“Fever Heat” was a 1968 Heartland Productions movie about stock car racing based on a novel by Des Moines writer Henry Gregor Felsen, who was popular with teenagers.

The headquarters for the Heartland, Inc. production of the movie was located in George Struck’s boat factory, where sets were built. Interior shots were done in Dexter homes.  

Most racing scenes were filmed at the Stuart Speedway. 

Ten Hollywood actors were brought in for the production, and housed at the Edgetowner Motel at DeSoto.

Locals liked to watch what the film crews were doing, especially if popular “Petticoat Junction” TV actress Jeannine Riley was in town to film her part as a cute young widow who runs her late husband’s garage. Nick Adams, best known as Johnny Yuma on “The Rebel” TV series, played an ex-stock car racer whose truck needs repairs.

In his final film role, Nick Adams is a young mechanic who finds danger and romance in the exciting, sometimes unscrupulous world of stock-car racing.

The Dexter Museum has posters and memorabilia from the making of a movie in our small town.

An article about Henry Gregor Felsen in Volume 7, Issue No. 5, September/October 2015 of Iowa History Journal.  In the rerelease of his books, the annual Henry Gregor Felsen Tribute Car Show has been held in West Des Moines’ Historic Valley Junction neighborhood. The event not only attracts classic car enthusiasts (participants and spectators alike), but fans of Felsen’s novels who still have an emotional attachment to them.