Federico Fellini took America with a grain of salt. Although he loved American actors and even used some of them, like Broderick Crawford, Donald Sutherland and Anita Ekberg, in his films, he balked when invitations came his way to attend cinematic or arts festivals in the United States.
I frankly don't blame him. Fellini had little in common with even the best American filmmakers of our time.
For years I have puzzled over why Fellini's films attract me so strongly. I have watched most of his movies over and over, getting something new out of each of his films, including CITY OF WOMEN, LA DOLCE VITA, LA STRADA, 8 1/2 and AMACORD.
There is no question the maestro knew what he was doing when he chose Marcello Mastroianni as his alter ego in such masterpieces as 8 1/2 and LA DOLCE VITA. The face was right, the temperament was correct, and all Fellini had to do was tell the story in his own special way.
I lived in Hollywood, CA. in the late 1960s when I worked as a reporter for the Los Angeles Herald-Examiner. While the idea of working for the Her-Ex excited me, I was not that moved by Hollywood.
Oh, there were pockets of excitement in the community. You had miles upon miles of the Sunset Strip with clubs like Dino's, the Sports Page, Shelly's Mann Hole and the Whiskey Ago Go waiting to entertain you. And there were all those film production companies in nearby Burbank where directors, producers and actors churned out movie after movie to entertain the masses.
After I left the Herald-Examiner, I drifted around and ended up in Lake Elsinore, a small scenic community about 30 miles north of Palm Springs, CA. While I think Fellini would have been turned off by Hollywood, I believe he would have easily adapted to the scenic beauty and the lifestyle of Palm Springs.
I lived at the Sahara Dunes resort in Lake Elsinore for 18 months. Nick Notos, who owned the Sahara Dunes Card Room, made it easy by offering me a free room in return for my willingness to play poker in his card room.
My wife and I had split and it was an easy decision for me to make. Sometimes on weekends I would drive over to Palm Springs just to see if I could meet some of the stars who lived there in their mansions.
Palm Springs will startle you with its beauty. There are dream homes with imported palm trees, Olympic-sized swimming pools, and Frank Lloyd Wright copycat designs in abundance. As you drive down the wide streets in a community shaded by towering mountains, you have a chance of seeing one of the famous people who live there.
I met Steve McQueen and Desi Arnaz, both of whom owned homes in Palm Springs. They also played poker at the Sahara Dunes and sometimes took their boats out on the lake.
Judy Garland and Cary Grant owned homes in Palm Springs, along with Russell Hayden, Rita Hayworth, William Holden, Van Johnson and Alan Ladd.
Fellini made one of the world's best films when he directed LA DOLCE VITA, about the decadence of Rome and the Italian film industry. He tried to show what disgusted him about money and the way people used it to control their lives and the lives of others.
I wonder what kind of film Fellini would have made about Palm Springs?
He would have had so much material to choose from. Remember the song ‘As Time Goes By’ from CASABLANCA? The words go: “It's still the same old story, a fight for love and glory, a case of do or die... the world will always welcome lovers, as time goes by.”
Yes, Palm Springs was the place where “woman needs man and man must have his mate, that no one can deny.” I think Fellini would have been able to figure out the right combination of people to make his movie flow.
There were other stars who lived in Palm Springs: Dorothy Lamour, Jerry Lewis, Groucho and Zeppo Marx, John Agar, Gene Autry, Lucille Ball, Rory Calhoun, Dyan Cannon, Jeff Chandler, Errol Flynn, Clark Gable and Ava Gardner.
I can just imagine the cocktail parties, the midnight soirees at the pool, the sounds of coyotes howling in the canyons above the city that would have and could have been a Fellini circus to the world.
