Silent-film star Tom Mix dies in Arizona car wreck; brained by “Suitcase of Death” - Oct 12, 1940 - HISTORY.com Silent-film star Tom Mix dies in Arizona car wreck; brained by “Suitcase of Death” Share this: Silent-film star Tom Mix dies in Arizona car wreck; brained by “Suitcase of Death” Author Silent-film star Tom Mix dies in Arizona car wreck; brained by “Suitcase of Death” URL Publisher A+E Networks On this day in 1940, cowboy-movie star Tom Mix is killed when he loses control of his speeding Cord Phaeton convertible and rolls into a dry wash (now called the Tom Mix Wash) near Florence, Arizona. He was 60 years old.

Today, visitors to the site of the accident can see a 2-foot–tall iron statue of a riderless horse and a somewhat awkwardly written plaque that reads: “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.” According to Mix’s press agent, the star was a genuine cowboy and swaggering hero of the Wild West: He was born in Texas; fought in the Spanish-American War, the Boxer Rebellion and the Boer War; and served as a sheriff in Kansas, a U.S. marshal in Oklahoma and a Texas Ranger. In fact, Mix was born in Driftwood, Pennsylvania; deserted the Army in 1902; and was a drum major in the Oklahoma Territorial Cavalry band when he went off to Hollywood in 1909. None of these inconvenient facts prevented Mix from becoming one of the greatest silent-film stars in history, however. Along with his famous horse Tony, Mix made 370 full-length Westerns.

At the peak of his fame, he was the highest-paid actor in Hollywood, earning as much as $17,500 a week (about $218,000 today). Unfortunately, Mix and Tony had a hard time making the transition to talking pictures. Some people say that the actor’s voice was so high-pitched that it undermined his macho cowboy image, but others argue that sound films simply had too much talking for Mix’s taste: He preferred wild action sequences to heartfelt conversation. On the day he died, Mix was driving north from Tucson in his beloved bright-yellow Cord Phaeton sports car. He was driving so fast that he didn’t notice–or failed to heed–signs warning that one of the bridges was out on the road ahead. The Phaeton swung into a gully and Mix was smacked in the back of the head by one of the heavy aluminum suitcases he was carrying in the convertible’s backseat. The impact broke the actor’s neck and he died almost instantly. Today, the dented “Suitcase of Death” is the featured attraction at the Tom Mix Museum in Dewey, Oklahoma.

Related Videos Tom Mix - Biography - IMDb Biography Showing all 43 items Jump to: Overview (4) | Mini Bio (1) | Spouse (5) | Trivia (27) | Personal Quotes (3) | Salary (3) Overview (4) 6' (1.83 m) Mini Bio (1) The son of a lumberman, Tom Mix joined the army as a young man and was an artillery sergeant during the Philippine campaign from 1898 to 1901, though he never saw action. In fact, Mix deserted from the army and carefully kept the facts about his military service a closely guarded secret. About 1903 he was drum major with the Oklahoma Cavalry Band, playing in the St. Louis World's Fair. In 1904 he was a bartender and sheriff/marshal in Dewey, Oklahoma. He was in a series of Wild West shows, such as The Miller Bros. Wild West Show, from 1906-1909; the Widerman show in Amarillo, Texas; with wife Olive Mix in Seattle's Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition; and Will A. Dickey's Circle D Ranch.

The latter supplied Selig Pictures with cowboys and Indians for movies and, in 1910, Mix was hired by Selig to provide and handle horses. His first movie was Ranch Life in the Great Southwest (1910). He continued with Selig until 1917, writing and directing as well as acting. He was signed by Fox Films in 1917 and remained with them until 1928, averaging five or so films a year. His popularity eclipsed all other great cowboy stars ( Hoot Gibson and even the legendary William S. Hart ) of the silent era and he earned--and spent--millions. In addition to Mix's riding and shooting skills, the films also showcased the talents of his amazing horse, Tony the Horse .

Sound and encroaching middle age were not favorable to Mix, and after making a handful of pictures during the sound era he left the film industry after 1935's serial, The Miracle Rider (1935) (a huge hit for lowly Mascot Pictures, grossing over $1 million; Mix earned $40,000), touring with the Sells Floto Circus in 1930 and 1931 and the Tom Mix Circus from 1936 to 1938. While Mix was a great showman, the combination of the Depression and the high overhead of his traveling shows conspired against his success. Mix developed a comical style, emphasizing fast action thrills to a greater extent than had been common in earlier westerns, and he did his own stunts. He was king of the cowboys during the 1920s and remained popular on radio and in comic books for more than a decade after his death. He died in an auto accident in 1940. Served as a pallbearer at the funeral of legendary western lawman Wyatt Earp in 1929.

