Actors build Nevada memories on location

      Making a movie on location in Nevada gives actors a different take on life in the Silver State.
      As temporary residents, they discover new vistas -- and new perspectives -- they missed as short-term visitors.
      "Very often, people just don't see Nevada, except for Las Vegas," Gregory Peck pointed out, including himself in that group.
      Until he filmed 1969's "The Stalking Moon" at Red Rock Canyon, "I had not seen much, if any, of Nevada," Peck acknowledged. "So I was glad to go."
      Unlike most people who rely on snapshots, home movies or videos to preserve their travel memories, actors have a larger-than-life reminder of their time in Nevada -- and the way they were.
      Not that some of them could ever forget.
      When Eli Wallach went to Reno in 1960 to make "The Misfits" -- the final film of Hollywood legends Clark Gable and Marilyn Monroe -- he had no idea he was about to become part of movie history.
      "You must remember, both Gable and Monroe were breaking the mold" with their offbeat "Misfits" roles, Wallach noted.
      At the time of the movie's 1961 release, "it didn't get such hot reviews," he recalled. "Only afterward," following the deaths of Gable and Monroe, did audiences respond to its haunted quality, Wallach said. "But you bring to it all that."
      "The Misfits" began as "a valentine" from writer Arthur Miller to his wife, Monroe -- a short story Miller based on his experiences in Reno.
      "He had gotten a divorce in Reno and had met cowboys there," Wallach explained. "It was a type of life he had never known before."
      The short story became a movie, with Miller writing the script and John Huston directing. Monroe played a fragile divorcee, Gable a craggy cowboy. Wallach, in real life a close friend of Monroe's, played Gable's buddy, a mechanic and pilot nicknamed "Pilot."
      It was Wallach's sixth movie appearance, and in his first scene with his legendary co-star, "I was staring at Clark Gable thinking, `This is the king of the movies.' And he was staring at me thinking, `Who is this young snot from New York?' "
      In the eight to 10 weeks he spent on location in Northern Nevada making "The Misfits," Wallach developed a definite soft spot for Reno.
      "I just loved the spirit in the town," he said. "It was like a constant holiday. Las Vegas is different. But Reno still has that small-town aspect to it."
      For Joey Bishop and his Rat Pack buddies, however, Las Vegas was definitely the center of the universe.
      Especially when he, Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr. and Peter Lawford took Las Vegas by storm for their casino-heist romp "Ocean's Eleven," which was released in 1960.
      Sinatra's clan convened at the Sands, where they performed in the showroom at night and filmed the movie by day.
      "You won't believe it," Bishop said, "but it was written by some guy working in a gas station across from the Sands." Sinatra and Martin liked his idea, bought it -- and "Ocean's Eleven" set sail.
      Almost everyone involved in the movie got into the spirit of things, Bishop remembered.
      Except, perhaps, for veteran director Lewis Milestone -- who, Bishop joked, "said it was easier to director `All Quiet on the Western Front' than it was to direct `Ocean's Eleven,' because we were having too much fun."
      Peck looked back on evenings in Las Vegas when he and his "Stalking Moon" colleagues would gather at a downtown hotel to watch footage from the previous day's filming.
      Unlike many directors, Robert Mulligan (who also directed Peck to a Best Actor Oscar in "To Kill a Mockingbird"), "never prevented the crew from seeing the rushes," Peck pointed out.
      "We'd drive in -- we'd be all dusty and have our location clothes on -- and we'd tromp into that hotel. We'd maybe have a drink or two and watch the rushes and eat popcorn," Peck said. "It was a kind of family get-together at the end of the day."
      Jill St. John spent eight weeks on location in Las Vegas making 1971's "Diamonds Are Forever," which marked Sean Connery's return to the James Bond role after a four-year break.
      Off the set, St. John "got to know Vegas really well -- Valley of Fire, Red Rock Canyon, Mount Charleston, the lake," she said. "Because it's so close to L.A., a lot of pals would come up and stay. Not too many of them are going to say, `No, I don't want to visit you in Las Vegas.' "
      Actor-turned-restaurateur Nicky Blair also was a frequent Las Vegas visitor on- and off-screen, starting with "Crashing Las Vegas," a 1956 Bowery Boys outing. (Blair's sole recollection: "I know I played a heavy in it.")
      He achieved co-star status in "Viva Las Vegas" (1964), playing race-car driver Elvis Presley's mechanic pal.
      "Sammy Davis was up for the part, but the Colonel (Presley's manager Tom Parker) wanted me, Elvis wanted me," Blair said. "Sammy was the greatest, but they didn't need more singing and dancing. Ann-Margret was enough."
      For a new generation of performers, Nevada still inspires eye-opening memories.
      Salma Hayek, who starred in this year's "Fools Rush In" with Matthew Perry, "never liked Las Vegas before" -- until she began to see Southern Nevada through her character's more affectionate eyes.
      "Because my character's supposed to be in love with this place, I went a couple of days early and did some scouting -- and I fell in love with the desert," she admitted, recalling the silence and solitude of Red Rock Canyon and Valley of Fire. "I would take in all the richness of this place," Hayek remembered. "It's got its own magic to it."
     
     
     Related stories:

     Main story: Silver State on the silver screen

     TIMELINE: Nevada movie milestones

     Movie list with hyperlinks to recent stories