let me go on anymore. And the teacher even came to my father and told him she would teach me for nothing because I had potential, I had such a talent.

CONELRAD: And then what happened?

NATALIA: He said, ‘No way, my daughter will never be on the stage.’ So I was not on the stage until I got married and got out of the house.

CONELRAD: So you were married when you got the role in THE GIRL IN THE KREMLIN?

NATALIA: I was divorced by that time.

CONELRAD: So your first marriage was short.

NATALIA: Yes, it was a short marriage.

CONELRAD: How did you get interested in ballet in those difficult years in Germany?

NATALIA: I don’t know.

CONELRAD: Was it a release for you from all that was going on? An escape?

NATALIA: No, because in school they had gymnastics and I was interested in that and I did it all by myself and I loved music.

CONELRAD: So you speak German as well as Russian and English, right?

NATALIA: Yes. Right now I speak four languages (Editor’s Note: Daryll also speaks Spanish).

CONELRAD: You mentioned earlier when we communicated via e-mail that you were taking a lot of classes. Are you taking a language class?

NATALIA: No, I am… I like creating things. My whole family is very creative. My mother had a fantastic voice, my father played piano and my children are very artistic. Right now I am taking embroidery – sewing and embroidery type of thing. I love to create, I love to decorate. I wish I didn’t have to work all my life, I might have gotten into something else. Now that I’m retired and all that, it’s more of a hobby than anything else.

CONELRAD: Was GIRL IN THE KREMLIN your first film?

NATALIA: That was my first role.

CONELRAD: Did you meet (producer) Albert Zugsmith?

NATALIA: Yes, I did.

CONELRAD: What was he like? Was he larger than life?

NATALIA: I cannot tell because at the time I was such a child. I was so innocent. I don’t know. I guess I just took it in stride.

CONELRAD: Do you remember him smoking his big cigar?

NATALIA: Yes, but I just thought, well that’s the movie business, that’s the way it’s supposed to be.

CONELRAD: Was he on set a lot?

NATALIA: Well, I was not on set a lot, let’s put it that way.

CONELRAD: Good point. So what was the director Russell Birdwell like?

NATALIA: Very outgoing and congenial. He was not there very much either. He was kind of there and gone. Zsa Zsa (Gabor) was there more than anyone.

CONELRAD: We’re going to get to Zsa Zsa. But first, what was shooting your big scene like? (Editor’s Note: The production file for THE GIRL IN THE KREMLIN at University of Southern California Cinematic Arts Library records the date that Natalia Daryll’s head-shaving sequence was filmed: February 15, 1957).

NATALIA: It was more feeling than anything. That is what acting is all about. I didn’t mind losing my hair. That wasn’t a big deal to me.

CONELRAD: You knew you were going to lose your hair going in, right?

NATALIA: Oh, yes, of course. And the emotion of the scene was something I had to bring from outside myself and it’s just a feeling.

CONELRAD: Right, so the actual shaving of the head was secondary to eliciting the emotion that the script called for.

NATALIA: That’s right.

CONELRAD: Is it true you were given $300.00 extra to have your head shaved?

NATALIA: No, I don’t think so. After that you see my agent stepped in and handled all that.

CONELRAD: Right, because we actually went to the University of Southern California Cinematic Arts Library and looked at the production file on THE GIRL IN THE KREMLIN and we found your contract and it shows you received a bonus of $300.00 for having your head shaved.[iii]

NATALIA: Oh, really? That was a big deal. No, I don’t remember that. The important thing to me was the role and not the money. I don’t even remember negotiating the money or anything else at that time.

CONELRAD: Right, so you were just happy to have gotten the role and to bring it off.

NATALIA: Yes.

CONELRAD: Do you recall how you prepared for the scene? Did Birdwell give you any direction of what he wanted?

NATALIA: No. No, really not.

CONELRAD: So you just took your direction from the script?

NATALIA: Yes. You know we talked about it and that was it.

CONELRAD: OK, so you did discuss the scene briefly before the cameras rolled?

NATALIA: Yes. About what I was supposed to be doing, but that was about it.

CONELRAD: There is a scene where you look up and it is at such an angle that it is almost as if there is a camera mounted on the ceiling. Do you remember what was going on during this shot?

NATALIA: No, I do not remember a camera from the ceiling. You know, it’s kind of hard to remember right now, but I’m sure there was somebody behind the camera, behind the scenes kind of directing me to a certain extent.

CONELRAD: As a Russian, did you find the plot of the film kind of ridiculous?

NATALIA: (Laughing) You know I didn’t even think about that at that time.

CONELRAD: You were focused on your role exclusively?

NATALIA: That was the only thing, yes. I did not read the whole script. I did not know the whole script. Later on I read the script, but before then I didn’t read the script. I only knew my role and what I was supposed to be doing.

CONELRAD: That was probably a good approach in retrospect.

NATALIA: Since I saw the movie, I thought, you know, I never thought of Zsa Zsa as a good actress.

CONELRAD: Oh?

NATALIA: Really, I thought she was a joke and maybe that was good that I didn’t… (Natalia changes her train of thought here) Actually, the fight with Zsa Zsa, you know with her sister (Editor’s Note: Zsa Zsa Gabor played a dual role in THE GIRL IN THE KREMLIN and there is a memorable scene in which she has a “catfight” with “herself” that concludes with the evil Zsa Zsa sans wig and completely “bald” – though Gabor actually wore a skin cap)?

CONELRAD: Yes?

NATALIA: That was me.

CONELRAD: That was you?

NATALIA: That was me, as a double for Zsa Zsa.

CONELRAD: So the shots where you can’t see Zsa Zsa’s face – that’s you.

NATALIA: Yes, that’s me.

CONELRAD: That is a nice bit of GIRL IN THE KREMLIN trivia for our readers. Getting back to your main scene: Was it awkward, as a Russian, to act opposite someone who was playing Joseph Stalin?

NATALIA: No, no, no, no. Because, you know, I had no conception of playing for Stalin, against Stalin, against Communism or for Communism. I had no conception whatsoever.

CONELRAD: Right, but, obviously, as a Russian, you knew who Stalin was and…

NATALIA: Of course. My father being a nobility was in jail so many times. My father was not home most of the time. My mother was jailed in Russia. Of course, I knew, but it is a child type of a thing.

CONELRAD: So your parents were jailed by the Stalin regime?

NATALIA: Yes.

CONELRAD: So you compartmentalized your emotions to play the role opposite this person made up to look like Stalin, this figure who had caused your family so much pain? Is that accurate?

NATALIA: I am sorry to disappoint you, but I didn’t even think of him, I just… it was a movie.

CONELRAD: That is probably a testament to your acting skills.

NATALIA: You know, it’s just a…Right now put me in front of Hussein or somebody else and hate or not hate, it (acting) is what I am supposed to do.

CONELRAD: So the mission of the acting in this awkward scene with this Stalin look-a-like just took over?

NATALIA: Yes.

CONELRAD: So, from Stalin to Zsa Zsa. What was Zsa Zsa Gabor like to work with?

NATALIA: (Sighs) She was OK. She was very shabby.

CONELRAD: Shabby? What do you mean by that?

NATALIA: Talking a lot.

CONELRAD: Oh, you mean ‘Gabby’?

NATALIA: (Laughs) Gabby, Yes. Very gabby. Very much in everything. And even before that (the film), about Zsa Zsa, I didn’t think much of her. So, she was nice to me. She was cordial. That’s all I can say about her.

CONELRAD: In retrospect, in watching the film so many years later, did your opinion of her acting ability change at all?

NATALIA: Nope.

CONELRAD: So you thought she was kind of a joke as an actress?

NATALIA: Well, yea (laughs). I think her sister is much, much better.

CONELRAD: Eva Gabor.

NATALIA: Or was much, much better. Yes.

CONELRAD: Universal Pictures had an option on your next role according to the press clips we have…

NATALIA: Yes, they did. They wanted me to tour with the movie (GIRL IN THE KREMLIN).

CONELRAD: To help promote it, right.

NATALIA: To help promote it, and they were thinking of putting me under a contract, but I think my agent asked for too much money or whatever because he called me and told me about it and all of a sudden it was off.

CONELRAD: And I assume that impacted Universal offering you another role.

NATALIA: Yea, I guess so, because that was it and I never heard from them again.

CONELRAD: What was it like to have the momentary fame of having the key scene in a studio movie? You were in all the newspapers for a brief period well before the film actually came out because of the head shaving.

NATALIA: (Laughs) It was kind of funny. That’s about it. It was kind of funny having the head shaved. I remember we went with friends of ours to San Francisco and we were sitting in a restaurant. Of course, I had a wig on and somebody said ‘Oh, here she’s something, something, something’ and I said ‘Yes!’ and I took off my wig and said, ‘Yep! Here I am!’

CONERLAD: So they recognized you from the publicity for the movie?

NATALIA: Yes. It (the fame) was just (pauses) OK (Laughs).

CONELRAD: Were you aware that Universal promoted the film by having women shave their heads in the lobbies of theaters showing the film? These women were paid $300.00 each to participate in the stunt.[iv]

NATALIA: (Surprised) Really? No, I didn’t know that!

CONELRAD: What did you do while you were waiting for your hair to grow back? Did you just wear the wig and…

NATALIA: No, at first I wore the wig, but my hair grew out very quickly, so I had a short haircut, very short haircut.

CONELRAD: Kind of like Mia Farrow only earlier?

NATALIA: Yea.

CONELRAD: Is it true you were on Art Linkletter’s show?[v]

NATALIA: Yes.

CONELRAD: Was that one of the few promotions you did for the film?

NATALIA: I guess so.

CONELRAD: What was being on Art Linkletter’s show like?

NATALIA: You know it was such a long time ago, it didn’t stay with me. Let’s put it that way. It was fair. It wasn’t that important, I guess. To me I took my acting like my singing or whatever it was seriously. Later on I realized that the promotion, the press was important. Before that I didn’t.

CONELRAD: Is it true your next role was in 1959 in the TV show ‘Behind Closed Doors’?

NATALIA: Uh-huh, that’s right.

CONELRAD: And what was that about?

NATALIA: It was about a professor who was my father that I believe – you know, I never saw that one either. But they kidnapped him and they’re going after him type of a thing, trying to find him.

CONELRAD: And then you did a show called ‘Shotgun Slade’ in 1960. I assume that was a western?

NATALIA: That was a western, yes.

CONELRAD: Did you do any other work, like commercials or was that it?

NATALIA: After that, that’s when I went to Mexico. And somebody heard my voice singing and thought I should do that. I was singing in a restaurant, like a nightclub restaurant and I started studying and developing my voice more. That’s what I was doing in Mexico. And I did a record album.

CONELRAD: Was that under your name Natalia Daryll?

NATALIA: No, it was a duet under the name Dino & Dina (Editor’s Note: This was a 45 single release on the Capitol label).

CONELRAD: And that was released in Mexico?

NATALIA: Yes.

CONELRAD: What style of music was it?

NATALIA: Romantic. That was the thing in Mexico at the time.

CONELRAD: What happened to your acting career after Mexico?

NATALIA: Nothing. Well, I came back and I was going to get back into that, but it was so different because I was in Mexico on and off for about ten years.

CONELRAD: Oh.

NATALIA: So when I got back it was so different, I kind of completely went away from that. I tried a couple of times, so I just got away from that and soon after that I got married and so that was the end of it. I still love singing, I still love the music.

Editor’s Note: Natalia and her second husband, a teacher, remained in Southern California for many years after her return from Mexico.

CONELRAD: What did you do for work?

NATALIA: I was teaching gymnastics at one time and then I was teaching Jenny Craig and then after that for about, oh fifteen years, I was a health technician in schools.

CONELRAD: Going back to GIRL IN THE KREMLIN for a moment. This really fascinates us – you have your first role in a film in 1957 and you don’t even see it until we send you a copy on DVD a few weeks ago. How is it possible that you did not see your movie until 2008?

NATALIA: I guess it never came about, I wasn’t that (pauses) (laughs) it’s hard to explain. If the movie had been available, I would have seen it. I didn’t go out of my way to look for it.

CONELRAD: But you lived in L.A. and it was in the theaters.

NATALIA: Well, at that time, after my movies (KREMLIN and the two television programs) I was in Mexico. When I came back, somebody told me they saw my movie on the late show and, I don’t know. To be very honest, when I saw my movie it was a little embarrassing.

CONELRAD: After we sent the movie to you on DVD, you watched it with some friends of yours for the first time ever. What was that like?

NATALIA: Well, (laughs) maybe I should have watched by myself for the first time. I thought I could have done better and it was, you know, a little funny, kind of embarrassing (laughs).

CONELRAD: What did your friends think about it?

NATALIA: They thought my scene was great. They thought the movie was, as you say, ridiculous.

CONELRAD: Was watching yourself so many years later like looking at a different person?

NATALIA: No, no it really wasn’t.

CONELRAD: Did it really take you back to that point in time?

NATALIA: Yes, it did. Watching myself was kind of moving and embarrassing (laughs).

CONELRAD: And what did your husband think of your performance?

NATALIA: He thought I did a great job. He said, ‘I don’t know what you’re talking about, I think it’s great.’

CONELRAD: And your kids? They haven’t seen it because they’re grown?

NATALIA: Yea, they haven’t seen the movie because they don’t live nearby.

CONELRAD: We will send you extra copies so that they can see your movie. Thank you so much for speaking with us!

NATALIA: Thank you!

CONELRAD wishes to thank Natalia Daryll for her time and her willingness to discuss her remarkable life and career. Do svidaniya!

Interview conducted by Bill Geerhart

[i] After examining numerous Stalin biographies and finding no corroboration for the alleged Stalin head-shaving fetish, CONELRAD contacted the Stalin scholar Simon Sebag Montefiore via e-mail. When asked about the veracity of the dictator’s use of head-shaving as a punishment, Mr. Montefiore’s response was succinct: “It is total nonsense.” June 6, 2008 e-mail to Bill Geerhart.

[ii] It was confirmed in a follow-up telephone call with Natalia Daryll that her agent was Jack Pomeroy of the Jack Pomeroy Agency.

[iii] The production file for THE GIRL IN THE KREMLIN located at the University of Southern California Cinematic Arts Library provides the date that the filming of the head-shaving sequence took place: February 15, 1957.

[iv] The April 25, 1957 edition of the San Francisco Chronicle reported that Mrs. Pat Smith had her head shaved in the lobby of the Golden Gate Theater for $300 to help promote THE GIRL IN THE KREMLIN.

[v] Natalia Daryll appeared on the radio and television editions of ART LINKLETTER’S HOUSE PARTY on February 28, 1957.

