Vintage original 8 x 10 in. US single-weight glossy candid photograph from the 1950's historical biopic, THE CONQUEROR, released in 1956 by RKO Radio Pictures and directed by Dick Powell. Mongol chief Temujin (John Wayne) battles against Tartar armies and for the love of the Tartar princess Bortai (Susan Hayward) and he later becomes the emperor Genghis Khan. The cast includes Agnes Moorehead, Thomas Gomez, John Hoyt, William Conrad, and Lee Van Cleef. This photograph was taken by the renowned Hollywood photographer, Alexander Kahle, and depicts a handsome young actor in costume as two make-up artists apply body make-up to his hands while a third man combs his hair. A large rubber stamp in light purple ink credits the photographer as well as RKO Radio Pictures, Inc. It is in very fine- condition as shown. The Conqueror is sometimes called "An RKO Radioactive Picture." It was filmed near an active nuclear test site in Utah, where eleven tests had reportedly been carried out in the year before the production landed there. Not surprisingly, the set was contaminated by nuclear fallout, but producer Howard Hughes and the local population had been reassured by the Atomic Energy Commission that the area was completely safe. Photographs exist of John Wayne holding a Geiger counter that reportedly made so much noise that he simply thought it was broken. After location shooting, Hughes had tons of contaminated soil transported back to Hollywood in order to match interior shooting done there. Over the next thirty years, 91 of the 220 cast and crew members had developed a form of cancer. Forty-six had died, including John Wayne, Susan Hayward, Pedro Armendariz (who shot himself soon after learning he had terminal cancer), Agnes Moorehead, John Hoyt and director Dick Powell. Lee Van Cleef had throat cancer, but died of a heart attack. The count did not include several hundred local Native Americans who played extras, or relatives of the cast and crew who visited the set, including John Wayne's son, Michael. A "People" magazine article quoted the reaction of a scientist from the Pentagon's Defense Nuclear Agency to the news, "Please, God, don't let us have killed John Wayne." As of June 2011, the article is available in its archive online.