Appears on sleeve of The Beatles ' "Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" album. Made over $6,000,000 during his career but an extravagant lifestyle had sharply reduced his estate to a modest amount by the time he died. Rumors that that Mix's radio career never got off the ground after he left films because his voice was high-pitched are not true. His voice, in fact, was deep and husky in tone. Radio was such a low-paying profession that it could not support his high-on-the-hog style of living. He loved sports cars, wild parties and fancy clothes. He owned a huge Hollywood mansion that had his name emblazoned above it in neon lights and had numerous ex-wives to support. Mix instead left films for his true passion, the circus. He became one of its greatest showmen. Tom's parents were Edwin and Elizabeth Mix. They named him Thomas Hezikiah Mix. When he enlisted in the Army in 1898, he listed his name as Thomas E. Mix (for Edwin). Charter member of the Hall of Great Western Performers of the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum in 1958.

He deserted the army to marry his first wife, Grace Allin; the fact that he was a deserter did not come up until after his death, by which time he was so famous that the army had to hold its tongue and give him a full military burial. This dovetails neatly into the known facts and into the legend of Tom Mix. Daughter with Victoria Forde , Thomasina On April 13, 2002, his guns were stolen from the Tom Mix Museum in Dewey, OK. Never had kind words for John Wayne because, many believe, he was afraid that Wayne would push him out of the limelight. That hatred grew as Wayne's star rose and, due to the fact that Mix wouldn't take a pay cut to do radio, his own star began to fall. Asked by a journalist what he thought of Wayne, Mix only replied, "The only Christian words that I could use are 'no-talent upstart'". Wayne, for his part, had disliked Mix since Wayne's college days at USC, when Mix told several members of the football team (Wayne among them) to stop by Fox Studios and he would get them jobs in the movies.

Wayne and several others did so a few weeks later, only to be informed that Mix had never told anyone at the studio about his promises of employment, and they were thrown off the lot. Wayne never forgave Mix. On October 12, 1940, while driving his 1937 Cord Sportsman through the Arizona desert he took a turn too fast, a suitcase broke loose and struck him in the head and his car plunged into a ravine. The ravine was later named "The Tom Mix Wash" in his honor. A plaque at the location reads: "TOM MIX January 6, 1880 - October 12, 1940 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.". He was Peter Cushing 's childhood hero. In 1904 he was a bartender and marshal in the small town of Dewey, OK, which is also the hometown of actor/filmmaker Adam Ropp . Ropp is a close friend of the Tom Mix Museum and visits on a regular basis.

Ironically, Ropp's directorial debut ( Last Conversation (2003)) was shot in Dewey and starred Mix's great, great grandnephew, Bret Mix . At his funeral Rudy Vallee sang "Empty Saddles" Despite stories to the contrary, he was not a member of President Theodore Roosevelt 's Rough Riders in Cuba during the Spanish-American War. Great uncle of DeWalt Mix . Profiled in "Back in the Saddle: Essays on Western Film and Television Actors", Gary Yoggy, ed. (McFarland, 1998). Author Clifford Irving wrote a "historical fiction" novel, "Tom Mix and Pancho Villa", about Mix's involvement with Mexican revolutionary Pancho Villa and his supposedly joining Villa's army in the fight against dictator Porfirio Díaz in the bloody Mexican civil wars of the early 20th century. While it's known that Mix did spend time in Mexico during that violent era and had mentioned years later that he had in fact met Villa, it's not known if their association was as close as Irving claimed it was in the novel.

He is mentioned in the song "TV is the Thing This Year" (1953) written by William Sanford and Phil Medley . Credited with revolutionizing the Western film genre by eschewing realism in favor of more fantastical, lighthearted story lines and picturesque visual elements (clean, expensively tailored costumes, etc). He is often presented by film historians as the first 'rhinestone' cowboy. According to author Jeff Guinn, Mix was good friends with Frank Hamer , the Texas Ranger who became famous for bringing to justice the members of the Newton Brothers gang (1924) and for tracking down outlaws Clyde Barrow and Bonnie Parker (1934). At one point during the height of his career, he had all his cars fitted with custom-manufactured tires specially molded to leave tracks with his initials TM in the road. He never thought much of his acting ability. Once when a director asks him to change expressions, he responded "Which one do you want? One? two? or three?". Was the favorite movie star of "Jed Clampett", the patriarch of the Clampett family in The Beverly Hillbillies (1962).

In 1939, shortly before the Second World War, Mix appeared with his Tom Mix Circus in Germany. Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler , who was an enthusiastic film fan and admirer of Mix, welcomed the western star via telephone in Germany. It is reported that Mix answered to Hitler: "I would like to visit my fans in Germany again, but only over your dead body.". Personal Quotes (3) [of his famous horse, Tony the Horse ] I've owned Tony since he was born, 17 years ago. He is a good horse and will be for some time yet, as I have never extended him in work. He doesn't like this tour much, though, and has been getting cross about it. Several times he has tried to bite me within the last few days and once he succeeded. I try to make the pictures so that when a boy pays, say, 20 cents to see it, he will get 20 cents worth, not 10. If I drop, you see, it would be like putting my hand in his pocket and stealing a dime.

