Drum Beating

Toys For Tots started in 1947 when Marine reservists collected 5,000 toys for local children from collection bins placed outside of Warner Bros. theaters in Los Angeles. The charity was launched nationwide the following year and founder William L. Hendricks, a Marine Corps Reserve officer, used his position as PR director of Warner to enlist celebrity endorsements. And what better way was there for Hendricks to publicize a WB movie than to combo it with the tug at the heartstrings charity nearest and dearest to his heart? So Alan Ladd, producer/star of Drum Beat (filmed in Sedona in 1954) lent his name––and the title of his new film–– to the joint cause of happy kids and healthy box office.

Warner Bros. pulled out all the stops to promote Drum Beat, even beating the drums for a tie-in Dell comic book featuring Ladd and co-star Charles Bronson on the cover. Warner promo materials promised “Books nationally distributed simultaneously with film’s release” for a “[t]ie-in with newsstands, drug and stationery stores, railroad and air terminals, wherever books are sold.” The comic book may not have had the most accurate drawings of Sedona’s landscape, but it was a rare chance to see them in full-color benday glory.


The Hoopla flew thick and fast for Drum Beat. Warner Bros. even drafted into service one of its biggest stars, Doris Day, fresh from starring in Lucky Me (the first musical released in the CinemaScope format and a film she reportedly cared little for), and soon to co-star with Frank Sinatra in Young at Heart (which after completing she chose not to renew her WB contract), who is pictured visiting the studio art department. Good soldier Day is being shown a painting of the White House as it would look in Drum Beat, a film she had absolutely nothing to do with. Que será, será to ballyhoo a picture!––Joe McNeill

Drum Beat airs twice this month on Encore Westerns; August 5 at 5:05 p.m. and August 19 at 1:40 p.m. Both scheduled screenings are Eastern Time.

Sedona Movie Alert!

Catch a pair of films ­featuring our red rock scenery on TV: Firecreek (1968, filmed in Sedona) starring James Stewart and Henry Fonda; directed by Vincent McEveety. Airing on Turner Classic Movies July 31 at 12 p.m.; The Rounders (1965, filmed in Sedona and Flagstaff) starring Henry Fonda, Hope Holiday, Sue Ane Langdon, and Glenn Ford (pictured above in a scary piece of promotional art); directed by Burt Kennedy. Airing on Turner Classic Movies July 31 at 2 p.m. (Both scheduled screenings are Eastern time.)

Sedona Movie Alert!

Catch a film ­featuring our red rock scenery on TV: Wild Rovers (1971, filmed in Flagstaff, Sedona and Monument Valley) starring William Holden and Ryan O’Neal; directed by Blake Edwards. Airing on Encore Westerns July 30 at 12:15 p.m. and 9:45 p.m. (Scheduled screenings are Eastern Time.)

Holy Drum Beat, Batman! Johnny Duncan’s Back In Town!

Johnny Duncan came to Sedona for the first time to play an Indian in 1954’s Drum Beat. In November 2007, Johnny, then 84 years old, returned for the first time since.

“I don’t know where I am,” he said with a laugh from his hotel. In 1954, he explains, “there were half a dozen shops and few people. There was a swing over the [creek]. Charlie [Drum Beat costar Bronson] and I swung at the [creek] with some kids. It was great.”

Johnny was born near Kansas City, Mo., in 1923. His farmer dad taught him to dance the “Irish jig” before milking cows as a way to get him up at the crack of dawn. Later, as part of a duo, Duncan and Fisher, he was dancing at Elks Lodges and community events. A talent scout saw the act and invited Johnny to California – his parents got $300 and Johnny signed a contract for $50 per week. He was 15. “I’d gone from plowing a field barefoot to wearing a sport coat in California and I loved it,” he says.

In 1949, Johnny landed the role of Robin in the 15-chapter Columbia Pictures’ serial Batman and Robin, (that’s him with Batman Robert Lowery in the photo). “It was fantastic. Little did I know it would be a classic. Kids today still love Batman and Robin – every 10 years I have a new audience.”

