Tom Mix
Encyclopedia
Thomas Edwin "Tom" Mix (born Thomas Hezikiah Mix; January 6, 1880 – October 12, 1940) was an American
film actor
and the star of many early Western movies. He made a reported 336 films between 1910
and 1935
, all but nine of which were silent features. He was Hollywood’s first Western megastar and is noted as having helped define the genre for all cowboy
actors who followed.
, Pennsylvania
, about 40 miles (60 km) north of State College, Pennsylvania
. He spent his childhood growing up in nearby Dubois, Pennsylvania
, learning to ride horses and working on the local farm owned by John Dubois, a lumber businessman. He had dreams of being in the circus and was rumored to have been caught by his parents practicing knife-throwing tricks against a wall, using his sister as an assistant.
In April 1898, during the Spanish-American War
, he enlisted in the Army
under the name Thomas E. (Edwin) Mix. His unit never went overseas, and Mix later failed to return for duty after an extended furlough when he married Grace I. Allin on July 18, 1902. Mix was listed as AWOL on November 4, 1902, but was never court-martial
ed nor apparently even discharged. His marriage to Allin was annulled after one year. In 1905, Mix married Kitty Jewel Perinne, but this marriage also ended within a year. He next married Olive Stokes on January 10, 1909, in Medora, SD.
In 1905, Mix rode in Theodore Roosevelt
's inaugural parade led by Seth Bullock with a group of 50 horsemen, which included several former Rough Riders
(years later, Hollywood publicity handouts would muddle this event to misleadingly imply that Mix had been a Rough Rider himself.) After working a variety of odd jobs in the Oklahoma Territory
, Mix found employment at the Miller Brothers 101 Ranch, reportedly the largest ranching business in the United States and covering 101,000 acres (409 km²), hence its name. He stood out as a skilled horseman and expert shot, winning the 1909 national Riding and Rodeo Championship.
Mix often claimed to have attended the Virginia Military Institute
and to have been the son of a cavalry officer. There is no basis for these claims.
. His first shoot in 1910 at their studio in the Edendale
district of Los Angeles (now known as Echo Park
) was Ranch Life in the Great Southwest, in which he showed his skills as a cattle wrangler. The film was a success and Mix became an early motion picture star. Olive gave birth to their daughter Ruth on July 13, 1912. Mix performed in more than 100 films for Selig, many of which were filmed in Las Vegas, New Mexico
. While with Selig he co-starred in several films with Victoria Forde
, and they fell in love. He divorced Olive Stokes in 1917. By then, Selig Polyscope had encountered severe financial difficulties, and Tom Mix and Victoria Forde both subsequently signed with Fox Film Corporation, which had leased the Edendale studio. Mix and Forde married in 1918 and they had a daughter, Thomasina Mix (Tommie), in 1922.
es and villain
s were sharply defined and a clean-cut cowboy always "saved the day." Millions of American children grew up watching his films on Saturday afternoons. His intelligent and handsome horse Tony also became a celebrity. Mix did his own stunts and was frequently injured.
Mix's salary at Fox reached $7,500 a week. His performances weren't noted for their realism but for screen-friendly action stunts and horseback riding, attention-grabbing cowboy costumes and showmanship. At the Edendale lot Mix built a 12 acres (48,562.3 m²) shooting set called Mixville. Loaded with western props and furnishings, it has been described as a "complete frontier town, with a dusty street, hitching rails, a saloon, jail, bank, doctor's office, surveyor's office, and the simple frame houses typical of the early Western era." Near the back of the lot an Indian village of lodges was ringed by miniature plaster mountains which on screen were said to be "ferociously convincing." The set also included a simulated desert, large corral and a ranch house with no roof, to facilitate interior shots.
During 1929, Mix's last year in silent pictures, he worked for Film Booking Office of America (FBO), a small movie studio run by Joseph P. Kennedy Sr. and soon to be merged into Kennedy's RKO Radio Pictures. Mix was 49 and by most accounts he was ready to retire from the movies. That same year, Mix was a pallbearer at the funeral of Wyatt Earp
(during which he reportedly wept).
(along with the actor's free-spending ways and many wives) had reportedly wiped out most of his savings. In 1932, he married his fifth wife, Mabel Hubbard Ward. Universal Pictures
approached him that year with an offer to do talkies which included script and cast approval. He did nine pictures for Universal, but because of injuries he received while filming, he was reluctant to continue with any more. Mix then appeared with the Sam B. Dill circus, which he reportedly bought two years later (1935).
Mix's last screen appearance was a 15-episode sound Mascot Pictures serial, The Miracle Rider
(1935), receiving $40,000 for four weeks of filming. Also that year, Texas governor James Allred named Mix an honorary Texas Ranger
. Mix went back to circus performing, this time with his eldest daughter Ruth, who had appeared in some of his films. In 1938, Mix went to Europe on a promotional trip, while his daughter Ruth stayed behind to manage his circus, which soon failed. He later excluded her from his will. He had reportedly made over $6,000,000 (approaching $400 million in early 21st century, inflation
-adjusted values) during his 26-year film career.
, Harold Peary
and Willard Waterman
.
The Ralston company offered ads during the Tom Mix radio program for listeners to send in for a series of 12 special Ralston-Tom Mix Comic books available only by writing the Ralston Company by mail.
near Florence, Arizona
, (between Tucson
and Phoenix
) on Arizona State Route 79. Mix had been visiting Pima County Sheriff Ed Nichols in Tucson, and had stopped at The Oracle Junction Inn, a popular gambling and drinking establishment, where he had called and spoken with his agent, when he came upon construction barriers at a bridge previously washed away by a flash flood. A work crew watched as he was unable to brake in time, and his car swerved twice then rolled into a gully, pinning his body beneath. A large polished aluminum suitcase containing a large sum of money, traveler's checks and jewels, which he had placed on the package shelf behind him flew forward and struck Mix in the back of the head, shattering his skull and breaking his neck. The 60-year-old actor was killed almost instantly. Eyewitnesses said Mix was traveling at 80 mph before the accident.