Years ago I used to live in a cow-camp, where a bed and a knife, fork, spoon were all the things I could look forward to in the evening. Now I live in what is known as a gentleman's estate. There is a big house and a lawn in front of which Barnum and Bailey could put all their tents. There are tennis courts and a swimming pool with so many different-colored tiles that you feel ashamed to get in with only an ordinary bathing suit. I go back to this place in the evening and wander around. Nothing there but dignity. Salary (3) A SHORT GUIDE TO GREAT WESTERN COWBOY FILM STAR TOM MIX | eBay A SHORT GUIDE TO GREAT WESTERN COWBOY FILM STAR TOM MIX Share June 9, 2007 Thomas E. Mix (January 6, 1880 – October 12, 1940) was an American film actor, the star of many early Western movies. He made a reported 336 films between 1910 and 1935, all but 9 of them silent features.

In the process he became Hollywood’s first larger-than-life Western megastar, and defined the genre for all actors that followed. Mix was born Thomas Hezikiah Mix into a relatively poor logging family in Mix Run, Pennsylvania, about 40 miles (60 km) north of State College, Pennsylvania. When he enlisted in the Army in April 1898, he registered as Thomas E. Mix. He served in a heavy artillery unit during the Spanish-American War. He re-enlisted in 1901, but failed to return to duty after a 1902 extended furlough when he married Grace I. Allin on July 18th. Mix was listed as AWOL on November 4, 1902, yet he was never court martialed or -- apparently -- even properly discharged. His marriage was annulled a year later. In 1905, Tom Mix married Kitty Jewel Perinne but this too ended within a year and in 1907 he married Olive Stokes with whom he had a daughter.

After working a variety of odd jobs in the Oklahoma Territory, Mix went on to work at the 101 Ranch, the largest ranching outfit in the US, with 101,000 acres (409 km²), hence the name 101. He distinguished himself as a horseman and expert shot, winning the 1909 national Riding and Rodeo Championship. Mix is rumored to have served a brief and undistinguished term with the Texas Rangers. In the realm of the real wild west, Tom was a pallbearer at the 1929 funeral of Wyatt Earp. Reportedly, he wept. Film Career Mix was picked out to be a supporting cast member with the Selig Polyscope Company, one of the first silent film makers. His first shoot (1910) was "Ranch Life in the Great Southwest" and he showed off his signature style as a cattle wrangler. The film was a success and Tom Mix became a star. While with Selig, he co-starred with Victoria Forde and they fell in love. He divorced Olive Stokes-Mix in 1917 to marry Forde in 1918.

They had a daughter, Thomasina Mix, but divorced in 1931. He performed in more than 100 films with Selig, many of which were filmed in Las Vegas, New Mexico. Throughout the silent film era, Mix helped redefine what the western film genre could be through an emphasis on action in pursuit of the bad guys. Mix's career in the movies lasted 26 years and made him $6,000,000. Lobby card for the 1916 film "The Man Within," a 3-reel short starring Tom Mix, Mix's then-wife Victoria Forde, Pat Chrisman, Sid Jordan and Joe Ryan. William Selig Produced by Selig Polyscope Company, "The Man Within" was directed by Mix and written by Stanley Stedman. It was made during the period in which Mix did much filming in Newhall. Selig folded in 1917, and Tom Mix and his wife Victoria both signed with Fox Film Corporation. He went on to make more than 160 films throughout the 1920s, each growing in plot and complexity as the matinee film became a Saturday staple for escapist American youth.

These were “packaged” dramatic films, no longer attempting the documentary style of the Selig days, with clear-cut heroes and villains and a clean-cut cowboy always saving the day. (Ronald Reagan and John Wayne both watched Tom Mix films when they were boys.) Tom Mix did his own stunts in almost all of his pictures, and was frequently injured The Fatal accident Tom Mix died October 12, 1940, in an auto accident in Florence, Arizona in which he was killed by a suitcase. He was driving his 1937 Cord 812 Phaeton in the afternoon between Tucson, Arizona and Phoenix, Arizona on a two-lane road, when he came upon a bridge that had been washed away in a flash flood. Mix’s car catapulted across the empty space and crashed into the other side. The metal-hardened suitcase he had packed and put on the seat behind him flew free and struck him in the back of the head, shattering his skull and killing him instantly. (A workcrew witnessed the accident.) The accident occurred on what is now Arizona State Route 79. A historical marker is located at the accident site. Mix is interred in the Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery in Glendale, California.

