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| Utah, 1953: The movie Team locates for the shooting of the film entitled " The Conqueror " directed by Dick Powell about Temüjin's history which became the emperor Genghis Khän, a leader of Mongol tribes and unified Tartares, with, in the leading part : John Wayne. The shooting taking place in full cold war (tension which set the United States and the Eastern bloc since 1945) Mongolia was naturally closed to the Americans and very too far to shoot outside. |
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Dick Powell and his team, after searches in
eight states of America, plants then their cameras in the
southwest of Utah, finding accommodation all in the city
of St George. Near the desert of Escalante, is held a
reserve of Indian (Chivwit) which will be engaged to
represent the Mongolian troops. The shooting will take
place from June till August, 1954. The plans in outside will be shooted in Snow Canyon as well as in national parks of Zion and Bryce Canyon, magnificent rocky valleys, the most visited at the tourist level in this state. |
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| In about 220 km of the shooting, in the desert of the Nevada, on the site called Yucca Flat, the American Government test its nuclear weapon from 1951 till 1958 experiments and proceeds to 11 attempts in 1953 whose bomb of 61 kilotons the shot of " Climax " on June 04, 1953 on the site test of the Nevada (" Climax " was a bomb of 61 kiloton is about equivalent to the energy loosened by the explosion of 1000 tons of trinitrotoluène, called more collectively T.N.T.). This state, bordering of Utah, becomes then a source of emission of waves devastating invisible for the moment, but mortal ionisantes in the future. In the time, the nuclear bomb made its first steps in the era of the chemical weapon and the concerned scientists underestimated the effects with delay. [For the anecdote, Dick Powell, John Wayne and Thomas Gomez played each in an episode of the series " Climax! " In 1954/55/56]. The cast of the film " The Conqueror " is going to stay during three months in 137 miles of the epicentre of these nuclear tests, undergoing a radiotherapy 400 times superior to the acceptable ! Furthermore, to add the cherry on the cake, film-makers' team will bring 60 tons of sand got back on the spot to put down them in the studios of Hollywood !... Rare are the photos of these nuclear tests on Yucca Flat's site. (If you are tried to click on the link " Yucca Flat ", well to close shutters at home and don't look radiant light...). |
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| Yucca Flat | ||||
... SHOOTING... 
