Tough-guy Las Vegas lawman perfect fit for television

The Lamb boys spent most of their days working the family ranch outside Alamo, a spring-fed crossroads that in 1939 was known almost as much for its heritage of horse thieves as its Mormon pioneers.

The boys' father was killed in a Tonopah rodeo accident the previous year, and they worked cattle to keep the family going. Ranch life didn't leave much time for recreation.

But Ralph Lamb will never forget getting cleaned up and putting on his best pair of overalls. With a dime in his pocket, he piled into the back of a pickup with his brothers and friends and bounced north 54 miles to the bright lights of Caliente, where on Main Street the Rex theater beckoned country folks into the shadows to see the latest Hollywood offering. It was there at Lloyd Denton's theater the future sheriff of Clark County watched his first movie, "Gone with the Wind."

"We had 10 cents apiece, that's what it cost," the 85-year-old Lamb recalled Sunday morning. "Nobody had any money to do anything, but we loaded up in the back of that truck. When we got there, Ralph Denton took my ticket."

More than seven decades after his first movie experience, Lamb learned over the weekend that CBS had picked up a story based on his rough-and-tumble life as the top lawman in Las Vegas. Originally titled "Ralph Lamb," the project has morphed into "Vegas," and will star Dennis Quaid as the cowboy sheriff. Lamb has been working for several years on the project with "Casino" author Nicholas Pileggi, who knows plenty about Las Vegas history during the former sheriff's at-times controversial tenure.

When Lamb received confirmation that the pilot had been picked up, he seemed to have a little trouble believing it.

"Of course it pleased me," he said. "But there's lots of other people who probably deserve it more than I do. I've been lucky, I guess. Most of my family's gone now."

The passage of time and the medical ravages that accompany it have slowed Lamb, robbed him of his eyesight. But longtime locals know that Lamb's tough-guy law enforcement career was no act. He wasn't shy about going to fist city to get a point across, and his department reflected his pugnacious philosophy.

Which begs the question: Just how true-to-life will the Lamb story be?

Las Vegas isn't exactly a progressive bastion these days. Four decades ago, it was still known as "the Mississippi of the West." Police tensions with minorities and marijuana smokers were notorious, if less than unique. Lamb survived federal investigations and a tax evasion charge.

Something tells me they'll leave those parts out, but there's no shortage of material. Lamb was an extremely popular sheriff for most of his 18 years in office, and he led local law enforcement through the most colorful and treacherous era in Las Vegas history.

That he's survived to tell the tale makes Lamb's screen debut irresistible.

Making a movie from the cowboy sheriff's life experiences had been tried before. More than a decade ago, as part of the Review-Journals "First 100" project, Lamb told A.D. Hopkins about the first time Hollywood came courting.

"The first guy to come to me on something like that was Sam Peckinpah," Lamb said. "He said we could make a great movie and he'd get Clint Eastwood to make it. We were on our way, had it kind of in outline, when he died."

Although Lamb could have played a tough guy in any movie, it's his surviving younger brother Darwin Lamb, who caught the acting bug. Darwin landed roles in several movies, "The Professionals and "The Gauntlet" among them.

While we're on the subject, I decided to ask that former Caliente ticket-taker Ralph Denton if he remembered his longtime friend Ralph Lamb during those Saturdays at the Rex. Denton just laughed.

"When the Lambs and the Stewarts would come to town," Denton said, "they used to get into big fights on the street."

The Lambs in fistfights, imagine that. Some things never change.

But, come to think of it, that would make a great scene for a movie.

John L. Smith's column appears Sunday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday. Email him at Smith@reviewjournal.com or call 702-383-0295. He also blogs at lvrj.com/blogs/Smith.