Along the Florence-Tucson Highway in Arizona is a small picnic area with a monument.  This monument is for a man who died in the nearby wash in 1940, a man by the name of Tom Mix.







You might ask, how did Mr. Mix come to be memorialized here?  

He was an early Hollywood actor who started the stereotypical "cowboy" portrayed in the Western movies.  He made a lot of money, reportedly earning $6 million over the course of his movie career from 1909-1940, but spent lavishly and was nearly broke when he died.




"Tom Mix was an iconic star of silent film’s horse operas and the first to change the industry from a trend of “realism” to one of a far more idealized, stylized portrayal of the Old West hero characterized by more cheerful storylines, and flashy costumes. In fact, he would be dubbed by many film historians as the first “rhinestone” cowboy, setting the stage for dozens of “B” Western stars to follow, straight through the ‘50s when a return to “realism” would usher in the era of “adult westerns.” The most popular of all screen cowboys of his era, he was known for his tidy, elaborately tailored costumes.

Off screen, Tom led just as flamboyant of a lifestyle, which included white suits with cavernous cowboy hats, a generally fancy wardrobe, wild parties, sports cars, lavish spending, five marriages, and a sprawling Hollywood mansion with his name blazing forth atop the roof in neon lights."  (1)




So how do we get from Hollywood to a desert highway in Arizona?  Reportedly, Mix liked to drive fast and was proceeding north on the highway from Tucson to Phoenix, after a stop in a bar in Oracle Junction, when he came across a gully with a washed-out bridge.

"On the day he died, Mix was driving north from Tucson in his beloved bright-yellow Cord Phaeton sports car. He was driving so fast that he didn't notice--or failed to heed--signs warning that one of the bridges was out on the road ahead. The Phaeton swung into a gully and Mix was smacked in the back of the head by one of the heavy aluminum suitcases he was carrying in the convertible's backseat. The impact broke the actor's neck and he died almost instantly. Today, the dented "Suitcase of Death" is the featured attraction at the Tom Mix Museum in Dewey, Oklahoma." (2)




"The gully was renamed Tom Mix Wash as a makeshift memorial. Seven years later the Pinal County Historical Society erected a monument at the remote site. It's a mortared, cobblestone pile topped with a two-foot-tall black iron silhouette of a saddled but riderless horse, its head bowed." (3)

Interestingly enough, his car was later sold and restored. (4)




(1) http://gunsoftheoldwest.com/2013/02/tom-mix/
(2) http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/silent-film-star-tom-mix-dies-in-arizona-car-wreck-brained-by-suitcase-of-death
(3)http://www.roadsideamerica.com/story/2425
(4)http://www.trivalleycentral.com/florence_reminder_blade_tribune/news/silent-screen-star-s-car-is-beautifully-restored-and-back/article_528a8288-70af-11e2-811e-001a4bcf887a.html

Interesting, looks like he is using a colt double action instead of the usual SAA cowboy gun that was in most old westerns.

It's amazing how some big stars are remembered and others are forgotten.

One of the forgotten ones is Bob Steele.  He was a major actor but when the studio he worked for collapsed, all he could get was supporting roles after that.  He was a minor supporting character in the TV series, F Troop.  He was the "Cowboy Bob" that was frequently mentioned in the comic strip, Dennis the Menace.

Interesting.  I would venture to say, though, that the vast majority of actors and actresses are quickly forgotten once they stop actively making movies.  There are very few named stars that are recognized intergenerationally.

movie on TMC - stars without the makeup by Ken Murray has footage of Mix driving that car 2 weeks before his death.

Mix's movie Sky High is the first aerial footage ever taken of the Grand Canyon.

The Inmates at the florence prison make a new tony the wonderhorse every so often as assholes shoot the horse on top of the monument.

as cinema goes in the early days of film their was william s hart and tom mix. hart would play a more serious cowboy and try to maintain more realism but like movies goers today they want the big hats and flashy fantasy.

if one is in valencia california check out william s hart park, the buffalo (bison) that once used to roam disneyland are located there.


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