This classic western movie scene keeps running through my head these days.

In fact it is such a classic scene that it might be considered a cliché.

You know the one where the camera pans down from the haze-filled sky onto the dusty streets of an old deserted town.

Sounds of tinkling glasses, a player piano and giggling women emanate from the entrance of building marked “Saloon.”

Then the movie soundtrack begins with a single whistle backed up with violins. And as the music reaches its fevered climax, it stops. The sound of spurs hitting the ground echo from one end of town.

The camera focuses on the long shadow of a mysterious stranger marching down the dirt-covered street.

The camera pans upward. The stranger reaches to tip the brow of her tall white cowboy hat.

The face all at once becomes familiar. It is Sally Durkin, media liaison with Natchez Convention and Visitor’s Bureau.

Any one who knows Sally, knows two things.

First, Sally could easily pull off the part of the new sheriff in town coming to bring back order to a town of lawlessness.

Second, many in town could learn many important lessons from Sally’s proactive and aggressive efforts to turn Natchez back into the movie capital of Mississippi.

In fact, Sally has never thought of Natchez as anything but. When others in the state scoff at the notion, Sally points out that there is no other town in the state that has been filmed as many times as Natchez.

With the exception of the “The Lady Killers” in 2006, most of the 30 or so major productions that have been filmed in Natchez were made over 15 years ago.

Since then Canton and other parts of the state have been the sites for numerous feature films, including “A Time to Kill” and “O Brother Where Art Thou.”

The Mississippi Film Office has played a major role in recruiting Hollywood to Mississippi. With new tax incentives passed by this year’s legislature, the prospect of seeing movie stars in Mississippi is now greater than ever.

But Sally is not waiting on the Mississippi Film Office to send movie studios her way.

“If I waited on them, I would be waiting a long time,” Sally said.

But it isn’t because the Film Office is not doing its part, Sally remarked. They just can’t play favorites to a particular part of the state Sally said.

“That is why we have to be aggressive and proactive,” Sally said. “It is not just going to fall in our laps.”

And that is why I keep thinking of Sally as the new sheriff walking into town to save the day.

She and a small group of Natchez residents with California connections have doggedly gone after recruiting movie productions to Southwest Mississippi.

For the past few years, those efforts have rarely paid off.

But now all of sudden, studio companies and movie producers have been calling on Sally to provide photographs and personal tours.

In fact, Sally’s phone has been ringing off the hook.

“It’s suddenly beginning to happen,” Sally said.

Sally’s recent success can be a lesson for all of Natchez,

Like Sally, we need be just as assertive when it comes to recruiting good jobs and industry

We can’t just rely on the state to provide. Like Sally said, if we wait on the state or the federal government we might be waiting a long time.

So while citizens from Tupelo are forming their own organization to woo Toyota to Northeast Mississippi, we need to take the same aggressive stance to recruiting business to Natchez.

Too many times Natchez has been accused of being a town of disparate groups working against each other.

Imagine what it would look to a prospective business if they felt like the whole town was recruiting them to Natchez.

No longer would it be the lone sheriff walking down that dirt covered street. It would be a whole group of people waiting with open arms.

Ben Hillyer is Web Editor of The Natchez Democrat. He can be reached at 601-445-3540 or by e-mail at ben.hillyer@natchezdemocrat.com.