Best Of

Some of you may not be familiar with Tom Mix and his history in Hollywood. He was the very first cowboy western star, greatly admired for doing all of the stunts required for his roles ( many of which were extremely dangerous ) and his work became the prototype performance for all of the cowboy stars that proliferated in the coming years. During his years of performing....1909 to 1935....he was in the astounding number of 291 films. Only 9 of those were "talkies " , the rest were silent.

Because of his influence within the Hollywood industry, he was able to arrange for a young man he had met to enter the world of filmmaking. That young man was John Wayne, who was forever grateful to Mix for helping him to realize his dreams.

Mix was driving through Arizona in 1940 when he apparently did not see a sign warning of road work ahead. He ran off the road into a ditch. An aluminum briefcase he had on the back seat flew up, hit him in the head and killed him. He was 60 years old. The briefcase was full of cash money. The car you'll see is the car he was driving at the time of his death. It was repaired and starting around 2010 was subjected to an exhaustive ( and very expensive ) total restoration. The car is now exactly as it was the day he crashed it.

The car is a 1937 Cord 812 Phaeton. It is a rare car as only 196 of that model were produced. In this case, however, it is even more rare. Cord made 3 of that model that had exclusive options, including the enclosed spare tire above the rear bumper. Tom Mix got this one, the Jaz singer Al Jolson got one, and the third one was bought by the actress Barbara Stanwick.

Here's the car.

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I used to shoot lightning a lot more several years ago but it was during one photo session that my hair stood up even on my arms and I knew I was flirting with danger and got my butt inside straight away. I haven't shot it much lately due to different reasons. It's fun to capture but one must be aware of the danger all the time and if possible have a safe place to be able to run to in a hurry if required.
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8 I made the water in photoshop.

9 I made the water in photoshop.

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Thanks for looking.
Regards....Mike

This was the end of his antics of pretending to chew the throw, wrestling with imaginary foes, growling at nothing in particular, then looking at me licking his chops. Silly boy.