Film Stories From The Book:
Hollywood of the Rockies
By: Frederic B. Wildfang
A Ticket to Tomahawk
1950 — 20th-Century Fox — produced by Robert Bassler — written by Mary Loos, directed by Richard Sale, photography by Harry Jackson, music by Cyril Mockridge — starring Anne Baxter, Dan Dailey, Rory Calhoun, Walter Brennan, Marilyn Monroe, and Jack Elam
This musical-comedy exploits almost every stereotype known to the western genre. Set in 1876, during the era of railroad expansion, the town of Tomahawk, Colorado, proposes bringing in a railroad line as a alternative to the stagecoach — thereby provoking a dangerous competition. Kit Dodge (played by Anne Baxter), the sharpshooting daughter of a U.S. Marshall, is hired to protect the train. A gunman by the name of Dakota (Rory Calhoun) is hired by the stagecoach line to make sure the train doesn’t get through. The train’s first ticket-holder, a traveling salesman named Johnny (Dan Daily), takes a liking to Kit and volunteers to help her and the train’s engineer (Walter Brennan) win the race over the Rockies — overcoming Indians, bandits, and bad guys all along the way.
As Mary Loos, the writer of Ticket to Tomahawk, explains (in an article published in the Durango Herald-Democrat in 1949) — the original idea for the movie came when she and her husband, Director Richard Sale, bought their first narrow-gauge model railroad engine. “Why not a story about the little narrow-gauge tracks that did so much to open up the West?” Loos thought. As the Herald-Democrat continues:
Two years after they conceived the idea, they finished the script and sold it to Darryl F. Zanuck, production head of 20th Century-Fox, who felt they had combined the gay, bright humor of their other film stories, such as ‘Belvedere Goes to College’ and ‘Mother is a Freshman,’ with the excitement and adventure of opening up a new land.
Robert Bassler, who helped to create ‘The Snake Pit,’ became the producer, a natural choice since he has been an avid railroad fan for years.
‘At the time we were making “Sand” last year [also shot in Durango],’ he said, ‘we became intrigued by the narrow gauge line running to Silverton and wanted to get it into that picture but it simply didn’t fit.’ ‘It was then I knew I wanted to make a story around a narrow gauger....’
The Sales called their line the Tomahawk and Western, purposely giving it a fictitious name so that they might combine incidents into the script that happened to many of the ‘little’ tracks....
‘Take, for instance, the part of the story where the train is dismantled and carried over a mountain because the tracks don’t connect. That actually happened with the Virginia and Truckee road in Nevada.
‘We also took from history a story about some pioneers threatened by Indians, who used Chinese fireworks to scare the Indians away. They took to the hills in panic and didn’t come out of hiding for a week.
‘We also discovered that occasionally the railroads would be unable to complete their tracks to a town in time to maintain their franchise and the town elders would vote to extend the city limits to take in the tracks, sometimes by several miles. We used just such an incident in our plotting.’
Ticket to Tomahawk ended up being shot in the Durango area precisely because of the Durango-Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad. “We did a lot of research and looked at all of the narrow gauge trains,” Loos said (in an article published in the Durango Herald in 1993), “But the incredible Animas Canyon was the deciding factor to make the movie here. I’m glad because you get a beautiful look at a beautiful place that wouldn’t be known without the train....” Major scenes were shot in the Animas Canyon from Rockwood north on the railroad route as well as north of El Rancho Encantado and south near Bakers Bridge.
Mary Loos tells us an interesting story about one scene shot in the canyon — when Rory Calhoun was engaged in a fight high above the gorge and was thrown off the train into the river below. Though, in reality, it was a dummy that was thrown off the train, someone later reported seeing a body at the bottom of the canyon and “It took the Forest Service rangers two days to pack down and find out it was the dummy,” said Loos.
Other locations featured in the film included sites in the cities of Silverton and Durango. In Durango, Reservoir Hill (now the site of Ft. Lewis College) became the location for the climactic attack by Indians. The fight scenes were directed by Sale in Indian sign language. According to the Herald-Democrat, earlier in his career Sale had picked up sign language from ex-army officer and silent-movie cowboy star, Col. Tim McCoy:
Although the younger Indians speak perfect English and prefer to be directed in English, the older contingent insisted that the director use the sign language when they discovered he knew it.
Mary Loos also adds a note about this scene:
‘The crew was filming one day, and there were a couple hundred Navajos who came over as extras,’ said Loos....
‘The Indians were going to attack the train. Some rough horseback riding was involved, most of it bareback.
‘But there was one small problem. A stunt man who was supposed to fall off his horse for the scene was injured and had to be replaced.
‘The assistant director talked to the Navajos, telling them that any man who fell off his horse would earn an additional $50. No takers. “We are Navajos. We don’t fall off horses,” was the unanimous reply.
‘The assistant director reminded them that they were playing Apaches in this movie — that they were dressed in Apache paint and garb. Then came the directions, “Lights, camera, action!” At that instant every Navajo raced in front of the camera and fell off his horse.’
Mary Loos also relates a great story about the yet-to-be-discovered Marilyn Monroe, who had a bit part as a chorus girl in the movie. One day after filming, a softball game was played between the film production crew and a local Durango team to raise money for Mercy hospital. “Practically anything goes in the ball game except regulation baseball,” read the announcement in the Herald-Democrat. “Home plate will blow up at some time during the game..., Indians chase the umpires, stunt men perform, comedy is promised in everything....” But according to Loos, Marilyn Monroe stole the show: “‘Marilyn rigged it so her blue jeans slipped and fell to her ankles while running to first base.’” “‘You can imagine what happened in the bleachers when everyone saw her black lace underwear!’”
The real star of Ticket to Tomahawk, though, was the engine of the train — The Emma Sweeney. Again, as reported in the Durango Herald-Democrat in 1949:
Miss Sweeny, who is the love of the Sale’s and Bassler’s, is the narrow-gauge ten wheeler with bright red drivers and bright yellow...domes. ‘She’ wears big [elk] antlers across the headlight and is no movie construction job. Emma Sweeny is Old Engine No. 20, a 38-ton job...which was born in 1889 in the Baldwin works and has been running ever since over the hundreds of miles of narrow gauge track that thread together many mining towns in Colorado.
‘We painted Emma Sweeny brightly throughout,’ said Sale, ‘because that was the fashion in the early days of railroading. Her name is painted under each cab window in gold and her bell and whistle are of bright brass. Her cowcatcher is ridiculously big. Her day is done now. But in her time, she was the very last word.’
Richard Sale went on to direct a number of movies, none of them more memorable than Ticket to Tomahawk, his first. His wife Mary Loos spent years in the Hollywood studios — ending up writing such notable screenplays as San Francisco and Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. Recently, Loos returned to Durango to appear in the promotional video “Travel the Movie Trail,” produced by Tony Schweikle, Director of the Southwest Colorado Film Commission. It was during this visit that Loos was able to share some of her first-hand stories about the making of Ticket to Tomahawk.
