A Dry Hot American Summer

In the spring of 1936, the producer of King Kong hauled a film crew to the desert of Arizona to shoot a sweeping romantic epic. But the heat was so punishing that it melted film stock, caused the lead actress to pass out, and killed the production’s mascot – a baby camel. 

It was the beginning of a heat wave that parked itself over America for months, quickly becoming one of the deadliest natural disasters in our country’s history. It blew up sidewalks, cooked onions in the ground,  claimed at least 12,000 lives, and turned the United States into a l...