The Fabulous Tom Mix by Olive Stokes Mix Eric Heath

Author:Olive Stokes Mix, Eric Heath [Olive Stokes Mix, Eric Heath]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781258320164
Google: Uz30ugAACAAJ
Barnesnoble:
Goodreads: 9424161
Publisher: Barakaldo Books
Published: 1957-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

When Tom laughed it was no weak chuckle. It was loud enough to echo in the canyon one morning in Colorado when I stood before him, looking far from my usual self.

“Olive, I never would have known you!” Tom whooped.

I laughed too. “You’re in for a real surprise,” I said. “I’m going to play the part of your mother in the next scene.”

The art of screen make-up was in its most rudimentary stage in those days. My face had been covered with cold cream and then heavily powdered to give it a dead white appearance. A few charcoal lines gave me wrinkles. A can of powder combed into my hair gave me the final bit of senescence needed for the scene. In those days, fortunately, audiences were inclined to overlook small defects as long as the semblance to life was at least partly retained.

So I played the role of Tom’s mother in that film. Later I played the same role in several other films Tom made for Selig. Tom made a big joke of it and would often taunt me by introducing me to his friends as his mother. Tom was basically a serious-minded person, but he liked his fun too. He was a great one for playing inoffensive pranks on others, and he enjoyed having them played on him. In later years at certain points along the way he almost lost his capacity to find fun in life. Those were the black moments that came after Tom’s way of life got too big to accommodate even his own personal bigness.

I remember one funny episode that occurred when Tom was at the height of his career in Hollywood. He had made a bet with a well-known actor of those times, Tom Kennedy, a man over six feet tall and weighing over two hundred pounds. Tom bet Kennedy that Jack Dempsey would beat Tunney; it was just prior to that famous battle between the heavyweights. Kennedy wagered two hundred dollars, plus a ride pickaback on the sturdy Mix shoulders. As now written in the history books, Dempsey lost. Tom’s payment of his bet is also written in the memory of several thousand people who witnessed that famous ride.

Kennedy arrived at the appointed spot on Sunset Boulevard with his pocket full of bricks. These were removed by Tom Mix admirers, who also presented the winner of the bet with an unexpected blow in the conventional spot when he had mounted on Mix’s shoulders. The board which hit Kennedy had been arranged to fire a blank cartridge. The wrong side of the instrument was presented to the winner’s anatomy, however, with the result that the cartridge, instead of being blown into space, made a neat bull’s-eye on the seat of the unlucky rider’s trousers. After the fire had been extinguished, Tom added a suit of clothes to the things he owed the winner.

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