Tom Mix survivors (films, not relatives)

Harold Aherne · Post by **Harold Aherne** » Tue Mar 03, 2009 12:36 pm

The survival rate of Tom Mix's features may not be as dreary as one might think. In this AMS thread from 2002 Jon Mirsalis lists all known extant Fox silents from 1923 on, and among them are the following Mix titles. I've annotated where I know of an archive that holds them, also usually from AMS posts. So many are located at the Czech archive in Prague that I use * to indicate that institution.

Romance Land (1923)*
Soft Boiled (1923)--GEH, I think. It was shown there in 2001.
North of Hudson Bay (1923)* also LOC
The Trouble Shooter (1924)*
The Last of the Duanes (1924)*
Oh, You Tony! (1924)--LOC
Teeth (1924)--LOC
Dick Turpin (1925)
Riders of the Purple Sage (1925)
The Rainbow Trail (1925)
The Lucky Horseshoe (1925)--MOMA
The Best Bad Man (1925)*
The Yankee Señor (1926)*
My Own Pal (1926)*
Tony Runs Wild (1926)*
Hard Boiled (1926)*
No Man's Gold (1926)*
The Great K&A Train Robbery (1926)
The Last Trail (1927)
Outlaws of Red River (1927)--MOMA
The Circus Ace (1927)*
Painted Post (1928) [can't find confirmation on this one]

Some of these are likely incomplete, of course. At least a few of Mix's 1919-22 features also survive; see here.

Not a perfect survival rate, but better than Shirley Mason's Fox films: of the 33 she made there from 1920-25, I can only find one that may exist! (Love Letters from 1924, and of course earlier and later films of her career are around as well).

-Harold

Chris Snowden · Post by **Chris Snowden** » Tue Mar 03, 2009 1:20 pm

Harold Aherne wrote:The survival rate of Tom Mix's features may not be as dreary as one might think.

That's right, there are definitely Fox silent stars with worse survival rates than Tom Mix. But Mix made upwards of 70 features for Fox, and most of them are completely gone; of those that do survive, the majority seem to be in a state of archival lock-down, rarely if ever getting screened. Some are definitely incomplete as well.

Bob Birchard is one of the greatest Mix fans on the planet, and he's also the top guy at Cinecon, yet Mix films never turn up on its schedule, apart from last year's disastrous screening of Sky High (and then only because it was Bob's own print). I'm sure he'd be booking more of them, if he could get hold of them. (How about The Best Bad Man, with Clara Bow?)

I understand that just one of his FBO features survives, King Cowboy (1928). But I'm not sure that's really true. It might be that it's simply the trailer which survives (and that much of the film certainly does).

Post by **silentfilm** » Tue Mar 03, 2009 8:16 pm

Checking my notes, I see that Blackhawk sold Great K&A Train Robbery, Just Tony, and Riders of the Purple Sage in Super 8mm and Super 8mm sound. EmGee also sold GK&ATR in 8mm and 16mm.

Sky High was/is sold by EmGee in Super 8mm and 16mm.

Tom and Dorothy Dwan in Silver Valley (1927) Lost?

Getting into earlier films... Cinema Eight sold A Child of the Prairie on 8mm. A few years ago, I donated a couple of smaller nitrate reels of this film to the Library of Congress. I guess that they were for some kind of Toy projector, because I doubt that they were quite 1000 feet when combined. One reel had 1920s reissue titles. As far as I know it has not been restored.

The Heart of Texas Ryan (1916) was available in 16mm from many distributors like Thunderbird, Golden Era Films, Griggs-Moviedrome, and EmGee.

Cinema Eight sold Twisted Trails in 8mm.

The following Selig shorts were sold in 16mm and 8mm:
$5000 Elopement (1915) - I've got a 16mm print
An Angelic Attitude (1916)
An Arizone Wooing (1915)
Bear of a Story (1916)
Bill Haywood, Producer (1915)
How Weary Went a Wooing (1915)
In the Days of the Thundering Herd (1914)
Law and the Outlaw (1913)
Local Color (1916)
The Man From Texas (1915)
Roping a Bride (1915)
Sage Brush Tom (1915)
Stagecoach Driver and the Girl (1915)
Weary Goes Wrong (1915)
A Western Masquerade (1916)
Never Again (1915) - I've got a 16mm print, and it is not that great a film. The film is very primitive for 1915.

Chris Snowden · Post by **Chris Snowden** » Tue Mar 03, 2009 9:16 pm

silentfilm wrote:The Heart of Texas Ryan (1916) was available in 16mm from many distributors like Thunderbird, Golden Era Films, Griggs-Moviedrome, and EmGee.

Ah yes. Notable for a vicious bar fight in which Tom works the bad guy's boot off and beats him to death with it!

Cinema Eight sold Twisted Trails in 8mm.

The following Selig shorts were sold in 16mm and 8mm:
$5000 Elopement (1915) - I've got a 16mm print
An Angelic Attitude (1916)
An Arizone Wooing (1915)
Bear of a Story (1916)
Bill Haywood, Producer (1915)
How Weary Went a Wooing (1915)
In the Days of the Thundering Herd (1914)
Law and the Outlaw (1913)
Local Color (1916)
The Man From Texas (1915)
Roping a Bride (1915)
Sage Brush Tom (1915)
Stagecoach Driver and the Girl (1915)
Weary Goes Wrong (1915)
A Western Masquerade (1916)
Never Again (1915) - I've got a 16mm print, and it is not that great a film. The film is very primitive for 1915.

Somebody (looks like a British distributor) offered The Taming of Grouchy Bill (1916) too.

David Pierce · Post by **David Pierce** » Wed Mar 04, 2009 2:35 am

Going back to Harold's original list, more of the titles are of Czech origin.

The print of TEETH has the Czech title of TOM, TONY, TYGR; OH, YOU TONY! was released in Czech as TOM MIX, COWBOY-KAVALIR.

THE BIG DIAMOND ROBBERY is an FBO title and has been shown at a convention; I believe the Library of Congress repatriated the print from Australia.

David Pierce

Darren Nemeth · Post by **Darren Nemeth** » Thu Mar 05, 2009 2:58 am

Several years ago I donated the final 4 to 6 minutes of the last reel of COMING OF THE LAW (1919) to the Library of Congress. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0010016/

It had nitrate decomp on it so I don't know if they still have it or not.

Here are many frame closeups from that reel.
http://www.giant-squid-audio-lab.com/tommix/

I also have a fragment from some kind of night chase scene (it's tinted blue) possibly from another Mix film. If there is any interest, I can take frame closeups and post them here. However, there is not much to see.

There were many, many 35mm and 16mm Tom Mix toy projector prints made by companies like Keystone going as far back as the 20s into the 1940s, at least.

Peter Kalm · Post by **Peter Kalm** » Thu Mar 05, 2009 8:13 am

I remember hearing about some lost Tom Mix films that were found at a garage sale a few years back. Anybody know anything more about this?

Javawagen · Post by **Javawagen** » Thu Jul 21, 2011 7:52 am

Getting into earlier films... Cinema Eight sold A Child of the Prairie on 8mm. A few years ago, I donated a couple of smaller nitrate reels of this film to the Library of Congress. I guess that they were for some kind of Toy projector, because I doubt that they were quite 1000 feet when combined. One reel had 1920s reissue titles. As far as I know it has not been restored.

I think my grandfather might be in that film with Tom Mix (A Child of the Prairie). Do you know where i might be able to view it or look at stills from the film?

Tom Mix survivors (films, not relatives)

Tom Mix survivors (films, not relatives)

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