Tropic Sprockets / The Conqueror: Hollywood Fallout

By Ian Brockway

In the early 1950s, after Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the United States conducted tests of atomic weapons. The military selected the location of St. George Utah, about 120 miles from Las Vegas.

A new documentary by William Nunez analyzes the bomb tests in light of the film “The Conqueror “, directed by Dick Powell and starring John Wayne. [Showtimes and trailer at Tropiccinema.com.] The film was shot in St. George, Utah in 1974. Over 60% of the cast members and crew were diagnosed with cancer. Susan Hayward developed uterine cancer and John Wayne developed lung cancer. Wayne ultimately died of cancer of the stomach. Co-star Agnes Moorhead also was diagnosed along with the residents of St. George.

St. George, Utah was picked for bomb testing for its convenient location. The town was selected for filming because it echoed the environment of Genghis Khan to a tee.

John Wayne was eager to work because he wanted to do a big epic produced by Howard Hughes. Susan Hayward consented.

The film was absolutely ridiculous. There were no Asian actors employed. The dialogue was forced and pretentious and Wayne was invariably drunk on the set. Though “The Conqueror” was a critical disaster, in popularity the film proved a great success.

The entire cast unwittingly worked in mounds of radioactive soil brought in from the location to enhance authenticity. The beaches of sand still exist today.

John Wayne always contended that he died from smoking, not from the atomic cloud. But during a televised hearing it became clear that the cancers were directly due to the fallout.

The US Government gave economic reparations to the cast and crew, but they made no concessions to the second generation of the cast or the offspring of the town residents.

This is a serious and somber documentary and in listening to Mary Dickson, a St. George resident who lost her six-year-old daughter to brain cancer, your heart will break. Also affecting is John Wayne’s son Patrick, who watched in horror as his father was wasting away.

Howard Hughes was obsessed with the film, eaten up with a Karmic guilt. The infamous producer watched the film over and over and repurchased its sole rights.

The Pentagon was reported to have said on the matter: “I hope we didn’t kill John Wayne.”

Write Ian at [email protected]

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