Tom Mix was an American actor and the star of many early Western movies between 1909 and 1935.
Background
Tom Mix was born on January 6, 1880 in Mix Run, Pennsylvania, United States; the son of Edwin Elias Mix and Elizabeth Heistand. He grew up in nearby DuBois, Pennsylvania, where his father, a stable master for a wealthy lumber merchant, taught him to ride and love horses. He spent time working on a 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.
Career
In April 1898, during the Spanish-American War, he enlisted in the Army under the name Thomas E. (Edwin) Mix. He was listed as AWOL on November 4, 1902, but was never court-martialed nor apparently even discharged. In 1905, Tom Mix rode in President Theodore Roosevelt's inaugural parade with a group of 50 horsemen led by Seth Bullock, which included several former Rough Riders. Mix went to Oklahoma and lived in Guthrie, working as a bartender. He was briefly sheriff of Dewey, Oklahoma, in 1911 eventually finding employment at the Miller Brothers 101 Ranch, one of the largest ranching businesses in the United States, covering 101,000 acres (41,000 ha), hence its name. The ranch had its own touring Wild West show in which Mix appeared. He stood out as a skilled horseman and expert shot, winning national riding and roping contests at Prescott, Arizona, in 1909, and Canon City, Colorado, in 1910.
Mix began his film career as a supporting cast member with the Selig Polyscope Company. His first appearance was in a short film, "The Cowboy Millionaire". In 1910, he appeared as himself in a short documentary film, "Ranch Life in the Great Southwest". Mix performed in more than 100 films for Selig, many of which were filmed in Las Vegas, New Mexico. Mix went on to make more than 160 cowboy films throughout the 1920s. In 1913 Mix moved his family to a ranch he purchased in Prescott called Bar Circle A Ranch. A number of the movies were actually filmed in the Prescott home. Mix appeared with the Sells-Floto Circus in 1929, 1930 and 1931 at a reported weekly salary of $20,000. Mix's last screen appearance was a 15-episode sound Mascot Pictures serial, The Miracle Rider (1935).
In 1933, Ralston-Purina obtained his permission to produce the radio series 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, well after Mix's death.
He was a member of Spanish War Veterans, World War Veterans.
Connections
Tom was married to Grace I. Allin from 1902 to 1903; Kitty Jewel Perinne from 1905 to1906; Olive Stokes from 1909 to 1917; Victoria Forde from 1918 to 1932 and Mabel Hubbell Ward from 1932 to 1940. He had 2 children.
Father:
Edwin Elias Mix (February 22, 1854 – November 29, 1927)
Mother:
Elizabeth Heistand Mix (November 1858 – July 25, 1937)
child:
Ruth Mix
child:
Thomasina Mix
First wife:
Grace I. Allin
Second wife:
Kitty Jewel Perinne
Third wife:
Olive Stokes
fourth wife:
Victoria Forde
fifth wife:
Mabel Hubbell Ward
References
TOM MIX - Cowboy King of Hollywood eBook: Richard Douglas Jensen: Kindle Storek
Tom Mix was the greatest cowboy star in the history of silent – and early sound – Western movies. He was famous throughout the world, and his exploits thrilled millions of fans. In this, his second biography of Tom Mix, film historian Richard Douglas Jensen brings to life the amazing saga of the Pennsylvania-born farm boy who became an Oklahoma cowboy, rodeo champion and wild west show star. When the nascent movie industry beckoned, Tom Mix rode into town with six guns blazing and became the Cowboy King of Hollywood. As famous as silent movie icons Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. and Mary Pickford, Tom Mix was the most popular movie cowboy of his time and the “idol of every American boy.” Not only did Mix thrill audiences the world over, he created the iconography of the clean-cut, flashy-dressed cowboy hero for every cowboy star that followed in his footsteps – from Gene Autry and Roy Rogers to John Wayne and many more. With impeccable research and newly-discovered facts which have never been published before, Jensen crafts an even more detailed picture of the life of one Hollywood’s biggest and most beloved action stars. No other movie hero – with the exception of Jackie Chan – has ever risked his own life to bring so many breath-taking thrills to the screen.