A small stone memorial marks the site of his death on State Route 79, and the nearby gully is named "Tom Mix Wash". The plaque on the marker bears the inscription: "In memory of Tom Mix whose spirit left his body on this spot and whose characterization and portrayals in life served to better fix memories of the old West in the minds of living men." Mix is interred in the Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery in Glendale, California
.
and John Wayne
were youngsters and the influence of his screen persona can be seen in their approach to portraying cowboys. When an injury caused football player John Wayne to drop out of USC, Tom Mix helped him get a job moving props in the back lot of Fox Studios.
By most accounts, Tom Mix made 336 movies throughout his career. As of 2007, only about 10% of these were reportedly available for viewing, although it was unclear how many of these films are now considered lost film
s.
For his contribution to the motion picture industry, Tom Mix has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame
at 1708 Vine Street. His cowboy boot prints, palm prints and his famous horse Tony's hoof prints are at Grauman's Chinese Theatre
at 6925 Hollywood Boulevard. In 1958 he was inducted posthumously into the Western Performers Hall of Fame at the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum
in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
. In 1959 a 'Monument To The Stars' was erected on Beverly Dr. (where it intersects with Olympic Blvd. and becomes Beverwil) in Beverly Hills. The memorial consists of a bronze-green spiral of sprocketed "camera film" above a multi-sided tower, embossed with full-length likenesses of early stars who appeared in famous silent movies. Those memorialized include Douglas Fairbanks, Mary Pickford, Will Rogers, Conrad Nagel, Rudolph Valentino, Fred Niblo, Tom Mix, and Harold Lloyd. There is a Tom Mix museum in Dewey, Oklahoma
and another in Mix Run
, Pennsylvania
. Between 1980 and 2004, 21 Tom Mix festivals were held during the month of September, most of them in DuBois, Pennsylvania
.
) from the 1940s relating to Mix are still traded by collectors. Mix was referred to in Conny Froboess' 1951 song "Pack' die Badehose ein" and in a 1953 Dinah Washington
song, "TV Is the Thing This Year" for EmArcy Records
(signifying a change in technology from radio to television).
In the JD Salinger short story "The Laughing Man", the Chief is described as having "the most photogenic features of Buck Jones
, Ken Maynard
, and Tom Mix."
In 1967, Mix was featured with many other 20th century celebrities on the cover of The Beatles' Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.
In Woody Allen
's 1983 film Zelig
, archival footage is shown of Mix attending a party at Hearst Castle
near San Simeon, California.
Bruce Willis
played Tom Mix in the 1988 Blake Edwards
film Sunset, with James Garner
as Wyatt Earp
. The film was very loosely based on the fact that Earp and Mix knew each other when Earp was serving as a consultant during the silent film era.
In The Beverly Hillbillies
, Jed Clampett's reason for going to Beverly Hills was to live in the same place as Tom Mix.
Daryl Ponicsan's novel Tom Mix Died for Your Sins (1975) evokes Mix's life and personality. Clifford Irving
offered a pseudo-autobiographical version of Mix's early adulthood, drawing him as a brash young gringo who befriends and then joins up with the Mexican revolutionary Pancho Villa
in the novel Tom Mix and Pancho Villa (1982).
In the 2008 movie Changeling
, starring Angelina Jolie, the mysterious little boy claiming to be Walter Collins finally confesses to the police that the reason he ran away to Los Angeles was in hopes of meeting Tom Mix and his horse Tony.
James Horwitz
's book They Went Thataway (1975) ends with Horwitz visiting Tom Mix Wash (where Mix died) and leaving his childhood cowboy boots at the foot of the monument.
A resurrected Tom Mix appeared in two of Philip José Farmer
's Riverworld
novels, The Dark Design
(1977) and The Magic Labyrinth
(1980) as a traveling companion of Jack London
, along with a short story featured in the anthology Riverworld and Other Stories (1979).
In the "Mulcahy's War" episode of M*A*S*H Father Mulcahy used a Tom Mix pocket knife to perform an emergency tracheotomy (1976).
Philip K. Dick
's sci-fi novel The Penultimate Truth
features an underground bunker named 'the Tom Mix'.
In Batman/Houdini: The Devil's Workshop
(1993
), Tom Mix is a high profile figure in Gotham society, and takes up Houdini's offer of a free punch to the stomach.
In an episode of Raw Toonage
, Bonkers D. Bobcat plays a cowboy character named "Trail Mix Bonkers", an obvious homage to Tom Mix, as well as a play on both his name and trail mix
.
The menacing cowboy character in David Lynch
's film Mulholland Drive
contains oblique references to Mix.
The ghost of Tom Mix haunted a Hollywood couple in the supernatural thriller The Ghosts of Edendale
(2004).
Ralston-Purina briefly revived its Tom Mix boxtop fan club during the 1980s, and in 2007 had Tom Mix pages on the company's website.
Tom Mix is mentioned as being a pall bearer and weeping at the funeral for Wyatt Earp
at the beginning of the end credits for the 1993 George P. Cosmatos film Tombstone
.
In the Doctor Who
episode "The Gunfighters
", the TARDIS lands at Tombstone, Arizona
in 1881, where the Doctor says he doesn't understand why they want to dress like Tom Mix.
The United States Postal Service has commemorated Tom Mix on a first-class mail postage stamp.
In Salt-Water Moon, by Canadian playwright David French, Jacob describes watching "The Lucky Horseshoe", calling it "one of the best Tom ever made," and tries to seduce Mary when describing it.
Italian comic series Captain Miki
was renamed by comics calligrapher Ferdi Sayışman as "Captain Tom Mix" (Yüzbaşı Tommiks) in the 70s, and comics are being published with this name till today.