Honors For his contribution to the motion picture industry, Tom Mix has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 1708 Vine Street. He has his cowboy boot prints, palm prints and his famous horse Tony's hoof prints in 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. There is a Tom Mix museum in Dewey, Oklahoma and another in Mix Run, Pennsylvania. A Tom Mix Festival is held in DuBois, Pennsylvania every September. Tom Mix's face is one of many pictured on the Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band album cover. As a fictional character A fictional character called Tom Mix frequently appeared in USA Western comics as they were before the Comics Code came. Bruce Willis played Tom Mix in the film Sunset with James Garner as Wyatt Earp. Tom Mix Trivia Tom Mix - Page 2 of 3 - Guns of the Old West Tom atop Tony, sometime in the early 1930s.

Lobby card for Flaming Guns, Universal, (1932) (Boyd Magers Collection). Mix always got his man on the silver screen. Lobby card for Hidden Gold, (1932) (Boyd Magers Collection). King Of The Cowboys In 1917, he was signed by Fox Films, making about five films a year over the next nine years; that same year, he and Olive would also divorce. His star grew to outshine that of all cowboy heroes of the silent era. Perhaps his closest rival was William S. Hart, but even Hart found himself in Mix’s shadow. Some notable films for Mix during this time were; Up and Coming, Trailin’, Chasing the Moon, The Deadwood Coach, Riders of the Purple Sage and Arizona Wildcat among scores of others. As was common in those days, studio publicists took great license to embellish upon Mix’s past to create a more colorful, straight-arrow background for him; in fact, part of the chore of writing this piece becomes working through the hype and discerning between fact and fiction of the life of the real man, three-quarters of a century later.

Tom’s “enhanced” resume included the notion that he was born in 1880 in El Paso, Texas, and exploits fighting the Spanish-American War in Cuba with Theodore Roosevelt’s Rough Riders, riding with the Texas Rangers, and the like. Tom actually rode in Roosevelt’s inaugural parade in a group of about 50 horsemen, some of whom included actual Rough Riders — but that was as close as he ever came to the group. At least one newspaper obituary would claim that he had served in the Boxer Rebellion and the Boer war in addition to the Spanish-American War, was sheriff of Montgomery County, Kansas, and Washington County, Oklahoma, a U.S. Marshal in eastern Oklahoma, and a Texas Ranger to boot. He would marry wife number four, Victoria Forde, on May 5th, 1918. Victoria would give birth to second daughter, Thomasina Mix. A little known fact is that Victoria shot Tom during a domestic disturbance between the two; she would claim that he was beating her, and she shot him in self-defense. Not much else is known about the incident, but it apparently did little to slow his career.

Silver Screen He earned $4,000 a week in 1923’s Stepping Fast; the same year he starred in the Lone Star Ranger, and Riders of the Purple Sage in 1925, as well as The Rainbow Trail. By 1928, he was the highest paid actor in Hollywood, earning $17,000 per week. Despite his success, he would continue to go on the road with the circus from time-to-time throughout his career. He was also a pallbearer in the funeral of fabled Western lawman Wyatt Earp, with whom he had become acquainted in Los Angeles. In 1932, he was Tom Destry in Destry Rides Again, well before the James Stewart and Audie Murphy versions. Now divorced, he would marry his fifth and final wife, Mabel Hubbell Ward on February 15th of the same year. They would remain married until his death in 1940. Texas Ranger Frank Hamer, most well-known for his role in tracking down and killing the infamous crime duo, Bonnie and Clyde in 1934, was involved in a shootout in Sweetwater Texas in 1918.

While he killed one of his adversaries, he was wounded severely enough to require a year-long recovery. He spent that time in Los Angeles, where he would later claim in his biography that he met and became close friends with Tom Mix. After the shooting of Clyde Barrow and Bonnie Parker, Tom wrote a congratulatory letter to Hamer on the stationery of Sam B. Dill’s Circus. The letterhead stated “Starring Tom Mix and Tony.” According to Hamer, Tom studied and emulated his “air” and personality, and that study became Mix’s on-screen personality from that point forward. Tom’s considerable riding and shooting abilities dazzled theater audiences; equally talented was his marvelous horse, Tony. He brought comedy to the genre, as well as action-packed themes unlike anything the silent films had seen previous. He also did a lot of his own stunts… though, contrary to reports that he did all of his stunts exclusively, a stuntman was often used, as he was simply too valuable a commodity to the studio — regardless of the fact that he was very capable. It is known for certain that a double was used in his last serial The Miracle Rider 1935 (Mix was 55).

