http://dizzydick.blogspot.com/2012/08/wandering-back-in-time-to-appalachians.html
Well, the reason I am mentioning him today is that it was on this day back in 1940 that he was killed while driving his bright yellow Cord Phaeton. Here are a few pictures of Tom Mix:
This next picture is of Tom standing beside his Phaeton:
The car he was driving, was quite a machine. It had a supercharged engine and it was a convertible. Here is a painting of Tom Mix and his yellow Cord Phaeton speeding along the mountain road:
And here is a picture of a similar car that Mix drove that fateful day:
No, I never met him, in fact, I was not even born when he died. He died in 1940 and I came along on Valentine's Day in 1943. But I did know a bunch of people with the last name of Mix. Now don't go speeding down a mountain road today, but have a great day, you hear.
I wasn't born until Nov. 1940 so I definitely don't remember him either. I think they must have shown his TV shows for a long time though, because I do remember watching them.
ReplyDeleteHe made hundreds of short shows and a bunch of longer movies.
DeleteHe should have stuck to horses!
ReplyDeleteI believe you are right (grin). A car is dumb and only goes where the driver steers it but in this case, he lost control in a bad spot. Now, if he had been on a horse, the horse wouldn't let him kill it by running into something or running off a cliff.
DeleteNo mountain road, no cliffs but he did lose control in a bad spot. I have been past the marker that was put up beside the road where he crashed a number of times and it is a straight stretch of road that he could have easily been doing 80mph.
ReplyDeleteWikipedia says:
On October 12, 1940, after visiting Pima County Sheriff Ed Nichols in Tucson, Arizona, Mix headed north toward Phoenix on U.S. Highway 80 (now Arizona State Route 79), driving his 1937 Cord 812 Phaeton. He stopped at the Oracle Junction Inn, a popular gambling and drinking establishment, to call his agent, and then continued toward Phoenix. About eighteen miles south of Florence, Arizona, Mix came upon construction barriers at a bridge washed away by a flash flood. He was unable to stop in time. The car swerved twice and then rolled into a gully, pinning his body underneath. He had placed a large aluminum suitcase containing a substantial sum of money, traveler's checks, and jewels on the package shelf behind him. It flew forward and struck Mix's head, shattering his skull and breaking his neck. The actor was killed almost instantly. Eyewitnesses said Mix had been traveling at 80 mph.
Yes, I had read that before doing my post. That painting was not about the wreck.
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