THE GIRL IN THE KREMLIN: PRESSBOOK HIGHLIGHTS

2011-07-09T18:05:00.001-07:00

Almost as much fun as the preposterous historical fantasy it seeks to sell is the official pressbook for the 1957 Universal production about Joseph Stalin’s “faked” death, THE GIRL IN THE KREMLIN. In addition to questionable factual material about the film (one “sample” review that is included to “aid” newspaper writers calls the movie “sensational but credible”), the pressbook offers some ridiculous stunts and advertising copy to theater owners to help them promote the outlandish motion picture. CONELRAD chose a few highlights that demonstrate just how insane the studio publicity departments could be during the golden age of the B-movie. The text below, excepting CONELRAD’s editorial comment, is taken verbatim from the official studio pressbook.

THIS STUNT WILL GRAB BIG SPACE FOR YOU….. IT WAS TESTED AND IT WORKED

Yes, this stunt was tested in downtown Los Angeles during production of THE GIRL IN THE KREMLIN. Maurice Manson, who plays Stalin in the picture, was taken downtown in make-up and uniform and turned loose to stroll through the streets. In this particular case, just one newspaperman was alerted and he followed Manson to report what happened.[i] As can be seen in the photo above, very little happened—even the fellow giving Manson a light for his pipe seems to see nothing extraordinary in meeting a man resembling Stalin and wearing a Red army uniform in downtown Los Angeles.

That’s the beauty of this stunt. It makes as good a newspaper story whether Stalin strolling through the streets creates no stir or whether an incipient riot is started. It should be noted here that in addition to alerting one or more newspapers to the stunt you should get police cooperation and have one or more policeman unobtrusively in the vicinity to halt any possibility of real trouble. This was done of course in Los Angeles but the cops had nothing to do.

Naturally you can’t get Manson to be your Stalin, but it should not be too difficult to get a man of the same general build. The important identifying features are the pipe, the mustache and the uniform. The pipe should be easy to get and the other two items not too difficult, for there are few cities which don’t have at least one firm that specializes in making up and costuming people for masquerade social occasions.

SENSATIONAL FOTO FEATURE – THE GIRL WHOSE HEAD WAS SHAVED

Certainly one of the most sensational scenes in motion picture history is the sequence in THE GIRL IN THE KREMLIN in which Dictator Joseph Stalin watches while a pretty girl, at his orders, has her beautiful locks shorn and her head then shaved as bald as a billiard ball.

In putting this re-creation of a strange Stalin fetish on film, Universal-International used no trickery whatsoever. A pretty actress named Natalia Daryll actually had her locks shorn and her head shaved while the cameras photographed the whole operation. The foto feature illustrated below shows Miss Daryll just before the scene began, then during two stages of the operation and finally after the ordeal was over.

You can obtain this foto feature as a single three-column mat or the prints. If you want the mat, ask for “Kremlin Head-Shaving Mat”; if you want the prints, order them by their numbers. Order mats of prints from EXPLOITATION DEPT…

“STALIN GIRLS” STREET BALLHOO

Whether or not you can manage the Stalin stunt illustrated on the opposite page, THE GIRL IN THE KREMLIN also presents fertile opportunities for street ballyhoo based on the Stalin head-shaving fetish. It’s not likely you can find any bald girls willing to expose their heads but you can surely get four girls with fairly short hair. Dress them in peasant blouses and skirts, have each one’s head bound tightly with a red bandana, letting not a wisp of hair show. Have them bearing placards with appropriate inscriptions, sandwich-man style, and parade them in single file on the main thoroughfares. Suggested placards, in order: “Stalin Had Our Heads Shaved”—“That Was Stalin’s Secret Vice”—“It’s All Told in THE GIRL IN THE KREMLIN”—“Begins ……………..at the……………..Theatre” or “Now Playing at the …………………Theatre.”

ZSA ZSA “DOUBLE” CONTEST

The country is teeming with people who have either been told by their friends or have decided for themselves that they resemble this or that movie star. In the case of as pretty and glamorous a star as Zsa Zsa Gabor that suggests a swell stunt for which you should have an excellent chance of gaining cooperation of local newspapers and merchants.

The idea is to find the blonde in your community who most nearly resembles Zsa Zsa. It can be run best as a newspaper contest, with the paper each day running a photo layout with a still of Zsa Zsa in the center surrounded by entrants. The paper can make it a circulation builder by having the winner decided by ballot of readers and running an official ballot each day on the same page as the photo layout. Otherwise, winner can be selected by a panel of judges on which would be represented the merchants contributing prizes.

AUDIENCE PARTICIPATION…

One shameless stunt that went unmentioned in the pressbook, but that was employed by at least one theater owner, was to offer $300 (the same amount Natalia Darryl received to have her locks shorn on film) to a female patron to have her head shaved in the lobby of the venue. The following is transcribed from the April 25, 1957 edition of the San Francisco Chronicle (page 23):

Woman’s Head Shaved in Lobby of Theater

Pat Smith, a 24-year-old San Francisco housewife, had her head shaved at 10:45 A.M. yesterday in the lobby of the Golden Gate Theater to publicize a motion picture called ‘The Girl in the Kremlin.’ She got $300.00. Witnesses to the stunt: Daughters Janet, 2, and Ronita, 3. Her husband, Ron, 25, an employee of the American Can Co. gave his permission. He also watched.

RADIO SPOTS

The “suggested” radio spot copy offered for THE GIRL IN THE KREMLIN in the pressbook is just weird enough to warrant full transcription here. Imagine tooling around town in your Buick in 1957 and hearing this bizarre nonsense emitting from your radio (we would have burned rubber for the Bijou, but that’s us…):

(ONE MINUTE):

ANNOUNCER: Along the newsfronts of the world, history poses its grimmest riddle… Is Stalin still alive? … Is Stalin hiding far from the Iron Curtain behind a face nobody knows? …Who is the girl in the Kremlin who may hold the key to an amazing master plot?... See THE GIRL IN THE KREMLIN! … A drama of espionage and intrigue, of treachery and terror… and of an astounding hunt deep into the forbidden danger zones of Europe for the man the whole world thinks is dead!... THE GIRL IN THE KREMLIN…starring Lex Barker, Zsa Zsa Gabor, Jeffrey Stone! … See plastic surgery’s mask for the tyrant… the brutal inquisition of the lash… the secret of a dictator’s long lost son… women forced to submit to the Kremlin’s weird head-shaving ritual… THE GIRL IN THE KREMLIN! … Is it true? … is this the incredible conspiracy the Kremlin dare not deny? … Is Stalin still alive? … See the most gripping suspense story ever filmed… THE GIRL IN THE KREMLIN! …

(30-SECONDS):

ANNOUNCER: Is Stalin still alive?... Who is the girl in the Kremlin who may hold the key to history’s grimmest riddle… SEE THE GIRL IN THE KREMLIN! … Starring Lex Barker, Zsa Zsa Gabor, Jeffrey Stone… leading a hunt deep into the forbidden danger zones of Europe for the tyrant the world thinks dead… Ask yourself, is this the truth about the most incredible conspiracy of our time? …Is Stalin still alive?... See THE GIRL IN THE KREMLIN!

(15-SECONDS):

ANNOUNCER: Is Stalin still alive?... Who is the girl in the Kremlin who may hold the key to history’s grimmest riddle… SEE THE GIRL IN THE KREMLIN!... the story of the hunt that revealed what might be history’s most incredible conspiracy!... Les Barker, Zsa Zsa Gabor and Jeffrey Stone in THE GIRL IN THE KREMLIN

[i] James Bacon of the wonderfully sensationalistic Los Angeles Examiner was the reporter given the privilege of accompanying “Stalin” (actor Maurice Manson) to downtown L.A. and taking note of the citizen reaction. His account of the studio-sponsored stunt appeared on the front page (above the fold) edition of the Examiner on February 22, 1957. The headline, in imitable Examiner fashion, was: “Joe Stalin Here! So Wh-a-t: Takes Stroll Downtown, Gets Wino Howdy.” The whole article is so amusing and bizarre that CONELRAD is presenting it verbatim below:

A facsimile of Josef Stalin walked the busy downtown streets—and hardly caused a stir.

Actor Maurice Manson, a striking double for the late Soviet ruler, emerged from a big limousine yesterday at Seventh and Broadway, heart of the downtown area. He strolled for several blocks wearing an exact replica of Stalin’s marshal uniform, complete with hammer and sickle epaulets.

There were a few double takes among the passersby, but most looked at him as if Stalin was something you see everyday. At one corner, he inquired of a policeman:

“Could you tell me please I find FBI? I joost come here from Russia and don’t know my way yet.”

PLAYS IT STRAIGHT

The policeman, playing it straight-faced, said he wasn’t sure of the location but asked “Stalin” to wait a minute while he looked up the address in his map book. The officer courteously spelled out the directions. Manson thanked him in a Russian accent and the officer, with no trace of a smile, went back to blowing his whistle.

Next stop on his stroll was a news vendor’s, where the actor asked if he could buy a copy of Pravda.

“I’m sorry,” the vendor replied matter-of-factly. “We are not allowed to carry any Russian papers – not even the Daily Worker.”

Manson is playing the title role in “The Secret Diary of Josef Stalin.” (CONELRAD editor’s note: the released film had the final title of THE GIRL IN THE KREMLIN).

As the film actor walked towards Pershing Square, downtown hangout of winos, hoboes, outdoor checker players and soap box radicals, he was accepted by a habitué who was well along on the grape.

“Hey, buddy,” the wino yelled, “how about buying another serviceman a drink? I was in the first World War.”

Manson replied: “I drink only pure Russian vodka.”

“Let’s go,” the wino commented. “That’s the best kind.”

OLD TIMER KNOWS

One toothless old-timer ambled up and shook hands with Manson.

“H--, it’s old Uncle Joe Stalin. I came all the way from Pittsburgh and meet old Uncle Joe Stalin the first day.”

An evangelistic habitué with flowing hair yelled out: “Stalin, it is not too late. Kneel down with me and repent.”

Stalin departed quickly.

A TIME FOR SEARCHING: Did You Attend “The Speech” in 1964?

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CONELRAD, the website that brought you the complete history of the Daisy ad is preparing a major feature on Ronald Reagan’s career-launching 1964 speech, “A Time for Choosing.” We are posting this plea in the hopes of finding people (especially the folks who are looking at the camera in the clip below) who may have attended the taping of this legendary political performance.

We have already exhausted the traditional routes of contacting veteran Young Republicans who worked on the Barry Goldwater presidential campaign in Southern California. We even reached out to the Reagan and Goldwater families for assistance. We have come up empty on all counts.

You, the public, are our last chance…

So, if you were in the audience at NBC studios in Hollywood, California in mid-September 1964, CONELRAD would like to hear from you. Please send us an e-mail with your story. We’re looking forward to talking to you!

ATOMIC GODDESS: RITA HAYWORTH AND THE LEGEND OF THE BIKINI BOMBSHELL

2011-07-03T13:57:00.001-07:00

“Here’s a footnote on Bikini. I don’t know what this means or even if it has meaning, but I can’t resist mention of the fact that this much can be revealed concerning the appearance of tonight’s atom bomb: It will be decorated with a photograph of sizeable likeness of the young lady named Rita Hayworth.”

-- Excerpt of an Orson Welles commentary delivered on the ABC radio network on June 30, 1946

“Beautiful, Deadly…Using all a woman’s weapons.”

-- Promotional text seen in the 1946 trailer for GILDA starring Rita Hayworth

INTRODUCTION: TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE?

The story of screen legend Rita Hayworth’s image gracing an atomic bomb has been around for over sixty years and it is, by this point, a firmly established part of the star’s official biography. Indeed, the supposed decorative honor even made it into the Love Goddess’s[1] 1987 New York Times obituary as an undisputed fact.[2]

But is the tale 100% accurate? When CONELRAD first heard about the Hayworth bombshell, we could not wait to locate a photograph of it for permanent display on the front page of our website. After all, what better symbol of atomic popular culture could there possibly be? Rita Hayworth was one of the biggest female movie stars and pin-ups of the 1940s[3] and the atomic bomb was the most significant scientific and military development of the century (and, perhaps, of all time). In other words, to our ears, it was a match made in CONELRAD heaven and we desperately wanted to believe.

But in trying to track down the elusive image we discovered that the story may have been too good to be entirely true. In the course of our admittedly obsessive quest, we spent a considerable amount of time attempting to determine whether the Rita Hayworth bomb story is myth or fact or somewhere in between. The article that follows is the culmination research that took place between 2008 and 2009 with some additional reporting conducted in 2011. We are pleased to be able to post this article (albeit a few days late) in conjunction with the 65th anniversary of the opening of Operation Crossroads.

ATOMIC PLAYBOY: ADMIRAL BLANDY’S ‘CROSSROADS’ SHOW

The atomic bomb that Rita Hayworth’s image allegedly adorned is the weapon detonated during the July 1, 1946 “Able” test on Bikini Atoll in the Marshall Islands. The bomb was dropped from a B-29 Superfortress airplane named “Dave’s Dream” and piloted by Major Woodrow P. “Woody” Swancutt.[4] It was the fourth atomic bomb ever exploded and the first detonation ever to be reported on in real time by the media.[5] The earlier bombs of Alamogordo, New Mexico (the Trinity test), Hiroshima and Nagasaki were, of course, top secret wartime affairs.

“Operation Crossroads,” the cinematic code name for the atomic tests, was one of the biggest and most controversial news stories of 1946. From the moment that the code name, location and other details of the tests were announced by Vice Admiral William H.P. Blandy before the Senate Special Committee on Atomic Energy, Crossroads became a fixture in the media – and not always favorably. Comedian Bob Hope summed up the selection of Bikini Atoll for the tests thusly: “As soon as the war ended, we located the one spot on earth that hadn’t been touched by war and blew it to hell.” The broad purpose of the tests was to examine the impact of atomic weapons on various ship classes and the farm animals unfortunate enough to be placed on these vessels.[6]

Blandy, who was the commander of Joint Task Force One and therefore responsible for the conduct of Operation Crossroads, became so identified with the tests, that he was dubbed “the Atomic Admiral.” He also became the chief defender against charges from the scientific community and some journalists that the proposed Bikini tests were unnecessary and potentially cataclysmic.[7] These attacks on Operation Crossroads planning—some of which were outlandish—resulted in a remarkable February 21, 1946 speech by the admiral in which he mostly offered a litany of statements on what the bomb would not do:

The bomb will not kill half the fish in the sea, and poison the other half so they will kill all the people who eat fish hereafter. The bomb will not cause an earthquake or push up new mountain ranges… The bomb will not start a chain reaction in the water, converting it all to gas and letting all the ships on all the oceans drop to the bottom. It will not blow out the bottom of the sea and let all the water run down the hole. It will not destroy gravity. I am not an atomic playboy, as one of my critics labeled me, exploding these bombs to satisfy my personal whim.[8]

Admiral Blandy would repeat the hyperbolic defense over the course of the next three months.[9] A filmed record of his infamous and stiffly delivered “I am not an atomic playboy” line from the speech can be viewed today on YouTube.

