Puerto Vallarta first landed on the world’s travel map largely because of “The Night of the Iguana,” John Huston’s 1964 film version of the play written by Tennessee Williams.
Producing the movie brought Ava Gardner, Richard Burton — and Burton’s off-screen love interest, Elizabeth Taylor — to the sleepy town, ensuring lots of celebrity-filled local headlines.
In September 1962 Huston, Lyon, and Burton, accompanied by Elizabeth Taylor, arrived at Puerto Vallarta—a “remote little fishing village”—for principal photography, which lasted 72 days.
Huston liked the area’s fishing so much that he bought a $30,000 house “in a cottage colony eight miles outside town.”
