Tom Tyler mistaken for...Tom Keene?

 As incredible as it may sound, Tom Tyler’s name has been confused with another early sound film western star of the same first name, Tom Keene. This has been noted in a film production blurb in Inside Facts of Stage and Screen, April 12, 1930 which mentions the name Tom Tyler but it also mentions the name of a popular silent film classical dancer, Verna Mersereau. The dead giveaway in this blurb is the producer name, Ben Wilson, and the writer’s name, W. C. Tuttle. To further narrow down the time slot, Verna Mersereau returned to the United States in 1929 after her trip around the world with the Wilbur Players in the performance “Rain” where she was the lead dancer. Having never worked under Wilson nor any westerns written by Tuttle, Tom Tyler’s name was mistaken for that of Tom Keene.

From Inside Facts of Stage and Screen, April 12, 1930

In evaluating which movie Verna may have appeared in with Tom Keene it was most likely “The Cheyenne Kid” (1933), based on Tuttle’s story, “Sir Piegan Passes”. Because Verna was in a California sanatorium with tuberculosis, Mary Mason took her place in this movie. That was not the only replacement in the making of “The Cheyenne Kid”, however. Producer Ben Wilson died in August of 1930 at the age of 54 from heart disease. In his place, David O. Selznick and David Lewis were involved in the production of this western. Bob Hill directed this B-western, and if this name sounds familiar to Tom Tyler fans, it should be; Hill directed Tyler westerns like “Mystery Range” and “Feud of the Trail”, both from 1937.

So while Tom Keene was busy making “The Cheyenne Kid”, Tom Tyler was busy making “When a Man Rides Alone” (1933), sans the name Verna Mersereau; instead, our hero got Adele Lacy for a leading lady. Not a bad tradeoff for a co-star, at that.

 

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