By Bill Lynam

(This is part one of a two-part article) 

The hoof beats on the radio have gone silent and his western movies are no longer in vogue, but Tom Mix rides on, if only in the memories of his many fans who grew up on his films, radio shows and personal appearances. I asked my brother what he remembered about Tom Mix and he hit me with a portion of an advertising jingle that stuck in his head from the "Tom Mix Ralston Straight Shooters" radio program: "Take a tip from Tom, Go tell your Mom, Hot Ralston can't be beat."

The recent Yavapai Hills subdivision clubhouse expansion in Prescott brings back some of the associations this development and the town had with Tom Mix. Cracking the foundation to tie a new addition onto the original ranch house used in many Mix films didn't unearth any of the 600 pairs of Tom Mix branded boots he had made for himself, or diamond-studded belt buckles with the Diamond TM Bar brand, no embroidered chaps or elaborate western costumes-custom-tailored, tight-fitting pants, angled pockets, and shirts with many buttons in vivid color. But, the memories were of western ranching that is still vital and a movie hero who ranked among the top movie stars of the silent screen era. 

When poking around the new construction site, I thought I saw hoof prints by the clubhouse that might have belonged to Tony, the Wonder Horse, but I could have been wrong. Maybe I just hoped to see some artifact of Tom or his co-star horse. Inside the clubhouse though, you can see a donated oil painting of Tom. At the Yavapai Hills marketing office, Mike Klein has many examples of Tom Mix memorabilia decorating the walls. Mike's father, Mike, Sr. is a serious collector of Tom Mix theatre posters, a few of which can be seen at the office. 

The clubhouse-cum-movie studio grew out of the ranch house in Slaughterhouse Gulch owned by Ed and Elizabeth Albertson who leased the ranch to the Selig Polyscope Company. The movie company used the ranch as a satellite studio and many of Tom's westerns were filmed on the ranch, in the Granite Dells and Williamson Valley. Silents and "talkies" were made here between 1913 and 1928. The Albertson's Bar Circle "A" ranch brand was originally registered in 1883 as the Circle "A" Bar brand. Usage and news accounts commonly referred to it as the Bar Circle "A" and the name stuck and lives on in the Yavapai Hills road by that name as do other street names assigned after the titles of some of Tom's movies. 

Some of the street names you will recognize came from his movie titles, such as: Chip of the Flying "U", a film released in August 1914; In the Days of the Thundering Herd, released in November 1914; Twisted Trails, released in Dec. 1916; The Rough Diamond, released October, 1921 and Riders of the Purple Sage, released in March 1925. The Miracle Rider was released in May 1935. It took up 33 reels and consisted of 15 episodes and was Tom's epic, longest and last movie. 

The Selig film studio in Prescott was referred to as the Diamond "S" Ranch. This was a fictitious ranch based on the Selig trademark "S" and the diamond shaped border around the initial. One of Tom's historians suggest that this may have been his inspiration for what became his Diamond TM Bar trademark on products marketed under his name. 

The original ranch house was remodeled in 1974 and a recreational area added. The remodeling coincided with the acquisition of the 1,240-acre ranch by the J.P. Cabot Equity Corporation for the planned development of the Yavapai Hills subdivision in Prescott. A grand opening of the development was staged on the 4th of July in that year with lots of marketing hoopla. A Miss Yavapai Hills was crowned and the prize belt buckle for bull riding at the Prescott Rodeo was awarded. This last was a tie-in with the fact Tom Mix won first prize at the Prescott Frontier Days rodeo on July 5, 1913 for steer riding and bull dogging. Yavapai Hills also held Tom Mix Days with a Tom Mix look-a-like contest among other events. Initially, the ranch house was used as a sales office, and then later moved to an interim structure built where the new sales office resides alongside Route 69 and Sunrise Boulevard. 

Tom worked in Prescott on and off in a number of movies for the Selig and William Fox Film Studios. He is credited with starring in 336 feature films of which he produced 88, wrote 71 and directed 117. Tom contracted with a series of studios and had a considerable degree of autonomy in making his films. His early films were one, two and three reelers made for Selig Polyscope from 1909 until 1917 when the studio went out of business. He contracted with the Fox Film Corporation from 1917 until 1928, and made five to seven reelers and enjoyed a greater distribution that increased his popularity. One of his biographers suggested his film career "went as flat as a chuck wagon pancake" when the "talkies" came in. Some said it was because of his squeaky voice others say he didn't want to become a singing cowboy like Gene Autry and Roy Rogers. Whatever the reason, he continued to make movies, transitioning into "talkies," for FBO Pictures from 1928-1929, Universal Pictures from 1931-1933 and Mascot Studios in 1935 that produced his finale, The Miracle Rider. 

When Tom was between movies, he appeared in various circuses. After the 1934 circus season, he bought the Sam B. Dill Circus for $400,000 and renamed it the Tom Mix Circus. His truck circus hit the sawdust trail in 1935 through 1938 when it folded at the height of the depression. The attendance had dropped and troubles mounted from high maintenance costs, bad weather, looting and rioting in unfriendly cities. 

(Bill Lynam volunteers for the Sharlot Hall Museum) 



Sharlot Hall Museum Photograph Call Number: (bura2062p). Reuse only by permission.
Yavapai Hills recently expanded their old Clubhouse shown here in the early 1970s. Although there is little physical evidence of Tom Mix's connection to the subdivision, one can find his legacy and history throughout the area in documents, photographs, and books.