This Week (June 3rd-9th) in 1954…
In sad news, on Tuesday, Alan Mathison Turing was found dead. He had died on Monday. The cause of death has not yet been determined. Turing, a pioneer in the field of Computing and an all-around genius who contributed to the fields of Mathematics, Logic, and cryptology, had been convicted of indecency by the British government in what amounted to a witch hunt: The world has lost a great mind who spent his last years fighting indecent charges based on his personal life. We will never know what he could have accomplished.
Sunday marked the ten year anniversary of D-Day. President Eisenhower, the Supreme Commander on D-Day, last week changed the name of Armistice Day to Veterans Day. We can think of no better way to commemorate this day of days.
Joseph Welch, the special counsel for the Army, asked Senator Joseph McCarthy, “Have you, at long last, no decency?” during hearings on Communist agents infiltrating the Armed Forces. (Mister Welch: No, he does not.)
On Sunday, June 6th, the new Charlton Heston film Secret of the Incas was released. Heston plays Harry Steele, an American adventurer, seeking an Incan artifact stolen from the Temple of the Sun. The film also stars Robert Young, Nicole Maurey, and Thomas Mitchell as Steele’s nemesis.
On Tuesday, the three dimensional film Gog, a science fiction flick directed by Herbert L. Strock, debuted. In this flick, strange malfunctions occurring at the top secret site of a space stations construction draw the attention of the Office of Scientific Investigation.