The movie North By Northwest: Source of the "51" in "Area 51"?


Message posted by Steve Hauser on December 17, 2005 at 23:59:33 PST:

North By Northwest, directed by Alfred Hitchcock and starring Cary Grant and Eva Marie Saint, is one of my favorite movies. The plot in a thumbnail is Cary Grant getting caught up, at first unwittingly, in a CIA operation to bust a spy and save an agent whose cover and life he unwittingly put in jeopardy. The agent, of course, is played by the beautiful Eva Marie Saint.

The movie was released in 1959. It was the eigth-highest grossing film that year. I recently purchased it on DVD and took note of the following for the first time. At 54:54 of the movie, the characters played by Cary Grant and Eva Marie Saint are walking through a train station. Cary Grant is disguised in a red cap's uniform. On each shoulder of the uniform he wears a red patch with the number "51" on it. This can be seen in the linked image.

First mention of the name "Area 51" seems to occur in 1960. There's really no question where the "area" part comes from. Other portions of the Nevada Test Site were and are designated as "areas." The question is where did the number "51" come from. Perhaps North By Northwest is the source.

The CIA sponsored the construction of the base at Groom Lake. What CIA agent in 1960 wouldn't have wanted to be just like Cary Grant? It's also not much of a stretch to go from a red cap to a red hat, as in the red hat squadron, the name of the unit testing Soviet hardware at Groom.

Check out the movie. Even if this is not the source of the "51," it's a great movie.


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