Despite Blandy’s best oratorical efforts, Operation Crossroads continued to be castigated in some quarters as a “boondoggle.”[10] Even the father of the atomic bomb, J. Robert Oppenheimer, effectively resigned from the President’s Evaluation Commission for the Atomic Bomb Tests with a remarkable letter to President Truman explaining his scientific and political reservations about Bikini. Truman, in a May 1946 letter to his Under Secretary of State Dean Acheson, dismissed Oppenheimer as a “cry-baby scientist.”[11]

The esteemed physicist was not the only one whose objections to Operation Crossroads were summarily disregarded – the native population of Bikini, tragically, had little say in the matter either. The essentially forced relocation of the Bikinians to Rongerik Atoll by the U.S. military prior to the tests is perhaps best summed up by a New Yorker magazine cartoon from the period. Specifically, underneath an illustration of Bikinian leaders addressing Navy officers next to a U.S. ship, the following ironic caption appears: “The residents have voted two to one against your conducting your experiments in this vicinity.”[12]

It was in this strange political climate that over 42,000 military and scientific personnel set up shop on Bikini. And befitting the science / fireworks extravaganza that Operation Crossroads was, there were more than 175 print and broadcast reporters to cover it. Two high-level oversight bodies monitored the tests: The aforementioned President’s Evaluation Commission on the Atomic Bomb Tests and the Joint Chiefs of Staff Examination Board for Operation Crossroads.[13]

All that was needed was an opening day explosion that lived up to the unprecedented ballyhoo. A good movie star angle would not hurt either.

FISSION FIGURE: GROUND ZERO OF A MEDIA EXPLOSION

Unlike some disputed stories in history, the origin of the legend of the Rita Hayworth atomic bomb is easy to pinpoint. Indeed, news coverage of the alleged decoration of the Able device with the star’s image and naming it for her latest film, GILDA, saturated the press beginning on June 29, 1946.[14] Needless to say, the timing of the first Bikini test could not have been more fortuitous for Columbia Pictures as Hayworth’s film was still in active release when the news broke.[15] However, as we shall see, not all of the accounts of the bomb naming / decoration were consistent in their detail as the story received extended play over the next several days.

The following is one of the earliest versions of the story that CONELRAD could locate. It was published in the Charleston (West Virginia) Daily Mail for Saturday evening, June 29, 1946:

RITA RIDES A-BOMB

KWAJALEIN (Associated Press) Scientists and engineers christened the atomic bomb “Gilda” today and three painters, working from a photograph, reproduced a likeness of actress Rita Hayworth, wearing a low-necked black evening gown…[16]

The Los Angeles Herald Express also carried the A.P. story, but added a GILDA publicity photo of Hayworth in a black evening gown with the headline “Gilda – A-Missile Carries Likeness of Actress.”[17]

The following day, Sunday, June 30, 1946, there was a flood of news items on the Hayworth bomb. The paper of record, the New York Times, published a United Press (U.P.) dispatch headlined “Test Bomb Named ‘Gilda,’ Honoring Rita Hayworth” that added the important detail—attributed to a “scientist” named Thomas Lanahan—that “the name had been chosen because the picture [GILDA] had been making the rounds of the Kwajalein [base] theaters.”[18] The Los Angeles Times published an A.P. wire photo of Hayworth with the clever caption: “FISSION FIGURE” and the text: “This picture of Rita Hayworth, film actress, has been painted on the atomic bomb, christened Gilda, to be dropped today.”[19]

The previously mentioned Mr. Lanahan shows up again in an expanded version of the U.P. wire service story published in the June 30^th edition of the Philadelphia Inquirer. The article is accompanied by a large GILDA publicity photo of Hayworth with the caption headline “THE PICTURE ON THE ATOM BOMB.” The full caption reads “This is the picture of Rita Hayworth, wearing the low-cut black evening gown she wore in the movie ‘Gilda’ which atomic scientists have painted on the bomb to be released at Bikini. They have named the bomb ‘Gilda.’”

The actual story, headlined “Gilda—Femme Fatale: Scientists, Engineers Christen Test A-Bomb” provides so much data that it is worth presenting here in its entirety:

KWAJALEIN, June 29 (U.P.) - The disclosure that the “able day” atom bomb is now resting inside a fenced enclosure in a restricted section of this island ends lively speculation as to the whereabouts of the world’s most powerful weapon.

The disclosure came with the surprise announcement that the serious-faced atomic scientists had named their bomb “Gilda” and painted a picture of Rita Hayworth on the bomb’s side.

The young scientists disclosed that they had just “buttoned her up” (meaning the atom bomb) when they held the christening ceremony.

Some two dozen Los Alamos scientists and Manhattan district engineers got together in the fenced and barbed-wire protected enclosure to name the bomb.

The scientists described the painting on the outside of the bomb casing as a “glowing” picture of Rita wearing the low-cut black evening gown she wore in the movie “Gilda.”

Thomas Lanahan, of Princeton, N.J., one of the atom scientists, said they named her “Gilda” because the picture currently was making the rounds of Kwajalein theaters. [transcribed text continued after image]

“Since we saw that picture we couldn’t get the bomb out of our minds. About a dozen of us agreed instantly on Gilda once we decided that the bomb should have a name.”

Most of the scientists are under 30 but are considered “very serious minded” by most observers and correspondents here.

Lanahan said there were several other suggestions for a name for the pumpkin.

“But we narrowed it down to The Outlaw, Jane Russell, and Laura, Gene Tierney, and Gilda. But most of us had seen Gilda at least 16 times and that’s no exaggeration, so there was no objection to that name. We stenciled the name in two-inch black letters. Then somebody suggested we needed a picture, so we found an old copy of ‘Esquire’[20] and cut out a movie advertisement for Gilda.”

The enclosure is floodlighted nightly and guarded both by the warlike barbed-wire entanglement and vigilant armed Marines. It is only a short distance from the “mystery ramp,” a built-up earth mound used in some manner for the loading of the bomb into the plane.

Rear Admiral W.S. Parsons, deputy task force commander, previously disclosed that once the bomb is loaded into “Dave’s Dream” on “able day” only an “arming” operation remains to be done.

That operation, whatever its nature, is done shortly after the take-off.[21]

Yet another United Press story, published in the June 30^th edition of the Wisconsin State Journal described the Gilda naming ritual (note that in this iteration, the engineers and scientists perform their own art work, not the mysterious “three painters” as referenced in other stories):

Over on Kwajalein, 250 miles away, the Manhattan district engineers held a formal christening ceremony for the bomb, and called her “Gilda” because, they said, she might be as explosive and damaging as the movie siren portrayed by Rita Hayworth in the film of that name.

On the side of the bomb, above stenciled letters 2-inches wide, they painted a picture of Rita, in a daringly décolleté black gown.[22]

A July 1, 1946 dispatch from the Associated Press quoted from what was presented as an official document, but stopped short of suggesting that Hayworth’s likeness was on the bomb (Other A.P. stories and photograph captions, however, asserted that the image was on the bomb):

“GILDA,” the Hollywood name painted on the bomb, caught official fancy here, too. Today’s Operation Order included the statement that Manhattan District scientists dubbed the missile “GILDA” because Rita Hayworth’s acting in a particular picture by that name “kept us awake nights.”

Swancutt [the Dave’s Dream pilot] said his crew approved the name, but co-pilot Capt. William C. Harrison cautioned: “Let’s wait and see the detonation.”[23]

And, in the July 8, 1946 edition of Time magazine, another wrinkle was added to the tale. No longer was the Hayworth image the careful work of three artists – it was now more or less just a pin-up hastily slapped onto the bomb:

All that could be told about it [the weapon] was that it was big enough to have a foot-high picture of Cinemactress Rita Hayworth pasted on its side. The Thing was called Gilda (after Miss Hayworth’s latest movie).[24]

But undoubtedly the most poignant statement on the whole Hayworth bomb issue came from her husband, the film auteur Orson Welles. Toward the conclusion of the June 30, 1946 broadcast of Mr. Welles’ commentary program on the ABC radio network, the famed director offered the following remarks that could not have endeared him (or Hayworth) to the boosters of Operation Crossroads:

Here’s a footnote on Bikini. I don’t know what this means or even if it has meaning, but I can’t resist mention of the fact that this much can be revealed concerning the appearance of tonight’s atom bomb: It will be decorated with a photograph of sizeable likeness of the young lady named Rita Hayworth.

Not long ago I watched quite another sort of young lady paint her lips with something called, over the counter, ‘the Atom Lipstick’[25] - the case of the cosmetic being fashioned according to the popular conceptions of the original war engine. I’m sure you won’t need to be told that Miss Hayworth is not one to use such a thing or hold it as anything less than a very hideous conceit. Her face is not on the atom bomb then by her own choosing, but by election of the fliers who will drop the bomb and who are clearly for business according to their tastes. In regard to their selection, I find their taste beyond reproach, but the bomb dropping itself better be worthy of the accompanying photograph.

Is this, Faustus claimed of Helen of Troy, ‘the face that launched a thousand ships and burnt the topless towers of Ilium?’ Well, I want a better toast, a better boast for Rebecca. I want my daughter to be able to tell her daughter that grandmother’s picture was on the last atom bomb ever to explode.[26]

FALLOUT: THE LONG HALF-LIFE OF A LEGEND

It was not just Bikini Atoll that was cursed with the lingering fallout from the Gilda bomb after July 1, 1946. Rita Hayworth had to live with the legend spawned by the bomb for the rest of her life. Like real radiation, the effects of the bomb story dissipated over the years, but as the public record reflects, it never went away entirely. And like any news story that captures the public’s imagination, it was heavily analyzed and commented upon at the time and then left mostly to history. We rejoin the legend, shortly after “A-Day” 1946, already in progress…

Orson Welles’ refreshing public dissent from the atomic hoopla, so prevalent in the media around the time of the first Bikini explosion, was mangled and regurgitated by the legendary columnist Walter Winchell in his July 5, 1946 syndicated column.[27] Winchell no doubt saw a good angle to exploit because most newspapers published the studio-fed fiction that Rita Hayworth was “honored” to have had her image on the bomb. One wire service story even quoted the star supposedly savoring her atomic tribute, “I still haven’t come down to earth.”[28] One can practically see Hayworth flipping her hair—Gilda style—while uttering this ridiculous line.

Winchell, though, presented the actress’s true emotional reaction albeit translated rather poorly from the more sophisticated Welles broadcast:

Memos of a Midnighter: Her ex-husband[29] says Rita Hayworth isn’t at all proud about the atom bomb being named for her and her film, “Gilda,” one of the best press agent tie-ups (we thawt) in history. He says it wasn’t any tie-up—that they (the engineers and scientists) really adore Rita and so christened it after her. He wished, however, their child, Rebecca, could one day say: “My mother’s name was on the very last atomic bomb!”[30]

Winchell was not the only person to laud the brilliance of the public relations coup that was the Gilda bomb. The Hollywood Reporter trumpeted the promotional victory from high atop its July 1, 1946 front page:

Gilda’s A-Bomb

Probably the greatest publicity break any picture or any star ever received was Columbia’s “Gilda,” with Rita Hayworth, because of the A-Bomb plant that hit every news story yesterday and the day before and every broadcast of the Bikini happenings. This break is a cinch to add at least a million to the probable $5,000,000 domestic gross on the show.[31]

Not everyone was as impressed as Winchell and the Hollywood Reporter with the Hayworth publicity achievement, though. The writer Walter Kiernan included a wry blurb on the Gilda news as part of his July 2, 1946 column:

“This may be difficult to understand abroad but we are a very simple people and easily understood. The key to our nature is the atom bomb… First we invent the most destructive force in the world and then we paint a picture of Rita Hayworth on it.”[32]

The newspapermen of the Oxnard (California) Press Courier got so worked up over the Hayworth bomb that they devoted an entire editorial to it. It is such an interesting and insightful contemporaneous document that it is being presented here in its entirety:

GILDA

The pin-up girl reached her zenith, (or nadir), too, in the Bikini bomb blast.

It was the ultimate of something or other when Miss Rita Hayworth’s likeness (in a daringly low-cut gown) was painted on the side of the bomb that tested the endurance of the ships in mid-Pacific, and it was named “Gilda” from her new movie!

For this was a sort of token pin-up to indicate to all of the women of the world that their charm was even more devastating than that of atomic science. The stout hearts of men wear too frail an armor to withstand the charm of womanhood.

Or does one seek too far to find an explanation of the symbolic use of Miss Hayworth’s picture on the bomb? Was it rather just another reflection of the gallant man’s tendency to gallantry in going into battle? Did it serve only as a sort of evidence that modern times, terrific are the weapons, the fighting male wears upon his sleeve the guerdon of his fair lady, just as the knight of old entered into battle with some token of his lady-love flying from his lance?

Man goes about his business of destruction with the picture of some girl, any girl.

The fair face of Helen launched a thousand ships that caught the ancient world in a 10-years war, and brought about the destruction of Troy.

The fair face of Cleopatra was enough for Anthony to throw away the empire of a civilized mankind.

Is it a sharing of the sublime, or a descent into the ridiculous, that the face of Rita Hayworth should be emblazoned upon the weapon that killed the pigs of Bikini?

One doesn’t need to labor the point, but the reflective man or woman may wish, some times, that feminine beauty would prove equally as inspiring to the peacemakers as to the warriors.