His cherished horse, Tony, was never used in dangerous stunts though. Another horse doubled for the animal, because, as Richard Jensen wrote, “Tom loved the horse too much to risk its life.” Tony would appear in Tom Mix’s adventures for 20 years. There is a bit of a controversy about his most impressive stunt, a jump over Beale’s Cut atop a horse in 1923’s Three Jumps Ahead. Some in the industry have asserted that Mix made the jump, others claim camera tricks, and still others (stuntmen) make the claim they, themselves made the jump. Other accounts credit various others as having done it. At this point, we’ll probably never know. All told, he would make around 327 silent Westerns before the advent of sound. Mix made nine pictures after the industry made the transition to sound, ending with the aforementioned serial The Miracle Rider 1935, which was a large success for small-time Mascot Pictures, earning over $1 million for Mascot, and $40,000 for Tom. In 1933, the Ralston Purina Company secured permission to produce a radio series called Tom Mix Ralston Straight Shooters.

Tom never provided his own voice, but instead he was portrayed by a number of radio actors; the show would remain popular into the 1950s. The Cowboy actor Tom Mix dies in an Arizona car accident - Oct 12, 1940 - HISTORY.com The Cowboy actor Tom Mix dies in an Arizona car accident Share this: The Cowboy actor Tom Mix dies in an Arizona car accident Author The Cowboy actor Tom Mix dies in an Arizona car accident URL Publisher A+E Networks On this day in 1940, the famous cowboy actor Tom Mix is killed in a freak car accident near his ranch in Florence, Arizona. Driving his single-seat roadster along a straight desert road, Mix apparently ignored warnings that a bridge was out on a shallow gully and was fatally crushed by a heavy suitcase that flew off the rear shelf of his car. Mix had been one of the biggest silent movies stars in Hollywood during the 1920s, appearing in more than 300 westerns and making as much as $10,000 a week.

Unlike most of the actors appearing in westerns, Mix (whose full name was Thomas Hezikah Mix) had actually worked as a cowboy, served as a soldier during the Spanish-American War, and been a Texas Ranger, so he brought a wealth of real experience to his fictional cowboy characters. In 1906, Mix joined a Wild West show, and that led him to begin acting in motion pictures four years later. In his many one- and two-reel western adventure films—most of which have been lost because they were released on highly combustible nitrate film stock—Mix helped define the classic image of the western movie cowboy as a rough riding, quick-shooting defender of right and justice, an image that would be copied by hundreds of other actors who followed him. Mix’s real costar in his movies, “Tony the Wonder Horse,” also became very popular and helped set the pattern for the “Silvers” that followed. With the coming of talking pictures, Mix’s movie career stalled. In 1933, he organized Tom Mix’s Circus and Wild West Show and helped create The Tom Mix Show on radio.

But despite the popularity of the radio show (in which Mix did not personally act), Mix never recaptured the success he had known during the golden era of the silent western movies. When he died in 1940 at the age of 60, he had lost most of his wealth and was largely forgotten by the public that once adored him. Yet Mix is not entirely forgotten today. A black iron silhouette of a riderless bronco marks the site of Mix’s death on the highway about 17 miles south of Florence, Arizona. The so-called “suitcase of death” is preserved at the Tom Mix Museum in Dewey, Oklahoma, along with a life-size replica of Tony the Wonder Horse.

Related Videos Sweethearts Of The West: KEEPING THE OLD WEST ALIVE…TOM MIX STYLE KEEPING THE OLD WEST ALIVE…TOM MIX STYLE By: Ashley Kath-Bilsky “The Old West is not a certain place in a certain time, it’s a state of mind; it’s whatever you want it to be.” ~ Tom Mix I came across the above quote – which I not only love but believe sums up how I feel about the American West – and wondered, “Who was Tom Mix?” Much as I pride myself on my knowledge of film trivia, I had no idea this man was the first GIANT cowboy star and pretty much the father of western films as we know them. For me, the first cowboy star whose film work I saw on television was Roy Rogers. I have since learned that long before there was Roy Rogers and Trigger, there was Tom Mix and his wonder horse, Tony. Between 1901 and 1935, Tom Mix made 291 films. Only nine of these films were not ‘silent’. Regardless of whether or not the film was a ‘talkie’, Tom Mix films became the unbreakable cornerstone of the western genre.

They provided an action-packed script, a hero that always saved the day (no matter the odds), and despicable villains who made the enraptured audience boo and hiss. Along with fast-paced, exciting action sequences, thrilling horseback riding, and dangerous stunts that Tom Mix did himself, audiences were able to actually see an authentic ‘frontier town’ situated on a 12-acre set. The authenticity of the set (built by Mix and called Mixville) not only included a town (the layout of which has pretty much been replicated in every western film or television show you’ve ever seen), but also had an Indian village and ranch outside the town, as well as a simulated desert and distant mountain range. How exciting it must have been for those who only read about the Old West in penny novels to suddenly see it come to life on a movie screen. Without question, the persona Tom Mix created on film became the prototype of the iconic heroic cowboy that many actors have since portrayed over the years. It isn't a stretch of the imagination to believe his image on celluloid inspired many actors to follow in his footsteps.

