Harolds Club casino was opened in 1935 by brothers Harold and Raymond Smith as a seven-story casino without a hotel. In 1970 it was sold to Howard Hughes, and was sold again in December 1994. It closed three months later. Harrah's bought the property in 1999 and demolished it. The building had a 70-by-35 foot mural of old west pioneer settlers, which was saved and taken to the Reno Livestock Events Center.
Unlike Las Vegas, there were more females that patronized Reno's gambling establishments due to the fact the city was unofficially known as the divorce capital of the USA. Scores of hotels and dude ranches were located near Reno, where women could establish the residency requirement to be granted a divorce. This practice was seen in films such as The Women (1939), The Misfits (1961) and When the Boys Meet the Girls (1965).
The "pigeon-hole" parking garage at Harold's Club that was featured in this film was brand new having just been built in 1954. Its hydraulics were powered by a steam boiler. By the 1960s it was becoming unreliable due to mechanical breakdowns and lack of spare parts. Cars were also becoming much larger than they were in 1954 and many could not fit in the spaces. By 1970 the garage was limited to parking on the ground floor only and was demolished in 1999.
The University of Nevada, Reno campus stood in for the fictional Midwestern University here. It was founded at Elko in 1874 as a land grant institution, and is home to the state's first medical school. It still graduates scholars of all kinds in 2022. The campus' classical architecture style attracts film crews to this day.