Friday, August 5, 2011

Silent Film Cowboys-- Part 2

WILLIAM S. HART

Actually a Shakespearean actor and a big fan of the Old West. Personal friends with Wyatt Earp and Bat Masterson.

Film career began in 1914 and gained his fame initially as the lead role in
The Bargain" shot on location in the Grand Canyon.

Realism was always a big part in his movies as he paid attention to the details of costumes and props. He even was cast in the role of villain.

At Paramount Pictures he made "Square Deal Sanderson" and "The Toll Gate."

He died in 1946 at the age of 81.


TOM MIX

This is the only one of the three I'd ever heard of.

Native of Mix Run, Pennsylvania, became a star in 1910's "Ranch Life in the Great Southwest." An excellent shot, cattle wrangler and horseman, Mix made some 160 cowboy silent Saturday matinee films, always playing the man in the white hat who saved the day. His horse Tony "The Wonder Horse" also became a star.

In 1932, he returned to films in the talkie era.

Mix also opened a film-shooting set called Mixville near Glendale Avenue in the former town of Edendale (where Echo park and Silver Lake are now, I'm figuring in California). It was a 12-acre frontier town with an Indian village, fake desert and realistic miniature mountains.

In 1940, he died at age 60 in a crash on Arizona Highway 79 near Florence. "The Wonder Horse" died two years later.

Wasn't Tom Mix the one hawking that gun that Ralphie wanted so badly in "A Christmas Story?"

Hi-Ho Silver!! Awaaaay!! --DaCoot

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