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THE WESTERN WAS OF PRIMARY IMPORTANCE IN ESTABLISHING PHYSICAL action as a defining characteristic of the American motion picture industry. In contrast with the Western melodramas of competitors such as Essanay and Lubin, which featured relatively sedate protagonists, not to mention Pathé Frères, whose “Westerns” were an object of derision in the United States, the Selig films are a kinetic revelation. The authentic mise-en-scène that characterizes William Selig’s productions found its ideal complement in his most popular and influential Western star: Tom Mix. By the time Tom Mix began working for Selig early in 1910, virtually every American producer was making Westerns. The earliest stars associated with the genre were stage veterans who had no discernible cowboy skills other than being able to stay atop a horse. Their Westerns were little more than theatrical melodramas staged outdoors. Conversely, the charismatic, athletic Mix enabled Selig to infuse his action narratives with a strong personality possessing exceptional physical skills. A chronological investigation of Mix’s career provides perhaps the clearest evidence of how Selig completed the codification of the Western as “the foundation of an American moving picture drama.”1 It would seem that the first thirty years of Tom Mix’s life were spent in training to become the prototypical movie cowboy. Born on a farm in western Pennsylvania in 1880, Mix was so dazzled at the age of ten by a Buffalo Bill Wild West extravaganza that he resolved to become a real western hero. “He practiced mounts and dismounts, riding bareback[,] standing on a galloping horse [and practicing] with his lariat and gun.”2 In search of fame and adventure , Mix enlisted in the Spanish-American War but ended up guarding a factory and waterways in Delaware against potential sabotage for the duration. After the war he went AWOL and was officially listed as an army deserter.3 C H A P T E R 3 The Creation of the Movie Cowboy COL . WILLIAM N. SELIG ∙ 58 ∙ Tom Mix fled to Guthrie, Oklahoma, where he found employment as a seasonal ranch hand and bartender. From there he moved on to become a deputy sheriff and night marshal in Dewey. In late 1905 Mix was hired as a full-time cowboy working and performing at the Miller Brothers’ “101 Real Wild West Ranch” near Bliss, Oklahoma. The rodeos and spectacles staged at the ranch were an outgrowth of the feats of prowess indulged in by hard-living cowboys who’d show off for each other at the end of cattle drives. In the Millers’ wild west shows, Mix initially played a thief being dragged across the ground of the arena by a horse from a rope that attached to his leather jacket. By 1908, his skills had developed to the point where he “was added to the list of 101 Ranch Champions, as Champion all-around cowboy or king of the cowboys.”4 Mix would soon win prizes at rodeo “frontier celebrations” in Cheyenne, Wyoming , and Grand Island, Nebraska.5 At the beginning of 1909, Mix married accomplished horsewoman Olive Stokes. His roping act became one of the top attractions of a wild west show they organized for a season in Seattle that also featured mock battles with forty Blackfoot Indians. By early 1910 Mix and his wife had joined Will A. Dickey’s Circle D Ranch Wild West Show and Indian Congress, which was contracted to provide personnel, livestock, and props for Westerns made by the Selig Polyscope Company.6 It’s possible that Mix joined Dickey’s show because of the Selig connection. Mix’s cowboy, rodeo, and law enforcement experiences in Oklahoma informed his motion picture narratives and performance style in ways that would transform the genre; further, he was of the final generation to receive practical training in the Old West. As Kevin Brownlow has indicated, the last great cattle drive of Texas longhorns was photographed for inclusion in a silent Western.7 The only opportunity for most movie cowboys and stuntmen born at the turn of the twentieth century or later to learn genuine western skills has been in rodeos, which is itself a form of show business. Thus, Mix is one of the few participants to span the death of the “real” cowboy and the birth of its “reel” counterpart. The first Selig film that Tom Mix appeared in was The Range Riders (1910), directed by Otis Turner on location in Flemington, Missouri.8 Mix plays a sheriff involved...

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