In his 70-plus-year ride as a movie, radio, comics and TV hero, the Cisco Kid triumphed over every adversary -- except one. Mother Nature ran Cisco right out of town when a 20th Century Fox film crew came to Sedona in 1940 to shoot Viva Cisco Kid; under our red rocks, an out-of-the-blue blizzard almost caused the production to wave the white flag. But in the finest "B" western tradition, the troupe regrouped just before the final fade-out to save the day.

Viva Cisco Kid was the third of seven Cisco Kid features Fox released from 1939 to 1941, and the second to star dashing Cesar Romero as the Kid. The character moved to TV in 1950 in an adaptation starring Duncan Renaldo, who galloped through 156 episodes until 1956, and was introduced to new generations for decades afterward in reruns..

Text © 2006 Sedona Monthly