Defending a City’s Image
When Seltzer refused Kelch’s request to change the script, Willis said that
the chamber’s leadership “saw no reason to extend hospitality and assistance to
g
a project that presented Las Vegas in such a preposterously false light.” Had
Seltzer been willing to present “a true picture of Las Vegas,” Kelch explained,
the chamber and the city government would have cooperated as they had in the
filming of other movies like The Lady Gambles, a 1949 movie starring Barbra
Stanwyck. This film portrayed the tribulations associated with compulsive
gambling and a heroine who first becomes a shill for a casino and then a front
for a horse racing syndicate. That had been “a factual” story, according to Kelch,
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“although detrimental to gambling on the moral plane.” However, the chamber
did not cooperate with Seltzer’s production company and the police chief
refused to clear city