Johnny ultimately moved into the hotel business, though he had bit roles in the 1980s on TV’s Dallas and Dynasty. He retired for good in 2000 and currently lives in Missouri.

One of his favorite movie memories actually involves Drum Beat. In a scene where Indians are chasing star Alan Ladd, Ladd turns and fires at his pursuers. Each time he would fire a single shot, at least three of the riding extras would fall from their horses. The director, Delmer Daves, finally yelled, “cut” and had to explain that only one of them could fall from his horse per shot. “Every time Alan and I saw each other after we made that movie we would laugh and laugh about that,” Johnny says.––By Erika Ayn Finch. Originally published in the January/February 2008 issue of Sedona Monthly

Hidden Harry

It’s nothing short of amazing, and more than a little disappointing, that so many Sedona film fans have forgotten the still-standing Sedona location of Paul Mazursky’s Harry and Tonto, especially when you consider the 1974 flick is the only movie with scenes filmed in Sedona to have its star win an Academy Award for Best Actor. Art Carney, best known for his role as “subterranean sanitation engineer” (or sewer worker) Ed Norton in The Honeymooners and The Jackie Gleason Show, won the Oscar as well as a Golden Globe in 1975. In the sentimental comedy, Carney plays 72-year-old Harry, who sets out on a cross-country trip with his orange cat, Tonto, after his New York apartment is demolished. After Tonto kicks up a fuss about traveling via airplane and Greyhound Bus, Harry purchases a car (even though his driver’s license expired in 1958) and proceeds to drive to Chicago to see his daughter (played by Ellen Burstyn). When things go sour in the Windy City, he heads west and makes a brief stop in Sedona.

About one hour and 15 minutes into the movie, Harry stands by a telephone booth on SR 179 with Bell Rock and Courthouse Butte looming in the not-too-distant background while his nephew makes a phone call. The telephone booth sits in front of the Sedona Inn, a motel located in the building that now houses Minami restaurant and Indian Ink Tattoo at 6586 SR 179 in the Village of Oak Creek (stop at the commercial center and take a look at it from a different angle – it’s obvious it once housed a motel; it’s even easy to imagine a motel room while dining in Minami). In the six-minute sequence, Harry meets up with a naturopath (obviously there are some aspects of Sedona that haven’t changed in the last 35 years) named Wade (played by Arthur Hunnicutt) who attempts to cure Harry’s bursitis in a motel room. You can see views of Bell Rock from the motel room window; our best guess is the scene was filmed in the room that now houses Minami. When Wade and Harry depart Sedona’s Inn, they drive through the Village of Oak Creek during a blazing sunset. Harry and Tonto have further adventures in Flagstaff, Las Vegas (in a hilarious scene where Harry drags poor Tonto through a busy casino) and, finally, Hollywood and Venice Beach. It’s great to know a piece of Academy Award history and Sedona film history still stands.––Erika Ayn Finch. originally published in the July/August 2009 issue of Sedona Monthly

Sedona Movie Alert!

Catch a film ­featuring our red rock scenery on TV: Wild Rovers (1971, filmed in Flagstaff, Sedona and Monument Valley) starring William Holden, Ryan O’Neal and Karl Malden; directed by Blake Edwards. Airing July 19 at 8 p.m. and July 20 at 3 a.m. on Encore Westerns. (Both scheduled screenings are Eastern Time.)

Sedona Movie Alert!

Catch a pair of films ­featuring the red rock scenery on TV: Broken Arrow (1950, filmed in Sedona) starring James Stewart and Jeff Chandler; directed by Delmer Daves. Airing on Fox Movie Channel July 15 at 9 a.m.; Wild Rovers (1971, filmed in Flagstaff, Sedona, and Monument Valley) starring William Holden and Ryan O’Neal; directed by Blake Edwards. Airing on Encore Westerns July 15 at 9:30 a.m. (All screenings are Eastern Time.)