AUGUST 17 • 2023 | 61

DARK DOINGS IN THE 
GARDEN STATE, ‘OPPY’ 
CORRECTIONS AND FUN 
FACTS

Harlen Coben’s Shelter is 
an eight-episode series 
that begins streaming on 
Amazon Prime on Aug. 
18. New episodes stream 
on successive Fridays. 
Capsule plot: Mickey Bolitar 
(Jaden Michael) is a teen 
who moves to a small New 
Jersey town following the 
death of his father. He gets 
tangled up in the disap-
pearance of a new student. 
With the help of friends, he 
realizes that the town has 
a dark, long history of dis-
appearances, deaths and 
legends.

As you might guess, 
the series is based on 
a novel by best-selling 
author Harlen Coben, 60. 
His first novel, Play 
Dead (1990), was just 
the first in a series of 
big-selling mysteries and 
thrillers. Coben grew up in 
Livingston, New Jersey, and 
was a childhood friend and 
classmate of future New 
Jersey Gov. Chris Christie.

In 2003, on Father’s Day 
(6/15), the NY Times ran a 
moving piece (The Key to 
My Father) Coben wrote 
about his beloved late 
father. Among other memo-

ries, he recalled that during 
his synagogue bar mitzvah 
there was a short ceremony 
in which a father blessed 
his son. After the blessing, 
he recalled his father whis-
pered in his ear how proud 
he was of his son and how 
much he loved him.

I finally saw Oppenheimer 
last week and, after watch-
ing the film, I revisited 
some things I wrote before. 
By now, I figure that many 
of you have seen the film 
and you’ll like some more 
bio details, mixed in with 
corrections on a previous 
column.
In my July 20 column, 
I listed what appeared to 
be the most prominent 
(real) characters in the film. 
I listed 20 characters and 
12 of them were physicists. 
I said that nine of the 12 
were Jewish. I added that 
all of them, except Einstein, 
worked on the Manhattan 
Project (the A-Bomb proj-
ect). 
Here are my corrections 
and some other stuff: 
Danish physicist Niels 
Bohr (1885-1962) was one 
of the nine. Bohr had more 
screentime than most 
Oppenheimer characters. 
As depicted in the film, 
he declined an invitation 
to work on the Manhattan 
Project. 

The film conveys Bohr 
was a “giant” and without 
his work, nuclear power, 

etc., would have never 
existed. However, I was 
annoyed that his Jewish 
background (his mother 
was Jewish), was never 
mentioned. The film did 
show Bohr being welcomed 
in America following his 
escape from Nazi-occupied 
Denmark. But it didn’t note 
he fled (September 1943) 
when he got the “word” he 
was probably going to be 
arrested because the Nazis 
viewed the secular Bohr as 
a Jew. 
Bohr was smuggled out 
of Denmark and taken on 
a fishing boat to neutral 
Sweden — and then on 
to the States. Less than a 
month later, most Danish 
Jews (about 3,000) were 
taken to Sweden in the 
same way.
I said that I.I. Rabi 
(1898-1988) worked on 
the Manhattan Project. As 
depicted in the film, he had 
grave misgivings about 
making the bomb. He 
didn’t work at Los Alamos 
but agreed to consult with 
Oppenheimer when asked. 
As depicted in the film, he 
was at Los Alamos for the 
first A-bomb test. 
Rabi also had a lot of 
screentime, and his and 
Oppenheimer’s Jewish 
backgrounds were made 
clear in the same early 
scene. What isn’t men-
tioned is that Rabi won the 
Nobel Prize (1944) as WWII 
raged. His prize was for 
his discovery of nuclear 
magnetic resonance. Unlike 
many scientific discoveries, 
Rabi’s discovery has led to 
very practical things: the 
invention of microwave 
ovens, microwave radar 
and magnetic resonance 
imaging (MRI machines). 
Rabi lived long enough to 
have an MRI test. He said 
that he saw his reflection 

on the machine’s shiny 
inside and he said to him-
self: “I never thought my 
work would lead to this.”
I think the audience 
would have welcomed 
a “fact” scroll, after the 
film ended, of information 
about what happened to 
the main characters. Like 
the info I just wrote about 
Rabi. Certainly, a post-
script on physicist Frank 
Oppenheimer (J. Robert’s 
brother) would have been 
very nice. Frank was an 
important film character. 
I erroneously wrote 
that Frank worked on the 
Project. As depicted in the 
film, he was a member 
of the Communist Party 
(1937-39) and that got him 
barred from the Project. 
The film mentions that he 
was blacklisted after the 
war. It doesn’t mention that 
he made a huge career 
comeback. He couldn’t get 
a teaching job until 1959, 
so he bought a cattle ranch 
and ran it for 10 years. In 
1967, he moved to San 
Francisco and created the 
Exploratorium, a hands-on 
science, technology and 
arts museum. It started 
with a small-ish grant and 
became, over time, a major 
city attraction — and a 
model for similar museums 
all over the country. He was 
the museum’s director until 
his death in 1985, at the 
age of 72. 

CELEBRITY NEWS

NATE BLOOM COLUMNIST

ARTS&LIFE

BY CSWETONIC 

Harlen Coben

BY CSWETONIC 

Niels Bohr 

BY CSWETONIC 

I.I. Rabi