In the series Bewitched
in the episode "Serena's Youth Pill", Darin tries to convince young Larry Tate to drink the magic antidote by telling him it would help Larry grow up to be a cowboy like Tom Mix.
In the 2010 Boardwalk Empire episode "The Emerald City
", Nucky Thompson's servant Eddie Kessler offers to frisk
someone who's come to see him. Nucky chides him: "You're Tom Mix all of a sudden?"
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
film actor
Actor
An actor is a person who acts in a dramatic production and who works in film, television, theatre, or radio in that capacity...
and the star of many early Western movies. He made a reported 336 films between 1910
1910 in film
The year 1910 in film involved some significant events.-Events:*The newsreel footage of the funeral of King Edward VII of the United Kingdom is shot in Kinemacolor, making it the first color newsreel....
and 1935
1935 in film
-Events:*Judy Garland signs a contract with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer .*Seven year old Shirley Temple wins a special Academy Award.*The Bantu Educational Kinema Experiment started in order to educate the Bantu peoples.-Top grossing films:-Academy Awards:...
, all but nine of which were silent features. He was Hollywood’s first Western megastar and is noted as having helped define the genre for all cowboy
Cowboy
A cowboy is an animal herder who tends cattle on ranches in North America, traditionally on horseback, and often performs a multitude of other ranch-related tasks. The historic American cowboy of the late 19th century arose from the vaquero traditions of northern Mexico and became a figure of...
actors who followed.
Early years
Mix was born into a relatively poor logging family in Mix RunMix Run, Pennsylvania
Mix Run, Pennsylvania is an unincorporated village located in Gibson Township, Cameron County, Pennsylvania. The village is not tracked by the Census Bureau....
, Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania
The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is a U.S. state that is located in the Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The state borders Delaware and Maryland to the south, West Virginia to the southwest, Ohio to the west, New York and Ontario, Canada, to the north, and New Jersey to...
, about 40 miles (60 km) north of State College, Pennsylvania
State College, Pennsylvania
State College is the largest borough in Centre County in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania. It is the principal city of the State College, Pennsylvania Metropolitan Statistical Area which encompasses all of Centre County. As of the 2010 census, the borough population was 42,034, and roughly double...
. He spent his childhood growing up in nearby Dubois, Pennsylvania
DuBois, Pennsylvania
DuBois is a city in Clearfield County, Pennsylvania, northeast of Pittsburgh. It is the principal city in the DuBois, Pa Micropolitan Statistical Area.-History:...
, learning to ride horses and working on the local farm owned by John Dubois, a lumber businessman. He had dreams of being in the circus and was rumored to have been caught by his parents practicing knife-throwing tricks against a wall, using his sister as an assistant.
In April 1898, during the Spanish-American War
Spanish-American War
The Spanish–American War was a conflict in 1898 between Spain and the United States, effectively the result of American intervention in the ongoing Cuban War of Independence...
, he enlisted in the Army
United States Army
The United States Army is the main branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for land-based military operations. It is the largest and oldest established branch of the U.S. military, and is one of seven U.S. uniformed services...
under the name Thomas E. (Edwin) Mix. His unit never went overseas, and Mix later failed to return for duty after an extended furlough when he married Grace I. Allin on July 18, 1902. Mix was listed as AWOL on November 4, 1902, but was never court-martial
Court-martial
A court-martial is a military court. A court-martial is empowered to determine the guilt of members of the armed forces subject to military law, and, if the defendant is found guilty, to decide upon punishment.Most militaries maintain a court-martial system to try cases in which a breach of...
ed nor apparently even discharged. His marriage to Allin was annulled after one year. In 1905, Mix married Kitty Jewel Perinne, but this marriage also ended within a year. He next married Olive Stokes on January 10, 1909, in Medora, SD.
In 1905, Mix rode in Theodore Roosevelt
Theodore Roosevelt
Theodore "Teddy" Roosevelt was the 26th President of the United States . He is noted for his exuberant personality, range of interests and achievements, and his leadership of the Progressive Movement, as well as his "cowboy" persona and robust masculinity...
's inaugural parade led by Seth Bullock with a group of 50 horsemen, which included several former Rough Riders
Rough Riders
The Rough Riders is the name bestowed on the 1st United States Volunteer Cavalry, one of three such regiments raised in 1898 for the Spanish-American War and the only one of the three to see action. The United States Army was weakened and left with little manpower after the American Civil War...
(years later, Hollywood publicity handouts would muddle this event to misleadingly imply that Mix had been a Rough Rider himself.) After working a variety of odd jobs in the Oklahoma Territory
Oklahoma Territory
The Territory of Oklahoma was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from May 2, 1890, until November 16, 1907, when it was joined with the Indian Territory under a new constitution and admitted to the Union as the State of Oklahoma.-Organization:Oklahoma Territory's...
, Mix found employment at the Miller Brothers 101 Ranch, reportedly the largest ranching business in the United States and covering 101,000 acres (409 km²), hence its name. He stood out as a skilled horseman and expert shot, winning the 1909 national Riding and Rodeo Championship.
Mix often claimed to have attended the Virginia Military Institute
Virginia Military Institute
The Virginia Military Institute , located in Lexington, Virginia, is the oldest state-supported military college and one of six senior military colleges in the United States. Unlike any other military college in the United States—and in keeping with its founding principles—all VMI students are...
and to have been the son of a cavalry officer. There is no basis for these claims.
Film career
Selig Polyscope
Mix began his film career as a supporting cast member with the Selig Polyscope CompanySelig Polyscope Company
The Selig Polyscope Company was an American motion picture company founded in 1896 by William Selig in Chicago, Illinois. Selig Polyscope is noted for establishing Southern California's first permanent movie studio, in the historic Edendale district of Los Angeles...
