If there’s a doubt in
anyone’s mind about the rapidly changing rural West, look no
further than the latest controversy to grip Moab, Utah. It
doesn’t get much stranger than this.
A few months
ago, Robbie Levin, owner of Sorrel River Ranch, a luxury lodge
north of Moab, applied for a cabaret license from the state. As
part of the process, Levin requested a letter of support from Grand
County. But County Councilman Al McLeod dropped a bombshell when he
accused Levin of operating a sexually oriented business. He
definitely had a point.
In 2003, HBO shot 13 episodes of
a cable-TV series called Hotel Erotica on
Levin’s property along the Colorado River. An HBO Web site
says the series contains “adult content, nudity, strong sexual
content and adult language.”
Levin conceded that rooms
had been rented to the production company for the filming of
Hotel Erotica but that it was a one-time
occurrence. Levin complained, “How do you respond to something so
stupid and ignorant? We are completely family-oriented here.”
His friends fired off angry letters to the local weekly
in defense of Levin. Local developer Tom Shellenberger observed,
“Never have we seen a hint of impropriety at the ranch. The filming
that took place at the ranch was conducted in private…” And he
added, “Robbie and Hope Levin have created a four-diamond resort in
our community, the level of which has never been seen before in
Grand County.”
That’s true, of course. Before
multimillionaire Levin came along and bought up all the bottomland,
Bill Boulden grew alfalfa and ran a few cows, and environmentalists
grumbled about about misuse of the land and worried about cow
manure seeping into the Colorado River. It’s true that Levin still
maintains some of the alfalfa fields; it’s what passes for grazing
on them that has changed dramatically.
Personally, I
don’t care what goes on behind closed doors by consenting
adults, whether it’s across the street or 20 miles up the
river. And I don’t care whether those activities are engaged
in for fun or for profit. On the other hand, I long ago accepted
the reality of my situation. Utah is perhaps the most conservative
state in America, a state where even buying a mixed drink is a
challenge. It is a state heavily influenced by the dominance of the
Mormon Church, whose doctrines also frown upon the consumption of
coffee and Coca-Cola.
But I chose to live here. My values
may be different from the Utah mainstream, but I have no desire to
impose them on 70 percent of Utah’s population. As for Robbie
Levin, he has brought a different kind of West to southeastern
Utah. Levin could have been honest and proclaimed, “Sure, they shot
a soft porn TV series here, and it made us a lot of money and
brought a bunch of revenue to Grand County, too. This is the
future, folks, and if you don’t like it you better step
aside, because the future is here and it’s not wearing
clothes.”
If he had said that, I could respect his
candor. But he didn’t; he acted like a …New Westerner.
He raged that he’d been slandered and he threatened
retribution in the form of lawsuits. By now, we’re all weary of
that kind of attempted intimidation from someone who can act
threateningly simply because he has more money than the rest of us
combined.
Besides, Levin’s claims that he served only as
an innkeeper fell apart when we all found out that his stunningly
beautiful wife, former Playmate of the Month Hope Levin, was one of
the “stars” of the series. She appears in at least two episodes,
including a role as someone named Queen Thodosius in an episode
called “Bewitched and Bewildered.”
It all reminds me of
that old song of the old West, “The Sons of the Pioneers”: “This
ain’t the same old range …Everything seems to change
… Where are the pals I used to ride with? … Gone to a
land so strange.” In any case, referring to the “bottomland” along
the Colorado River has taken on an entirely new meaning. And if
there’s ever a sequel to John Ford’s classic movie,
“She Wore a Yellow Ribbon,” here’s a title suggestion: “She
ONLY Wore a Yellow Ribbon.”
Jim Stiles is a
contributor to Writers on the Range, a service of High
Country News in Paonia, Colorado (hcn.org). He lives in
Moab, Utah, where he is the publisher and editor of the
Canyon Country Zephyr.
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