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Popular Culture Review
Vegas Beat and Las Vegas Files. Chamber president Sam Boyd successfully
blocked the production of both of these series in 1961 by threatening legal
action, an approach supported by the community’s threat to boycott the sponsors
of the programs. Chamber members so strongly opposed them because they
believed that the dramatic programs would project an image of Las Vegas filled
with violence and crime.^^
Las Vegas remains concerned with the images that viewers see on television
and in films. In 2006, Alan Feldman, Senior Vice-President of Public Affairs at
MGM Mirage in Las Vegas, indicated how little times have changed since Frank
Seltzer first approached the chamber of commerce with his script for Blood
Money. When asked if he changed scripts of productions to be shot on any of the
MGM Mirage properties, Feldman responded simply, “Hell, yes. Look, when
32
you use our properties you play by our rules.”
Missouri University of Science and Technology
Larry Gragg
Notes
^ “Producer Filming Movie About Racewires Says He Was Threatened in Vegas,”
Nevada State Journal, 15 June 1950, 14. Las Vegas indeed had retained the services of
Steve Hannagan and Associates who had gained fame for successfully promoting Miami
Beach, the Indianapolis Speedway, Coca-Cola, and Sun Valley, Idaho to handle the
community’s publicity. However, there is no evidence, other than Seltzer’s assertion, that
Hannagan and Associates encouraged Seltzer in his endeavors.
^ “Drug Traffic, Bonus Money Rings Revealed,” St. Petersburg (FI.) Times, 15 June
1950, 1.
Virginia MacPherson column, Santa Fe New Mexican, 13 July 1959, B8.
^ See, for example. The Bradford (Pa.) Era, 17 June 1950, 1 and the Aiken (S.C.)
Standard and Review, 23 June 1950, 1.
711 Ocean Drive, directed by Robert Joseph Newman, 1950.
^ “Vegas C of C Head Blasts Charges of Film Maker,” Las Vegas Review-Journal, 18
June 1950, 1 and “Vegas Chamber Answers Charges,” Reno Evening Gazette, 19 June
1959, 10.
7
“Vegas Chamber Answers Charges,” 10 and “Las Vegas Denies Film Producer’s
iQSixmony,"" Los Angeles Times, 18 June 1950, 19.
^ “Vegas C of C Head Blasts Charges of Film Maker,”