Filmmaker Romaine Fielding fell in love with New Mexico’s endless sky, with her territorial bustle. At the turn of the last century, residents of Las Vegas reported seeing him roam the dusty Plaza dressed in an expensive wool coat, his mustache carefully clipped and waxed, the epitome of Hollywood glamor. Fielding wrote and directed some of the first movie Westerns, some of them filmed in San Miguel County.
Fielding cultivated an aura of mystery. Born William Grant Blandin in Iowa, he claimed to be the son of wealthy European aristocrats – he wasn’t – and worked as a travel agent, machinist, and railroad engineer. Hungry for adventure, he wandered to Alaska where he met novelists Jack London and Rex Beach who both became his lifelong friends. Under the new name of Fielding, he tried his hand at acting, then production, and discovered he had a talent for creating realistic scenes of Wild West hardship.
Elmo Baca, a Las Vegas native, has served two years as New Mexico Historic Preservation Field Officer as well as four years in the late 1990′s as the Director of the New Mexico Main Street Program. He helped found the Citizens Committee for Historic Preservation of Las Vegas, NM and has been involved for over 20 years in revitalizing Las Vegas historic districts.
Baca’s deep interest in local film stems from his work in reviving the historic Kiva Theatre in the 1970′s as a working theatre.
“Fielding was a pioneer of the silent cinema during the formative years of the World War I era, when such stars as Charlie Chaplin, Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks were on the rise. Unfortunately, many of Fielding’s films were destroyed in a warehouse fire in 1914,” says Baca. “Now largely forgotten, Fielding was once among the most popular film stars of the early silent film industry. He directed more than 70 films and acted in more than 60 features. Working as a film producer for the Lubin studio of Philadelphia, Fielding was among the first artists to interpret the West.”
A scene from Fielding's "Rattlesnake"
In 1913, Fielding crossed the Mexican border where he was able to film the attack on Nogales by “Constitutionalist” forces. He arrived in Las Vegas shortly after and produced nine feature films including “The Rattlesnake,” one of only a handful of Fielding films that survives. Fielding’s biggest local film effort was “The Golden God,” a $50,000 movie – a huge sum then – involving scores of actors and extras, and attracting great crowds during the filming.
Of historical interest is a fading ghost sign remnant on the west side of the Plaza Hotel declaring ‘Hotel Romaine,’ a vestige of Fielding’s stay in Las Vegas,” Baca explains.
A publicity blurb of the time describes the film as “Man who threatens society with a dangerous snake returns to sanity after an encounter with a young girl.” A still from the movie in the City of Las Vegas Museum’s photo archives shows a man holding what appears to be a dangerous rattlesnake, rattles and all, while a young girl and older woman cower in fear.
“Las Vegas has recently had an uptick in local movie production,” muses Baca. “Las Vegas residents are still trading stories and jokes about the infamous ‘border crossing’ on the University Avenue off-ramp set up during the filming of the Coen Brothers’ ‘No Country for Old Men.’ Movie stars, attempting to remain incognito, are seen in town. All this becomes part of our area’s tradition, just like ranching, mines, drought, fire, and the railroad.”
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