Margaret Brownley
Tom Mix: Real Life Hero or…?
”I was born a cowboy, have lived as a cowboy and will die a cowboy,” Tom Mix liked to say and he was as good as his word–or was he? I’ll let you be the judge. Born in Texas, Tom grew up on a ranch near El Paso. In his teens, he ran away and joined the circus and later fought in the Mexican Revolution, joining Pacho Villa’s army. He was saved within an inch of his life from being shot by a firing squad. Undaunted, he fought in Cuba, China and both sides of the Boer War—and had the medals to prove it. As a sheriff and Texas Ranger he was shot by horse thieves and Indians, and single-handedly captured…
Hold Your Horses This is beginning to read like fiction—which of course, it was. Some was made up by his publicists, some by Tom, himself. The stories of his life are so convoluted that even his biographers have trouble separating fact from fiction. The ironic part is that his real life was even more interesting that his made-up life, but this was Hollywood and, back in the early days, they wanted their cowboys to be real and their heroes to be, well, heroes.
Will the Real Tom Mix Please Stand up?
Thomas Hezikiah Mix was born in Pennsylvania in 1880, the son of a lumberman. He reportedly never liked his middle name and always signed his name Tom E. Mix, E for Edwin. When Tom was nine, his family moved to Dubois, where his father worked as handyman and stable man. Tom loved hanging around the stables and, after seeing Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show, decided he wanted to be a cowboy.
At 18 he joined the army to fight in the Spanish American war but saw no action. He reenlisted but went AWOL after marrying his first wife and was listed as a deserter, though the Army never pursued him or, for that matter, discharged him.
As far as anyone knew, he was never more than an honorary Texas Ranger. Richard D. Jensen writes in The Amazing Tom Mix: The Most Famous Cowboy of the Movies that Tom worked as a night marshal in Oklahoma territory rounding up bootleggers. This appears to be the extent of his lawman days except on screen.
He eventually joined the Miller Brothers 101 Wild West Show. His big break came when he landed a job as a bronc buster in the movie Ranch Life in the Great Southwest. His action based sequence started him on the road to box office success.
What About All those Gun Wounds?
Though he was never shot by Indians or desperados except on screen, he was in actuality shot twice—once when he was 12 and once by his fourth wife. The first time occurred while he and a friend were playing with a pistol. Since his family couldn’t afford a surgeon the bullet remained in his leg for years before it was removed. This episode may have had something to do with his dropping out of school and having only a fourth grade education.
As for being shot by his fourth wife: According to a 1933 Berkeley Daily newspaper, his wife shot him through the shoulder, claiming self-defense. Tom Mix testified that he was shot after “I came home and threw a gigolo out of our place.” Apparently Tom didn’t learn his lesson as went on to marry a fifth time.
King of Cowboys
The first to be called King of Cowboys, Tom Mix made an estimated 300 movies including nine talkies and eventually wrote and directed his own films. He was the highest paid western actor of the times, making in excess of $17,000 a week. Known for his fancy high hats, he reportedly owned over 600 pairs of custom-made boots. Tom’s horse Tony was almost as famous as his owner. Tony died following a hip injury and was replaced by Tony II.
Though Tom’s heroic real life claims were mostly fabricated, on screen he was the real McCoy His movies were full of action and no one could match his daredevil stunts, which he did himself. Not only did he jump off horses, fall off trains and face real bullets, he suffered as many as 80 injuries during his career, including knife wounds, broken ribs, and a near fatal brush with dynamite.
Tom’s death in 1940 was almost as strange as his life. During an Arizona traffic accident a metal suitcase in his car hit him on the head causing fatal injuries. He was 60 years old. His popularity continued for most of the ‘40s through his radio show and comic books.
Two years to the date of his death, his faithful horse Tony II died. We can only imagine what kind of tall tale Tom would have spun from that.
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Almost two years ago my husband and I adopted a dog from an organization that rescues abandoned animals. His name is Hartley and he’s a Jack Russell / Beagle mix. He’s a tad bit . . . odd. He licks furniture (gross), and he’s terrified of little girls. Little boys don’t bother him at all. The poor dog doesn’t know how to chase a ball or play “Fetch,” but he plays catch by pushing the ball with his nose for a distance of about a foot. We roll it back an
d he’s happy.
The series was only one of Rin Tin Tin’s Hollywood credits. His fame goes back to films from the 1920s when he stared in several movies, many of them with western settings. His continued to star in movies up through the 1940s, then moved to television.
t. She died en route from distemper.
The first Rin Tin Tin made 26 movies before he died in 1932. Warner Brothers didn’t want to lose their star, so the mantle was passed to the Rin Tin Tin’s son, known as Junior. The two dogs weren’t identical in appearance, so a publicity campaign began. Junior was the first dog to fly in a commerical airplane. Duncan and Rin Tin Tin No. 3 later particiated WWII by training 5,000 soldiers and dogs for the war effort.
Or Charlie Chaplin in his bowler?
There, that’s better.
Please start by telling us a little about yourself.
I don’t know about you, but it’s HOT in Nebraska! How hot is it?
I remember how exciting those first birthday cakes were. If you’re a mom of many or a grandma, you remember, too. You couldn’t get enough pictures of your baby with frosting up his nose. Wasn’t that darling? Then there were second, third, and fourth birthdays. And then the second third and fourth kids arrived and had birthdays, too—yes I have four children and I lived to tell. And then the grandchildren start arriving—or so they say.
How did I first become interested in Western romance?
books were still bestsellers, and our local library had an entire shelf of them.
Grey’s early books were about the American Revolution.
Definition: noun
The major reasons for naming someone a hero were: Not giving up until a goal is accomplished; Doing what’s right regardless of personal consequences; Doing more than is expected; Staying level-headed in a crisis; Overcoming adversity; Changing society for the better; Willingness to risk personal safety to help others; Commanding the support and respect of others; Not expecting personal recognition.
In talking about the heroes of our books, what qualities do some of our favorite authors think a hero needs?
Lorraine Heath mentions, “A hero should always be willing to sacrifice what he values most in order to ensure the heroine finds happiness.”
You can’t pick up a western romance without it having some reference to the saloon. Saloons played a vital role in the western expansion. They filled a very human need. In addition to fulfilling the main role of quenching a man’s thirst, saloons were a place where cowboys could indulge in “cow talk” and where farmers and ranchers commiserated with each other about the weather/dry spells or floods. It was a place to get information on whatever subject you were needing to know about.
Saloons helped a man forget his loneliness and drown his troubles if only for a few hours. They offered entertainment, comfort, refuge, and refinement. And they were one of few places where a man could escape from his wife.
Saloons reflected the financial health and customers of a town. In wealthier places they were fancy buildings with ornate furnishings. But on the prairie, watering holes were often sod houses or tents. Usually the mining towns where gold or silver was abundant they were opulent and refined.
Most saloons were built shotgun style–real long but not very wide. That was to accommodate a long bar, many of which were 50 to 60 feet in length. Saloon proprietors often competed to see who could get the longest bar. Erickson’s Saloon in 
A little known fact: The typical establishment had towels hanging at certain intervals along the edge of the counter so men could wipe the foam off their beards and mustaches if they needed to.
A lot of history was made inside saloons. States were named, capitals founded, political candidates announced, elections held, and trials conducted. The saloon was the place to be evidently.