Or the cynic may simply conclude, and perhaps with more accurate knowledge of the ways of the world, that Rita Hayworth’s publicity man pulled off a triumph in the field of his art when he persuaded someone to make this test of science, upon which the eyes of the world were fixed, a plug for the puny achievement of Hollywood.[33]

Less than a year after the Bikini Able test a group of artists seeking publicity for their organization attempted to leverage the Hayworth bomb legend via a truly peculiar and baseless “plant” that found its way into the trade paper, the Motion Picture Herald:

BOMBED AND BURIED

Rita Hayworth, whose face and figure was painted on the Bikini atom bomb, may be buried in effigy in Alaska. The League of Present Day Artists, New York, whose mission it is “to encourage new directions in art,” has prepared a life-sized “permantized” plastic figure of Miss Hayworth which it will ship to Task Force Frigid in Fairbanks, Alaska, with the request that the figure be buried in the snows—down to the earth—so that posterity 100 years from today can dig it up and see “what one of the most beautiful girls of 1947 looked like.”[34]

Two years after Operation Crossroads, Hayworth’s official studio biography revisited the alleged atomic honor:

When some of her devoted GI fans – of whom she has literally millions – pasted her photograph upon the first atom bomb tested at Bikini, Rita’s picture hit the front pages of newspapers all over the world.[35]

And the legend continued to rear its head from time to time in the ensuing years: In 1970 a major profile on Hayworth in the New York Times Magazine referenced the now distant bomb story as Exhibit B (after that famous Life photo) in the case for her 1940s superstardom:

The girl with the long dark red hair whose pin-up was the most reproduced picture of a star in the history of Life magazine; whose picture adorned The Atomic Bomb (try living with that) [Emphasis in original].[36]

And no less a figure than Paul W. Tibbets, Jr. the pilot of the Enola Gay – the plane that dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima – repeated the Time magazine version of the Hayworth legend (pin-up pasted to the bomb) in his 1978 autobiography, The Tibbets Story.[37] It was, apparently, too good a story to pass up even though Tibbets, who lost the competition to pilot the Able test plane, was only peripherally involved in Operation Crossroads.[38]

Of course, most of the Rita Hayworth biographies make note of the bomb legend and present it as a fact.[39] The 1983 Joe Morella and Edward Z. Epstein book Rita: The Life of Rita Hayworth even offers a direct quote from Hayworth herself on the matter. Unfortunately, the authors provide no context for her alleged remarks (when it was said, to whom, etc.) and there are no footnotes, so it is impossible to determine the reliability of the following quote. It is being included below for the sake of completeness and because the thrust of the comment is supported by an on-the-record interview with Orson Welles contained in the next book to be examined in this article.

It was Harry Cohn’s idea to put my picture on that bomb. I was under contract, and they threatened to put me on suspension if I put up a fuss. Harry was…the Gestapo at Columbia. I hate war…That whole bomb thing made me sick to my stomach. My two brothers fought in the war; they were never the same when they came home.[40]

Barbara Leaming’s far more scholarly 1989 biography, If This Was Happiness contains a properly cited author interview with Orson Welles that leaves no doubt that (a.) Hayworth believed that the bomb legend was absolutely true and (b.) she was horrified by it. Indeed, here Welles expands on the dismay that his wife felt – a revulsion that he was only able to hint at in his 1946 radio broadcast:

“Rita used to fly into terrible rages all the time,” Welles recalled, “but the angriest was when she found out that they’d put her on the atom bomb. Rita almost went insane, she was so angry. She was so shocked by it! Rita was the kind of person that kind of thing would hurt more than anybody. She wanted to go to Washington to hold a press conference, but Harry Cohn (president of Columbia Pictures) wouldn’t let her because it would be unpatriotic.”

On the phone with Orson, Rita insisted that Cohn had himself been responsible for the Gilda-bomb, as a sick publicity stunt, but Orson tried to persuade her that it probably wasn’t so.[41]

Why Leaming omitted reference to the contemporaneous public disclosures (Welles’ broadcast and the Winchell column) of the star’s unhappiness with the bomb “honor,” is not known.

In view of Hayworth’s reported fury with the Columbia Publicity department, the senior flack who decided against involving the star in a flying saucer stunt to promote her first film after GILDA, DOWN TO EARTH (1947), should be commended. Specifically, on July 9, 1947, Ben Serkowitch, advertising and publicity head for Columbia, responded to a teletype pitch that Hayworth state to the press that neither she nor her latest picture were “responsible for [UFO] phenomena despite atom bomb named for her at Bikini.” Serkovich replied: “Wouldn’t touch flying disc story. Would be fearful make Hayworth ridiculous. Story could be too much of a boomerage [sic]. Forget it.”[42]

Outside of the expected mentions in Hayworth biographies and Cold War history tomes, many popular culture books including Otto Friedrich’s City of Nets have also noted Rita’s alleged co-starring role with an atomic bomb. The whole “atomic Rita” notion is, without a doubt, an iconic synergy that has proven irresistible to writers over the decades and helps explain why the legend persists to this day.[43]

Finally, there is the lengthy New York Times obituary for Hayworth published on May 16, 1987 that perhaps more than any single article or book solidifies the bomb story as fact. And in an unsupported leap, the author of the obituary links Hayworth’s famed 1941 Life magazine pin-up with the Bikini bomb (only he gets the date wrong on the pin-up and misstates the origin of Hayworth’s association with Life):

Her performance in “Cover Girl” with Gene Kelly in 1944, earned Miss Hayworth the attention of Life magazine, which printed a photograph of her, posed seductively in black lace, that became famous around the world as an American servicemen’s pinup. In what was intended, no doubt, as the ultimate compliment, the picture was even pasted to a test atomic bomb that was dropped on Bikini atoll in 1946.[44]

CRACKS IN THE MYTH

After more than sixty years in circulation, the Rita Hayworth bomb legend is firmly entrenched in Hollywood lore. But the most sensational element of the tale—that Hayworth’s image in all its 1940s glory was rendered (or pasted) onto the atomic bombshell that was exploded over Bikini Atoll in 1946—falls apart upon the most rudimentary inspection. This is not to say that our investigation did not have its moments of renewed faith. Remember – CONELRAD wanted this story to be as true and as verifiable as Humphrey Bogart’s toupee![45]

The first crack in the armor of the legend came when the archivists and the historian at the Los Alamos National Laboratory informed us that they had no photograph or film footage of the bomb with Hayworth’s image on it.[46] The extremely helpful Los Alamos staff referred us to the Media Collections department at the Defense Threat Reduction Information Analysis Center (DRTRIAC) in Albuquerque, New Mexico but this group came up empty as well.[47] The National Archives and Records Administration informed us (after a six week search) that they, too, were unable to locate photographic evidence of Hayworth on the bomb.[48]

But in a rare example of luck in the Hayworth quest, Los Alamos had also provided CONELRAD with the contact information for one of the two weaponeers[49] who armed the Able bomb onboard Dave’s Dream on July 1, 1946 – Leon D. Smith. Smith, who at 88 still performs lectures around the country, was happy to speak with us and, for a brief shining moment, provided a healthy dose of hope.

When asked if he remembered an image of Hayworth being on the Able weapon, Smith confirmed that he did. When asked if he recalled what the image looked like and where it was on the bomb, he replied: “I thought it was something very revealing. I remember it being more of an evening gown… if I look at the nose from the rear of the bomb, I thought it was in the upper left-hand quadrant – up in the front of the bomb.” Smith also confirmed to CONELRAD that he believed that the image was a painting as opposed to a pin-up photograph and that the height of the rendering was approximately 30 inches.

When asked if he knew who had originated the idea for the Hayworth theme, Smith was quite candid:

“No, I don’t, but it was very popular with us because we had been overseas and sort of starved for sex. And we had pictures of Rita overseas, so I was just delighted to see her picture on the bomb.”[50]

With a reinvigorated sense of purpose courtesy of Mr. Smith’s recollections, CONELRAD endeavored to view every available film that might contain footage of the Able bomb. As it turned out, we did not need to look any further than Netflix because they had Robert Stone’s brilliant and definitive documentary on the 1946 tests, RADIO BIKINI (1988), available for rental.

Not unlike the Zapruder film, RADIO BIKINI is an essential key to unraveling the Hayworth bomb mystery. The filmmaker, Mr. Stone, obtained all of the available footage of the weapon through a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) to the Defense Nuclear Agency.[51] The footage, as seen in the documentary, shows the weapon being sealed by the engineers with additional shots of a calm looking fellow putting the finishing touches on what appears to be a stenciled logo of the name “Gilda.”

There is, alas, no Hayworth image to be seen in this black and white section of the film. Nor can it be seen in the color footage of the bomb emerging from a pit underneath the B-29, Dave’s Dream, where it was about to be loaded for its final send-off.

CONELRAD contacted Robert Stone to ask him if he remembered seeing any image of Hayworth in the archival research for his documentary. In his e-mail response he stated that he had not and then added the following rationale for why he doubts its existence:

The thing that makes me doubt that there was a picture of her on the bomb is that if there was I'm sure I would have found it. If I had not used it in the film I would have certainly used it for publicity. The fact that I didn't leads me to believe that no picture exists. And if no picture exits then I doubt her image was ever on the bomb because why do it if you don't photograph it? I suspect (though I could be wrong) that all they did was stencil the word GILDA on it and sign their names as shown in the film. Remember, that footage was shot as they were loading the bomb onto the plane. So if it's not there in the film then I can't imagine when they could have added her image. And why stencil her name if you were planning to also paint her or paste a photo? My sense is that this is a myth. If I were a betting man, that’s where I would place my money.[52]

Some may be surprised by the vehemence of Stone’s opinion, but he is one of two people who know the full history of the Bikini tests better than anyone else. And his archival research credentials are impeccable as anyone who has seen his documentaries (including GUERILLA: THE TAKING OF PATTY HEARST and OSWALD’S GHOST) can attest. The other person who knows Bikini A-bomb history like the back of his hand is Jonathan M. Weisgall, the author of the definitive book on the subject: Operation Crossroads: The Atomic Tests at Bikini Atoll. Weisgall, who also served as an associate producer on RADIO BIKINI, told CONELRAD in a telephone interview that he had not seen photographic evidence of the Hayworth image either.[53]

DIVING DEEPER: CROSSROADS SURVIVORS AND THE ORIGIN OF “GILDA”

With the pendulum swinging once again far away from the possibility that Hayworth’s image was on the Able bomb, CONELRAD decided to go the extra mile and track down other people who may have had direct contact with the weapon. Unfortunately, the crew members of Dave’s Dream, with the exception of Leon D. Smith, had either passed away or could not be located.[54] Besides Smith’s current recollections, the only crew testimony regarding the bomb itself that CONELRAD was able to find was in a June 30, 1946 first person Associated Press account written by Major Harold H. Wood, the bombardier for the mission. The story is notable for the reverence in which Wood and his fellow flight mates hold the weapon. But was it reverence that prevented the crew members from commenting on Rita Hayworth’s image being on the atomic bomb or was it because “she” simply was not on it? The following are excerpts from Wood’s dispatch:

I’ve just seen the atom bomb for the first time. It gives you a funny feeling. It’s quite a thrill… As Maj. Bill Adams, our navigator said, “It gives you a very respectful feeling. It’s fantastic to feel you have so much power there.” Capt. Paul Chenchar, our radar operator, took it more calmly. All he said was: “I was just curious. Now I’m satisfied.”[55]

CONELRAD had better luck locating members of the Assembly Division team[56] who were based onboard the Albemarle ship where the Able weapon resided during its final construction prior to being trucked over to the pit under the B-29 on Kwajalein Atoll as seen in RADIO BIKINI.[57] The following are the individual responses to the $64,000 question:

Assembly Team member Phil Dailey: “I remember we had ‘Gilda’ [stenciled], but I don’t remember an image.”[58]

Assembly Team member Glenn Fowler: “I was on the team that loaded the bomb and there was no Rita Hayworth on it.”[59]

Assembly Team member Bryan Arthur: “Her image was not on the (bomb) casing itself.” Arthur then goes on to state that he recalls a pin-up of Hayworth having been pasted to the white canvass that covered the bomb while it was being transported from the ship to the pit.[60] This lead is examined in greater detail under Appendix B, “Loose Ends.”

And then there is Thomas Lanahan, the “scientist” quoted in the contemporaneous United Press wire accounts of the Hayworth bomb, who provided to CONELRAD the most extensive explanation of the GILDA story that there is ever likely to be. Lanahan, it should be pointed out, is the only named source in any of the original press coverage of the Gilda bomb story.[61] Equally important to note is that Lanahan, a still sharp man of 88, disputes some of the details attributed to him in the U.P. stories as published in the New York Times and the Philadelphia Inquirer in 1946. In fact, Lanahan stated to CONELRAD that he does not remember speaking to any journalist regarding the Gilda bomb.

Thomas B. Lanahan with ‘Crossroads’ scrapbook, 02/21/09

Perhaps the most reliable indicator of Mr. Lanahan’s intimate knowledge of the Gilda bomb legend was his nearly immediate recognition of why he was being contacted on the telephone for an interview. In the cases of the other Crossroads veterans, a lengthier explanation of the purpose of the inquiry was, quite understandably, required before their memories surfaced. Not so with Lanahan. He chimed in almost before the question could be asked and asserted that there was no image, just the stenciled name “Gilda.” When asked if he was certain, he said without hesitation: “Absolutely, it was just a stencil.”

There is, of course, a reason the outspoken Manhattan Project engineer (he was not, as the U.P. stories cast him, a “scientist”) had “Gilda” closer in mind than the other interview subjects: it was his idea to name the bomb after the iconic Hayworth performance and he still has the actual stencil used to ink the character’s name onto the casing of the weapon.[62] When the respected Hollywood appraiser and historian Anthony Slide was asked by CONELRAD to assess the value of this truly unique Cold War artifact (the stencil), his response was priceless: “That is an impossibly weird, odd item. I wouldn’t even know how to begin to set a value on that.”[63]

Lanahan, who was an assistant to the head of the B Division Assembly Division, Roger S. Warner, recalled for CONELRAD how the idea for naming the bomb came about. He stated that “We saw the movie [GILDA] the night before on the island [Kwajalein] and we liked Rita.” Upon leaving the open air base theater,[64] Lanahan said that he threw out the idea of dubbing the weapon “Gilda.” His half dozen or so friends agreed with the concept, but threw out some other movie star names such as “Laura” for the Gene Tierney vehicle. But it was “Gilda” that stuck and back onboard the Albemarle Lanahan’s superiors approved the lighthearted gesture. In fact, according to Lanahan, one of his bosses held the stencil while he performed the preliminary inking onto the bomb (The stencil itself was created by a man named “Boatman” in the photographic shop onboard the ship). Lanahan does not recognize the person seen in the RADIO BIKINI footage smoothing out his ink job.[65]

When asked about whether an image of Hayworth was ever even considered for the bomb, Lanahan states that the idea for the name came only a day or two before the actual detonation. He then adds: “If we had weeks, we probably would have painted something.” Lanahan also dismisses one press report that suggested that the naming of the bomb had been a “christening” ceremony that had also been referenced in the official Operation Order: “God no, it was very informal.”

