~ Millie ~ A Historical Story

Lauren Brunken and Emma Spears

Based on the story of Emma’s grandparents, Hank and Millie Meierdierck, Millie takes place in Tonopah, Nevada: a small, desolate town situated between Las Vegas and Reno which is a product of both silver mining and military use. In our story, Hank and Millie are a young couple new to the town, and the bound lifestyle. When they were first married (a few years prior), they were continually moving around, seeing new places, and living a life of adventure, as they would’ve called it. But, when Hank’s military job as a test pilot and engineer in the U.S. air force takes him to Area 51 to work on the top secret SR71 Blackbird, Millie is left still and pinned in the unfamiliar, barren town of Tonopah.

We wanted to emphasize Millie’s experience and, specifically, the isolation of it. The lack of dialogue, escape, clarity and awareness were all important factors of her experience which we wanted to depict. And, leading up to Millie’s breakdown, we wanted these experiences of hers to become as overwhelmingly evident as they could within this time frame. In Neufeld’s piece, After the Deluge, this buildup is similarly done: suspending the use of dialogue until the setting is soaked in. It is of the mantra we discussed in class, “show, don’t tell.” Not until the disaster in both Neufeld’s piece and our’s  is dialogue used. We wanted the quietness and the aloneness of her life at this time to develop into something the audience could feel rather than be explained. By keeping the shots interior up to her breakdown, focussing on her face as the happy couple skids by the house, keeping her asleep through Hank’s kiss, and showing her daily routine of opening the windows upon waking up, this suffocation and entrapment is felt.

Because we decided to focus on Millie’s experience rather than on Hank’s, we wanted to keep the hint of what he does and where he goes very minimal, and perhaps even easily missed. By doing this, we felt we could more successfully emphasize the extremity of Millie’s loneliness and lack of clarity because she didn’t know either. Because of the premise of Hank’s job, he couldn’t reveal to her what his job in Area 51 was until his death bed. She merely was disclosed his location.

~ Historical Sources ~

The first historical source we used was Hank’s journal’s which was shared with Emma by her grandfather, Hank’s son. This particular journal of his is of the years, 1947-1949. In it are recorded descriptions of the different towns they lived in during those years, accounts of the daily weather (and how it affected aircraft testing), and notes about the adventures he and Millie had before been on. When reading these, even if we didn’t use each specific piece of information, we felt we were better able to understand their characters, their trials, and the world they lived in. And, it inevitably helped us decide that we needed to focus on Millie and explore what this time must’ve been like for her.

Our other historical sources we used were records of vehicles that were affordable and practical during the late 1940s, the history of the town of Tonopah, specifically during the time of aircraft development in the nearby Area 51, and records of projects and workers that were involved in Area 51, including the laws about secrecy as it pertained to their family lives.

Hambling, David et al. "Area 51'S Robotic Spy Bird." WIRED. N. p., 2017. Web. 9 Oct. 2017.

"WHAT REALLY HAPPENED IN AREA 51. | Search | HBLL." Search.lib.byu.edu. N. p., 2017. Web. 9 Oct. 2017.

"A History Of Tonopah". Archive.org. N. p., 2017. Web. 9 Oct. 2017.

Pearson, The. "Classic Car Models And Prices For Cars From The Forties." Thepeoplehistory.com. N. p., 2017. Web. 9 Oct. 2017.

~ Millie ~ (Link to Story)