. His first shoot in 1910 at their studio in the Edendale
Edendale, Los Angeles, California
Edendale is a historical name for a district in Los Angeles, California, northwest of Downtown Los Angeles, in what is known today as Echo Park, Los Feliz and Silver Lake....
district of Los Angeles (now known as Echo Park
Silver Lake, Los Angeles, California
Silver Lake is a hilly neighborhood in the city of Los Angeles, California east of Hollywood and northwest of Downtown Los Angeles. Silver Lake is inhabited by a wide variety of ethnic and socioeconomic groups, but it is best known as an eclectic gathering of hipsters and the creative class.The...
) was Ranch Life in the Great Southwest, in which he showed his skills as a cattle wrangler. The film was a success and Mix became an early motion picture star. Olive gave birth to their daughter Ruth on July 13, 1912. Mix performed in more than 100 films for Selig, many of which were filmed in Las Vegas, New Mexico
Las Vegas, New Mexico
Las Vegas is a city in San Miguel County, New Mexico, United States. Once two separate municipalities both named Las Vegas, west Las Vegas and east Las Vegas , divided by the Gallinas River, retain distinct characters and separate, rival school districts. The population was 14,565 at the 2000...
. While with Selig he co-starred in several films with Victoria Forde
Victoria Forde
Victoria Forde was an American silent film actress.-Biography:Born in New York City, Victoria Forde was the daughter of Broadway actress Eugenie Forde who got her into films with Biograph at age 14. In 1912, at age 16, she signed with Nestor Studios to make comedy films under director Al Christie...
, and they fell in love. He divorced Olive Stokes in 1917. By then, Selig Polyscope had encountered severe financial difficulties, and Tom Mix and Victoria Forde both subsequently signed with Fox Film Corporation, which had leased the Edendale studio. Mix and Forde married in 1918 and they had a daughter, Thomasina Mix (Tommie), in 1922.
Mixville
He went on to make more than 160 escapist matinee cowboy films throughout the 1920s. These featured action oriented scripts which contrasted with the documentary style of his work with Selig. HeroHero
A hero , in Greek mythology and folklore, was originally a demigod, their cult being one of the most distinctive features of ancient Greek religion...
es and villain
Villain
A villain is an "evil" character in a story, whether a historical narrative or, especially, a work of fiction. The villain usually is the antagonist, the character who tends to have a negative effect on other characters...
s were sharply defined and a clean-cut cowboy always "saved the day." Millions of American children grew up watching his films on Saturday afternoons. His intelligent and handsome horse Tony also became a celebrity. Mix did his own stunts and was frequently injured.
Mix's salary at Fox reached $7,500 a week. His performances weren't noted for their realism but for screen-friendly action stunts and horseback riding, attention-grabbing cowboy costumes and showmanship. At the Edendale lot Mix built a 12 acres (48,562.3 m²) shooting set called Mixville. Loaded with western props and furnishings, it has been described as a "complete frontier town, with a dusty street, hitching rails, a saloon, jail, bank, doctor's office, surveyor's office, and the simple frame houses typical of the early Western era." Near the back of the lot an Indian village of lodges was ringed by miniature plaster mountains which on screen were said to be "ferociously convincing." The set also included a simulated desert, large corral and a ranch house with no roof, to facilitate interior shots.
During 1929, Mix's last year in silent pictures, he worked for Film Booking Office of America (FBO), a small movie studio run by Joseph P. Kennedy Sr. and soon to be merged into Kennedy's RKO Radio Pictures. Mix was 49 and by most accounts he was ready to retire from the movies. That same year, Mix was a pallbearer at the funeral of Wyatt Earp
Wyatt Earp
Wyatt Berry Stapp Earp was an American gambler, investor, and law enforcement officer who served in several Western frontier towns. He was also at different times a farmer, teamster, bouncer, saloon-keeper, miner and boxing referee. However, he was never a drover or cowboy. He is most well known...
(during which he reportedly wept).
1930s
Mix appeared with the Sells-Floto Circus in 1929, 1930 and 1931 at a reported weekly salary of $20,000. He and Forde were divorced in 1931. Meanwhile, the Great DepressionGreat Depression
The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...
(along with the actor's free-spending ways and many wives) had reportedly wiped out most of his savings. In 1932, he married his fifth wife, Mabel Hubbard Ward. Universal Pictures
Universal Pictures
-1920:* White Youth* The Flaming Disc* Am I Dreaming?* The Dragon's Net* The Adorable Savage* Putting It Over* The Line Runners-1921:* The Fire Eater* A Battle of Wits* Dream Girl* The Millionaire...
approached him that year with an offer to do talkies which included script and cast approval. He did nine pictures for Universal, but because of injuries he received while filming, he was reluctant to continue with any more. Mix then appeared with the Sam B. Dill circus, which he reportedly bought two years later (1935).
Mix's last screen appearance was a 15-episode sound Mascot Pictures serial, The Miracle Rider
The Miracle Rider
The Miracle Rider is a 1935 Mascot movie serial directed by B. Reeves Eason and Armand Schaefer. The serial stars Tom Mix.-Plot outline:Zaroff , a rancher and oil company owner, wants to drive the Ravenhead Indians off their reservation so that he can mine the rare element X-94, a super explosive,...
(1935), receiving $40,000 for four weeks of filming. Also that year, Texas governor James Allred named Mix an honorary Texas Ranger
Texas Ranger Division
The Texas Ranger Division, commonly called the Texas Rangers, is a law enforcement agency with statewide jurisdiction in Texas, and is based in Austin, Texas...
. Mix went back to circus performing, this time with his eldest daughter Ruth, who had appeared in some of his films. In 1938, Mix went to Europe on a promotional trip, while his daughter Ruth stayed behind to manage his circus, which soon failed. He later excluded her from his will. He had reportedly made over $6,000,000 (approaching $400 million in early 21st century, inflation
Inflation
In economics, inflation is a rise in the general level of prices of goods and services in an economy over a period of time.When the general price level rises, each unit of currency buys fewer goods and services. Consequently, inflation also reflects an erosion in the purchasing power of money – a...
