Chapter Two
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THE STORY behind the filming of "The
Beginning or The End" actually begins back in 1939, in the small
Iowa town of Denison. It was about the time when the world's scientists
were beginning to make headway in their study of nuclear "fission",
a process involving the bombardment of uranium with neutrons.
Important experiments
in this country, as well as Germany, France, Denmark and England,
proved that a neutron striking a uranium nucleus caused that nucleus
to split with the release of tremendous amounts of energy. These
were the experiments that led to the first nuclear chain reaction
in history, at the University of Chicago on December 2, 1942.
But, the story beginning to
unfold in Denison was much more typical of Hollywood than was the
story of scientific achievement going on elsewhere. It had all the
elements of a Cinderella story.
There was a pretty girl,
a high school student. There was a young professor, her chemistry
teacher. It was of no apparent importance at the time, but the friendship
begun in that classrom was to continue even when the girl went on
to become a movie star, and the small town teacher rose to become
a brilliant atomic scientist. While each took separate roads to
success, they continued to write each other news of their progress
and adventures. |
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