Charlton Heston And Los Alamos...!

We all know that movie stars and other famous folks did a lot for the war effort, but here's a bit of history that may surprise you.

The Top Secret Narration Of Charlton Heston

Photo credit: 20th Century Fox Studios

A lot of nuclear tests were filmed for scientific analysis and made into classified videos. When a scientist complained to the head of the film and video division at Los Alamos about the poor narration in one of the videos, the head jokingly asked the scientist whether he would like then-famous actor Charlton Heston to narrate the films. When the scientist said yes, the head actually called Heston and asked him to narrate films produced by Los Alamos, including footage of nuclear tests.

To everyone’s great surprise, Heston agreed to narrate top secret films basically for free, and he was given a Q-rating, the civilian equivalent of the highest level of military clearance. One advantage of having Heston narrate the rather boring and technical films was that the people watching would be more interested in the films themselves.

Guess you just never know what some folks will do for the government. Pretty good voice for narration, I reckon.

Coffee out on the patio this morning!