-adjusted values) during his 26-year film career.
Radio
In 1933, Ralston-Purina obtained his permission to produce a Tom Mix radio series called Tom Mix Ralston Straight Shooters which, but for one year during World War II, was popular throughout most of the 1930s through the early 1950s. Mix never appeared on these broadcasts, and was instead played by radio actors: Artells Dickson (early 1930s), Jack Holden (from 1937), Russell Thorsen (early 1940s) and Joe "Curley" Bradley (from 1944). Others in the supporting cast included George GobelGeorge Gobel
George Leslie Gobel was an American comedian and actor. He was best known as the star of his own weekly NBC television show, The George Gobel Show, which ran from 1954 to 1960 .-Early years:He was born George Leslie Goebel in Chicago, Illinois, His father, Hermann Goebel, was a...
, Harold Peary
Harold Peary
Harold Peary was an American actor, comedian and singer in radio, film, television and animation remembered best as Throckmorton P...
and Willard Waterman
Willard Waterman
Willard Lewis Waterman was a character actor in films, TV and on radio, remembered best for succeeding Harold Peary as the title character of The Great Gildersleeve at the height of that show's popularity.Peary was unable to convince sponsor and show owner Kraft Cheese to allow him an ownership...
.
The Ralston company offered ads during the Tom Mix radio program for listeners to send in for a series of 12 special Ralston-Tom Mix Comic books available only by writing the Ralston Company by mail.
Death
On the afternoon of October 12, 1940, Mix was driving his 1937 Cord 812 PhaetonPhaeton body
A Phaeton is a style of open car or carriage without proper weather protection for passengers. Use of this name for automobiles was limited to North America or its products....
near Florence, Arizona
Florence, Arizona
-Demographics:As of the census of 2000, there were 17,054 people, 2,226 households, and 1,540 families residing in the town. The population density was 2,056.2 people per square mile . There were 3,216 housing units at an average density of 387.7 per square mile...
, (between Tucson
Tucson, Arizona
Tucson is a city in and the county seat of Pima County, Arizona, United States. The city is located 118 miles southeast of Phoenix and 60 miles north of the U.S.-Mexico border. The 2010 United States Census puts the city's population at 520,116 with a metropolitan area population at 1,020,200...
and Phoenix
Phoenix, Arizona
Phoenix is the capital, and largest city, of the U.S. state of Arizona, as well as the sixth most populated city in the United States. Phoenix is home to 1,445,632 people according to the official 2010 U.S. Census Bureau data...
) on Arizona State Route 79. Mix had been visiting Pima County Sheriff Ed Nichols in Tucson, and had stopped at The Oracle Junction Inn, a popular gambling and drinking establishment, where he had called and spoken with his agent, when he came upon construction barriers at a bridge previously washed away by a flash flood. A work crew watched as he was unable to brake in time, and his car swerved twice then rolled into a gully, pinning his body beneath. A large polished aluminum suitcase containing a large sum of money, traveler's checks and jewels, which he had placed on the package shelf behind him flew forward and struck Mix in the back of the head, shattering his skull and breaking his neck. The 60-year-old actor was killed almost instantly. Eyewitnesses said Mix was traveling at 80 mph before the accident.
A small stone memorial marks the site of his death on State Route 79, and the nearby gully is named "Tom Mix Wash". The plaque on the marker bears the inscription: "In memory of Tom Mix whose spirit left his body on this spot and whose characterization and portrayals in life served to better fix memories of the old West in the minds of living men." Mix is interred in the Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery in Glendale, California
Glendale, California
Glendale is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States. As of the 2010 Census, the city population is 191,719, down from 194,973 at the 2000 census. making it the third largest city in Los Angeles County and the 22nd largest city in the state of California...
.
Legacy
Tom Mix was "the King of Cowboys" when Ronald ReaganRonald Reagan
Ronald Wilson Reagan was the 40th President of the United States , the 33rd Governor of California and, prior to that, a radio, film and television actor....
and John Wayne
John Wayne
Marion Mitchell Morrison , better known by his stage name John Wayne, was an American film actor, director and producer. He epitomized rugged masculinity and became an enduring American icon. He is famous for his distinctive calm voice, walk, and height...
were youngsters and the influence of his screen persona can be seen in their approach to portraying cowboys. When an injury caused football player John Wayne to drop out of USC, Tom Mix helped him get a job moving props in the back lot of Fox Studios.
By most accounts, Tom Mix made 336 movies throughout his career. As of 2007, only about 10% of these were reportedly available for viewing, although it was unclear how many of these films are now considered lost film
Lost film
A lost film is a feature film or short film that is no longer known to exist in studio archives, private collections or public archives such as the Library of Congress, where at least one copy of all American films are deposited and catalogued for copyright reasons...
s.
For his contribution to the motion picture industry, Tom Mix has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame
Hollywood Walk of Fame
The Hollywood Walk of Fame consists of more than 2,400 five-pointed terrazzo and brass stars embedded in the sidewalks along fifteen blocks of Hollywood Boulevard and three blocks of Vine Street in Hollywood, California...
at 1708 Vine Street. His cowboy boot prints, palm prints and his famous horse Tony's hoof prints are at Grauman's Chinese Theatre
Grauman's Chinese Theatre
Grauman's Chinese Theatre is a movie theater at 6925 Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood. It is on the historic Hollywood Walk of Fame.The Chinese Theatre was commissioned following the success of the nearby Grauman's Egyptian Theatre which opened in 1922...
at 6925 Hollywood Boulevard. In 1958 he was inducted posthumously into the Western Performers Hall of Fame at the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum
National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum
The National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum is a museum in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, with more than 28,000 Western and American Indian art works and artifacts. The facility also has the world's most extensive collection of American rodeo, photographs, barbed wire, saddlery, and early rodeo trophies...
in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
Oklahoma City is the capital and the largest city in the state of Oklahoma. The county seat of Oklahoma County, the city ranks 31st among United States cities in population. The city's population, from the 2010 census, was 579,999, with a metro-area population of 1,252,987 . In 2010, the Oklahoma...
