The Amazing Tom Mix The Most Famous Cowboy of the Movies Tom Mix was a town marshal and cowboy in the Oklahoma Territory, a rodeo champion and a wild west show performer. With his devil-may-care attitude, quick wit and penchant for doing breath-taking stunts on his wonder horse, Tony, Tom Mix went on to become the #1 movie cowboy of silent films, earning millions of dollars at a time when movie tickets cost pennies. While he basked in this incredible acclaim, Tom Mix lived in fear that his deep, dark secrets would be discovered and his career and his cherished heroic image would be destroyed. Celebrated author Richard D. Jensen has spent more than 30 years researching the life of Tom Mix, the man hailed as "the idol of every American boy." With incredible detail, much of it gained from hundreds of original letters, records, documents and eyewitness accounts, The Amazing Tom Mix cuts through 100 years of public relations mythology, tall tales and outright lies to bring the true and inspiring story of a man whose Saturday matinee cowboy image would become the standard for all of the movie cowboys who rode the silver screen after him. "Here is Tom Mix as he really was...a captivating biography ... brilliant ... delightful ... It is a splendid book." -Richard S. Wheeler, five-time Spur Award winning author of Trouble In Tombstone. "... the most complete biography of Mix's life of trials, tribulations and victories." -John Duncklee, author of Bull By The Tale.

In 1913 a young Tom Mix meets revolutionary Pancho Villa and travels with his band across Mexico on a journey that opens his eyes to life, love, violence, and his own illusions

This biographical novel is a revealing look into the very colorful, larger-than-life Western silent-film superstar Tom Mix. The author demonstrates having done meticulous research by interviewing friends, family, and colleagues--contemporaries who knew Tom Mix intimately and paints a vivid sense of who he was. Mix is seemingly forgotten by many Americans, yet he truly was a superstar in every sense of the word. This is even more amazing given that media weren't anything near as high-tech and real-time-oriented as today. He was internationally known for doing most of his own amazing stunts and traveling with his own circus/Wild-West show. The author also reveals that Mix's personal life was no less colorful with: five ex-wives, a huge Hollwood mansion, a fleet of luxury cars and a propensity to drink. Yet he maintained a squeaky-clean, super-hero-like public image. Some of his movies are available online and are worth the look--especially when you realize they were done in an era of few special effects. This book will motivate you to get your hands on these films. "The Last Trail", "The Great K & A Train Robbery" and "Sky High" are great examples of surviving Tom Mix films.

Tom Mix became a major star in the 1920s, earning over $900,000 for his movie work in 1921. Fox refused, however, to renew his contract in 1927, and that, coupled with the stock market crash of 1929, left him virtually penniless. In 1932 Mix resumed his movie career, making Destry Rides Again, his first "talkie." Later he became a circus owner and star. This is the story of Mix's life and career; it includes a comprehensive filmography of his work.

The Dead Line, as it came to be called, was a railroad cutting across the middle of Indian Territory. It ran straight south from Caldwell, Kansas to Fort Reno, I.T., then down through the Cheyenne and Comanche and Kiowa lands, crossing the Red River into Bowie, Texas. It was a line on the map, a demarcation. West of it no law existed, only outlaws. On trails out there, the hunted posted notes on trees and posts to let lawmen know they'd be killed if they continued their pursuits west of the Dead Line.In the storied times of the American West, in what was called Indian Territory, no place came close to matching the dangers and mortality U.S.marshals faced doing their jobs. Those who survived became titans in the legends of the West, particularly one man called Bass Reeves. These stories are fiction; the encounters this lawman faced, and The Dead Line, were not.