Ginger's Susan Hayward Message Board: To reach If You Knew Susie by Trish Sharp, click the profile photo at www.facebook.com/susanhaywardclassicfilmstar and you will see the link.
I am new here and have been through this wonderful site many times. I want to compliment Ginger on her terrific work on this site. It is a beautiful tribute to a great star and actress. The question that I would like to ask and maybe Miss Hayward's son Timothy could shed some light on this. I read in one of the biographies of Susan that the children of Susan, John Wayne & Dick Powell filed a class action suit against the government for not warning the actors and crew members of the hazards from radiation exposure on the location sites for the filming of The Conquerer. Did anything come of that suit? Did the government ever respond in any way about their irresponsible actions and admit how terribly wrong they were? I remember reading that both Timothy and his brother were with their mom on location during the filming and if they have had any health issues later down the line? The government should have warned the film company and everyone connected to the shooting of the movie not go there and to stay away from that area. They knew even then how deadly radiation exposure was. They hurt so many lives. Why did Howard Hughes ship all that contaminated dirt back to the studio only to have the actors and crew exposed that much longer and where did it all eventually go? How many more people were exposed? I just wonder what the reaction from the government was. I don't remember reading anything in the papers about this outcome or see anything on the news as I know it would be reported on. Thank you very much for your time. I will always love and admire Susan Hayward, a brave and beautiful star.
No class action suit was ever filed. The people who have suffered the most from the original detonations live in and around the St. George, UT area...downwind...
Well....as I have reported, before on here, I now do live theater at a 2,000 ampi-theater in the very place that the movie was filmed. The area is beautiful, but each time I drive out to that theater, it brings back the memories of what happened there and how many people lost their lives, because of that atomic blast.
There are still many people, here, who lost loved ones when the government did this blast...and as Tim mentioned, it was from the way the WIND blew, that brought the deadly 'stuff' into southern Utah. The blast was NOT in southern Utah, but in the Nevada desert...and no one was told about the deadly things that might happen with such a blast.
HOWARD HUGHES would have had no idea that he was sending anything deadly, back to the Fox studio, when he had the sand sent there. NO ONE KNEW..until the aftermath, what had happened. He surely would not be stupid enough to ship something back to Hollywood that would kill people.
WHAT MAY SURPRISE SOME OF YOU...is that we, the people of this area, just got through fighting the government two years ago..when they announced that they were going to do ANOTHER TEST IN THE NEVADA DESERT. People, here, were up in arms about such a thing...BUT...once again, not much they could do to STOP THE GOVERNMENT from doing whatever they wanted to do. THIS TIME...it was to be underground, so it would not hurt nor kill anyone. DID THEY ACTUALLY DO THE BLAST? How do we know?? But they sure were not about to STOP their plans, no matter what the outcome was to be.
ANOTHER THING....It is 'really hard'...to SUE THE GOVERNMENT!!