. In 1959 a 'Monument To The Stars' was erected on Beverly Dr. (where it intersects with Olympic Blvd. and becomes Beverwil) in Beverly Hills. The memorial consists of a bronze-green spiral of sprocketed "camera film" above a multi-sided tower, embossed with full-length likenesses of early stars who appeared in famous silent movies. Those memorialized include Douglas Fairbanks, Mary Pickford, Will Rogers, Conrad Nagel, Rudolph Valentino, Fred Niblo, Tom Mix, and Harold Lloyd. There is a Tom Mix museum in Dewey, Oklahoma
Dewey, Oklahoma
Dewey is a city in Washington County, Oklahoma, United States. Founded by Jacob A. Bartles in 1899, the town was named for Admiral George Dewey. It was incorporated December 8, 1905...
and another in Mix Run
Mix Run, Pennsylvania
Mix Run, Pennsylvania is an unincorporated village located in Gibson Township, Cameron County, Pennsylvania. The village is not tracked by the Census Bureau....
, Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania
The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is a U.S. state that is located in the Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The state borders Delaware and Maryland to the south, West Virginia to the southwest, Ohio to the west, New York and Ontario, Canada, to the north, and New Jersey to...
. Between 1980 and 2004, 21 Tom Mix festivals were held during the month of September, most of them in DuBois, Pennsylvania
DuBois, Pennsylvania
DuBois is a city in Clearfield County, Pennsylvania, northeast of Pittsburgh. It is the principal city in the DuBois, Pa Micropolitan Statistical Area.-History:...
.
Cultural references
By the 21st century, most people were more familiar with Tom Mix's name through the many cultural references which have echoed long after his death, rather than from having seen his films. Cereal boxtop premiums (radio premiumsRadio Premiums
During the time that radio programs were the dominant medium in the United States, some programs advertised "souvenirs" of the various shows, which were sometimes called radio premiums...
) from the 1940s relating to Mix are still traded by collectors. Mix was referred to in Conny Froboess' 1951 song "Pack' die Badehose ein" and in a 1953 Dinah Washington
Dinah Washington
Dinah Washington, born Ruth Lee Jones , was an American blues, R&B and jazz singer. She has been cited as "the most popular black female recording artist of the '50s", and called "The Queen of the Blues"...
song, "TV Is the Thing This Year" for EmArcy Records
EmArcy Records
EmArcy Records is a jazz record label founded in 1954 by Mercury Records, and today a European jazz label owned by Universal Music Group. The name is a phonetic spelling of "MRC", the initials for Mercury Record Company....
(signifying a change in technology from radio to television).
In the JD Salinger short story "The Laughing Man", the Chief is described as having "the most photogenic features of Buck Jones
Buck Jones
Buck Jones was an American motion picture star of the 1920s, 1930s, and 1940s, best known for his work starring in many popular western movies...
, Ken Maynard
Ken Maynard
Ken Maynard was an American motion picture stuntman and actor.-Biography:Born Kenneth Olin Maynard in Vevay, Indiana, he was one of five children. His younger brother, Kermit Maynard, also became a stuntman and actor....
, and Tom Mix."
In 1967, Mix was featured with many other 20th century celebrities on the cover of The Beatles' Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.
In Woody Allen
Woody Allen
Woody Allen is an American screenwriter, director, actor, comedian, jazz musician, author, and playwright. Allen's films draw heavily on literature, sexuality, philosophy, psychology, Jewish identity, and the history of cinema...
's 1983 film Zelig
Zelig
Zelig is a 1983 American mockumentary film written and directed by Woody Allen, and starring Allen and Mia Farrow. Allen plays Zelig, a curiously nondescript enigma who is discovered for his remarkable ability to transform himself to resemble anyone he's near.The film was shot almost entirely in...
, archival footage is shown of Mix attending a party at Hearst Castle
Hearst Castle
Hearst Castle is a National Historic Landmark mansion located on the Central Coast of California, United States. It was designed by architect Julia Morgan between 1919 and 1947 for newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst, who died in 1951. In 1957, the Hearst Corporation donated the property to...
near San Simeon, California.
Bruce Willis
Bruce Willis
Walter Bruce Willis , better known as Bruce Willis, is an American actor, producer, and musician. His career began in television in the 1980s and has continued both in television and film since, including comedic, dramatic, and action roles...
played Tom Mix in the 1988 Blake Edwards
Blake Edwards
Blake Edwards was an American film director, screenwriter and producer.Edwards' career began in the 1940s as an actor, but he soon turned to writing radio scripts at Columbia Pictures...
film Sunset, with James Garner
James Garner
James Garner is an American film and television actor, one of the first Hollywood actors to excel in both media. He has starred in several television series spanning a career of more than five decades...
as Wyatt Earp
Wyatt Earp
Wyatt Berry Stapp Earp was an American gambler, investor, and law enforcement officer who served in several Western frontier towns. He was also at different times a farmer, teamster, bouncer, saloon-keeper, miner and boxing referee. However, he was never a drover or cowboy. He is most well known...
. The film was very loosely based on the fact that Earp and Mix knew each other when Earp was serving as a consultant during the silent film era.
In The Beverly Hillbillies
The Beverly Hillbillies
The Beverly Hillbillies is an American situation comedy originally broadcast for nine seasons on CBS from 1962 to 1971, starring Buddy Ebsen, Irene Ryan, Donna Douglas, and Max Baer, Jr....
, Jed Clampett's reason for going to Beverly Hills was to live in the same place as Tom Mix.