A lighthearted souvenir from Thomas B. Lanahan’s time on ‘Crossroads’

Lanahan does not try to explain how a simple stencil inscription snowballed into a major news story worthy of radio comment from Orson Welles. When asked to conjecture, he laughs and says simply: “I can’t answer that.” Lanahan does allow that the press was not above getting creative with their stories.[66] There were, as pointed out earlier in this article, 175 print and broadcast reporters all starved for news on Operation Crossroads—an atmosphere that apparently produced its share of journalistic shenanigans. In its July 15, 1946 edition Time magazine reported on some of the reportorial malfeasance that occurred:

Some of the boys, anxious to get their stories moving ahead of their rivals, wrote “eye-witnessers” in advance. One even faked an “interview” with Bombardier Harold H. Wood, the man who dropped the bomb. (“It was like dropping a cherry on a frosted flake.”) And to make it authentic, the reporter added a personal detail: “I was thrown against the bulkhead and my typewriter knocked off the table by the jarring blast.” When the bomb actually did fall, the reporter hustled off to make sure his first story had not been sent. The A-blast had not even been felt aboard the ship.[67]

If someone was willing to fake an interview with the bombardier, the brazen embellishment of the Hayworth story begins to sound more plausible. As for the insinuation in some of the subsequent reporting[68] that Hayworth’s studio might have had some involvement in the origin of the Gilda bomb, Lanahan is unequivocal: “Oh, God, no. Absolutely none.”[69]

With all of this additional evidence and testimony, CONELRAD decided that it was time to check back in with the Dave’s Dream weaponeer, Leon D. Smith. After mailing screen print-outs of the Gilda weapon from RADIO BIKINI to him and advising him of the recollections of the surviving members of the assembly team, Mr. Smith’s memory remained unchanged: “I remember it so clearly,” he told us in a follow-up telephone interview. Mr. Smith stands by his original statements of having seen the image of Hayworth on the Able weapon.[70]

As the Hayworth investigation was winding down in February of 2009, Thomas Lanahan invited CONELRAD’s Bill Geerhart to his Pleasanton, California home to review his career scrapbooks. On February 21, 2009 Geerhart did just that and was impressed with the many other documented accomplishments of the man who named the fourth atomic bomb, “Gilda.” On one page of one of the decades-spanning scrapbooks there is Lanahan’s Manhattan Project service certificate, on another there is a photo of him standing next to J. Robert Oppenheimer, on another there is a letter of thanks from NASA for his engineering work on the Apollo 11 mission (work performed with a company he was employed with after leaving Los Alamos, S. Blickman). On another page there is a photograph of Lanahan and his wife attending an inaugural ball for President John F. Kennedy.

Yet even with all these accomplishments under his belt, Thomas Lanahan has never forgotten the “Gilda” stunt. “Over the years, he talked about it all the time,” says Lanahan’s childhood friend and Operation Crossroads colleague, William Jamieson.[71] It is a testament to the enduring star power of Rita Hayworth that she rates so high on the resume of a man who worked on two of the biggest projects of the 20^th Century: Manhattan and Apollo.

As it turned out, the reviews of the performance of the “Gilda” bomb were not as kind as the ones afforded to GILDA, the motion picture.[72] The bomb was dropped off course of its target and the observers were stationed so far away that the explosion did not live up to its massively hyped advance billing.[73] The Washington Post made the criticism personal with this article headline from July 3, 1946: “Big Let-Down, What Was Wrong with Gilda?”[74] And, according to a United Press dispatch, Russian observer Professor Simon Alexandrov was unimpressed with the Able explosion, too: He “shrugged his shoulders and pointed to the rapidly rising, brilliantly colored cloud and said, ‘Not so much.’”[75]

The Hollywood trade paper Variety panned the radio coverage if not the test itself in classic, succinct fashion on the front page of its July 3, 1946 edition: “ZZZ-ZZZ-Pffffz-Zzzz, ZZZ-Pfffz-ZZ-ZzzzZ, ZZZ-Pffffff-PFFF-ZZZ.”[76]

A 23-year-old registered nurse in Los Angeles was—tragically—more impressed than Variety with the broadcast reportage. Indeed, the Los Angeles Times reported in its July 1, 1946 edition that Susanah Gregory was so “depressed by the radio accounts of the atomic bomb test at Bikini yesterday [that she] leaped to her death from the top of the 13 story apartment building at 626 S. Rampart Blvd…”[77]

The second Operation Crossroads test, “Baker,” was a far more spectacular detonation, but the nickname for that bomb, “Helen of Bikini” lacked the lightening-in-a-bottle inspiration of “Gilda.” It also lacked the novelty of being the first live, media-covered test. In an odd career parallel to the diminished interest in the “Helen” / Baker test, Rita Hayworth never again had a film role as memorable as “Gilda.”[78] In fact, the actress became so identified with the iconic character that she is said to have once remarked “Men fell in love with ‘Gilda,’ but they woke up with me.”[79]

There will never be another GILDA.[80]

APPENDIX A: CONCLUSIONS

Based on the government released film footage of the Able weapon contained in the documentary RADIO BIKINI and the majority eyewitness testimony regarding the appearance of the bomb, it is CONELRAD’s opinion that Rita Hayworth’s likeness was not on the Able weapon detonated over Bikini Lagoon at exactly 34 seconds after 9:00 A.M. Bikini Local Time on July 1, 1946 (approximately 5:01 P.M., June 30, 1946 Eastern Standard Time).[81] It is CONELRAD’s opinion that the erroneous detail about the Hayworth image being on the bomb may have been the result of misinformation or gossip from an Operation Crossroads source or the result of a reporter trying to spice up the existing (and true) “Gilda” bomb naming story to ensure better “play.” It is also possible, but unlikely, that a Hayworth pin-up was pasted to the canvas tarp covering the weapon during its transport from the assembly ship to the pit under the B-29 (see Appendix B, item number 1, below). If this was the case, it becomes easier to understand how the facts became twisted to the point that in the published stories Hayworth’s image winds up on the bomb itself. CONELRAD did not uncover any photographic evidence to support Operation Crossroads Assembly Team member Bryan Arthur’s recollection that an image of Hayworth was pasted to the tarp covering the weapon.
Based on the RADIO BIKINI film footage that CONELRAD has posted on YouTube (see bibliography), the contemporaneous press coverage, and the current interviews conducted for this article, it is CONELRAD’s opinion that the bomb was named “Gilda” after the iconic Rita Hayworth role in the film of the same name.
Based on all of the facts gathered during this investigation, CONELRAD has determined that Thomas B. Lanahan III is the man responsible for naming the Able bomb “Gilda” and for facilitating the stenciling of the name onto the weapon.

APPENDIX B: LOOSE ENDS

1. RE: The possibility that the Hayworth image was on the white canvass covering the Able weapon during its truck transport from the Albemarle ship to the pit beneath the B-29 Superfortress airplane, Dave’s Dream:

There is no visible image of Hayworth on the white tarp covering the Able weapon as seen in the film footage contained in the documentary RADIO BIKINI. However, this footage depicts only one side of the covered weapon. Additionally, in a footnote to a footnote to history, Operation Crossroads staff members Thomas Lanahan, Phil Dailey and Glenn Fowler all confirmed to CONELRAD that there was a “dummy run” of a decoy bomb to throw the media and others off of the transport and loading of the real Able weapon.[82]

The filmmaker Robert Stone confirmed to CONELRAD that the footage of the tarp-covered bomb transport as seen in his 1988 documentary, RADIO BIKINI, is that of the actual weapon. Stone also confirmed that newsreel footage of the decoy charade exists. CONELRAD has located some of this film and has posted it on YouTube. This staged footage stands in stark contrast to the declassified filmed record in RADIO BIKINI. For one thing, there are no armed MPs seen in the actual, surprisingly casual transport footage (there are armed MPs in the staged footage). For another, the newsreel footage and accompanying narration present a woefully unconvincing record of the transport of an “atomic bomb.” It depicts two men—filmed from behind—wheeling what appears to be a small object toward the B-29. Considering the actual size of the weapon, it is clear that the men are transporting something other than an atomic bomb (perhaps a case of beer?). But then again, this was one year after World War II, a time when the appearance of the atomic bomb was still a tightly controlled secret.

Newspaper accounts from this period also reported that the Able weapon was, for a time, housed in a “heavily guarded barbed wire compound” on the island of Kwajalein. The Philadelphia Inquirer ran a photograph of Marines guarding an “A-Bomb Bunk before blast” in its July 1, 1946 edition. At least one newspaper article reported that the bomb was behind a “canvass-covered area on the island.”[83] In his book, Operation Crossroads: The Atomic Tests at Bikini Atoll, Jonathan M. Weisgall describes “a group of Quonset huts and a cement vault that housed the device.” However, the declassified film of the bomb’s transport and loading contained in RADIO BIKINI and interviews conducted for this article contradict the notion that the Able weapon was housed temporarily in such an structure.[84]

Was there a reason other than security that such a ruse was perpetrated? Robert Stone offered CONELRAD his opinion:

I would assume that the real bomb was loaded out of site the day before or very early in the a.m. The whole show was a big PR stunt so if it enhanced the drama to convince the press that the bomb was being loaded before their eyes behind a shroud just hours before the test, well so much the better. Covering it up like that also enhanced the sense of secrecy, of conveying the feeling that the U.S. had something so novel and mysterious that it could not even be seen. It also may have been meant to give the impression that we had a bunch of these weapons and that they could be rolled out and loaded on to bombers at a moment’s notice, something that was not actually the case.[85]

While it is unlikely that an image of Hayworth was pasted on the white canvass covering the Able weapon or the white canvass divider (or “shroud”) put up next to the B-29 for the benefit of the staged newsreel footage, we are leaving this possibility open in the hopes that someone will come forward with additional information.

2. RE: Whether all sources for photographs of the Able weapon have been exhausted:

In addition to the Los Alamos National Laboratory archives, the National Archives and Records Administration and the Defense Threat Reduction Information Analysis Center referenced in the main article, CONELRAD contacted the Sandia National Laboratory in Albuquerque, New Mexico because this entity maintains its own photographic archive. On May 12, 2009 we received a response from a representative from the Sandia Corporate Archives: “We have reviewed the negatives, photographs, and images we have of Dave’s Dream and the weapon loading procedure. There are a few photographs that show the tarp, but we see no images of any kind on it. It is just a plain white tarp.” See Robert Stone’s response above regarding the “shroud” (aka “tarp”) and click here to see a sample photograph showing the white tarp next to the Dave’s Dream B-29 from the Sandia Corporate Archives. In a follow-up telephone call with the Sandia representative, it was confirmed that their archives have no photographs of the Able weapon itself.[86]

During the course of interviewing the Operation Crossroads veterans for this article we asked if any had taken and / or kept snapshots of the weapon for their personal collections. Each man stated they had not taken photos of the weapon and had no photos of the weapon. CONELRAD also contacted the daughter of Los Alamos National Laboratory photographer Berlyn B. Brixner (1911 - ). Kathleen Brixner asked her father about Operation Crossroads and the Able weapon but he responded to her that other than attending the tests at Bikini, he does not recall much of substance related to the event.[87]

CONELRAD identified one other possible source for photography of the Able weapon: The Naval Research Laboratory in Washington, D.C. On February 12, 2009 we submitted a Freedom of Information Act request to this organization for any photographs of the Able bomb. We will amend this article to reflect the outcome of this request.

3. RE: Whether the Able test “Operation Order” was located by CONELRAD for this article. According to a July 1, 1949 Associated Press dispatch quoted in the main article (and below for convenience), this allegedly “official” order contained a remarkably lighthearted explanation for the naming of the weapon.

“Gilda,” the Hollywood name painted on the bomb, caught official fancy here, too. Today’s operation order included the statement that Manhattan District scientists dubbed the missile “Gilda” because Rita Hayworth’s acting in a picture by that name “kept us awake nights.”[88]

On February 10, 2009 CONELRAD filed a request with the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) seeking to locate a copy of the Operation Order. In a letter dated February 25, 2009, a NARA representative informed CONELRAD that a search of their files found that they likely do not have such a document. The NARA representative then referred us to the Air Force Historical Research Agency (AFHRA). We submitted a request for a search of their records on March 2, 2009. A representative from AFHRA responded to CONELRAD’s inquiry in a letter dated March 10, 2009 stating that while they do have over a thousand pages related to the Able and Baker tests, they “do not have the staff to hand search this for an unofficial request.” An offer was included with the letter to purchase microfilm of the documents. CONELRAD may pursue this lead at a later date.

It should be noted, however, that based on the no-nonsense content of the Joint Task Force One Operation Order, it is highly unlikely that a frivolous activity such as naming the bomb “Gilda” would have made it into an official document. Alan B. Carr, the Laboratory Historian of Los Alamos confirmed to CONELRAD in a February 10, 2009 e-mail that of the Operation Orders that he has seen (Los Alamos does not have the Able Operation Order), the inclusion of the trivia about “Gilda” would have been a major departure from the technical nature of these types of documents. The content of the Joint Task Force One Operation Order supports Mr. Carr’s assessment and casts doubt on the Associated Press’s account. It is possible the A.P. was reporting on a “gag” Operation Order produced by the fun-loving Manhattan District engineers and scientists.

4. RE: Whether Rita Hayworth’s true displeasure with the bomb “honor” was referenced in her FBI file:

CONELRAD consulted with Adrienne L. McLean, the author of Being Rita Hayworth: Labor, Identity, and Hollywood Stardom on this question. McLean re-reviewed her 207 page copy of Hayworth’s FBI file and found no reference to the bomb. CONELRAD did not review Orson Welles’ FBI file, but we may do so in the future. If any mention is made of his (or his wife’s) opposition to the bomb, we will update this article.

5. RE: The identity of the person who named the second Operation Crossroads bomb (for Test Baker) “Helen of Bikini.”

This question was asked of the Operation Crossroads veterans interviewed by CONELRAD for this article and no one knew the identity. Author Jonathan M. Weisgall provides some additional detail of the “Helen” art work in his definitive history Operation Crossroads: The Atomic Tests at Bikini Atoll:

Someone had anonymously scrawled the words “Helen of Bikini” on the side of the Baker bomb, and the name stuck. It was discovered when President Truman’s evaluation commission, headed by Senator (Carl A.) Hatch, made its final inspection of the bomb. Bradley Dewey, another member of the board, suggested the name Moby Dick, so that observers could shout “Thar she blows!” but he was voted down. Senator Hatch, not to be outdone by the anonymous Kilroy, got in a plug for Los Alamos and his home state by chalking the words “Made in New Mexico” on the outside of the watertight caisson holding the bomb.

6. RE: Whether President Truman’s Evaluation Commission or the Joint Chiefs of Staff Evaluation Board made note of the appearance of the Able (aka Gilda) weapon:

CONELRAD attempted to research the notes of these two committees at the National Archives and Records Administration, but many of the files remain classified. If and when CONELRAD is able to review these files via Freedom of Information Act requests or other means, we will update this article.

It should be noted here that the physical appearance of the Able weapon and the whole “Gilda” legend was ignored by the official historian of Operation Crossroads, William A. Shurcliff (1909-2006). Shurcliff wrote two books on the tests: “Bombs at Bikini: The Official Report of Operation Crossroads” (1947) and “Operation Crossroads, the Official Pictorial Record (1946) and there is not a single mention of Rita Hayworth or “Gilda.”

