Where the Red Fern Grows- Interview

I recently interviewed Bill Dunbar, who played the role of Ben Kyle in the original 1974 version of "Where the Red Fern Grows."

Bell: Did you become acquainted with Stewart Petersen, the boy who played the role of Billy Coleman? Any comments?

Dunbar: Yes, in fact Stewart and I had three great scenes together. At the opening of the film, during the hunt, and around a campfire with his Grandfather. We also spent some off set time during the days we were not shooting on the location which was in the Tahlequah, Oklahoma. That was the setting in the original book story. This is also the headquarters for the Cherokee Nation, and, on part, the Trail of Tears. There was a Pizza Hut in town, and the cast and crew would gather there in the eve after shooting.

About a year after the Premiere of the film in Salt Lake City, I stopped by with family and visited with him at his families home in Utah. He was about to start work in another film that the producers of The Red Fern had cast him in. He was a good ice skater and worked in a film about a young skater, and then I heard he had started attending Brigham Young University.

Bell: Did you ever have the chance to interact with the dogs, behind the scenes?

Dunbar: Yes, in addition to the Redbones Dan and Ann, two sets of the adult dogs, and the puppies, there were also the hounds that you see me with when Mr. Bellington and I drive up in the red pickup truck in opening of the film. The dogs were in the back of the truck. They were Blue Ticks if I remember right. Ben Kyle, my character, is Bellington’s dog handler and trainer. I also had some time with the Redbone puppies. They were just great fun. In fact, I currently own a part Blue Tick hound now.

Bell: Have you had any experience with Redbone Coonhounds?

Dunbar: I always loved dogs and have had one most of my life, but never owned or had been around Redbone hounds until the film.

Bell: Were the dogs who played the roles of Dan and Ann, actually real hunting dogs, and did any of the scenes present a real challenge for the dogs?

Dunbar: Most all the dogs in the film were hunting dogs, including the both sets of the adult Redbones that played Dan and Ann. In fact, in some of the scenes during the hunting scenes, they were given the coon scent to give them the feel of really being on the hunt. Of course no actual raccoons where harmed during the shooting of the film. About the only real challenge for the dogs, was when Dan and Ann had to be around the Mountain Lions, which they appeared to have a fight with, during one of the scenes. There were two of them, which presented were a real challenge for their trainer, and the Mountain Lions came about one day when I and a couple of the cast members joined the trainer in the vacant house, in which they were being kept. It was lunch time for them, and somehow one of them bolted for an open window. The trainer caught hold of the cat’s tail just as it got to the window. He was able to get it back in the cage, and the rest of us were hiding out in another room with the door shut. It sure created a bit of excitement for a while though. Can you imagine the stir it would have caused with a two hundred pound big cat running down the street of Tahlequah, Okla?

One other incident involved a reptile, which are plentiful in that part of the country. While shooting the dinner meal scene at Grandpa's house, someone mentioned that they had seen a snake slither under the house. A lot of the cast members got kind of nervous, and the call went out from Norman for a snake catcher. It sure wasn’t me. I knew very well what kind of critter it could be. Roger Pancake, the prop master, a big hunk of a guy not afraid of much of anything, took off with a big knife. A while later, with a big grin on his face, he came back with a six foot rattlesnake. It turns out Dripping Springs, where they shot the scenes of the dogs and Lions, had hundreds of rattlesnakes.

Bell: Any fond memories/ behind the scenes moments you would like to share with us?

Dunbar: Fond memories? For sure, quite a few of them. Being able to sit and talk to Wilson Rawls and the have him tell you of more boyhood adventures during those delightful but hard days. Sitting with Grandpa James Whitmore, whom I consider one of the finest actors of our day, on the banks of the Illinois River, fishing. Working with Norman Tokar, veteran of many Disney films including "Big Red," "Those Calloways," and "The Apple Dumpling Gang," which he gave me the opportunity to work with him. Not to forget Jack Ging and Beverly Garland of “My Three Sons.” I visited with her and her husband back in North Hollywood where they live and own a motel close to Universal City to this day. The time spent with all the cast and crew was worth every hour, and just to be connected with this film has been a treasure to me, as my oldest son attended the Premiere and met all those wonderful people. My youngest son had the opportunity to show the film and introduce his Dad to his class. And now his two daughters see their Grandpa in one of the great classic family films too.

Bell: What other movies have you been in? And what roles did you play?

Dunbar: Before working in The Red Fern I had worked in a made for television film called "The Longest Hundred Miles." It featured Doug McClure, who was in several televison series during those years, and also a young Katherine Ross, who went on to have a very successful career. She also married Sam Elliot, who I became friends with while serving in the California National Guard in Los Angeles. I also appeared in "Beach Red," as one of the soldiers, "The Andromeda Strain," as an Air Force Sergeant Technician in the control center, and the made for television "Miracle of the Heart: A Boys Town Story," as John, the mother's boyfriend, and Sean Penn's "Indian Runner," as a prison guard. Since then I have worked Dinner Theater and Community Theater in Omaha, Nebraska and Des Moines, Iowa; also television commercials, but mostly radio broadcasting mostly in country music.

Bell: Anything else that you would like to share with us?

Dunbar: I live in Madison County, Iowa with my wife, and my half-breed Blue Tick Hound, and three cats. You may remember the "The Bridges Of Madison County," and Winterset, Iowa is the birthplace of the Duke John Wayne, who as a closing note, I auditioned for a while in Los Angeles for a role in the Cowboys; sure wish I had gotten that job. Another version of "Where The Red Fern Grows" was made, but it will never live up to the original, which was filmed in the actual location it took place in, and, also, the more recent film isn't narrated by the man himself: Wilson Rawls. May he rest in peace.

I would like to thank Bill Dunbar for allowing me to interview him.