The Rise and Fall of the Rainmaker

Scientific breakthroughs repeatedly enabled con men to cash in on rainmaking. The first Irving is a kind of forefather to the charismatic TV weatherman of today. He made his name on the set of Gone with the Wind, forecasting the weather for when to shoot the burning of Atlanta. Crick finessed that fame into a high-level gig with the US military when World War II broke out. But when he was asked to help pick the day to invade Normandy, he screwed it up.