Astrid and I didn’t talk. I tried talking to her, but she didn’t find the need or the desire to. When Astrid got on the bus she made it all about her. She rolled her eyes and scoffed. “Owen has jumped the shark[49] as a human being.”
I laughed, and she did too. That would be our only interaction.
Owen wasn’t in this scene technically. He had one shot where he was seen from the crowd. The crowd. Extras were lined up and down the blocks. They were dressed in attire from the 1950s. Stereotypical clothing: white blouses, poodle skirts, house dresses, ladies’ suits, low heels, black-and-white saddle shoes, and the bad-boy leather jackets, jeans rolled up, short-sleeved shirts—it was June, of course.
Terrence was in the scene as well, in the crowd on the opposite side as Freddy to give the illusion of a diverse town. It was Pikesville, after all, but Pikesville did look a lot like Griffin Flat.
Half the school was here. But Max wasn’t. He thought this movie-making business in our town was stupid and wouldn’t end well.
Kitty came up behind me and literally used a whole aerosol can of Aqua Net before she pulled another can of Aqua Net out of her utility belt, shook it, and sprayed my beehive into place.
Then she touched up my makeup. And Raymond straightened my pink dress and buffed my white leather Mary Jane shoes. I looked like an overgrown toddler.
“Laura,” Astrid said.
“Hey, you got my name right.”
She looked at me like I was stupid. “Oh, don’t be so dramatic,” she said, smiling and waving occasionally to the crowd.
“Quiet on the set. Quiet on the set.”
“And action!”
-
This area is being used to photograph and record video and film footage in connection with the promotional and publicity campaign of the movie Eve of Destruction. By your presence in this area, you acknowledge that you have been informed that you may be photographed and recorded as part of the release in home video and/or any media now known or hereafter devised, in perpetuity throughout the universe and the advertising and publicity thereof. Further, by your presence here, you grant your permission for your likeness and voice to be included therein without compensation, credit, or other consideration. If you do not wish to be photographed or recorded, or appear under these conditions, you should leave this area immediately. You will be reminded of this on each day of shooting. Thank you for your cooperation.
-
EXT.CITY—AFTERNOON
It is a bright, crisp southern day in June 1954, and the small-town Miss Atomic Bomb parade could be something out of a Norman Rockwell painting. Main Street is lined with townspeople applauding as the Miss Atomic Bomb, HELEN ALLEN, and runner-up, MARTHA WELLS, are driven in a bright cherry-red 1954 Chevrolet convertible. They wave to the crowd, smiling, laughing, and having a great time.
HELEN sees HANK. HELEN smiles.
-
No one knew her. Helen Allen wasn’t popular and certainly did not have the eye of the boys at Jefferson High. But she saw one boy with a twinkle in his eye. The way he smiled. The way he said her name when she would accidentally on purpose rush pass him in the hall. “Excuse me. I apologize,” she would say.
He would counter with, “No problem, Helen.”
Helen’s heart skipped a beat. She would do anything for him.
That night as she sat with a mushroom cloud on her head, as she was crowned Miss Atomic Bomb in the back of a convertible, waving to an adoring crowd that barely knew her name, she saw him. Hank. She was in love. And it took an atom bomb for him to realize the lengths she would go to for him.
Chapter Twenty
It was a lot different from what I thought it would be. Confined to one central location, doing the same part over and over again, repeating the one line over and over again. “Let’s do it one more time… One final take… Just like that… Okay one last time… That will do… Cut.”
Exhausting. Boring. It was drudgery, not glamour.
We started filming that one scene at 3 p.m., and by 6:30, I couldn’t stop yawning. They got enough crowd shots, so Terrence was allowed to leave. He fell asleep in Freddy’s trailer. Raymond took back the dress, and Kitty helped take down my mushroom-cloud crown hair but not before taking a Polaroid and giving it to me as a memento.
I said good-bye to Kitty, then went looking for Terrence so we could go home. I was so tired. But when I turned a corner around a trailer, I saw Mr. Edman talking with Mr. Paige, the cinematographer. They were deep in conversation, but not too quiet. I heard every single word. They were standing below a light post, as if they were playing a scene in some film noir involving an illicit conversation.
“My guy didn’t come through, so we’re going to get creative. Trust me, it will work out. The footage will be absolutely fantastic,” Mr. Edman said.
Mr. Paige didn’t agree. He used his index finger as a weapon, stabbing Mr. Edman in the chest. “If we get caught, my ass is on the line, and I’m sure as hell not going to prison over this movie,” he said.
“We won’t,” Mr. Edman said. “Trust me.”
A coyote howled in the distance. The two of them scurried away. I did, too—not because of the coyote but because I didn’t want Mr. Edman or Mr. Paige to catch me eavesdropping. Coyotes didn’t scare me at all. The only people who were scared of them were outsiders.
I found Terrence in Freddy’s trailer sitting on a couch playing Mario Bros. on Atari. I climbed over Terrence’s feet and sat between them.
“Score!” Terrence said, leaning over me to high-five Freddy.
“I’ve got winner,” I said.
“Okay,” Terrence said.
“Fine by me,” Freddy said, giving me a nudge with his shoulder.
We played for another hour and a half. Freddy went to dinner. I had homework to finish, so.
Terrence drove us home. We were both so exhausted. Mom and Dennis were just setting the table, so perfect timing. Mom asked about our day while scooping mashed potatoes out of a bowl. But neither Terrence nor I took any. We both fell asleep at the dinner table. I woke up for a moment when Dennis tried to remove the fork I held in my hand.
-
Little Rock—The production of Eve of Destruction continued in the small town this week.
More than 500 extras lined the sidewalks of the small town in the hopes of being one of the chosen few selected for pivotal scenes.
“I want them to look like people from the South,” said Anthony Dillard, one half of the famous duo BC-AD Productions.
“I think the word he’s looking for is fat,” Bruce Coleman said. “But real is probably better.”
“I guess the Jane Fonda videos are working,” Anthony said with a laugh.
Extras have been lining the streets each and every day to have their one shot at fame.
“This is the closest I want to get to a bomb,” said Otis Wilson, a resident of West Memphis, Arkansas.
49
Meaning to show how brave he was or how hard he was trying. Like how the Fonz wore swim trunks and his trademark leather jacket and literally jumped over a shark while on water skis. Two thumbs up. Ayyy. It was absurd because Fonzie already proved how brave he was by jumping over tons of barrels with his motorcycle in a previous episode. Honestly, I was only watching