Daryl Ponicsan's novel Tom Mix Died for Your Sins (1975) evokes Mix's life and personality. Clifford Irving
Clifford Irving
Clifford Michael Irving is an American author of novels and works of nonfiction, but best known for using forged handwritten letters to convince his publisher into accepting a fake "autobiography" of reclusive businessman Howard Hughes in the early 1970s...
offered a pseudo-autobiographical version of Mix's early adulthood, drawing him as a brash young gringo who befriends and then joins up with the Mexican revolutionary Pancho Villa
Pancho Villa
José Doroteo Arango Arámbula – better known by his pseudonym Francisco Villa or its hypocorism Pancho Villa – was one of the most prominent Mexican Revolutionary generals....
in the novel Tom Mix and Pancho Villa (1982).
In the 2008 movie Changeling
Changeling (film)
Changeling is a 2008 American drama film directed by Clint Eastwood and written by J. Michael Straczynski. Based on real-life events in 1928 Los Angeles, the film stars Angelina Jolie as a woman who is reunited with her missing son—only to realize he is an impostor. She confronts the city...
, starring Angelina Jolie, the mysterious little boy claiming to be Walter Collins finally confesses to the police that the reason he ran away to Los Angeles was in hopes of meeting Tom Mix and his horse Tony.
James Horwitz
James Horwitz
James Horwitz is a non-fiction writer, known for his book They Went Thataway.Raised in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, Horwitz contributed several articles to Rolling Stone magazine during the early 1970s. He also contributed to Penthouse, High Times, and Time Out during the same time period...
's book They Went Thataway (1975) ends with Horwitz visiting Tom Mix Wash (where Mix died) and leaving his childhood cowboy boots at the foot of the monument.
A resurrected Tom Mix appeared in two of Philip José Farmer
Philip José Farmer
Philip José Farmer was an American author, principally known for his award-winning science fiction and fantasy novels and short stories....
's Riverworld
Riverworld
Riverworld is a fictional planet and the setting for a series of science fiction books written by Philip José Farmer . Riverworld is an artificial environment where all humans are reconstructed. The books explore interactions of individuals from many different cultures and time periods...
novels, The Dark Design
The Dark Design
The Dark Design is a science fiction novel, the third in the series of Riverworld books by Philip José Farmer. The title is derived from lines in Sir Richard Francis Burton's poem The Kasîdah of Hâjî Abdû El-Yezdî:-Overview:...
(1977) and The Magic Labyrinth
The Magic Labyrinth
The Magic Labyrinth is a science fiction novel, the fourth in the series of Riverworld books by Philip José Farmer. The title is derived from lines in Sir Richard Francis Burton's poem The Kasîdah of Hâjî Abdû El-Yezdî:...
(1980) as a traveling companion of Jack London
Jack London
John Griffith "Jack" London was an American author, journalist, and social activist. He was a pioneer in the then-burgeoning world of commercial magazine fiction and was one of the first fiction writers to obtain worldwide celebrity and a large fortune from his fiction alone...
, along with a short story featured in the anthology Riverworld and Other Stories (1979).
In the "Mulcahy's War" episode of M*A*S*H Father Mulcahy used a Tom Mix pocket knife to perform an emergency tracheotomy (1976).
Philip K. Dick
Philip K. Dick
Philip Kindred Dick was an American novelist, short story writer and essayist whose published work is almost entirely in the science fiction genre. Dick explored sociological, political and metaphysical themes in novels dominated by monopolistic corporations, authoritarian governments and altered...
's sci-fi novel The Penultimate Truth
The Penultimate Truth
The Penultimate Truth is a 1964 science fiction novel by American writer Philip K. Dick. The story is set in a future where the bulk of humanity is kept in large underground shelters. The people are told that World War III is being fought above them, when in reality the war ended years ago. The...
features an underground bunker named 'the Tom Mix'.
In Batman/Houdini: The Devil's Workshop
Batman/Houdini: The Devil's Workshop
Batman/Houdini: The Devil's Workshop is a 1993 Elseworlds one-shot, written by Howard Chaykin and John Francis Moore, with full-painted art by Mark Chiarello...
(1993
1993 in comics
-January:* Doom Patrol #63: " The Empire of Chairs," Grant Morrison's final issue as Doom Patrol writer.-February:* Action Comics, with issue #686, suspends publication following "The Death of Superman."...
), Tom Mix is a high profile figure in Gotham society, and takes up Houdini's offer of a free punch to the stomach.
In an episode of Raw Toonage
Raw Toonage
Disney's Raw Toonage is a half hour Disney animated cartoon series that aired on the CBS network in the fall of 1992.-History and production:...
, Bonkers D. Bobcat plays a cowboy character named "Trail Mix Bonkers", an obvious homage to Tom Mix, as well as a play on both his name and trail mix
Trail Mix
Trail mix is a combination of dried fruit, grains, nuts, and sometimes chocolate, developed as a snack food to be taken along on outdoor hikes....
.
The menacing cowboy character in David Lynch
David Lynch
David Keith Lynch is an American filmmaker, television director, visual artist, musician and occasional actor. Known for his surrealist films, he has developed his own unique cinematic style, which has been dubbed "Lynchian", and which is characterized by its dream imagery and meticulous sound...
's film Mulholland Drive
Mulholland Drive (film)
Mulholland Drive is a 2001 American neo-noir psychological thriller written and directed by David Lynch, starring Justin Theroux, Naomi Watts, and Laura Harring. The surrealist film was highly acclaimed by many critics and earned Lynch the Prix de la mise en scène at the 2001 Cannes Film Festival...
contains oblique references to Mix.
The ghost of Tom Mix haunted a Hollywood couple in the supernatural thriller The Ghosts of Edendale
The Ghosts of Edendale
The Ghosts of Edendale is a 2003 low budget supernatural thriller film written and directed by Stefan Avalos. It is distributed by Warner Brothers. The film was shot in Silver Lake, Los Angeles, California and was shot entirely on video.-Plot:...
