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The Conqueror is a 1956 epic film produced by Howard Hughes and starring John Wayne as the Mongol conqueror Genghis Khan. The Conqueror on location in Utah in 1955, Of the 220 actors, 91 had contracted cancer as of the early 1980s and 46 died of it, including stars John Wayne, Susan Hayward, and Agnes Moorehead, and director Dick Powell. Experts say under ordinary circumstances only 30 people out of a group of that size should have gotten cancer. The cause? No one can say for sure, but many attribute the cancers to radioactive fallout from U.S. atom bomb tests in nearby Nevada.
Many people involved in the production knew about the radiation (there's a picture of Wayne himself operating a Geiger counter during the filming), but no one took the threat seriously at the time.
Howard Hughes was said to have felt "guilty as hell" about the whole affair, although as far as I can tell it never occurred to anyone to sue him. For various reasons he withdrew The Conqueror from circulation, and for years thereafter the only person who saw it was Hughes himself, who screened it night after night during his paranoid last years.
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Added: 16th September 2008
Views: 1550
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Posted By: pfc |
 
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Filmed near the site of contemporaneous nuclear testing grounds, the set was contaminated by nuclear fallout. After location shooting, much dirt from the location was transported back to Hollywood in order to match interior shooting done there. Scores of cast and crew members developed forms of cancer over the next two decades, many more than the normal percentage of a random group of this size. Quite a few died from cancer or cancer-related problems, including John Wayne, Susan Hayward, Pedro Armendáriz (who shot himself to death soon after learning he had terminal cancer), Agnes Moorehead, 'Thomas Gomez' , John Hoyt and director Dick Powell. People magazine researched the subsequent health of the cast and crew, which it published in November 1980. By the time of the article's publication, 91 of the 220 members of the film's cast and crew had contracted cancer, and half of these had died from the disease. The figures did not include several hundred local American Indians who served as extras on the set. Nor did it include relatives who had visited cast and crew members on the set, such as the Duke's son Michael Wayne. The People article quoted the reaction of a scientist from the Pentagon's Defense Nuclear Agency to the news: "Please, God, don't let us have killed John Wayne".
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Added: 16th September 2008
Views: 2357
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Posted By: pfc |
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If there is a castle that comes close to matching Harlech Castle in historical importance, that castle is surely Chepstow. Chepstow is a Norman castle perched high above the banks of the river Wye in southeast Wales. Construction began at Chepstow in 1067, less than a year after William the Conqueror was crowned King of England. It was his master castle builder in the person of his loyal Norman lord William FitzOsbern. FitzOsbern's fortresses were the vehicles from which the new king consolidated control of his newly conquered lands. Chepstow Castle became the key launching point for expeditions into Wales, expeditions that eventually subdued the rebellious population.
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For more information about the Castles and Abbeys of Wales Visit
http://www.castlewales.com/
And for more information about Jeff van Dyck's soundtrack track for the
PC Game Total War and for information about the game itself, visit
www.totalwar.com/
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Added: 27th September 2008
Views: 1672
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Posted By: dalecaruso |
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There are not many bad John Wayne movies--but The Conqueror (1956) qualifies as a turkey. In it Wayne plays Temujin, a Genghis Khan-type character whose armies run amuck. He captures a Tartar woman (played by Susan Hayward) who is considered spoils of war. Says Temujin: 'I feel this Tartar woman is for me, and my blood says, take her. There are moments for wisdom and moments when I listen to my blood; my blood says, take this Tartar woman.' Of course a romance blossoms. The movie was universally panned by critics and is seldom seen on television. The Conqueror was filmed near an atomic testing site in Utah. Five notable cast members (Wayne, Hayward, Agnes Moorehead, Thomas Gomez, and Pedro Armendariz) all died of cancer.
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Added: 25th October 2009
Views: 1774
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Posted By: Lava1964 |
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