What ever happened to uranium making you rich ?

[Mikey]

On TV shows and movies from the 1940's well into the 1970's it was always GREAT to discover a uranium field or mine.

Suddenly you were rich.

Today you never hear about uranuim making people rich anymore (at least in fiction)

What happened ?

[Dark Shadow]

The nuclear arms race? That would be my guess.

[jimsmegos]

Yeah that kinda talk will get you on all kinds of watch lists

[ODBJBG]

It was uranium? Heck all this time I've been searching Uranus!

[Adam West]

I think you would have died from radiation poisoning before cashing in.

[Brazoo]

Maybe it just became more exciting for people to go after actual nuclear weapons instead of a chunks of rock?

I seem to recall Hitchcock saying the audience was too distracted by the uranium in Notorious - I think I read that he said people who didn't know what it was were asking too many questions about it - so maybe that's a reason.

Maybe uranium lost it's magic sound to viewers because newer technology replaced it? Discs full of data were a big MacGuffin in the 80s and 90s for example. It seems like movies are more techy these days, and less sciency altogether.

Maybe it's just because over time there wasn't any big uranium finds in reality - so it lost it's believability. It seems like something you can get on the black market in Russia now instead of risking your life for. So, maybe that's it.

[Brazoo]

I was remembering wrong - Selznick, the producer, was worried about the script for Notorious because he thought audiences were going to be confused by the uranium, and Hitchcock's point was that it didn't matter - nobody was going to care that much about the "MacGuffin".

[Brazoo]

I''m trying to think - aside from historical movies like "There Will Be Blood" I can't seem to think of many recent movies where people discover mineral deposits of ANYTHING. Can you?

Maybe the whole idea of finding mineral deposits that will make you rich is just passe?

[Mikey]

That's true

Not even gold or oil