(2004).
Ralston-Purina briefly revived its Tom Mix boxtop fan club during the 1980s, and in 2007 had Tom Mix pages on the company's website.
Tom Mix is mentioned as being a pall bearer and weeping at the funeral for Wyatt Earp
Wyatt Earp
Wyatt Berry Stapp Earp was an American gambler, investor, and law enforcement officer who served in several Western frontier towns. He was also at different times a farmer, teamster, bouncer, saloon-keeper, miner and boxing referee. However, he was never a drover or cowboy. He is most well known...
at the beginning of the end credits for the 1993 George P. Cosmatos film Tombstone
Tombstone (film)
Tombstone is a 1993 American action film set in the Old West directed by George P. Cosmatos, along with uncredited directorial efforts by actor Kurt Russell and writer Kevin Jarre. The storyline was conceived from a screenplay written by Jarre....
.
In the Doctor Who
Doctor Who
Doctor Who is a British science fiction television programme produced by the BBC. The programme depicts the adventures of a time-travelling humanoid alien known as the Doctor who explores the universe in a sentient time machine called the TARDIS that flies through time and space, whose exterior...
episode "The Gunfighters
The Gunfighters
The Gunfighters is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, set in 19th Century America on the days leading up to the famous Gunfight at the O.K. Corral...
", the TARDIS lands at Tombstone, Arizona
Tombstone, Arizona
Tombstone is a city in Cochise County, Arizona, United States, founded in 1879 by Ed Schieffelin in what was then Pima County, Arizona Territory. It was one of the last wide-open frontier boomtowns in the American Old West. From about 1877 to 1890, the town's mines produced USD $40 to $85 million...
in 1881, where the Doctor says he doesn't understand why they want to dress like Tom Mix.
The United States Postal Service has commemorated Tom Mix on a first-class mail postage stamp.
In Salt-Water Moon, by Canadian playwright David French, Jacob describes watching "The Lucky Horseshoe", calling it "one of the best Tom ever made," and tries to seduce Mary when describing it.
Italian comic series Captain Miki
Captain Miki
Captain Miki is an Italian comic book, created by the trio EsseGesse. Miki was first published in Italy on July 1, 1951.Miki is a young boy who, after carrying out a number of successful missions is promoted, in spite of his young age, in rank of captain of rangers in Nevada. Miki has young...
was renamed by comics calligrapher Ferdi Sayışman as "Captain Tom Mix" (Yüzbaşı Tommiks) in the 70s, and comics are being published with this name till today.
In the series Bewitched
Bewitched
Bewitched is an American situation comedy originally broadcast for eight seasons on ABC from 1964 to 1972, starring Elizabeth Montgomery, Dick York and Dick Sargent , Agnes Moorehead, and David White. The show is about a witch who marries a mortal and tries to lead the life of a typical suburban...
in the episode "Serena's Youth Pill", Darin tries to convince young Larry Tate to drink the magic antidote by telling him it would help Larry grow up to be a cowboy like Tom Mix.
In the 2010 Boardwalk Empire episode "The Emerald City
The Emerald City (Boardwalk Empire)
"The Emerald City" is the tenth episode of the first season of the HBO television series Boardwalk Empire, which aired on HBO November 21, 2010. The episode was written by co-executive producer Lawrence Konner and directed by Simon Cellan-Jones...
", Nucky Thompson's servant Eddie Kessler offers to frisk
Frisk
Frisk is a surname of Swedish origin, one of many Swedish army names originally given to soldiers to make their names more distinctive;-People:*Anders Frisk, Swedish former football referee*Helena Frisk, Swedish politician of the Social Democratic Party...
someone who's come to see him. Nucky chides him: "You're Tom Mix all of a sudden?"
Filmography (talkies)
- Destry Rides AgainDestry Rides Again (1932 film)Destry Rides Again is a 1932 Western movie starring Tom Mix about a man wrongly framed who returns to wreak havoc following his release from prison. The picture was directed by Benjamin Stoloff and based upon a novel by Max Brand...
(1932) - The Rider of Death Valley (1932)
- The Texas Bad Man (1932)
- My Pal, the King (1932)
- The Fourth Horseman (1932)
- Hidden Gold (1932)
- Flaming Guns (1932)
- Terror Trail (1933)
- Rustlers' Roundup (1933)
- The Miracle RiderThe Miracle RiderThe Miracle Rider is a 1935 Mascot movie serial directed by B. Reeves Eason and Armand Schaefer. The serial stars Tom Mix.-Plot outline:Zaroff , a rancher and oil company owner, wants to drive the Ravenhead Indians off their reservation so that he can mine the rare element X-94, a super explosive,...
(1935) (Mascot Pictures serial)
Further reading
- Robert S. Birchard, "King Cowboy: Tom Mix and the Movies" Burbank: Riverwood Press, 1993 ISBN 1880756056
- Ben Ohmart, It's That Time Again Albany: BearManor Media, 2002 ISBN 0-9714570-2-6.
- David W. Menefee, The First Male Stars: Men of the Silent Era Albany: Bear Manor Media, 2007.
- Olive Stokes Mix with Eric Heath, The Fabulous Tom Mix, New York: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1957.
- Paul E. Mix, The Life and Legend of Tom Mix, New York: A. S. Barnes and Company, 1972.
- Jeanine Basinger, Silent Stars, 1999 ISBN 0-8195-6451-6. (chapter on Tom Mix and William S. HartWilliam S. HartWilliam Surrey Hart was an American silent film actor, screenwriter, director and producer. He is remembered for having "imbued all of his characters with honor and integrity."-Biography:...
) - Richard D. Jensen, "The Amazing Tom Mix: The Most Famous Cowboy of the Movies" iUniverse, Inc, 2005 ISBN 0595359493 ISBN 978-0595359493.