In fact, after being injured playing football for USC, a yet unknown John Wayne (then Marion Morrison) got a job working at Fox Studios with the help of Tom Mix. Many agree that the mannerisms John Wayne often exhibited in his roles were influenced by western stars he admired, including Tom Mix. But who was Tom Mix? He was part of a time in movie history where stars were given new names and new identities. The studio system (even in its infancy) had their own publicity department. Creating "creative" bios about their actors was an art. After all, what the public didn't know wouldn't hurt them, but the truth might lose the studio money. Thus, targeting their ticket-buying audience, (which often included children and wholesome families) they did everything they could to protect their property and his heroic image, build a devoted fan base, and make films quick and fast while the iron was hot. Hit movies (many of which were serials) resulted in more than earnings at the box office. Lucrative product endorsements and paid personal appearances were also at stake. Nothing was left to chance.

For example, would that little buckaroo in his cowboy pajamas have believed in Roy Rogers so enthusiastically if he knew his larger than life hero’s real name was Leonard Slye and he once worked at a shoe factory? Leonard Slye or Roy Rogers? Hmm. Which sounds more heroic? I think we’d all agree, Roy Rogers. Well, when it came to Tom Mix, at least the studio didn’t have to change his name. Born Thomas Hezekiah Mix on 06 January 1880 in Drift Run, Pennsylvania, he was the second son of Edwin and Elizabeth Mix. His father was a stable master, thus explaining where and how Tom learned how to train horses and become an exceptional trick rider. From his childhood, we know that when his older brother, Harry, died suddenly, a then 11-year old Tom (already disenchanted with school), decided to not further his education beyond the Fifth Grade. Although his parents wanted him to continue his schooling, Tom knew what he wanted to be when he grew up. He had just seen Buffalo Bill Cody’s Wild West Show. The exciting visual Buffalo Bill Cody portrayed to his audience had a profound effect on the boy.

He watched as heroic, larger than life, Buffalo Bill Cody rode to the rescue of a stagecoach being robbed, as well as a cabin being attacked by Indians. A multitude of costumed cowboys and Indians rode about with impressive skill and thrilling stunts. Sharpshooters amazed, and trick roping left him speechless. Before you could say lickity-split, Tom went home and used his mother’s clothesline to practice roping cows. He taught himself how to ride like the wind, to do flying mounts where (much to the concern of his parents) he would grab hold of a running horse and vault onto its back, or stand on the horse’s back while it ran. Concern turned to horror for his parents, however, when Tom started to practice trick-shooting and knife-throwing. Yet even after he accidentally shot himself above the knee trying to dislodge a jammed bullet with a pocket knife, the determination of Tom Mix could not be denied. It became more and more apparent to everyone that Tom Mix wanted to be a cowboy, to go west and be part of the world Buffalo Bill Cody had brought to life. He even made a cowboy costume for himself.

What his mother thought of her young son’s sewing skills is not known, but it prompted her to make him a far better cowboy outfit complete with an embroidered charro jacket and leather chaps. He was now just 12 years old. Records show that Tom enlisted in the Army the day the United States declared war on Spain in 1898. Although just 18, he lied and said he was 21 – most likely to avoid the requirement of parental consent for someone 18 years of age. Assigned to Battery B Artillery, he was trained in Delaware to operate 50-ton guns, and promoted to the rank of Corporal. However, the war soon ended and Tom found himself bored in the Army. Never having seen battle, Tom was transferred to New Hampshire’s Fort Constitution in November 1898, and promoted to Sergeant by the end of the year. In April 1901, he re-enlisted in Fort Hancock, New Jersey. For his re-enlistment, a now 21-year old Tom was given a two-week furlough. While in Fort Monroe visiting friends, he met school teacher, Grace Allen.

Fourteen months later, on another furlough, Tom and Grace married. However, living apart was not what the bride wanted…or the groom for that matter. When his bride asked him to choose her or the Army, Tom went AWOL. The date was 25 October 1902. On 04 November 1902, he was officially declared a deserter. Together with his wife, he moved to the Oklahoma Territory and settled in the town of Guthrie. Grace found a teaching position, and Tom worked several jobs, one of which was tending bar at the Blue Belle Saloon. He also broke horses for local ranchers. When the marriage failed and Grace returned to her parents’ home in Kentucky, a local rancher named Zach Mulhall asked a now depressed Tom if he would like to be the drum major for the Oklahoma Cavalry Band. Tom had no musical training; neither was he a member of the Oklahoma Cavalry. Still, he got the job. Wearing a flashy uniform, he marched to the music before the band whilst raising and lowering his Drum Major staff. When the band appeared at the 1904 World’s Fair in St.