7. RE: Whether the “Gilda” bomb legend is dramatized in the 1983 television movie biopic, Rita Hayworth: The Love Goddess starring Lynda Carter.

In the interest of thoroughness (and morbid curiosity), CONELRAD viewed this film and, unfortunately, the bomb legend did not make the cut (but Michael Lerner’s ferocious portrayal of Columbia Pictures mogul Harry Cohn was worth the price of the rental). It should be noted that the source material for the screenplay of this movie, John Kobal’s 1977 biography Rita Hayworth: The Time, the Place, the Woman does include an account of the bomb legend.

8. RE: Whether the late comedic actress Gilda Rader (1946-1989) was named after the 1946 Rita Hayworth film, GILDA:

Gilda Radner, who was born on June 28, 1946 (during the original theatrical run of the film GILDA and just a few days before the July 1, 1946 detonation of the atomic bomb of the same name), confirmed in her autobiography, It’s Always Something, that she was indeed named for the Hayworth role. Specifically, on page 92 of the book she writes “I was named after my grandmother whose name began with ‘G,’ but GILDA came directly from the movie with Glenn Ford and Rita Hayworth.”

RE: Whether the bikini bathing suit was inspired by the Operation Crossroads tests at Bikini.

Fashion designer Louis Reard introduced the “Bikini” swimsuit in France on July 5, 1946 – four days after the first Operation Crossroads atomic test at Bikini Atoll. Reard never stated why he chose the name, but he was a competitor to another French two-piece swimwear designer, Jacques Heim, who called his creation “atome.” The name “bikini,” of course, stuck.[89]

APPENDIX C: GILDA FILM REVIEW EXCERPTS

GILDA, Rita Hayworth’s most famous film, is today recognized as a classic, but when it was released in 1946 it was much more of a popular hit than it was a critical darling.[90] As author Gene Ringgold put it, “It was the film which the returned GIs took their wives and sweethearts to see.”[91] According to a 1947 Variety ranking of the 60 top grossing films of 1946, GILDA came in at number 20 with a take of $3,750,000 at the box office.[92] And Hayworth’s post-Bikini Atoll star power was such that the film was re-titled LA VEDETTE ATOMIQUE (The Atomic Star) in France.[93] Ms. Hayworth’s GILDA-era magic is best known to today’s generation from the 1994 film adaptation of Stephen King’s short novel Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption (THE SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION). There is probably no better representation of Hayworth’s mass-audience appeal than the look on the prisoners’ faces—particularly the expressions of Morgan Freeman and Tim Robbins—appreciating the famous GILDA hair toss scene.

In addition to its immediate popular acclaim, GILDA also received, along with a few pans, its fair share of positive notices from the press. The following then is a comprehensive sampling of the original critical reaction to GILDA. From these review excerpts—positive and negative—it is apparent that Rita Hayworth was a performer who registered with reviewers regardless of their overall opinion of the film. Indeed, Ms. Hayworth may have had her biggest impact on the curmudgeonly and Victorian Bosley Crowther of the New York Times which is as good a place as any to start:

“Miss Hayworth, who plays in this picture her first straight dramatic role, gives little evidence of a talent that should be commended or encouraged. She wears many gowns of shimmering luster and tosses her tawny hair in glamorous style, but her manner of playing a worldly woman is distinctly five-and-dime. A couple of times she sings song numbers, with little distinction and wiggles through a few dance numbers that are nothing short of crude.”

-- Bosley Crowther, “The Screen; Rita Hayworth and Glenn Ford Stars of ‘Gilda’ at Music Hall,” New York Times, March 15, 1946

“However, it stacks up as a lavish, spectacular show that is enough to attract audiences in these days of easy come, easy go.”

-- Norman Lusk, “Gilda’ Baffles Critics; Showy Values Conceded,” Los Angeles Times, March 26, 1946

“After seeing the preview of ‘Gilda,’ I’d say Rita Hayworth need not depend upon her beauty or dancing for pictures. She displayed real dramatic ability.”

-- Hedda Hopper, “Looking at Hollywood (column),” Los Angeles Times, March 19, 1946

“Practically all the s.a. [sex appeal] habiliments of the femme fatale have been mustered for ‘Gilda,’ and when things get trite and frequently far-fetched, somehow, at the drop of a shoulder strap, there is always Rita Hayworth to excite the filmgoer. When story interest lags, she’s certain to shrug a bare shoulder, toss her tawny head in an intimately revealing close-up, or saunter teasingly through the celluloid. She dissipates the theories, if any, that sex has its shortcomings as a popular commodity. Miss Hayworth will do business.”

-- Kahn., “Gilda,” Variety review, March 20, 1946

“’Gilda’ (Columbia) is the result of ambrosial Rita Hayworth's desire to prove that she can act. She proves it fully as well as the next Hollywood girl (unless that girl happens to have specific talent for acting), but mainly, as always before, she proves that she is such a looker that nothing else much matters.”

-- “The New Pictures,” Time magazine, April 1, 1946

“Rita Hayworth, going heavily dramatic for the first time in ‘Gilda,’ proves herself a smarter show woman. For how this glorious pin-up does emote in this one! What a glittering gamut of drama she reveals plus much of her beautiful self while also singing and dancing! The result is an exciting, glamorous, rich, ruddy melodrama—and if its plot is most incredible at times, you will be more than willing to ignore it while concentrating on the star… Rita flounces, and Rita flirts, and Rita rumbas, and all the time she tries to give Glenn the impression that she’s mighty wicked.”

-- Ruth Waterbury, “Rita at Peak in ‘Gilda,’” Los Angeles Examiner, April 27, 1946

“Rita Hayworth, brilliantly effective as a siren in satin, and Glenn Ford, firmly competent as a minor cardsharp, swept into big league intrigue by force of association, turn in tip-top performances in the Virginia Van Upp production of a sumptuously sordid story about crime, major and minor, in Buenos Aires.”

-- William R. Weaver, “Gilda,” Review, Motion Picture Herald, March 16, 1946

“It’s a whizzer, this one—just the sort of movie, spelled capital MOVIE – that can’t miss, because it’s got nearly everything including two songs and a solo dance by Miss Hayworth, one gown that she wears without shoulder straps and a gaucho ensemble with black tights…Make no mistake about it—‘Gilda’ will click.”

-- Edwin Schallert, “Guilt Gilds Lily in ‘Gilda,’ but All the Gilt’s Not Gold,” Los Angeles Times, April 27, 1946

“Miss Hayworth was rather unlucky in her first straight dramatic piece, but she does sing ‘Put the Blame on Mame,’ a good torchy number, just to show she still has the flare for this sort of thing; and she wears some beautiful clothes beautifully.”

-- Philip T. Hartung, “A Well-Dressed Dud,” The Commonweal, April 5, 1946

“Miss Hayworth does what one might expect in the title role of the tramp. But she never makes the character stand up with the perilous and dynamic quality that it demanded.”

-- Howard Barnes, New York Herald Tribune. Review quoted from pp. 162-163 of Gene Ringgold, The Legend and Career of a Love Goddess (Secaucus, New Jersey: Citadel Press, 1974).

“Therefore it is my special pleasure to be able to tell you that in GILDA it is done very well, written with skill, a nice feeling for restraint, and constructed with enough urbanity to make you clean forget for minutes at a time that the proceedings are largely nonsense.”

-- John Maynard, New York Journal-American. Review quoted from pp. 162-163 of Gene Ringgold, The Legend and Career of a Love Goddess (Secaucus, New Jersey: Citadel Press, 1974).

“The characters of the drama are interesting and well enough played and although the story has all the elements of high-class trash, director Charles Vidor and his experienced players have given it considerable holding power, by keeping the audience in suspense from one dramatic shift to another.”

-- New York Daily News by Kate Cameron (who gave the film three and ½ stars). Review quoted from pp. 162-163 of Gene Ringgold, The Legend and Career of a Love Goddess (Secaucus, New Jersey: Citadel Press, 1974).

“With all the possibilities for excitement the movie travels too slowly from one near climax to another, always on the verge of exploding, but never coming out with an honest thrill – except when Miss Hayworth is on screen.

In strapless evening gowns which just barely contain her, Miss Hayworth wiggles through violent emotions…Opulent is the one special word for GILDA.”

-- Louise Levitas, New York PM. Review quoted from pp. 162-163 of Gene Ringgold, The Legend and Career of a Love Goddess (Secaucus, New Jersey: Citadel Press, 1974).

APPENDIX D: MEMBERS OF THE OVERSIGHT COMMITTEES

As mentioned in the main article, there were two official committees assembled to witness the Operation Crossroads tests. The following are the names of the committees and their membership. This information is drawn from the official history of Operation Crossroads: “Bombs at Bikini: The Official Record of Operation Crossroads: Prepared Under the Direction of the Commander of Joint Task Force One” (New York: Wm. H. Wise & Co., Inc., 1947) by William A. Shurcliff, Historian of Joint Task Force One, pp. 182-183.

President’s Evaluation Commission for the Atomic Bomb Tests:

Chairman: Sen. Carl A. Hatch (New Mexico)
Karl T. Compton*
Bradley Dewey*
Sen. Leverett Saltonstall (Mass)
Rep. Chet Holifield (CA)
Rep. Walter G. Andrews (NY)
Edward Condon
Fred Sears
William S. Newell

Joint Chiefs of Staff Examination Board for Operation Crossroads:

Chairman: Karl T. Compton*
Bradley Dewey (Compton’s Deputy)*
Major General Thomas F. Farrell (formerly with the Manhattan Project)
Gen. Joseph W. Stilwell
Lt. Gen. Lewis G. Brereton
Vice Admiral John H. Hoover
Rear Admiral Ralph A. Ofstie

* Served on both committees

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

CONELRAD would like to thank the people who helped make this article as thorough as it is. First and foremost a sincere tip of the hat is in order to the surviving members of Operation Crossroads. Their willingness to share their recollections of the Able test was essential to understanding the truth about the Gilda bomb story. Specifically: Thomas Lanahan, Leon D. Smith, Phil Dailey, Glenn Fowler, Bryan Arthur and William Jamieson. Of this group, special thanks are due to Mr. Lanahan for his hospitality and for opening his records to Bill Geerhart for review.

CONELRAD would also like to thank Alan B. Carr, the Laboratory Historian of Los Alamos and Dan Comstock of the Los Alamos Records Management, Media Services and Operations Group. Thanks, too, to Byron Ristvet and Herbert Hoppe of the Defense Threat Reduction Information Analysis Center in Albuquerque, New Mexico. And thanks to Myra L. O’Canna and the staff at the Sandia Corporate Archives, also in Albuquerque, for taking the time to research their photographic holdings for any evidence of the elusive Rita Hayworth image.

CONELRAD is indebted to the fine folks at Wellesnet for their online preservation of the remarkable 1946 Orson Welles Bikini radio commentary. It is only because of Wellesnet that this historic audio can be heard from the comfort of one’s own home rather than the Paley Center for Media in New York or Beverly Hills. We have presented the relevant “Bikini” excerpt of the Welles commentary in this article, but it is definitely worth your time to listen to the entire fifteen minute broadcast. It is a fascinating example of early atomic age dissent.

Thanks to Adrienne L. McLean, the author of Being Rita Hayworth: Labor, Identity, and Hollywood Stardom, for her assistance in reviewing the Hayworth FBI file.

Thanks to independent researcher Terry Arbegust for allowing CONELRAD to hear his 1994 interview with Lt. Robert Glen, Dave’s Dream’s flight engineer. Terry conducted a very thorough interview with particular emphasis on the “Gilda” legend.

And, finally, special thanks to filmmaker Robert Stone and author Jonathan M. Weisgall for their invaluable guidance in this obsessive research quest. This article would not exist if it were not for their earlier research. Therefore, if this article has inspired you to learn more about Operation Crossroads, we urge you to view Stone’s RADIO BIKINI and read Weisgall’s Operation Crossroads: The Atomic Tests at Bikini Atoll.

If you wish to learn more about Rita Hayworth, we recommend Barbara Leaming’s If This Was Happiness, Adrienne L. McLean’s Being Rita Hayworth: Labor, Identity, and Hollywood Stardom and the online resource Rita Hayworth: The Love Goddess.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

The following are the reference works CONELRAD relied upon in researching this article.

BOOKS

American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2005) by Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin

Being Rita Hayworth: Labor, Identity and Hollywood Stardom (New Brunswick, New Jersey, 2004) by Adrienne L. McLean

Bombs at Bikini: The Official Record of Operation Crossroads: Prepared Under the Direction of the Commander of Joint Task Force One (New York: Wm. H. Wise & Co., Inc., 1947) by William A. Shurcliff, Historian of Joint Task Force One

City of Nets: A Portrait of Hollywood in the 1940’s (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1997) by Otto Friedrich

Dark City: The Los World of Film Noir (New York: St. Martin’s Griffin, 1998) by Eddie Muller

The Films of Rita Hayworth: The Legend and Career of a Love Goddess (Secaucus, New Jersey: Citadel Press, 1974) by Gene Ringgold*

If This Was Happiness: A Biography of Rita Hayworth (New York: Viking, 1989) by Barbara Leaming*

It’s Always Something (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1989) by Gilda Radner

King Cohn: The Life and Times of Harry Cohn (New York: Putnam, 1967) by Bob Thomas

Merchant Prince of Poverty Row: Harry Cohn of Columbia Pictures (University Press of Kentucky, 1993) by Bernard F. Dick

Operation Crossroads: The Atomic Tests at Bikini Atoll (Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 1994) by Jonathan M. Weisgall

Operation Crossroads: The Official Pictorial Record (New York: Wm. H. Wise & Co., Inc., 1946) by the Office of the Historian (William A. Shurcliff), Joint Task Force One

Rita: The Life of Rita Hayworth (New York: Delacorte Press, 1983) by Joe Morella and Edward Z. Epstein*

Rita Hayworth: A Memoir (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1983) by James Hill

Rita Hayworth: A Photographic Retrospective (New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 2001) by Caren Roberts-Frenzel*

Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption (published in the collection Different Seasons) (New York: Viking, 1982) by Stephen King

Rita Hayworth: Pyramid History of the Movies (New York: Pyramid Publications, 1976) by Gerald Peary

Rita Hayworth: The Time, the Place, the Woman (London: W.H. Allen, 1977) by John Kobal*

Screen Goddesses (New York: Exeter Books, 1984) by Tom Hutchinson

The Tibbets Story (New York: Stein & Day Publishers, 1978) by Paul W. Tibbets, Jr. with Clair Stebbins and Harry Franken

* Indicates biographical works on Rita Hayworth that present the Bikini atomic bomb legend (the image or pasted-on-pin-up version) as fact. Barbara Leaming’s biography relied on her own interview with Orson Welles for the bomb story, so it should not be viewed in the same light as the other biographies that simply regurgitate the legend from press accounts. Leaming’s book is the best, most reliable work on the life of Rita Hayworth.

