Tom Mix

Born: January 6, 1880, Mix Run, Pennsylvania
Died: October 12, 1940 (aged 60), Florence, Arizona

Thomas Edwin Mix (born Thomas Hezikiah Mix) 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.

1. 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 martialed or apparently even discharged.

• Fact or Myth?

2. Mix began his film career as a supporting cast member with the Selig Polyscope Company. His first shoot in 1910 at their studio in the Edendale district of Los Angeles (now known as Echo Park). What was the name of the movie?

3. This 1932 film is considered by many Western experts as the best of the nine sound Westerns made by Tom Mix. What is the movie?

4. In 1933, a Tom Mix radio program hit the airwaves. Tom Mix never participated in the broadcast. The show lasted until 1950. Who was the sponsor?

• Quaker Oats
• Kellogg Cereals
• Ralston Purina

5. What was Tom Mix’s ranch name on the radio series?

• Flying A Ranch
• TM-Bar Ranch
• Circle E Ranch

6. In 1929. Tom Mix served as a pallbearer at the funeral of legendary western lawman. Who was the famous lawman?

• Wyatt Earp
• Matt Dillon
• Bat Masterson

7. Mix appeared with a circus in 1929, 1930 and 1931 at a reported weekly salary of $20,000. What was the name of the circus?

• Ringling Brothers Circus
• Sells-Floto Circus
• Ranch 101 Circus

8. In 1932, Tom Mix made his first sound movie. What was the film?

9. In the 1932 “My Pal, the King", Tom helps the boy king of Ruritania. He teaches the boy King the ways of the West. Who plays the boy king?

• Randolph Scott
• Mickey Rooney
• Rowdy McDowell

10. James Garner played Wyatt Earp in Blake Edwards film Sunset. Who played Tom Mix?

• Tom Keene
• George Clooney
• Bruce Willis

11. On the afternoon of October 12, 1940 Mix was driving his 1937 Cord 812 Phaeton near Florence, Arizona (between Tucson and Phoenix) on two-lane U.S. Highway 80 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 slid into a gully. A large polished aluminum suitcase he had put on the seat 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. Accounts vary as to whether Mix was speeding before the accident, along with the role alcohol consumption may have played.

• Fact or Myth?

12. Where is Tom Mix buried?

• Mix Run Family Cemetery, Dubois, PA
• Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery, Glendale, CA
• Florence Memorial Gardens, Florence, AZ

Answers

1. Fact
2. Ranch Life in the Great Southwest
3. Rider of Death Valley
4. Ralston Purina
5. TM-Bar Ranch
6. Wyatt Earp
7. Sells-Floto Circus
8. Destry Rides Again
9. Mickey Rooney
10. Bruce Willis
11. Fact
12. Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery, Glendale, CA