Gambling documentary films at Carson Valley Inn

MINDEN - Fourteen boxes of costumes from Warner Bros. were unloaded from a moving van at the rear entrance of Carson Valley Inn on Tuesday morning in preparation for filming of a television series on gambling.

Shooting of the documentary "Breaking Vegas," based on true accounts of gambling heists that took place in the '70s, '80s and '90s, will take place at the inn through Saturday.

Line Producer Emily Berry of Atlas Media in Hollywood said the series, to be shown on The History Channel on Tuesdays beginning March 1, will depict actual gamblers and the methods they used to cheat at slot machines, blackjack and roulette.

"We will be filming a different story each day," said Berry. "What you'll be seeing is strictly re-enactment. This is all dramatization of what happened."

The show will combine real interviews with people who were there and know what happened, with the re-enactments, some of which are being filmed at the inn.

This afternoon, two scenes will be shot at Washoe County Jail in Reno. Berry said jail officer Ben Graves will act in one of the scenes.

Shooting will begin today at Carson Valley Inn around 5:30 a.m. and continue throughout the morning.

Plenty of extras were hired at a casting call held on Dec. 18 and 19 at the inn.

Producers found later that they needed an additional person on the grip and gaffer crew, and the manager of Katie's Country Kitchen at the Inn, Nancy Suppa, recommended a local construction worker and appliance mover.

Keith Nuckolls of Gardnerville will be working with the crews over the next four days. He's glad to have the work, he said, since the bad weather has forced construction to halt.

Michael Holdaway, the costume designer, has worked in Hollywood for 12 years. He and the assistant costumer Anne Thomson were busily unloading the large boxes of costumes and hanging an assortment of bell bottoms and feathered women's coats in one of the rooms.

Holdaway has done "celebrity styling" for stars such as Elizabeth Taylor, Mel Gibson and Tom Cruise, as well as music videos and some films and television. He said styling is "basically when they do events or appearances, and I get their clothes together for award shows."

The four episodes to be filmed at the Carson Valley Inn include: "Beat the Wheel," about two physics geeks in 1975 who built a computer system to predict the outcome of a roulette wheel; "Card Count King," a graduate of Harvard and Yale and senior vice president of the Pacific Stock Exchange, Ken Uston, gives up his position to become a gambling legend; "Blackjack Man," about a leader of the largest blackjack team in history; and "Slot Scoundrel," a slot machine cheat uses and sells tools that could crack slot machines and nearly destroys the gaming industry in the process. The episodes will likely air sometime in April or May, according to information from Atlas Media.

Jo Rafferty can be reached at jrafferty@recordcourier.com or 782-5121, ext. 213.