FILM / VIDEO

AMERICA’s ATOMIC BOMB TESTS VOLUME 1: THE EARLY TESTS, TRINITY AND OPERATION CROSSROADS (VHS) (1997)

OPERATION CROSSROADS, Newsreel Footage (1946)
(see Online Resources, below, for URLs)

OPERATION CROSSROADS PARTS 1 and 2 (1946)
Jam Handy Organization
(see Online Resources, below, for URLs)

RADIO BIKINI (1988)
Directed by Robert Stone

RITA (TV Documentary) (2003)
Directed by Elaina Archer

RITA HAYWORTH: THE LOVE GODDESS (TV Biopic starring Lynda Carter) (1983)
Directed by James Goldstone

THE SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION (1994)
Directed by Frank Darabont

NOTE: CONELAD could not secure a copy of Arthur Barron’s documentary “Rita Hayworth: Dancing into a Dream” (1990), but we were told by a source who has seen it that the bomb legend is mentioned only in passing.

NEWSPAPERS / MAGAZINES

“11 to Leave to Witness Atom Tests,” Daily Capital News (Jefferson City, Missouri), June 21, 1946 by Associated Press

“A-Bomb Named Gilda,” Del Rio (Texas) News-Herald, June 30, 1946 by Associated Press

“The All-American Love Goddess,” Time magazine, May 25, 1987 by Gerald Clarke

“America Through Soviet Eyes,” Public Opinion Quarterly, No. 1, Spring 1947 (page 34) by Alexander Dallin

Associated Press Dispatches: June 30, 1946 and July 1, 1946 [courtesy of the AP Library]

“Atom-Bomb Blast Sinks 2 Ships, Damages 17,” Philadelphia Inquirer, July 1, 1946

“Atom Bombing Disappoints, Observers Say,” Salt Lake Tribune, July 1, 1946 by United Press

“Atomic Bomb is Christened ‘Gilda,’ Port Arthur News, June 30, 1946 by Associated Press

“Big Let-Down: What Was Wrong with Gilda,” Washington Post, July 3, 1946 by Ernest K. Lindley

“Bombed and Buried,” Motion Picture Herald, April 12, 1947

“Cameras Record Historic Atom Bomb Test at Bikini,” Philadelphia Inquirer, July 1, 1946

“Clear Ships for Bomb Test,” Oelwein (Iowa) Daily Register, June 29, 1946 by Associated Press

“The Cult of the Love Goddess in America,” Life magazine, November 10, 1947 by Winthrop Sargeant

“Fission Figure,” Los Angeles Times, June 30, 1946 by Associated Press

“Gilda,” (Editorial) Oxnard (California) Press-Courier, July 1, 1946

“Gilda: A-Missile Carries Likeness of Actress,” Los Angeles Herald-Express, June 29, 1946 by Associated Press

“Gilda’ Baffles Critics; Showy Values Conceded,” Los Angeles Times, March 26, 1946 by Norbert Lusk

“Gilda” capsule review, Village Voice, June 15, 1982 by Carrie Rickey

“Gilda’ Due Here Friday,” Los Angeles Times, April 22, 1946

“Gilda—Femme Fatale: Scientists, Engineers Christen Test A-Bomb,” Philadelphia Inquirer, June 30, 1946 by United Press

GILDA movie advertisement, Reno (Nevada) Evening Gazette, July 1, 1946

GILDA movie advertisement, Evening Observer (Dunkirk, New York), July 1, 1946

“Gilda” review, Motion Picture Herald by William R. Weaver, March 16, 1946

“Gilda” review, Variety, March 20, 1946 by Kahn.

“Gilda’s A-Bomb,” Hollywood Reporter, July 1, 1946

“Guilt Gilds Lily in ‘Gilda,’ but Allthe Gilt’s Not Gold,” Los Angeles Times, April 27, 1946 by Edwin Schallert

“Half a Loaf Tale No Good,” Lima (Ohio) News, July 2, 1946 by Walter Kiernan

“Heavy Bomb Guard,” Syracuse Herald-American, June 30, 1946 by United Press

“Hedda Hopper Looking at Hollywood (column), Los Angeles Times, March 19, 1946 by Hedda Hopper

“Helen of Bikini,” Time, August 5, 1946

“Hollywood News” Column, Indiana Evening Gazette, July 3, 1946 by Associated Press

“In the News” Column, Hollywood Citizen-News, July 1, 1946

“The Lyons Den” Column, Amarillo (Texas) Sunday News-Globe, July 7, 1946 by Leonard Lyons

“Multiple-Picture Deal Between Columbia & ICC,” Variety, August 5, 1975

“The New Pictures,” Time magazine, April 1, 1946

“Nurse, Gloomy Over A-Bomb, Leaps to Death,” Los Angeles Times, July 1, 1946

“Only Shift in Weather Could Stop It,” Wisconsin State Journal, June 30, 1946

“Physicist William Shurcliff; Advocated for Public Interest” (Obituary), Washington Post, June 28, 2006 by Adam Bernstein

“A Radio Review,” Variety, July 3, 1946

Rebecca Welles’ death (news of), Chicago Sun-Times, October 27, 2004, by Michael Sneed (column).

“Report from Bikini,” Time, July 15, 1946

“Rita at Peak in ‘Gilda,’ Los Angeles Examiner, April 27, 1946, by Ruth Waterbury

“Rita Hayworth Dead at 68; Love Goddess of the 1940s,” Post-Standard (Syracuse, New York) May 16, 1987 (Obituary mentions bomb story as fact) by Associated Press

“Rita Hayworth, 68, Dies in N.Y., COL’s Shining Light of the ‘40s,” Variety, May 20, 1987 by Todd McCarthy

“Rita Hayworth: Don’t Put the Blame on Me, Boys” New York Times Magazine, October 25, 1970 by John Hallowell

Rita Hayworth, Life magazine, August 11, 1946, photography by Bob Landry. This is the issue that featured the hugely popular pin-up shot of Hayworth in black lace sitting on a bed. The cover of the magazine featured another Landry shot of Hayworth eating a hamburger on the beach in Santa Monica, California. The original text that ran across the pin-up photo in the magazine read: “Rita Hayworth rises from bit parts into a triple-threat song and dance star.” The pin-up version of the photograph plays a crucial role in the Stephen King short novel Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption and the 1994 film adaptation THE SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION.

“Rita Hayworth, ‘Love Goddess of ‘40s, Dies,” Los Angeles Times, May 16, 1987 by Gerald Faris (Obituary mentions bomb story as fact).

“Rita Hayworth, Movie Legend, Dies,” New York Times, May 16, 1987 by Albin Krebs (Obituary mentions bomb story as fact).

“Rita Hayworth Thrilled by Atomic Bomb Honor,” Port Arthur News June 30, 1946 by Associated Press

“Rita Honored by Namesake,” Big Spring (Texas) Herald, June 30, 1946 by Associated Press

“Rita Rides A-Bomb,” Charleston (West Virginia) Daily Mail, June 29, 1946 by Associated Press

“Rita Rides With A-Bomb,” New York Daily News, June 30, 1946 by Associated Press

“The Screen; Rita Hayworth and Glenn Ford Stars of ‘Gilda’ at Music Hall,” New York Times, March 15, 1946 by Bosley Crowther

“Test,” Washington Post, July 1, 1946 by Gerald G. Gross

“Test Bomb Named ‘Gilda,’ Honoring Rita Hayworth, New York Times, June 30, 1946 by the United Press

“Test for Mankind,” Time magazine, July 8, 1946

Walter Winchell Column, Charleston (West Virginia) Daily Mail (and Syndicated), July 5, 1946 by Walter Winchell

“Weather Favorable at Bikini; Bomb to Be Dropped Today,” Washington Post, June 30, 1946 by Associated Press

“A Well-Dressed Dud,” the Commonweal, April 5, 1946 by Philip T. Hartung

ONLINE AUDIO RESOURCES

Orson Welles ABC Radio Network Commentary:
Audio hosted by Wellesnet.com (Visit and support Wellesnet!)
Originally broadcast: June 30, 1946
http://ia360620.us.archive.org/1/items/1946OrsonWellesCommentaries/460630_Bikini_Atomic_Test_64kb.mp3

The Welles audio is also available at the Paley Center for Media in New York and Beverly Hills and it is documented in their online catalog. The catalog is where CONELRAD first discovered the existence of the broadcast.

NOTE: A slideshow version of the Hayworth-specific excerpt from the Welles broadcast is available on CONELRAD’s YouTube channel: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ssTpumBZ9yc

“Rita Hayworth”
NPR, Morning Edition
Originally broadcast: May 2, 2002
http://www.npr.org/programs/morning/features/patc/hayworth/index.html

ONLINE VIDEO RESOURCES

‘GILDA’ ATOMIC BOMB ASSEMBLY FOOTAGE FROM ‘RADIO BIKINI’
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AgPxOjwD0ss

‘GILDA’ ATOMIC BOMB TRANSPORT / LOADING FOOTAGE FROM ‘RADIO BIKINI’
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1lDljaU1Spc

OPERATION CROSSROADS, Universal Newsreel Footage (1946):
http://www.archive.org/details/1946-07-01_Operations_Crossroads_Underway

OPERATION CROSSROADS, Unidentified Newsreel Footage that features scenes from the decoy bomb run (1946):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bBxC_lzddKg

OPERATION CROSSROADS PART 1 (1946)
Jam Handy Organization
http://www.archive.org/details/Operatio1946

OPERATION CROSSROADS PART 2 (1946)
Jam Handy Organization
http://www.archive.org/details/Operatio1946_2

ONLINE RESOURCES (GENERAL)

American Film Institute Online Catalog (membership required): GILDA Entry (Accessed at the Margaret Herrick Library of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in Beverly Hills, California)

A history of Bikini Atoll with frequent updates on the status of the displaced native population

http://www.bikiniatoll.com/

Sandia National Laboratories Z Division, Photographic History Exhibit

http://www.sandia.gov/recordsmgmt/zdiv.html

STUDIO MATERIAL (Accessed at the Margaret Herrick Library of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in Beverly Hills, California and the Inventory of Columbia Pictures records, 1929-1974, University of Wyoming, American Heritage Center)

Rita Hayworth biography, Columbia Studios, Hollywood, California, dated January 6, 1948, Lou Smith, Director of Publicity

Columbia Publicity Teletype correspondence, July 9, 1947.

[1] Hayworth earned the nickname “The Love Goddess” from a Life magazine cover story: Winthrop Sargeant, “The Cult of the Love Goddess in America,” Life magazine, November 10, 1947.

[2] Albin Krebs, “Rita Hayworth, Movie Legend, Dies,” New York Times, May 16, 1987. The Associated Press and the Los Angeles Times also repeated the bomb story in their obituaries for the star. See bibliography.

[3] Todd McCarthy, “Rita Hayworth, 68, Dies in N.Y., Col’s Shining Light of the ‘40s,” Variety, May 20, 1987. McCarthy writes that Hayworth was second only to Betty Grable in terms of World War II pin-up supremacy.

[4] Jonathan M. Weisgall, Operation Crossroads: The Atomic Tests at Bikini Atoll (Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press, 1994), p. 180. The B-29, Dave’s Dream, was named in honor of Captain Dave Semple who died during pilot test flight competition for the Able mission.

[5] Ibid., p. 1. On page 16 Weisgall also notes that “by June 1946 the U.S. nuclear weapon stockpile consisted of exactly nine bombs, two of which were not operational.”

[6] Ibid., p. 32 (Blandy reveals test site and code name of operation); P. 8 (Operation Crossroads as major news event); p. 33 (Bob Hope reference); pp. 30-31 (broad purpose of tests); p.120 (animals used at Operation Crossroads). Note: See also pages 257-260 of this book for a discussion of the cancellation of the third Crossroads test “Charlie” which was to be a deep underwater test.

[7] Ibid., p. 45 (Atomic Admiral reference); pp. 63-64 (chief defender reference).

[8] Ibid., p. 64.

[9] Ibid.

[10] Ibid. p. 86

[11] Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin, American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer (New York: Knopf, 2005), pp. 349-350.

[12] Weisgall, Operation Crossroads, p. 108.

[13] Ibid, p. 1 (number of journalists and staff); p. 93 (President’s Evaluation Commission); p. 288 (Joint Chiefs of Staff Evaluation Board).

[14] Please see the newspaper / magazine section of the bibliography that accompanies this article for a full listing of the press coverage of the Rita Hayworth atomic bomb story.

[15] GILDA movie advertisements, Emporia (Kansas) Gazette, July 1, 1946 and the Evening Observer (Dunkirk, New York), July 1, 1946. Per the online American Film Institute Catalog, GILDA was produced between September 4, 1945 and December 10, 1945 and had its New York premiere on March 14, 1946. In the news item “Gilda’s A-Bomb,” Hollywood Reporter, July 1, 1946, the trade paper estimated that the atomic bomb publicity would add “at least another million” to GILDA’s box office returns.

[16] Associated Press, “Rita Rides A-Bomb,” Charleston (West Virginia) Daily Mail, June 29, 1946.

[17] Associated Press, “Gilda: A-Missile Carries Likeness of Actress,” Los Angeles Herald-Express, June 29, 1946.

[18] United Press, “Test Bomb Named ‘Gilda,’ Honoring Rita Hayworth,” New York Times, June 30, 1946.

[19] AP Wirephoto, “Fission Figure,” Los Angeles Times, June 30, 1946.

[20] CONELRAD reviewed Esquire magazine issues from January 1946 through October 1946 and none had an advertisement for the movie GILDA.

[21] United Press, “GILDA—Femme Fatale: Scientists, Engineers Christen Test A-Bomb,” Philadelphia Inquirer, June 30, 1946.

[22] United Press, “Only Shift in Weather Could Stop It,” Wisconsin State Journal, June 30, 1946.

[23] Associated Press Dispatch A45FX, July 1, 1946.

[24] “Test for Mankind,” Time magazine, July 8, 1946.

[25] The only reference CONELRAD could find to “atom lipstick” was in an article (“America Through Soviet Eyes by Alexander Dallin, Public Opinion Quarterly, No. 1, Spring 1947, page 34) that cited a Pravda article from December 11, 1946 decrying America’s “sickly passion for the atom bomb.” According to Public Opinion Quarterly, the Pravda article noted the commercial existence of “atomic lipstick” in American drug stores.

[26] Orson Welles ABC Radio Network Commentary, June 30, 1946. Rebecca Welles, the daughter of Orson Welles and Rita Hayworth died of cancer on October 17, 2004: Michael Sneed (column), Chicago Sun-Times, October 27, 2004.