Louis, Tom was there and made quite an impression on the crowd. No doubt, the attention he received reignited Tom's dream of being in a Wild West Show. One might say that St. Louis was the real birthplace of Tom Mix, for it was here he began to create a new persona – one that garnered positive attention, pleased his newfound fans, and distanced him from the reality of having been a deserter from the Army. From this point on, the story of his life begins to transform and become embellished. Between the tall tales Tom told and what the studio system perpetuated about him, it was difficult to know truth from fiction. Depending on whose version you believe, he served as a scout in the Spanish-American War where he was severely wounded (shot in the mouth, in fact, which explained his crooked smile), and was also a non-combatant horse wrangler who witnessed the final battles of the Boer Wars in South Africa. The truth is, much as he wanted to see the perceived glory of battle, he never left the states. He claimed to have been a cowboy wrangler in Texas and Oklahoma. He did do this from time-to-time in Oklahoma and Texas.

Perhaps to make his cowboy persona more believable, he claimed he was born in Texas. I’m willing to let the born in Texas claim slide since, as most non-native Texans will tell you, “I may not have been born in Texas, but I got here as soon as I could.” Most likely, this was a fib orchestrated by the studio to complement his cowboy image. Another claim – one embellished by the movie studio’s publicity department – was that Tom Mix had been a Rough Rider with Teddy Roosevelt. The truth is, although he rode with Seth Bullock and 50 costumed horsemen, including some Rough Riders, in the 1905 Inaugural Parade to honor President Theodore Roosevelt, he never served as a Rough Rider. [Photo: President Theodore Roosevelt's Inaugural Parade 1905] Other highlights (fact or fiction) of his life include serving as sheriff of Montgomery County, Kansas, and Washington County, Oklahoma. Another is that he was a US Marshal in Montana, New Mexico, and Arizona, and as a Texas Ranger was twice wounded in gunfights with bandits and rustlers. Whether or not he was a peace officer, sheriff, or US Marshal is doubtful.

As for the Texas Ranger claim, although the Texas Rangers (sticklers for accurate record-keeping) have no record of his being one of their Rangers, Governor Allred of Texas made Tom Mix an “Honorary Texas Ranger” in 1935. Just like Buffalo Bill Cody had often done when writing (and talking) about his life and experiences in the American West, Tom Mix learned the art of self-promotion and embellishment. And as it had with Cody, sometimes the truth, half-truths, and heroic tall tales about a person become blurred over time. What can be said with any certainty is that Tom Mix made his first silent film in 1909. Within two years, he was a screen idol. He was a pioneer of the western movie genre including formula concept, plot, set design, and location filming as well as the original 'King of the Cowboys' and model for every iconic cowboy hero that has followed after him. Although most of his films are lost forever, his legacy still influences an industry and perpetuates the image of Western movies that has endured the test of time, and influenced other actors, writers, directors. Whatever aspects of his bio may be fact or fiction, it makes no difference now.

Just as his films combined fantasy with reality in depicting the Wild West, his identity is a combination of both as well. Perhaps what can be said of this original, iconic cowboy hero was best said by Will Rogers: “Tom is smart, like Henry Ford. He makes what the people want.” Isn’t that the most important testament to his work and his life? It doesn’t matter where you come from. Nothing changes his contribution to the genre, or his obvious love of horses, westerns, the cowboy way of life, and the Old West. As a little boy he wanted to be a cowboy. He had been inspired by Buffalo Bill Cody. In turn, he inspired others as well. Let's re-read the quote I posted from Tom Mix that opened this article. “The Old West is not a certain place in a certain time; it’s a state of mind. It’s whatever you want it to be.” I think the same can be said about him as an individual. Although I don't condone fabricating falsehoods about ourselves, I do believe we all have the potential to achieve our dreams, to be whatever we want to be if we work hard and have determination. We should not be limited by our past, or defined by it.

It is our life’s journey and what we accomplish in the time we have that best defines our spirit, and how we should be remembered. Thanks for stopping by Sweethearts of the West, and I hope you enjoyed this post. ~ AKB Sources: The Amazing Tom Mix: The Most Famous Cowboy of the Movies, by: Richard D. Jensen (2005) The Fabulous Tom Mix, by Olive Stokes, with Eric Heath (1957). New York: Prentice-Hall, Inc. Where a Cowboy Film Star Made His Last Stand : NPR Where a Cowboy Film Star Made His Last Stand Embed Embed Where a Cowboy Film Star Made His Last Stand Where a Cowboy Film Star Made His Last Stand Embed Embed Heard on Weekend Edition Sunday Ted Robbins Tom Mix performed his own spectacular stunts in his action-packed films, helping to make him the first Western superstar. He starred in more than 300 Westerns between 1910 and 1935. Hulton Archive/Getty Images hide caption toggle caption Hulton Archive/Getty Images Western film star Tom Mix is gone, but not forgotten.

