January 6
SILENT COWBOY DAY
Yippee-i-o-ki-ay! On this day in 1880, America’s greatest silent-film cowboy star, Tom Mix, was born!
How did the former Texas Ranger and rodeo star become a movie star? Easy -- at least for Tom Mix. He just walked on, rather he rode on to the set of Ranch Life in the Great Southwest. The year was 1909. Mix was just riding along somewhere in Oklahoma when he spotted the Selig Company film crew. The next thing he knew, he was roping a steer on camera.
We could say he was roped into his film career. The Fox Film Corporation signed him as their feature star along with Theda Bara in 1915. By 1923, Mix was in the top 10 of highest paid film stars; with Mix and his horse, Tony, earning $4,000 a week.
Disappointed moviegoers heard that their box-office favorite was a pretty poor cowboy. He had doubles to do his stunts or often faked them and he had accidentally shot himself. (A decade later, Mix admitted that his wife had shot him. She accused him of spousal abuse.) None of this hurt his career. Sixteen years after his first walk-on, Tom Mix became the highest paid movie star to that time. (Fox resigned him at $20,000 a week.) In 1932, Tony retired leaving Mix horseless.
Eight years later, the silent-film great was killed in an accident in a horseless carriage ending the era of the silent-film cowboy.
Those Were the Days, the Today in History service from 440 International
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