THINGS TO DO
DAY OF THE
IGUANA By John McCloud
When John Huston, Richard Burton, Deborah Kerr and Ava Gardner arrived in Puerto Vallarta in 1962 to film the Tennessee Williams play The Night of the Iguana, the city had only a few thousand residents. Though a small coterie of adventurous travelers had been coming to the small beach town since the early '50s, Vallarta was far off standard tourist maps. There were no large hotels or luxury inns, and the notion of million-dollar condos overlooking the bay was beyond conception. But within weeks of the crew's arrival, things changed dramatically, with the bayfront village making front-page news and journalists and photographers descending en masse to implant the image of Puerto Vallarta in the imagination of millions of movie fans around the globe. It wasn't the movie itself that attracted the attention but rather the illicit affair between Burton, the film's primary star, and Elizabeth Taylor, who had tagged along to be with her paramour. The fact that both were married to other people at the time made their romance a major scandal.
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More than 50 years later, The Night of the Iguana remains entrenched in the city's history, but things have changed so much that only a few physical reminders of the film remain. You can make a quick tour of them in a single day. Begin at Casa Kimberly (Zaragoza 445) a few blocks above the main church. Liz stayed here during filming, and afterward Burton bought the home for her. The couple, who liked Vallarta so much they continued visiting for years after, subsequently bought a neighboring casa to house guests, connecting the structures with a bridge spanning the street. Taylor sold the properties in 1990 and bought a new home in Marina Vallarta, but the casas remain, drawing a steady stream of gawkers. Huston lived several miles south of town at Las Caletas; you can visit his estate as part of the “Rhythms of the Night” tour.
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