One of the earliest on-screen appearances of Tom Mix
(1880-1940) was as himself in the 1910 western documentary Ranch Life in the
Great Southwest. Filming on location in Oklahoma, a director for Selig
Pictures had found him working as a local deputy sheriff and hired him to
handle stock.
Asking for a part in the picture, Mix got a scene as a
bronc rider in a rodeo sequence. At the age of 30, he’d been married three
times and had taken various jobs with a series of Wild West shows. Later the
same year, he was starring in a two-reeler, The Range Riders, shot in
Missouri.
By 1920, when he surpassed William S. Hart in popularity,
Mix had accumulated acting credits in something like 235 films, all of them
silent, most of them shorts. Of these he’d directed over 100. Like William S.
Hart he’d begun featuring his horse, Tony, in the credits.
During the 1920s, he made 160 more cowboy films and had
built a 12-acre outdoor western set called Mixville, with frontier town, Indian
lodges, and plaster mountains.
Still from Hell Roarin' Reform, 1919 |
Circus.
Mix continued as a performer during 1929–1931 with the
Sells-Floto Circus, earning $20,000 a week at a time when a fifth marriage, his free
spending habits, and the Depression left him pinched for cash.
During the 1930s, Mix made his last onscreen appearances
in a 15-part serial, The Miracle Rider (1935),
which was a huge success and grossed $1,000,000 for the studio (see a trailer
for this series below). However, he declined to make more movies, because of
injuries, incurred one gathers from a career that involved doing his own
stunts.
Radio.
Starting in the 1930s Ralston-Purina sponsored a radio
program, Tom Mix Ralston Straight
Shooters, which continued broadcast for two decades. Mix himself did not
appear on the show. His part was read by various radio performers.
The
legend. When Mix died in a car crash in Arizona, reportedly
driving 80 mph into a bridge construction site, he and publicists had created
for himself a larger than life public image that had him riding with Teddy
Roosevelt and the Rough Riders in Cuba, then bravely joining the war effort in the
Philippines, where in fact he never saw action, and eventually deserted—a well kept
secret from his fans.
For more of Tuesday's Overlooked Movies and TV, click on over to Todd Mason's blog, Sweet Freedom.
Sources:
Jon Tuska, The Filming of the
West, New York: Doubleday, 1976
IMDb
Image
credits: Wikimedia Commons
Coming
up: Herman Whitaker, Over
the Border (1917)
Tried to watch a 1934 western last night with Errol Flynn. Couldn't get into it really.
ReplyDeleteThere are no 1934 westerns with Errol Flynn.
ReplyDeleteMaybe DODGE CITY (1939)?
DeleteNothing like a Tom Mix fix.
ReplyDeleteI got The Miracle Rider on VHS about twenty years ago. Enjoyed it, but knew I wasn't seeing the real Tom Mix because it was a talkie. At the time, almost nothing else was available. Now there are at least a dozen or so silent films offered on Amazon. I'll have to round up a couple. It would be great to see Tom in his prime.
ReplyDeleteEvan, I got a couple from Grapevine, but the transfers were so poor, I never ordered more.
DeleteI am very impressed with your post because this post is very beneficial for me and provides a piece of new knowledge to me.
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