January 6, 2021

 

The presence of Movie Cowboy great Tom Mix in my neighborhood of Edendale, now known as Silver Lake, is of great importance to me. From my living room, I can oversee the strip mall that is 365 Whole Foods, and that property used to be Tom Mix’s film studio. I’m a firm believer that there are spirits from that era and beyond that lives on that property. Tom Mix died in a car accident, and he was 60-years old. These days that is still considered young, but a man who spent a great majority of his life on a horse named “Tony the Wonder Horse” and did his own stunts. An excellent shot with a pistol, Mix was the real deal. 

Like America itself, Mix had the talent to make a new identity for himself. He enlisted in the Army during the Spanish-American War. Tom went AWOL when he married his first wife, Grace Allin. That marriage was annulled after a year, and a few years later, he married Olive Stokes in 1909. Mix rode in President Theodore Roosevelt’s parade with horsemen, who some were former Rough Riders. Years later, with the help of Hollywood publicists, Mix suggests that Mix himself was a Rough Rider. 

Tom Mix joined up with the Miller Brothers 101 Ranch, which was a large ranching business. The ranch had its touring Wild West show, and Mix was part of the spectacle. His horse riding skills, using the rope, and pistol-shooting came handy as he turned into an entertainer.  It was around this time that my German Grandmother as a teenager, joined the Mix Wild West Show and toured America and Cuba. Mix started to make films in Edendale (Silver Lake) and made over 100 films for the production house Selig Polyscope Company. And here is where the presence of his being comes into my life. 

I have an 8mm print of “The Cowboy Millionaire” (1909). I play it on his birthday at least three times while looking out the window simultaneously, imagining the scenes from the film are happening down below. The gunfight specifically between Mix and the bad guys made an impression on my imagination. With the images of the movie burning in my brain, I go out and put on a large white cowboy hat and a toy pistol and a gun belt around my waist. I reenact the scene in my head (and heart) from the film as I look over the property that was once owned by Tom Mix.