mike davis - Libcom

From One Million B.C. (1940).
LAS VEGAS OF THE MIND 35
Victor Mature, and Carol Landis and included some uncredited directing
by D. W. Griffith. 13
During the 1920s and 1930s, Nevada was used mostly as a backdrop
of arid landscapes. The major exceptions were pictures that were shot
in and about Reno, a city that developed a distinct reputation with the
American public. In 1920, the silent-screen star Mary Pickford traveled
to Reno and waited for six months to get a divorce so she could marry
Douglas Fairbanks. The high visibility of her stay paved the road for
fashionable celebrity divorces, and Reno would eventually become
known as the “divorce capital of the world.” 14
Legalized prostitution and rumors that it had become a major center
for laundering stolen cash helped cement Reno’s image as “sin city.” It
represented what the country continued to see as Nevada’s immorality.
Movies set in Reno promised a sultry melodrama to audiences outside
the state. 15
The relegalization of gambling in Nevada in 1931 further perpetuated
and cemented the state’s bad name. While Nevada offered legal prostitution,
divorce, and gambling, Hollywood self-censored the material it
put on the screen. Back in 1915, the U.S. Supreme Court had found that