OAK RIDGE, Tenn. — The highly anticipated film, "Oppenheimer," opens on July 21 across the country.
Director Christopher Nolan tells the story of famed theoretical physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer and his work overseeing the Manhattan Project as director of the Los Alamos Laboratory in New Mexico.
As the principal architect of the atomic bomb, Oppenheimer also came to Oak Ridge. Back then, it was named "The Secret City," and he had gone to oversee the work done there.
Oak Ridge historian Ray Smith shares stories of Oppenheimer's stay in the area at the "Guest House" at the time — the only hotel in town.
"Robert Oppenheimer was chosen by General Groves to lead the design for the atomic bomb," Ray said. "He had a presence when he came into the room. He was very intelligent and didn't mind telling you if he knew more than you did."
Not much is recorded about Oppenheimer's visits to the "Secret City." His brother, Frank Oppenheimer, is also a respected physicist and lived in the Oak Ridge area while working on the Calutron machines.
Mike Stallo, a history specialist with the Oak Ridge Public Library, says Robert was kept protected during his visits.
"He wasn't supposed to drive by himself, travel by air," Mike said. "They were very protective of him."
Oppenheimer's work was mainly done in Los Alamos, a place he had a personal connection to.
"When he was a young man, he became ill," said Ray. "His father sent him to the area and later on, he had a ranch there. He said he loved combining his love for Los Alamos and his love of physics."
The Christopher Nolan movie will explore his time in Los Alamos and his downfall after the war when he became an outspoken critic of the hydrogen bomb, which had the potential to be several times more deadly than the atomic bomb. In the early 1950s, during the McCarthy Era, the government revoked his security clearance effectively ending his career as a physicist.
"A lot of workers here were very supportive of him," Mike Stallo said. "169 scientists signed a petition protesting his clearance being pulled. I think he wrote a letter thanking them."
The AEC issued its decision on June 29, 1954, to revoke his security clearance. They cited "fundamental defect of character" and Communist associations "far beyond the tolerable limits of prudence and self-restraint which are to be expected of one holding the high positions," according to the American Physical Society.
In December 2022 the Biden Administration reversed the decision to revoke Oppenheimer's security clearance, which Ray Smith said weighed heavily on him the rest of his life.
"As you see pictures of him through the years you can see the strain," Ray said. "He was creating something that had never been done before. he was able to do that. He was under strain and stress when he went through the security clearance removed. I think what Oppenheimer did for the United States is admirable. The way he was mistreated is not."
Today, Oppenheimer is remembered in Oak Ridge at the town's history center and at the Alexander Guest House, a senior living home that sits in the former hotel where the famed physicist was a guest.
A photo of him sits on the mantle above the original fireplace.
"This photo is by Ed Westcott," Ray Smith said. "In the restoration, they saved the fireplace and I framed the picture to put it on the mantle."