[27] Walter Winchell column, Charleston (West Virginia) Daily Mail (and syndicated), July 5, 1946.

[28] Associated Press, “Rita Honored by Namesake,” Big Spring (Texas) Herald, June 30, 1946 and Associated Press, “Rita Hayworth Thrilled by Atomic Bomb Honor,” Port Arthur News, June 30, 1946.

[29] It is clear from the context of Winchell’s reference that the “ex-husband” is supposed to be Welles, but per Leaming, If This Was Happiness, p. 171, Welles and Hayworth were not legally divorced until December 1, 1948.

[30] Walter Winchell column, Charleston (West Virginia) Daily Mail (and syndicated), July 5, 1946.

[31] “Gilda’s A-Bomb,” Hollywood Reporter, July1, 1946.

[32] Walter Kiernan, “Half a Loaf Tale No Good,” Lima (Ohio) News, July 2, 1946.

[33] “Gilda,” editorial, Oxnard (California) Press Courier, July 1, 1946.

[34] “Bombed and Buried,” Motion Picture Herald, April 12, 1947. CONELRAD could find no evidence that this art project ever took place.

[35] Rita Hayworth Biography, Columbia Studios, January 6, 1948, Lou Smith Director of Publicity

[36] John Hallowell, “Rita Hayworth: Don’t Put the Blame on Me, Boys,” New York Times Magazine, October 25, 1970.

[37] Paul W. Tibbets, Jr. with Clair Stebbins and Harry Franken, The Tibbets Story (New York: Stein & Day Publishers, 1978), p. 251.

[38] Weisgall, Operation Crossroads, p. 128.

[39] Hayworth biographies that reference the bomb story as fact are identified by an asterisk in the bibliography.

[40] Joe Morella and Edward Z. Epstein, Rita: the Life of Rita Hayworth (New York: Delacorte Press, 1983), pp. 97-98. Rita Hayworth: the Time, the Place, the Woman by John Kobal (London: W.H. Allen, 1977) is another biography that references the bomb story (pp. 138-139).

[41] Barbara Leaming, If This Was Happiness: A Biography of Rita Hayworth (New York: Viking, 1989), pp. 129-130. CONELRAD could find no evidence that Harry Cohn had anything to do with the bomb story.

[42] July 9, 1947, Columbia Publicity Teletype. Found in file, “Flying Saucers, I Love Trouble, July 1947,” Box 6, Folder 3, Inventory of Columbia Pictures records, 1929-1974, University of Wyoming, American Heritage Center.

[43] In addition to City of Nets, see Eddie Muller’s Dark City: The Lost World of Film Noir (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1998), p. 98. Other examples can be found in a Google Books query.

[44] Albin Krebs, “Rita Hayworth, Movie Legend, Dies,” New York Times, May 16, 1987. Krebs is mistaken about the year of Hayworth’s iconic black lace photo in Life magazine. The Bob Landry photograph appeared inside the August 11, 1941 issue. Krebs is also mistaken when he states in the obituary that it was the film “Cover Girl” that brought Ms. Hayworth to Life’s attention. She was actually filming “You’ll Never Get Rich” with Fred Astaire in 1941 when Landry took the famous shot. And this was not even Hayworth’s first Life cover. Her first cover (of five during her lifetime) for Life was the July 15, 1940 issue. Presumably, the New York Times obituary for Krebs himself is more accurate (see “Albin Krebs, 73, Obituary Writer,” June 4, 2002). For more on the history of the photograph refer to Susan Stamberg’s May 13, 2002 NPR report. Trivia note: Per page 41 of Operation Crossroads: The Official Pictorial Record (New York: Wise, 1946), the versatile Bob Landry photographed the Bikini atomic tests for Life magazine.

[45] Bogart’s wig wearing has been documented in many of the actor’s biographies, but most notably in A.M. Sperber and Eric Lax’s exhaustive book Bogart (New York: William Morrow & Co., 1997), p. 468.

[46] E-mail to Bill Geerhart from Dan Comstock of the Los Alamos National Laboratory Records Management, Media Services and Operations Group, July 17, 2008.

[47] E-mail to Bill Geerhart from Herbert Hoppe, contractor with Defense Threat Reduction Information Analysis Center, July 21, 2008.

[48] National Archives and Records and Administration response to Bill Geerhart, August 27, 2008.

[49] Smith’s role as weaponeer is documented in several books on Operation Crossroads including page 104 of Bombs at Bikini (New York: Wise, 1947) by William A. Shurcliff. The other weaponeer for the Able test, Ensign David Leonard Anderson, died on March 3, 1996 per his obituary in the Almy Family Newsletter (issue 90, April 1997).

[50] Interview with Leon D. Smith

[51] E-mail to Bill Geerhart from Robert Stone, February 27, 2009.

[52] E-mail to Bill Geerhart from Robert Stone, August 25, 2008.

[53] Telephone interview with Jonathan M. Weisgall, July 3, 2008.

[54] The names of the members of the Dave’s Dream crew were found in the official history of Operation Crossroads, Bombs at Bikini (New York: Wise, 1947) by William A. Shurcliff, p. 104, and contemporaneous newspaper articles. Of the 14 members, 11 were confirmed as deceased, 2 could not be found and the likely sole surviving crew member, Leon D. Smith, was interviewed for this article.

[55] Major Harold H. Wood, Associated Press dispatch, June 30, 1946.

[56] Using an Operation Crossroads organizational chart and photo identifications from a Sandia National Laboratories archive picture, CONELRAD was able to track down five surviving Z Division Assembly Group members. Z Division was the ordinance and assembly arm of Los Alamos and dispatched many of its members to assist with the Operation Crossroads tests. Of the five, Phil Dailey, Bryan Arthur and Glenn Fowler were in good enough health to be able to speak with CONELRAD’s Bill Geerhart. Their interviews are cited throughout this article. For more on Z Division see the Sandia history page devoted to them.

[57] Weisgall, Operation Crossroads, pp. 136-137. During interviews for this article Thomas B. Lanahan and Leon D. Smith also confirmed to Bill Geerhart that the Able device was assembled on the Albemarle.

[58] Telephone interview with Phil Dailey conduced by Bill Geerhart, February 12, 2009.

[59] Telephone interview with Glenn Fowler conduced by Bill Geerhart, February 12, 2009.

[60] Telephone interview with Bryan Arthur conduced by Bill Geerhart, February 12, 2009.

[61] CONELRAD reviewed many different articles as listed in the bibliography for this article and Thomas B. Lanahan is the only named source for the published Rita Hayworth / bomb stories.

[62] Lanahan located the “Gilda” stencil approximately two months after Bill Geerhart’s initial interviews with him. He had previously stated he thought that he had given it to a collector in Colorado in the nineties. But Lanahan, who is in the process of moving, called Geerhart on April 27, 2009 to say that he had found the stencil sitting in a drawer “mixed in with a bunch of pictures.”

[63] Telephone interview with Anthony Slide conducted by Bill Geerhart on 05/07/2009.

[64] The existence of an outdoor base theater was supported in interviews with Crossroads staff members Bryan Arthur (telephone interview with Bill Geerhart, February 19, 2009) and Glenn Fowler (telephone interview with Bill Geerhart, February 19, 2009). CONELRAD could not independently verify whether the film GILDA played at the base theater, but given Rita Hayworth’s loyal military fan base, it is not unreasonable to believe that it was shown during this period.

[65] When asked in a May 4, 2009 follow-up interview whether it was possible that the person in the government film footage was responsible for painting over the small gaps in the stencil lettering as seen in the final rendering of “GILDA” on the weapon, Lanahan stated to Bill Geerhart that he knew of no other explanation. These filled-in gaps in the letters are the only easily identified difference between Lanahan’s stencil and the final rendering as seen on the weapon. Lanahan identified the creator of the stencil in a July 30, 2009 in-person interview with Geerhart.

[66] Telephone interview with Thomas B. Lanahan conducted by Bill Geerhart, February 9, 2009.

[67] “Report from Bikini,” Time magazine, July 15, 1946.

[68] An example of the insinuation regarding studio influence is contained in the A.P. “Hollywood News” gossip column as published in the July 3, 1946 edition of the Indiana (Pennsylvania) Evening Gazette: “The studio ‘happened’ to send a flock of Rita Hayworth portraits to Kwajalein recently, which may help explain what happened.”

[69] Telephone interview with Thomas B. Lanahan conducted by Bill Geerhart, February 9, 2009. Independent researcher Terry Arbegust interviewed Lt. Robert Glenn, flight engineer of Dave’s Dream, on June 9, 1994 contradicts Lanahan’s assertion that he was the person who had the initial idea to name the bomb for the Rita Hayworth film. Glenn states to Arbegust that it was Dave’s Dream pilot Woodrow Swampcutt who had the idea. Glenn also states in his interview that the crew planned to go to Hollywood to discuss the concept with Hayworth and her representatives, but they were turned down. This latter contention strains credulity given the other facts that are known about Welles’ and Hayworth’s reaction to the Bomb naming. It is also unlikely that the crew would have been given permission to undertake such a frivolous “mission” in the middle of their deployment. And if Glenn, who at one point in his interview cites memory issues, is unreliable on this latter point, perhaps his entire recollection should be judged accordingly. Arbegust was kind enough to share his taped telephone interview with Glenn with CONELRAD.

CONELRAD attempted to review Columbia’s archives to determine what if any studio involvement there was in the naming of the Able bomb “Gilda,” but we were told by a reliable source that the studio’s archives, save for legal documents, were destroyed in the 1970s. Contrary to what our source stated, some percentage of Columbia’s production files do survive in the Inventory of Columbia Pictures Records, 1929-1974 at the American Heritage Center at the University of Wyoming. However, there are no files pertaining directly to a publicity campaign to stage the Gilda Bomb story. It is worth noting that neither of the Harry Cohn biographies asserts that the mogul had anything to do with the Bikini P.R. triumph. In fact, neither book mentions Bikini at all. See Bob Thomas, King Cohn: The Life and Times of Harry Cohn (New York: Putnam, 1967) and Bernard F. Dick, Merchant Prince of Poverty Row (University Press of Kentucky, 1993).

[70] Telephone interview with Leon D. Smith conducted by Bill Geerhart, February 19, 2009.

[71] Telephone interview with William Jamieson conducted by Bill Geerhart, February 26, 2009. Jamieson’s participation in Operation Crossroads was confirmed through an organizational chart from the tests and a captioned photograph of the Crossroads staff from 1946.

[72] GILDA was a popular hit upon its 1946 release while the newspaper reviews were more mixed. It is now generally regarded as a classic. See “Appendix C: GILDA Film Review Excerpts” for a comprehensive sampling of the original reviews.

[73] Weisgall, Operation Crossroads, pp. 186-187.

[74] Ernest K. Lindley, “The Big Let-Down: What Was Wrong with Gilda?,” Washington Post, July 3, 1946.

[75] Murray Moler of United Press, “Atom Bombing Disappoints, Observers Say,” Salt Lake (Utah) Tribune, July 1, 1946.

[76] Rose, “A Radio Review: Atom Bomb Test,” Variety, July 3, 1946.

[77] “Nurse Gloomy Over A-Bomb, Leaps to Death, Los Angeles Times, July 1, 1946.

[78] See “Helen of Bikini,” Time magazine, August 5, 1946 for an account of the diminished interest in the second atomic bomb test at Bikini. While Hayworth did have some notable roles after GILDA, her golden era peaked with GILDA. All of the obituaries cited in the bibliography reference the 1940s as Hayworth’s prime decade.

[79] For a brief examination of the famous Hayworth quote see McLean, Being Rita Hayworth, p. 1.

[80] Thankfully, a proposed plan to remake GILDA in a contemporary setting never got off the ground. The plan was announced in “Multiple-Picture Deal Between Columbia & ICC,” Variety, August 5, 1975.

[81] Detonation times derived from the official history of Operation Crossroads: Bombs at Bikini (New York: Wise, 1947) by William A. Shurcliff, p. 104.

[82] In-person interview with Thomas B. Lanahan conducted by Bill Geerhart on February 21, 2009 (Lanahan stated in his interview that the order to execute the bomb decoy ruse came from Assembly Division Head, Roger S. Warner); Lanahan’s account was supported by two members of the Assembly Division: Telephone interview with Phil Dailey conducted by Bill Geerhart on February 26, 2009 (Daily asserted that the real bomb transfer and the decoy run were conducted simultaneously while Lanahan stated that the real bomb transfer occurred earlier than the decoy run); telephone interview with Glenn Fowler conducted by Bill Geerhart on February 26, 2009. Fowler noted that “dummy” or decoy runs were “common practice.”

[83] Charles H. McMurtry, “Weather Favorable at Bikini; Bomb to be Dropped Today,” Washington Post via Associated Press, June 30, 1946.

[84] In addition to the declassified footage depicting a direct transfer of the Able weapon from the ship to the pit under the B-29, Thomas B. Lanahan, Phil Dailey and Glenn Fowler confirmed that the Able device was moved directly to the pit and not to the interim marine-guarded, fenced-in bunker as reported on in the contemporaneous press coverage. In-person interview with Thomas B. Lanahan conducted by Bill Geerhart on February 21, 2009; telephone interview with Phil Dailey conducted by Bill Geerhart on February 26, 2009; telephone interview with Glenn Fowler conducted by Bill Geerhart on February 26, 2009.

[85] E-mail from Robert Stone to Bill Geerhart, February 27, 2009. For information on size of the U.S. atomic arsenal in 1946 see page 16 of Weisgall’s Operation Crossroads that notes that “by June 1946 the U.S. nuclear weapon stockpile consisted of exactly nine bombs, two of which were not operational.”

[86] E-mail from Myra O’Canna of the Sandia Corporate Archives to Bill Geerhart, May 12, 2009 with follow-up telephone conversation to confirm that the Archives does not have photographs of the Able weapon.

[87] Telephone interview with Kathleen Brixner conducted by Bill Geerhart, February 23, 2009.

[88] Associated Press dispatch A45FX, July 1, 1946.

[89] Weisgall, Operation Crossroads, pp. 263-264.

[90] In addition to GILDA being prominently mentioned in most, if not all, of Hayworth’s obituaries, it was among the 400 films nominated for the American Film Institute’s 100 Greatest American Movies.

[91] Gene Ringgold, The Films of Rita Hayworth: The Legend and Career of a Love Goddess (Secaucus, New Jersey: Citadel Press, 1974), p. 158.

[92] “60 Top Grossers of 1946,” Variety, January 8, 1947

[93] Carrie Rickey, “Gilda” capsule review, Village Voice, June 15, 1982. The clip file envelope for GILDA at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ Margaret Herrick Library also notes the “AKA” title for the film as LA VEDETTE ATOMIQUE.