mike davis - Libcom

LAS VEGAS OF THE MIND 37
the grounds of self-incrimination. This led to Jarrico’s immediate dismissal
by Hughes. The Writers Guild arbitrated and RKO decided that
Jarrico’s name should remain on the credits, despite two additional writers
having been brought onto the project. Hughes overrode the arbitration
and spoke out against “communist influence in Hollywood” and
“red sympathizers and dupes” in the film industry. 20
The concerns of the Cold War affected Nevada in other ways. By
1952, most nuclear testing occurred less than a hundred miles away
from Las Vegas at the Nevada Test Site. This spawned several grade-B
science fiction films that used Nevada as a radioactive backdrop, among
them The Atomic Kid (1954), The Amazing Colossal Man (1957), and
The Beast of Yucca Flat (1960).
While Hollywood was engaged with Senator Joseph McCarthy’s
witch hunts in the early 1950s, movies lost their edge. The pervasive
fear that the House Un-American Activities Committee had engendered
made studios produce movies that would placate the Production Code
office. Hollywood also lost audience share to the new medium of television.
In 1948, when Howard Hughes had gained control of RKO,
about 360 million people went to the movies every week. By 1952,
weekly attendance at the movies had dropped dramatically to 200 million.
21
In response, filmmakers tried to woo audiences back into theaters.
One approach was to make films that could, once more, boast shooting
in actual locales. As sound and camera equipment became more portable,
film units could once again venture outside the studio gates. Hollywood
film producers were, however, met with a cumbersome permit
process and a web of additional fees when they tried to shoot on location
in California.
Since Joss and Carrico’s Black Steve of the Sierras (1921), there has
been an active interest in trying to lure filmmaking to Nevada. In fact,
filmmakers had used the state as a generic location as many times as
they had scripted Nevada as a specific locale. The University of Nevada,
Reno, and the scenic vistas around Lake Tahoe served as picturesque
backdrops, just as the Nevada desert had served adventure serials, westerns,
and One Million b.c. In the early 1960s, the film industry remained
in a slump, but Nevada made a comeback as a specific location with
pictures set in Las Vegas. Frank Sinatra and his “Rat Pack” played
World War II veterans attempting to rob five Vegas resorts on New
Year’s Eve in Ocean’s Eleven (1960). Viva Las Vegas (1964) would be
remembered as the ultimate Elvis picture, fusing elements of the King’s