My Trip out West
kees007
Posts: 88MI6 Agent
Hi, everyone,
I'm back. We had a great time out West! It's so beautiful out there. I just absolutely love the desert!!!
Saw a couple of Bond things out there.
I saw the star of Albert Brocolli on the Hollywood Blvd. Pierce's star was close by, but we were late and my parents were quite tired, so we continued our trip. We saw several other people. Also saw the Ronald Reagan Library, where he is buried. That was truly one of the great Presidents of the USA.
Then we spend a day with Trina Parks. She played "Thumper" in Diamonds are Forever. She took us to the place where the scene was filmed and showed us how they did the whole scene. She is so kind. The location is also breathtaking. I just watched DAF again and it's amazing, once you've been to the place, you see so much more in the scene. The place where Sean Connery walks in, now has a beautiful Echinocactus Grusonii. We had a great time there. I'll try to put some pictures up later.
Then we went to El Centro, which is just a few miles from the border of Mexicali in Mexico, where they filmed LTK, the truck chase. We didn't go there, but it was fun to be that close.
Anyways, we just got back here. All three of us are a bit under the weather now, but we should be better soon.
Best,
Kees
I'm back. We had a great time out West! It's so beautiful out there. I just absolutely love the desert!!!
Saw a couple of Bond things out there.
I saw the star of Albert Brocolli on the Hollywood Blvd. Pierce's star was close by, but we were late and my parents were quite tired, so we continued our trip. We saw several other people. Also saw the Ronald Reagan Library, where he is buried. That was truly one of the great Presidents of the USA.
Then we spend a day with Trina Parks. She played "Thumper" in Diamonds are Forever. She took us to the place where the scene was filmed and showed us how they did the whole scene. She is so kind. The location is also breathtaking. I just watched DAF again and it's amazing, once you've been to the place, you see so much more in the scene. The place where Sean Connery walks in, now has a beautiful Echinocactus Grusonii. We had a great time there. I'll try to put some pictures up later.
Then we went to El Centro, which is just a few miles from the border of Mexicali in Mexico, where they filmed LTK, the truck chase. We didn't go there, but it was fun to be that close.
Anyways, we just got back here. All three of us are a bit under the weather now, but we should be better soon.
Best,
Kees
Comments
Some people have all the luck
Glad you enjoyed your trip - would love to see your pictures
Roger Moore 1927-2017
Good luck--Caesar's Palace and Circus Circus are still there, but a lot of what was on the Strip in 1971 has been imploded and replaced with those gigantic amusement park rides that pass for casinos. It's also pretty huge now--no more the dusty little cow town with a patina of sleaze we see in DAF.
Roger Moore 1927-2017
I've eaten there twice now and it's fun to sit right next to the the Moonbuggy, while eating a meal or sit right under Roger's Suit accross from the Moonbuggy! Either way, whenever I've been there, it's not like those are coveted seats that are difficult to get, so I've always enjoyed them.
Also, check my earlier post on finding the place where Bond almost gets cremated. That's in Henderson on the left hand side of the road that leads to the Hoover Dam (I also suggest visiting that, though there isn't anything Bondian about it. It's cool to see though and not too far)
Then the Hilton Hotel is Willard Whyte's hotel. (They added some stuff on the screen that wasn't there). Right accross the hotel is the gas station that Tiffany Case blocked the professor in and that Bond climbed into the back of the Professor's van. Don't bother asking anyone in the gas station about it. They'll look at you like a deer looks in the headlights of an oncoming Aston Martin.
Kees
Roger Moore 1927-2017
You have to check out the World's Largest Gift Shop!!!!
Just kidding. There used to be this hangar-warehouse-sized building on the Strip with every possible varation of fuzzy dice you can think of. Don't know if it's still there.
I'll be damned, Nape. Did you say a press trip? Are you with the media in some way? And how is it that you're going to Vegas (not that anyone from London going to Vegas is some kind of huge surprise, like going to, say, Nebraska). I lived in Reno for many years during the late '70s and '80s. My ex-wife is a Las Vegas girl and my son used to live there. Kind of my old stomping grounds.
But yes, as the previous posters have noted, Vegas has changed a great deal, and not just the venues or for the better, unfortunately. I remember the old days Scorsese portrayed in Casino, and despite the mayor being a old mob lawyer and the "Sin City" image Vegas so carefully cultivates, it's about as sedate, corporate, computer-driven and personality-free as it gets. It used to be that everything there, except the gambling, was cheap: hotels, shows, food, booze (it was hard to pay for a drink there were so many free drink tokens floating around, and the bartenders free-poured). That's all changed. Except the gambling, of course.
But even though it really was better when the gangsters ran the place, it's still fun. Enjoy yourself.
Bambi (Lolla, not sure of the spelling) passed away. Thumper was played by Trina Parks. She is the lady on the rock, who said: "Is there something I can do for you?" You can catch her life in Palm Springs in a performance called: "The Excellent Follies." After the show, she always comes out to meet the audience in the lobby and she is very very friendly and a blast.
Kees
Didn't know that Lola Larson had passed away.
No, Donna Garrett couldn't play it. Lola was an olympic Athelete. It was the first time she played in a film. Trina recalled that she was shy, but friendly. Sadly, she passed away.
Kees
'hopes, I can imagine you as the Nevada cowboy who courteously threatens Robert De Niro at the end of Casino, and then ends up running his business into the ground!
I am tangentially connected to the media, being a sub-editor or fact-checker as they call it in the States. Think of Haydn Christendom or whatever his name is in Shattered Glass... That's where I get my nitpicking traits from...
Roger Moore 1927-2017
Treked everywhere to find Planet Hollywood, it' smoved from Aladdin which is being refurbished and is now in the bowels of Caesars Palace, in the Forum Shopping Parade and past the Roman fountains. No moon buggy or Acro Jet there, but they did have the motorbike and sidecar from Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade.
Stayed at the Bellagio, where they have the fountains at the end of Ocean's 11.
Saw The Beatles' Love (Cirque du Soleil) which was hit and miss imo. Most of the songs aren't really enhanced by clownish gooning by freaky characters. George Harrison's songs came off best, but Lennon and Macca's seemed a bit tinny in comparison. Within You Without You, Something and Lucy in the Sky were highlights, as was Octopussy's
Roger Moore 1927-2017
... hence your propensity for what, IMO anyway, are flights of fancy regarding CR.
Sorry on the cowboy, thing. I'm not a cowboy in any manner, shape or form. Or at least not since I was 10 years old. I was, however, a casino employee during my college years. Strange place to work, but a lot of fun back in the old days. Still is, I suppose. But very different.
Roger Moore 1927-2017