TOM MIX FILM ACTOR - EARLY STAR OF WESTERN MOVIES

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Thomas Edwin 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 9 of which were silent features. He was Hollywood’s first Western megastar and is noted as having defined the genre for all cowboy actors who followed. 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. Heroes and villains were sharply defined and a clean-cut cowboy always "saved the day." Millions of American children grew up watching his films on Saturday afternoons. Mix did his own stunts and was frequently injured. Mix's salary at Fox reached $17,500 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 acre 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, a small movie production and project packaging company run by Joseph P. Kennedy Sr. Mix was 49 and by most accounts he was ready to retire from the movies. On the afternoon of October 12, 1940 Mix was driving his 1937 Cord 812 Phaeton near Florence, Arizona (between Tucson and Phoenix) on a two-lane road when he came upon construction barriers at a bridge previously washed away by a flash flood. A workcrew watched as he was unable to brake in time and his car slid into a gully. A large, polished aluminium suitcase he had put on the seat behind him flew free and struck Mix in the back of the head, shattered his skull, broke his neck and killed the 60 year old actor almost instantly. Accounts vary as to whether Mix was speeding before the accident, along with the role alcohol consumption may have played. The site of his death is located on what is now Arizona State Route 79. T is an historical marker and the gully is named Tom Mix Wash. Mix is interred in the Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery in Glendale, California. Tom Mix was "the King of Cowboys" when both Ronald Reagan and John Wayne were pre-teens, and Mix's on-screen persona can certainly be seen in their approach to portraying cowboys. When an injury caused football player John Wayne to drop out of USC, it was Tom Mix who personally 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. In 2007 only about 10% of these were reportedly available for viewing, although it was unclear how many Mix films had been irretrievably lost. 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. T 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. Original Tom Mix Autograph, Signed on Cut Paper. Dated 1932. Approx. size 2 1/8 x 4 3/4 inches.Regular Price - $ 550.00 / Sale Price - $ 295.00. MEMBER OF THE UACC. UNIVERSAL AUTOGRAPH COLLECTOR'S CLUB.<... read more

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