Candy Santana-Moncayo is the owner of Ooh La La in Boulder City. She just celebrated being a local business owner for two years when I found myself standing in her beautifully decorated pink and white striped shop, staring at framed images of Hollywood’s most elite posing with their fur-baby friends.
Actor Tony Todd and I have a lot in common. We were both at Tom Devlin’s Monster Museum on Oct. 6. He was there promoting his latest movie, “Hell Fest” (in theaters now), and I was there watching horror fans pour into the Boulder City-based business to get autographs and selfies with the Broadway-trained actor. Todd, who is known for his many roles in horror films, was raised in Connecticut, which is the other thing the actor and I have in common.
“Bride of the Monster” is a 1955 horror movie directed by the late, not-so-great, Ed Wood. As I noted in my previous column, my October Throwback Thursday movie recommendations are based on not only ties to Boulder City, but also ties to “Saturday Fright at the Movies” with Las Vegas icon Count Cool Rider (Danny Koker).
Saturday nights in the early ’90s were always special in my house because Saturday night was “Count Cool” night. Who and what is this, and what does it have to do with Boulder City? Count Cool Rider’s character was a mix of part vampire, part Elvis and part biker. The coolest of the cool, the TV host aired old scary, often cheesy, B-movies on local channel 33 each and every Saturday night at 10.
MGM Studios’ 1965 British-made “Doctor Zhivago” has an amazing tie to Boulder City. “Doctor Zhivago” is one of three Throwback Thursday movie recommendations for today.
Author Joan Didion once said, “Writers are always selling somebody out.” And while some do, writers simply choose to accentuate the positive. I think writers are much like photographers in that we expose what we want others to see or know about our subjects. We can manipulate the public’s perception about someone, which is why it is always shocking when some scandalous story about an apparent squeakily clean celebrity becomes breaking news.
It was 2:30 a.m. and I couldn’t sleep. The rare pouring rain in Boulder City was keeping me awake and, as I usually do when I can’t find slumber, I turned on Turner Classic Movies in search for inspiration and a Hollywood throwback tie to Boulder City.
Two weeks back, I found myself at the Boulder City Chamber of Commerce’s mixer at Christ Lutheran Church. It was the first time I was there as an independent marketing contractor after stepping away from my marketing job at The Homestead at Boulder City.
In 1934, Columbia Pictures put a short film out titled “Three Little Pigskins.” The film, which was 20 minutes long, was one of the 190 films that Columbia Pictures backed starring The Three Stooges. “The Little Pigskins” was shot in Boulder City. Local resident Shirl Naegle was able to provide me with a publicity still from the film taken outside of what is now Milo’s Cellar.
“Meet the People” is a 1944 movie with ties to Boulder City. Produced by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, the movie stars actors Dick Powell and Lucille Ball. The plot is clever, and this movie is personally one of my favorites from its era.