On a stretch of desert highway between Phoenix and Tucson, a rock monument topped by a riderless horse marks the spot where Mix died in a 1940 car crash. LYNN NEARY, Host: This morning, we're headed out west to visit the place where a legendary movie cowboy rode into the sunset for the last time. Tom Mix was a superstar who made over 300 westerns between 1910 and 1935. Today, the man and the legend are remembered on a lonely stretch of Arizona highway. NPR's Ted Robbins reports. TED ROBBINS: I'm just off State Highway 79, a two-lane road between Oracle and Florence, Arizona. There's a sign off the side of the road, a little brown-and- white sign that says "Tom Mix Monument." I must have passed this dozens of times and never even slowed down. Today, I stopped because I found out this is the place where Tom Mix died. (SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC) ROBBINS: When Thomas Hezekiah Mix was born in 1880, the Old West wasn't old.

He learned to ride and rope on an Oklahoma ranch, skills which landed him in Hollywood and, in short order, set him apart from other movie cowboys. Gerry Miller is a Tom Mix historian. GERRY MILLER: Mix wasn't the first necessarily to have stunts in a film, certainly, but he was the first principal actor in the cowboy movies to do his own stunts, and to make them quite spectacular. ROBBINS: Take the silent "Riders of the Purple Sage": the dark, handsome actor climbs a cliff with a baby in his arms, pulls the actress playing his sister behind him, then pushes a giant boulder onto pursuing outlaws. Stunts like that made Tom Mix the first western superstar. The studios cranked out Tom Mix films and a Tom Mix persona. It was a persona Mix himself had no trouble embellishing. MILLER: Mix claims to have fought in the Boar War in the - in the, you know, in the Boxer Rebellion, the Spanish-American War. You know, he claimed to be a Texas Ranger; he wasn't. In my files here of Mix, I have a drawing that Mix one time made showing 23 wounds that he'd received on his body.

ROBBINS: And it was true? MILLER: None of it. None of it, no. ROBBINS: Tom Mix did live hard, though. He loved his liquor and he loved the ladies. He was married five times. Wife number four took a shot at him over another woman. (SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC) ROBBINS: But the public loves his action-packed films. His last, a b-movie serial in 1935, "The Miracle Rider." (SOUNDBITE OF "THE MIRACLE RIDER") (SOUNDBITE OF GUNSHOT) Unidentified Man: Tom. TOM MIX: (As Tom Morgan) (Unintelligible) That man of yours (unintelligible) expect it. The Indians have raised $28,000. ROBBINS: In "The Miracle Rider," Tom saves the Ravenhead Indians from unscrupulous oil speculators. In this scene, Tom thanks the tribe for making him an honorary member. (SOUNDBITE OF "THE MIRACLE RIDER") MIX: My brothers, (unintelligible), they (unintelligible) these tribal words(ph).

ROBBINS: By this time, Tom Mix is 55 years old, tired of learning lines and doing stunts. He tours Sweden with a Wild West show. Then in 1940, he escapes the war in Europe and returns to America. Mix drives west in his yellow Cord Convertible, stopping in Tucson to visit friends. He parties hard on a Friday night. The next day, he heads north toward Phoenix, driving way too fast. What he doesn't know is that a bridge is out, and the repair crew has cut a detour through a dry wash. Historian Gerry Miller says Mix sees the detour, tries to make the turn, and slams on the brakes, but it's too late. MILLER: He had two suitcases in the back of the car, and they came flying out on impact, and one of them hit him in the back of the head. He had a partially crushed skull and severed spinal column, so he was killed instantly. ROBBINS: The aluminum suitcase with a dent in it sits in the Tom Mix Museum in Dewey, Oklahoma. The car didn't have much damage; a California collector now owns it.

(SOUNDBITE OF SPEEDING CARS) ROBBINS: Today, on that desert highway, the Tom Mix monument is more of a pit stop than a destination. In an hour, one red sedan pulls up to the 10-foot-high rock and cement memorial topped with a small figure of a riderless horse. CHUCK CROWNE: Well, I saw the sign, and I remembered that as a child I used to listen to Tom Mix. SANDY CROWNE: The movies. CROWNE: Movies. ROBBINS: Then, Chuck and Sandy Crowne(ph) drive away. A plaque on the monument thanks Tom Mix for fixing memories of the Old West in people's minds even today. Thing is, apart from old timers, few people know it was Tom Mix who gave them those memories. Ted Robbins, NPR News, Tucson. Copyright © 2007 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at for further information. NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by Verb8tm, Inc. , an NPR contractor, and produced using a proprietary transcription process developed with NPR. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future.

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Question: In which war was cowboy star Tom MIx shot in the mouth?
Answer: Spanish American War