Sunday, January 02, 2005

Putting the bomb in bombshell

Robert Friedrichs has spent six months looking for Miss Atomic Bomb.



He has researched in libraries and archives, collected a scrapbook of clippings, and talked to coworker "copa girls" from years gone by. To no avail.

Today's LA Times reports on his personal quest:
She's "truly a piece of our popular culture," said Friedrichs, a physical scientist with the National Nuclear Security Administration. . . .

During the 1950s heyday of nuclear testing, the Nevada Test Site — about 65 miles northwest of Las Vegas — was a tourist attraction.

"It was new, it was different, it was exciting," Friedrichs said. People "wanted to see it and be a part of it." The atomic craze spawned cocktails and happy hours scheduled around watching the nuclear blasts poolside, and spurred families to head up nearby Angel Peak to see the flashes.

Residents "also were caught up in the whole revelry of it," said Bill Johnson, director of the Atomic Testing Museum, slated to open in February.
Everyone needs a dream, I guess.

Myself, I am just disappointed that they put the kibosh on the specialty plate:


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