Behind the Big Screen

You can take the screenwriter out of Las Vegas. But you can't take Las Vegas out of the screenwriter.

Just ask Todd Antony Bello.

His first produced screenplay, "El Cantante," doesn't have much of a Vegas connection, focusing instead on pioneer salsa singer Hector Lavoe (Marc Anthony) and his indomitable wife, Puchi (played by Anthony's equally indomitable wife, Jennifer Lopez, who also served as one of "El Cantante's" producers).

But Bello's background as a Vegas kid steeped in showbiz certainly came in handy while writing it.

His dad, drummer Al Bello, "put together lounge acts" in Las Vegas and Reno. (Among his other credits: teaching James Dean to play bongos.) And his mom, singer April Ames, performed with big-band legend Harry James.

"My dad and mother started in the El Cortez," Bello says, recalling backstage days at such now-departed Strip landmarks as the Dunes and Stardust. "I grew up backstage."

Bello remembers his parents "hanging out with Elvis" Presley -- and Rat Packers Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin and Sammy Davis Jr., who would watch his dad's shows after they had finished their own headliner stint.

"They were in the main room," Bello points out. "My dad was in the lounge."

But it's another Strip icon, Liberace, who looms largest in Bello's childhood memories.

During a shopping trip, Bello "was looking out the window and I saw Liberace," he remembers. "I thought, 'Wow -- this is showbiz.' "

At the time, Bello had to ask his dad to identify the guy in the convertible sporting the feather boa.

" 'That's Liberace,' " Bello recalls his father reply. "I waved -- he waved back and smiled."

Bello "knew from the time I was a baby what I was destined to do" -- namely, follow his parents into show business.

"I was either going to be an actor, a writer or a producer," he says.

Bello initially opted for acting when he left high school at 16 and went to Hollywood to study with legendary "method" teachers Stella Adler (whose students included Marlon Brando) and Lee Strasberg (whose Oscar-winning students include Robert De Niro, Jane Fonda, Dustin Hoffman, Paul Newman and Al Pacino -- along with screen legends James Dean, Steve McQueen and Marilyn Monroe).

"Acting was my first choice," Bello says, but his agent at the time "told me my face was 'lopsided' and that I was never going to be a leading man."

So Bello switched to a medium where his face made absolutely no difference: radio.

Billed as Tony "Wild Child" Hamilton, Bello became a successful disc jockey, moving up from Las Vegas to stations in Chicago, New York and Los Angeles.

"I shot to the top," Bello says. (So did his brother Sean, who -- billed as "Hollywood" Hamilton -- continued his radio career and is currently on the air in New York and also hosts the syndicated "Hollywood Hamilton's Weekend Top 30.")

During Bello's radio career, "I met a lot of people and I got a lot of experience," he says.

He also discovered he was bipolar -- and developed a serious drinking problem, acknowledging that his radio days include "a lot of my downfall" as well. "I made all my mistakes in the radio business," he says.

Conquering alcoholism was a challenge, but "the wild child is gone in me" now, Bello says.

Being clean and sober thanks to his participation in a 12-step program has given him a new focus and purpose in life, he says: "to help an alcoholic achieve sobriety," just as he did.

His other focus and purpose in life: to continue the screenwriting career "El Cantante" has launched.

When a producer asked Bello to "take a crack" at bringing Lavoe's story to the screen, Bello says he could relate to the singer -- partly because of Lavoe's music, partly because of his addictions.

"I dove into that and did six months of research," he says -- including extensive interviews with Lavoe's widow, Puchi, whom he describes as "a tough cookie."

While researching "El Cantante's" script, Bello predicted that Lopez would "read this script, she will buy it and she will star in it."

Which is precisely what happened.

"El Cantante" isn't exactly the movie he wrote -- he wouldn't have included the voice-over narration, for example, in which Puchi relates Lavoe's story to a reporter -- but "about 85 percent of it is me," says Bello, who shares story and screenplay credit with David Darmstaeder. (Director Leon Ichaso also has a screenplay credit.)

But "it's a tremendous feeling when you walk into a theater and see your dialogue spoken by two of the biggest stars in the world," he says.

Bello's next big-screen project, the dark comedy "The Big Six," brings him back to Las Vegas -- the Las Vegas of the late '70s and early '80s, that is.

"It's about my father, Al Bello," he explains. "It's about a guy who beats Las Vegas before it beats him."

And while "I take a little license" with the events, Bello admits, "it's what happened."

Bello says his father was addicted to gambling and got into trouble at Binion's Horseshoe, where the late Ted Binion, then running the casino, beat him up, took money he'd won and threatened "to kill my father if he ever came back to the casino."

Bello's father worked with the FBI and testified against Binion in court; Binion later lost his gaming license.

"I've been working 10 years of my life" on "The Big Six," says Bello, who's working with actress and writer Maryedith Burrell on a final draft before filming begins later this year.

"Las Vegas is in my heart -- old Las Vegas especially," Bello says. "All my stuff is influenced by Las Vegas."

That explains why "The Big Six" and two other projects Bello's producing with On the Run Entertainment partner Stephen DeVito -- the dark comedies "All or Nothin' " and "The Greed Trap" -- include scenes in Las Vegas.

They also include character roles he plans to play, so he can realize his acting ambitions as well.

And, of course, what Bello really wants to do -- eventually -- is direct.

All of which seems within reach for someone who regards himself as living proof that, "even with a rocky past, there is hope."