Hollywood or Bust locations

Hollywood or Bust (1956) was the last movie Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis made together. Martin and Lewis apparently didn't speak to each other off camera during the entire film shoot. Jerry Lewis has said this is the only one of his films he has never seen, citing it as too painful to watch.

The guy who produced several of those schlocky, soul-crushing Elvis movies was pulling the strings behind the camera on Hollywood or Bust, but you'd never know it based on the plot synopsis...:

Malcolm Smith (Jerry Lewis) is a movie buff who yearns to go out to Hollywood to meet Anita Ekberg. Steve Wiley (Dean Martin) is a gambler with some bad debts. They both have winning tickets in a car raffle (Steve's is fake), so they share the car and head off to Hollywood along with Malcolm's Great Dane and a girl named Terry (Pat Crowley) that they meet along the way. (from IMDb)

I'd say that's annoyingly contrived, but you know that very same scenario plays out for real across this country each and every day, right? Nonetheless, much of what the characters see, and the filmmakers record, on their unlikely road trip (driving from NYC to Hollywood), has historic value. Obviously the retro appeal is strong. And how I'd love to drive that same route and take about a gazillion pictures. Unfortunately, most of what is seen on the characters' cross-country journey is long gone, so screencaps will have to do.

New Jersey, U.S. 22 - I'm guessing one would see cement parking lots, gas stations and fast food restaurants in the place of those fields, today.



Chicago:


Somewhere in Texas, where everyone wears cowboy hats:

Turning the corner in Santa Fe, New Mexico
Sunset in the desert - at least those still exist
Entering Vegas in 1956:Dunes Hotel
Wilbur Clark's Desert Inn
El Rancho Vegas, also, two separate, winged mascots - one for The Thunderbird Hotel, one for a Mobil gas station

Two oft-used quotes about Joe E. Lewis from Sinatra performance monologues: "Show me a bum who can hold his liquor, I'll show you a guy with a bad kidney" and "A friend in need is a pest."
In The Godfather, the scene of the Las Vegas strip, including a shot of the Sands Hotel marquee showing an appearance by Martin and Lewis, was taken from Hollywood and Bust.

Algiers Hotel
Thunderbird Hotel
Leaving Vegas at night, passing the old New Frontier Hotel, with the Silver Slipper sign rotating elegantly in the background

Next stop, Hollywood:
The Hollywood Bowl, also seen during the opening credits sequence:
Anita Ekberg displaying her talent
The Bronson Gate in front of Paramount Pictures, where the roadtrip essentially ends, as does this post.